Ethnic differences in achievement (I) Flashcards
What are the internal factors based on individual racism that affect achievement?
- labelling
- pupil identities
- pupil responses
How does labelling and teacher racism affect achievement?
- interactionists studies show that teachers often label black & Asian pupils as being far from ‘the ideal pupil’ e.g. black people seen as disruptive & Asian students seen as passive
- these labels may lead teachers to treat children from MEB differently
How do Gillborn & Youdell show the impact of labelling on black pupils?
- they found that teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour
- they argue that this is as a result of teachers ‘racialised expectations’
- found that teachers expected black pupils to present more discipline problems & misinterpreted their behaviour as threatening or challenging authority
- pupils responded negatively, leading to further conflict (exclusions)
Evaluation of Gillborn and Youdell on teacher labelling
- pupils can resist label e.g. fullers study
- Sewell argues that racism within schools is not powerful enough to prevent individuals from succeeding rather its external factor > peer groups and family
How do Gillborn & Youdell show the effect of streaming on black pupils?
- Gillborn & Youdellfound that in the ‘A to C’ economy teachers focus on those students who they believe are most likely to achieve a Grade C at GCSE, a process they call ‘educational triage’
- negative stereotypes about pupils ability that teachers hold means they are more likely to be placed in lower streams
- results in a self-fulfilling prophecy of underachievement
How does Wright’s study show the effect of labelling on Asian pupils?
- Asian peoples can also be victims of teachers labelling
- found that teachers held ethnocentric views (British culture> superior)
- this affected how they related to pupils as they assumed they would have a poor grasp of English
- Asian pupils also felt isolateed when teachers mispronounced their names
How does pupil identities affect ethnic differences in achievement?
- teachers often define pupils as having stereotypical identities
- Archer> teachers dominant discourse defines MEG pupils identities as lacking the favoured identity of the ideal pupil
- Ideal pupil identity > white, m/c, masculinised identity & heterosexual > achieved in the right way through ability
- pathologized pupil identity > an Asian ‘deserving poor’ feminised identity > seen as conformist & overachiever > achieved through hard work
- Demonised pupil identity > white or black w/c hyper-sexualised identity > seen as unintelligent & a under achiever
How does pupils response (FULLER) affect ethnic differences in achievement?
- research suggest that pupils can respond to teacher racism & negative labelling in a variety of ways e.g. becoming disruptive or withdrawn or rejecting label
- Fuller study of black girls who were high achievers but instead of accepting negative teacher labels the girls challenged their anger into the pursuit of educational success > negative labelling does not always lead to failure
How does pupils response (SEWELL) affect achievement
- Sewell notes how responses to schooling e.g. racist stereotyping from teachers can affect achievement > response
- rebels> small minority of black pupils who conformed to anti-school ‘black-macho lad’, rejected both goals & rules of school
- conformists> largest group, who were keen to succeed & accepted schools goals
- innovators > pro education but anti-school > conformed only in schoolwork
- Sewell argues a small minority fit in the rebels > but teachers see all black boys this way which contributes to their underachievement
Evaluation of pupils response to labelling
- not all students fit neatly into categories, responses may change
- can’t generalize Sewell & Fullers findings due to small sample
- emphasis on how students respond shifts the burden on the individual rather than addressing (policy reform) the issues that created the problem e.g. **Gillborn **> institutional racism
What do critical race theorists argue about the education system?
- See racisms as an ingrained feature of society which involves institutional racism
- see institutional racism as a lock in inequality > Gillborn > sees ethnic inequality as so deep rotted & large that and thus an inevitable feature of the education system
What are the internal factors based on institutional racism that affect achievement?
- marketisation & segregation
- ethnocentric curriculum
- assessment
- access to opportunities & the ‘new IQism’
How has marketisation & segregation affected ethnic achievement?
- Gillborn > marketisation creates system of covert selection which allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about admissions
- e.g. selection procedures lead to ethnic segregation, where minorities fail to get into better schools due to discrimination e.g. primary school reports used to screen out pupils with language difficulties
- procedures favoured white people & leads to an ethnically stratified education system
- link to A-C economy here
Evaluation of Marketisation & segregation affecting achievement
Ball supports > argues that policies like league tables encourage schools to prioritize high achieving pupils to boost rankings > ethnic minorities silt shifted into low performing schools
- ethnic minorities can resist challenges
How does the ethnocentric curriculum & assessment affect ethnic differences in achievement?
- curriculum gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one ethnic group while disregarding others
- e.g. ignores the history, language, literature of Asian and Black people
- image of black people in history as inferior undermines their self-esteems & leads to their failure
- Gillborn > assessment game is rigged to validate dominant cultures superiority > if black people succeed the rules will be changed to re-engineer their failure e.g. the change to new test FSP which had black children now ranked low compared to them being high achievers before
How does access to opportunities and the new IQism affect ethnic achievement?
- gifted & talented programme>created to meet needs of more able pupils in inner city schools > Gillborn points that OS show white pupils are over twice as likely than black Caribbean pupils to be identified as gifted & talented
- Exam tiers > black people still more likely than white pupils to be entered into lower tier GCSE
Gillborn >access to opportunities depend on teachers assessments of a pupils ability (New IQism) > no genuine measure of potential > thus concludes that education system is institutionally racist
Evaluation of how access to opportunities & new IQism has affected ethnic achievement
- critics argue that there is overachievement of model minorities such as Asian pupils who do better than the white majority > education system cannot be institutionally racists as the critical race theorists claim
- improvement in training has increased awareness of biases so unlikely the new IQism influences achievement
- changes in educational policy e.g. multicultural education & assimilation policies
