Ethnicity Flashcards
What percentage of white boys on free school meals gained 5 GCSEs A*-C?
23%
What are the three aspects of cultural deprivation?
Intellectual and linguistic skills
Attitudes and values
Family structure and parental support
How are intellectual and linguistic skills a major cause of underachievement for minority children?
Children from low income black families lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences = poorly equipped for school without reasoning and problem solving skills
Why has the concern that children who do not speak English at home do worse in education been disregarded as a major factor?
Not much difference in grades. Miriam notes that Indian children do very well despite not having English as their home language.
Why do cultural dep theorists see lack of motivation as a major cause of the failure of many black children?
Some black children are socialised into a subculture that instils a fatalistic attitude that does not value education and leaves the, unequipped for success.
What does Daniel Moynihan argue about black families often headed by a lone mother?
Their children are deprived of adequate care because she has to struggle financially. Boys lack adequate role model of male achievement. Moynihan sees CD as a cycle where inadequately socialised children from unstable families go on to fail at school and become inadequate parents themselves.
What New Right sociologist argued that high rates of lone parenthood lead to underachievement in minority children?
Charles Murray
How did Ken Pryce compare Asian and black pupils levels of achievement?
Asians are higher achievers because their culture is more resistant to racism which them a greater sense of self worth. Asian family structures were not destroyed by colonial rule.
Black Caribbean culture is less cohesive and resistant to racism. The experience of slavery was culturally devastating for blacks. They lost their language, religion and entire family structure. =low self esteem and underachievement
Why does Tony Sewell argue that an absence of ‘tough love’ and black peer pressure leads to underachievement?
Argues that it is not the absence of fathers as a role model that makes children underachievement but a lack of ‘tough love’. This results in them finding it hard to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence. Fatherless boys use street gangs to give them ‘perverse loyalty and love’. Media inspired role model of anti school black masculinity, reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV.
Many are thus subject to powerful anti school peer pressure. Speaking in standard English and doing well in school were often seen as ‘selling out’ to the white establishment.
Sewell argues blacks do worse than Asians because while one s being nurtured by MTV, the other is spending hours on education.
Why do critical race theorists such as Gillborn criticise Sewell’s theory?
It is not peer pressure but institutional racism within the education system itself that produces underachievement.
Why do Asian pupils do well?
Supportive families, ‘Asian work ethic’, high value on education. Adult authority in families is similar to that in schools.
Why did Luton argue that white wc boys underachieved?
Teachers blamed white wc schools poorer discipline on parental support and the negative attitude parents had towards education. By contrast, ethnic minority parents saw education as a ‘way up in society’.
Why does Driver criticise the CD theorists?
Ignores positive effects of ethnicity on achievement. The black Caribbean family provides girls with positive role models of strong independent women. This is why they do better in school.
Why is pryce criticised?
Black children do not fail because their culture is weak and they lack self esteem but because of racism.
How does Keddie criticise CD theorists?
Not culturally deprived, culturally different.
Why do sociologists criticise compensatory education?
They see it as an attempt to impose the dominant white culture on children who already have a coherent culture of their own.
