Ethnic Differences In Achievement Flashcards
What are the ethnic trends in education ?
Chinese pupils to achieve the best in school
Black Caribbean and gypsy Roma have the worst performance in school
What are the external factors that affect differences in achievement ?
Linguistic skills - some pupils speak different languages ; Engelmann stated that black Caribbean students speak an informal version of English which means they cannot convey abstract ideas
Family structure - there are lower rates of lone-printed families amongst black Caribbean families - Moynihan stated that boys have lower achievement as they lack a positive male role model
Attitudes + values - some sociologists argue that black pupils have a fatalistic view on education and have limited motivation
Material deprivation - many minority ethnic groups are subject racism in wider society, consequently in the work world and housing field where they face discrimination meaning they have high rates of unemployment
What is one of the internal factors that impacts ethnicity and achievement ?
Labelling - black pupils
Gillborn + Youdell found teachers had racialised expectations of pupils + expected more discipline problems + saw their behaviour as threatening. Black pupils recited worse punishment for the same behaviour that white pupils would perform
Fuller found high achieving black girls maintained a positive self-image by rejecting teachers stereotypes ; they did not see teacher approval but valued education
Mirza found black girls’ strategies for dealing with teacher racism still disadvantaged them. For instance, they would not ask for help.
What are the other internal factors that impact ethnicity and achievement ?
Pupil subcultures
Sewell found that black boys developed a range of responses to teacher’s racist labelling : Conformists - keen to achieve, accepted that schools goals. Innovators - pro-education but anti-school, valued success not teachers approval. Retreatists - disconnected from school and black subcultures outside of it. Rebels - rejected the school’s goals
The ethnocentric curriculum - Williams states that the British curriculum prioritises white culture + the English language
What are criticisms of the cultural deprivation theory ?
Drive states that they ignore the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement. He shows the black Caribbean family far from dysfunctional provides girls with strong, independent role models of women.
Lawrence argues that black pupils don’t under achieve because of low-self esteem from their sub-culture but because of racism
Keddie sees the CD theory as a victims blaming approach. She argued children from ethnic minorities are not culturally deprived but culturally different. They under-achieve because school’s have a ethnocentric curriculum based around their white students
What are the criticisms of labelling and pupil responses ?
There is a danger of seeing these stereotypes as simply the product of individual teachers’ prejudices, rather than of racism in the way the education system operates as a whole.
How does institutional racism affect ethnic pupils in education ?
Marketisation and segregation - Gillborn argues that because marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils , it allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about school admissions. His research is supported by Moore + Davenport’s search where they found selection procedures cause ethnic segregation amongst schools with ethnic minority students failing to get into good secondary schools due to discrimination.
Acces to opportunities - the ‘gifted and talented’ programme was made with the aim of meeting the needs of more able students in inner-city schools. This may benefit ethnic minority students but Gillborn found that white students are twice as likely than black Caribbean students to be labelled as gifted and talented.
What are the criticisms of Gillborn’s foundings ?
It is argued that it is not just the internal factors cause ethnic minority students to fail like Gillborn states but it is more likely to be the external factors like Sewell found.
