ethnic differences in achievement

Question 1

how do Lawson and Garrod define ‘ethnic groups’?

Answer 1

• ‘people who share common history, customs and identity, as well as, in most cases, language and religion, and who see themselves as a distinct unit’

Question 2

what makes studying ethnicity and education difficult?

Answer 2

• hard to define who to include in an ethnic group
• grouping all ‘asians’ together includes many nationalities, religions, and languages
• ethnic groups not always defined by skin colour
• many ethnic minorities in britain are non-white, but not all
• largest minority group in britain are non-white

Question 3

what are key gender and class differences within ethnic groups?

Answer 3

• girls do better than boys in all groups except gypsy/roma and traveller children
• within each ethnic group, mc children do better than wc children

Question 4

how do white pupils perform in education?

Answer 4

• white pupils’ achievement is close to the national average
• whites are the largest group, about four fifths of all pupils
• however, major class differences within white pupils
• many wc white pupils perform lower than other ethnic groups

Question 5

what do studies say about white pupils’ progress?

Answer 5

• dfes 2010: only 23% of white boys on free school meals got a*-c gcses
• hastings 2006: white pupils make less progress from age 11 to 16 than black or asian pupils
• whites may soon become the worst performing ethnic group in the country