Ethnic Differences in Achievement

Question 1

What is ethnicity?

Answer 1

A shared culture, identity and history.

Question 2

What is an ethnic group?

Answer 2

A group of people who see themselves as a distinct group based for example on religion, geography or language.

Question 3

What are the main external factors which influence ethnic differences in achievement?

Answer 3

1. Material deprivation
2. Cultural deprivation
3. Racism in wider society

Question 4

How might material deprivation affect educational achievement?

Answer 4

Parents are less able to afford the hidden costs of education (i.e. a computer), families are more likely to live in deprived areas with worse schools, familiies are more lilkely to live in worse housing which can be damp, cold and cramped, children are more likely to have a worse diet, etc.

Question 5

How are ethic groups divided in terms of wealth?

Answer 5

White and Indian households are generally the wealthiest, followed by Chinese Britons. The poorest are black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi households.

Question 6

How can we evaluate the theory of material deprivation?

Answer 6

1. Chinese children are poorer than white and Indian families but achieve the best results at GCSEs.
2. Black African, Bangladeshi and Pakistani children are poorer than white children but get better results.
3. Poor ethnic minority children perform better than poor white children.

Question 7

What did studies show about material deprivation?

Answer 7

Gillborn and Mirza (2000) studied the effect of social class on ethnic groups. There was no correlation with achievement overall, but material deprivation does seem to have a large effect within ethnic groups. In all groups, middle class children perform better than working class children.
Flaherty (2004) foudn that Bangladeshi and Pakistani are 3x more likely to be in the poorest 1/3 of the country and 3x more likely to be unemployed. 15% of ethnic minority groups live in crowded homes compared to 2% of white households. Therefore, ethnuic minority groups are more likely to suffer from material deprivation.

Question 8

How does cultural deprivation effect ethnic achievement?

Answer 8

Archer and Francis (2007) found that parental attitudes have a large impact on achievement. British Chinese students perform better than any other groups and they found that their parents placed exceptionally high value on education.
Basit (2007) found that in British Asian communities, parents saw free schooling as a blessing and pushed students to work hard and provided necessary resources for them.
Sewell (1997) argues the underachievement of Back Caribbean pupils is due to a higher proportion of lone parent families. Without a father figure, he thinks students lack discipline. This means they are more attracted to gangs and gang mentality and hold a lack of concern for education. These students depress the overall achievement of Black minority ethnic groups.

Question 9

How can we criticise Sewell and cultural theories?

Answer 9

1. Sewell blames Black African students instead of the education system which fails them.
2. It is far too deterministic and generalised.
3. Diverts attention away from racism.
4. Driver (1977) highlights that ethnicity can be an advantage (such as lone mothers in Black families providing strong female role models for girls).
5. Keddie (1971) blaming culture is blaming the victim.
6. They ignore multiculturalism.

Question 10

How does racism in wider society impact ethnic differences in achievement?

Answer 10

1. Rex (1986) argues racism leads to social exclusion which can accordingly lead to poverty. Discrimination occurs in and out of the classroom. For example, minority families are more likely to be forced into substandard housing.
2. Noon (1993) sent 100 identical businesses but alternated between the names ‘Evan’ and ‘Patel’ and the white name (Evan) received much better responses.
3. Wood et al (2010) sent three closely matched applications to 1000 job vacancies. 1 in 9 white applicants were offered an interview but only 1 in 16 ethnic minority applicants.

Racism in wider society discourages ethnic minority groups from trying hard in school as they are led to believe they will struggle to get a high paying job anyway.

Question 11

What are the main internal factors which influence ethnic differences in achievement?

Answer 11

1. Labelling and teacher racism
2. Institutional racism

Question 12

How does labelling and teacher racism impact educational achievement?

Answer 12

1. Gillborn and Mirza (2000) found that in one local authority, black children were the highest achievers on entry to primary school but got the worst results by GCSEs.
2. Strand (2010) analysed the whole national cohort and found that Black Caribbean boys (not on FSM) made less progress than white peers (not on FSM).
3. Gillborn and Youdell (2000) found that teachers are quicker to discipline black pupils and Bourne (1994) found that black pupils were seen as a threat.
4. Olser (2001) found thatblack pupils are more likely to suffer from unrecorded/unofficial exclusion, more likely to be placed in PRU and more likely to be placed in lower sets (regardless of achievement).
5. Foster (1990) found that teachers held negative stereotypes about black pupil behaviour.
6. Wright (1992) found that Asian pupils are left out of discussion or spoken to simplistically and teachers express disapproval of their culture.

Question 13

How does institutional racism impact ethnic educational achievement?

Answer 13

Black Caribbean students are:
- 2.5x more likely to be permanently excluded.
- more likely to be identified with behaviour related needs.
- less likely to be identified as ‘gifted and talented’.
- more likely to be put in lower sets.

Modood (2005) found that:
- university entry is institutionally racist.
- a white student has a 75% chabce to receive an invitation to study.
- a Pakistani student has a 57% chance instead.

There is an ethnocentric curriculum (i.e. most modern foreign languages are white European languages, and the history curriculum is focused on white history from a white perspective).

Ethnic minority teachers are significantly under-represented in schools in Britain, particularly at the top of school hierarchies.

Gillborn (1997) argues that negative stereotypes of certain ethnic groups may influence the schools’ admission procedures.

Question 14

How can we evaluate internal factors?

Answer 14

1. Racism is not linked to low achievement. Fuller (1980) argues that not all labelling can lead to negative outcomes as a group of black girls in London had resisted negative labels and worked harder to achieve.
2. Hammersley (1998) found that even those teachers who were racist in private did not being racism into the classroom. Taylor (1981) identified many teachers as being very sensitive to multi-cultural issues.
3. Smith and Tomlinson (1989) concluded that the school a child went to had more impact than their ethnicity.
4. Postmodernists argue that in a fragmented postmodern world, an individual construsts their own identity not only from their ethnic culture but also other major social influences.