Ethnicity And Acheivement Flashcards
Cultural Deprivation 3 main aspects
— intellectual / linguistic skills
— attitudes / values
— family structure / parental support
Cultural Deprivation: Intellectual / Linguistic skills
Cultural deprivation theorists see the lack of intellectual and linguistic skills as a major cause of underachievement for many minority children. They argue many children from low income black families lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences leaving them poorly equipped for school because they have not been able to develop reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Bereiter and Engelmann consider language spoken by low income black US families as in adequate for educational success this year as disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas. 
There has also been concerned that children who do not speak English at home maybe held back educationally however official stats show that this is not a major factor. 
Cultural Deprivation: Attitudes and Values
Cultural deprivation theorists a lack of motivation as a major cause of failure of many black children most children are socialised into mainstream culture which instills ambition competitiveness and willingness to make sacrifices necessary to achieve long-term goals therefore equipping them for educational success.
— on the other hand cultural deprivation theorists argue some black children are socialised into a subculture that instills a fatalistic live for today attitude that does not value education and leaves them unequipped.
Cultural Deprivation: Family Structure & Parental Support
Cultural deprivation theorists argue that this failure to socialise children adequately is the result of a dysfunctional family structure.
— Moynihan (1965) Argues that because many black families are headed by alone without the children are deprived of adequate care because she has to struggle financially in the absence of a male breadwinner the fathers absence or Tommies boys look at a different role model of maltreatment he sees the culture liberation of the cycle with inadequately socialised children from unstable families fail at school and become inadequate parents.
Cultural Deprivation: Family Structure & Parental Support
Sewell (2009)
Sewell argues it is not the absence of fathers as role models that leads to black children under achieving instead he sees the problem as a lack of fatherly nurturing or ‘tough love’ (firm, fair, respectful and non-abusive discipline)
— this results in black boys finding it hard to overcome emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence.
— In the absence of the restraining influence of a nurturing for the street gangs of other faultless boys of the black boys ‘perverse loyalty and love’ they present black boys with a media inspired role model of anti-school black masculinity
Cultural Deprivation: Family Structure & Parental Support
Asian Families
Well many black families have absent fathers, Indian and Chinese pupils benefit from supportive families that have an ‘Asian work ethic’ and place a high value on education.
— Lupton (2004) Down the aisle authority in Asian families are similar to the model that operates in schools she found respectful behaviour towards adults was expected from children, and it had a knock on effect in school since parents are more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies.
What is seen as the most common solution to cultural deprivation?
Compensatory education such as sure start and operation Headstart
Criticisms of cultural deprivation theory
Driver (1977) argues the cultural deprivation theory ignores the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement he shows the black Caribbean family far from being dysfunctional, provides girls with positive female role models of independent women.
— Driver argues that this is why black girls tend to be more successful education than black boys.
Lawrence (1982) challenges the view that black people feel because their culture is weak and they lack self-esteem he argues black pupils and achieve not because of low self-esteem but due to racism.
Keddie (1992) sees cultural deprivation as a victim blaming exclamation she argues ethnic minority children are culturally different not culturally deprived, they underachieve due to ethnocentric schools biased in favour of white culture. 
Material Deprivation & EM
Material deprivation explanation to educational failure as a result of factors such as substandard housing and low income, ethnic minorities are more likely to face these problems.
Palmer 2012 :
— almost half of minority children live in Low income homes compared to a quarter of white children
— ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed compared with white people
— almost half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers and £7 or under an hour compared with a quarter of white British workers.
Why are Ethnic minority at greater risk of material deprivation?
— they live in economically depressed areas with low wages and high unemployment rates.
— cultural factors such as the tradition of purdah in Muslim households meaning some Muslim women cannot work outside of the home.
— asylum seekers may not be allowed to work
— lack of language skills
— unrecognised qualifications
Does class override ethnicity?
If we fail to take the different class positions of ethnic groups into account when we compare the educational achievement there is a danger we may overestimate the effect of cultural deprivation and underestimate the effects of poverty and material deprivation. — Even though Indian and Chinese pupils Who are materially deprived still be better than most this suggests that material and social class factors do not completely override the influence of ethnicity  — Madood (2004) while children from low income families did less well, ethnic minority low income children did slightly better.
Racism in wider society
John Rex (1986) shows how racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and hugs versus the poverty faced by ethnic minorities.
— discrimination means that minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class.
— in employment there is evidence of direct in this deliberate discrimination Wood et Al 2010 Job applications with fake names 
Internal Factors (1) Labelling/Teacher Racism
Teachers often view black and asian pupils as far from the ideal.
- black pupils seen as disruptive
- asian pupils seen as passive
Internal Factors (1)
Labelling/Teacher Racism
Black pupils and discipline
Gillborn and Youdell (2004)
– Teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils for the same behaviour shown by their counterparts.
– Due to teachers ‘racialised’ expectations, they expect behaviour issues from black children and saw their problems as threats.
– Pupils reacted to this misconception negatively, leading to further conflicts arising.
Gillborn&Youdell conclude that conflict between ethnic minority students, and teachers is a result of racism
Internal Factors
Labelling/Teacher Racism
Black Pupils & Streaming
Gillborn and Youdell focus on the a-c economy.
- Teachers will focus on the student they believe will attain 5 grace c or above GCSES.
- Osler (2001) Teachers negative stereotypes of black pupils will lead to them being placed in lower sets, therefore being put into lower tier exams, resulting into a SFP
