ethnicity Flashcards
WHAT IS AN ETHNIC GROUP?
People who share common history, customs and identity, as well as, in most cases, language and religion who see themselves as a ‘distinct unit’.
Bereiter & Engelmann (1966)
consider the language spoken by low-income black American families as inadequate.
Gordon Bowker (1968)
identifies their lack of standard English as a major barrier to success and integration.
INTELLECTUAL AND LINGUISTIC SKILLS
Cultural deprivation theorists argue that many children from low-income black families lack intellectual stimulation.
ATTITUDES & VALUES
Cultural deprivation theorists see lack of motivation as a major cause of failure for many black children.
Some black children are socialised into a subculture that instils a fatalistic, ‘live for today’ attitude that does not value education
Daniel Moynihan (1965) FAMILY STRUCTURE
argues that because many black families are headed by a lone mother, children are deprived of adequate care and a father figure. (Link to Charles Murray!)
Ken Pryce (1979):
Asian culture in the UK is much more cohesive than Black culture & as such they are able to ignore racism more effectively, which means they are not effected by it as much e.g. low self-esteem leading to educational failure.
CHARLES MURRAY (1984)
Murray argues that high rates of lone parenthood and lack of male role models leads to underachievement of some minorities.
Sewell
Sewell argues that unlike Asian students who are socialised into a pro school culture black children are being nurtured into a MTV world. The solution is to raise the expectation placed on black children, with the hope that this will raise their aspirations.
Gillborn (2008)
argues that it is not peer pressure amongst black students that sees them fail but institutional racism. Black students are labelled as failures within the education system and it is this label that is largely responsible for their failure.
Keddie (1971)
says that to blame culture is to blame the victims of educational failure. Ethnic minorities are ethnically different not culturally deficient. They under achieve because schools are ethnocentric and biased towards one culture. Cultural deprivation theorists fail to see this when they present their arguments.
KEN PRYCE
The impact of slavery means that much of the Black culture has lost it’s language, religion, ancestry etc.
The Black culture are therefore much less likely to integrate & assimilate with White M/C UK. Hall (1992) calls this a ‘Culture of Resistance’.
Driver & Ballard (1981): ASIAN FAMILIES
Argue that Asian families have a much more ‘Pro-School’ attitude than Black families. Also because Asian families are rarely lone parents families they offer a bigger support network for children.
Lupton (2004)
suggests that the ‘Adult Authoritarian’ Asian family matches that of the school.
Driver (1977)
highlights how ethnicity can be an advantage in education e.g. African Caribbean Girls actually do very well in school
Guy Palmer (2012) MATERIAL DEPRIVATION
Ethnic minorities are 3X more likely to be homeless.
Almost half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earn under £7 per hour.
½ of ethnic minority children live in poverty. As opposed to ¼.
Ethnic minorities are more than ½ as likely to be unemployed.
Why are ethnic minorities more likely to live in poverty
Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wages.
Some traditional customs such as purdah in Muslim households prevent women from working.
Gillbourn & Mirza
argue that social class differences do not override the influence of ethnicity.
When we compare pupils of the same social class but different ethnicity- differences still exist!
Mason (1995) RACISM IN WIDER SOCIETY
argues that; ‘Discrimination is a continuing & persistent feature of the experience of Britain’s citizens of minority ethnic origin’.
Rex (1986):RACISM IN WIDER SOCIETY
Racism leads to social exclusion and accordingly poverty. This is shown in housing, employment & education. Racism also leads to discrimination both inside & outside the classroom.
Noon (1993)
Sent identical letters to 100 top UK companies but alternated between the names ‘Evans’ & ‘Patel’……… the replies to the ‘White’ candidate were more helpful and informative.
Assimilation:
Assimilation policies were introduced in the 60’s and 70’s with the specific aim of integration. Ethnic minority students were taught alongside the indigenous population and introduced to the mainstream British Culture. This was seen as especially helpful for those students where English was not a first language.
Compensatory education
Policies have also been created with the specific aim of helping to reduce certain ethnic minorities underachievement.
Multicultural education:
Throughout 80’s and 90’s there was a push to promote ethnic minority achievement through valuing all cultures in the curriculum. The hope was to raise self esteem.
Gillbourn & Youdell BLACK PUPILS
Teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour. This was all to do with ‘racialised expectations’ and racial stereotypes rather than their actual behaviour. They also found they were ‘triaged’ into lower sets and streams!
Bourne & Foster BLACK pupils
found that teacher stereotypes often saw black boys as a threat and led to exclusions and being placed in lower sets.
Wright (1992)- ASIAN PUPILS
Wright (1992)- studied a multi-ethnic primary school.
Despite school’s commitment to equal opportunities, teachers held ‘ethnocentric’ views
They assume British culture and language is dominant
As result, Asian pupils had names mispronounced and were left out of discussions.
Archer (2008): PUPIL IDENTITIES
Teachers see ethnic minority pupils as being far from the ‘ideal pupil’. Archer noted that the dominant discourse constructed three different pupil identities:
The ideal pupil identity
The pathologized pupil identity
The demonised pupil identity
The ideal pupil identity
A white M/C masculinised identity. They are also seen to have a ‘normal’ sexual orientation. These children achieve the ‘right way’, through natural ability and initiative.
The pathologized pupil identity:
A poor Asian, with a feminised identity, seen as either ‘asexual’ or with an oppressed sexuality. These pupils are often viewed as conformists, culturally bound and ‘over-achievers’. Their success is attributed to hard work and not natural achievement.
The demonised pupil identity:
A black or white W/C, hyper-sexualised identity. These are often seen as culturally deprived, peer led, unintelligent and under achievers.
archers Interviews with teachers revealed that…
Interviews with teachers revealed that black students were demonised as coming from uninspiring homes. In class, they were seen as excessively loud and challenging.
Archer: CHINESE PUPILS
Were seen as having achieved their success the ‘wrong’ way through hard work and conformist behaviour and not ‘natural talent’.
Fuller & Mac an Ghaill (1984): ‘Rejection of Labels’:
Fuller studied a group of black girls in year 11 in a London Comprehensive who were in lower streams yet were achieving highly. These girls did not conform to all the values of school (e.g. respect for teachers) but did value educational success enough to push themselves.
