Ethnicity and acheivement

Question 1

What is an ethnic group?

Answer 1

People who share a common history, customs and identity, seeing themselves as a distinct group

Question 2

What trends are seen with ethnic differences in acheivement?

Answer 2

Black children do worse at GCSEs than white and asian children.
In all ethnic groups, girls do better than boys

Question 3

What external factors could be to blame?

Answer 3

Cultural deprivation
Material deprivation
Racism in wider society

Question 4

What are the main aspects of cultural deprivation?

Answer 4

Intellectual and Linguistic Skills
Attitudes and Values
Family Structure and Parental Support

Question 5

How does cultural deprivation affect linguistic skills and cognitive development?

Answer 5

Many low income black families lack intellectual stimulation which means they are poorly equiped for school.
Bereiter and Engelmann say the language spoken in black families is poor
Students that speak English as a 2nd language are held back

Question 6

What do Bereiter and Engelmann say about the langiage spoken in black families?

Answer 6

It’s poor and ungramatical which means children start school without the propper language skills

Question 7

How does cultural deprivation affect attitudes and values?

Answer 7

Many black children are not socilised to be ambitious so have a lack of motivation. They live in the moment so don’t value education

Question 8

How does cultural deprivation affect family structure and support?

Answer 8

Black families have a dysfunctional structure and are normally lone parent so they are deprived of adequate care and a father role model

Question 9

How does Sewell argue that lone parent black families cause underacheivement?

Answer 9

Street ganges take the place of father figures by offering loyalty and love to their members. They hold anti-school values and see sucess as white

Question 10

How does Sewell argue that Asian children suceed due to their culture?

Answer 10

Asian work ethic places a high value on education and the adult authority structure is similar to school so it’s easier for asian children to adapt

Question 11

What are the main criticisms of cultural deprivation?

Answer 11

Ignores positive effects
Institutional racism
Victim blaming

Question 12

How does Driver criticise cultural deprivation?

Answer 12

Ignores the positive effects of culture such as how it provides girls with strong role models

Question 13

How does Eddie criticise cultural deprivation?

Answer 13

Its a victim blaming explanation and ignores the fact that the education system favours european culure

Question 14

Why are ethnic minorities at greater risk of poverty?

Answer 14

Many live in urban areas with high unemployment
Cultural factors may prevent women from working
Some have poor language skills or qualifications that aren’t recognised in the UK

Question 15

What proportion of ethnic minority children are in low income households?

Answer 15

1/2

Question 16

How can material deprivation not override ethnicity?

Answer 16

80% of Chinese girls who are on free school meals acheive good GCSEs

Question 17

How does racism in wider society affect attainment?

Answer 17

Discrimination in the housing market means they may only be in the catchment area of bad schools
Discrimination in employment means they’re more likely to be poor (Rex)

Question 18

What internal factors affect attainment?

Answer 18

Labelling and teacher racism
Pupil identities
Responses and subcultures
Institutinal racism

Question 19

How does labelling and teacher racism affect attainment?

Answer 19

Black children are less likely to be labelled as the ideal pupil
Gillborn and Youdell: teachers are quicker to discipline black students as they think they’re badly behaved
Black children put in lower streams

Question 20

How do Gillborn and Youdell argue that labelling and teacher racism affect attainment?

Answer 20

Teachers hold racialised expectations and are quicker to dicipline black students as they expect them to misbehave. The students react negatively which creates conflict

Question 21

What did Foster find about black pupils and streaming?

Answer 21

Black students are more likely to be placed in low ability groups which creates a self-fufilling prophecy

Question 22

How do pupil identities affect attainment?

Answer 22

Archer: Teachers give students identities (ideal, demonised, pathological)
Ethnic minorities less likely to be labelled as ideal

Question 23

What are the 3 types of student identities identifyed by Archer?

Answer 23

Given by teachers
Ideal: White, middle class and masculine that acheive through natural ability
Pathological: Culture-bound Asian overacheivers who suceed through hard work
Demonised: Working class, hyper-sexualised and seen as unintelligent

Question 24

What is the ideal student identity?

Answer 24

White, middle class and masculine that acheive through natural ability

Question 25

What is the pathological student identitiy?

Answer 25

Culture-bound Asian overacheivers who suceed through hard work

Question 26

What is the demonised pupil identity?

Answer 26

Working class, hyper-sexualised and seen as unintelligent

Question 27

How do pupil responses and subcultures affect attainment?

Answer 27

Fuller found black girls can reject their negative labels

They can be selective over which teachers they interact with based on attitudes

Question 28

What was Fuller’s study how black girls reject negative labells?

Answer 28

They didn’t seek the approval of teachers or limit their friend groups
They gave the appearance they didn’t care but really studied hard
‘good underneath’

Question 29

What three main types of teacher racism were identifyed by Mirza?

Answer 29

Colour blind: Teachers who believe all pupils are equal but do not challenge the racism of others.
The liberal chauvinists: Teachers who see black students as culturally deprived and have low expectations of them.
Overt racists: Teachers who think that black students are inferior and actively discriminate against them.

Question 30

Who identifyed the responses of boys to teacher racism?

Answer 30

Sewell

Question 31

What are the male responses to teacher racism?

Answer 31

Conformists
Retreatists
Rebels
Innovators

Question 32

What is the conformist response to teacher racism?

Answer 32

They are not part of a subculture and are anxious to avoid being stereotyped

Question 33

What is the retreatist response to teacher racism?

Answer 33

Minority of iscolated students who are disconnected from school

Question 34

What is the rebel response to teacher racism?

Answer 34

Rejected the values of school and thought they were superior

Question 35

What is the innovator response to teacher racism?

Answer 35

They valued sucess so conformed with schoolwork but distanced themselves and maintained rapport with the rebels

Question 36

Who argued that ethnic differences in acheivement were due to institutional racism?

Answer 36

Troyna and Williams

Question 37

What is institutional racism?

Answer 37

Discrimination in the ways schools and colleges operate

Question 38

What is critical race theory?

Answer 38

The idea that racism is an ingrained feature of society and not the result of intentional actions

Question 39

What is locked-in inequality?

Answer 39

Roithmayr thought the scale of historical discrimination is so vast that there is not a conscious effort to discriminate. It’s so deeply rooted that it’s inevitable

Question 40

How does marketisation and segregation lead to indtitutional racism?

Answer 40

Moore and Davenport show there are ethnic selecting producers to discriminate against minority students. School reports were used to screen out children with language difficulties and procedures favoured white pupils

Question 41

How is the national curriculum ethnocentric and how is this institutional racism?

Answer 41

More emphasis on British and Western values.
Troyna and Williams: Less teachers specialising in Asian languages
History ignores ethnic diversity and glorifys the UK history
This undermines the self-esteem of ethnic minorities and makes them identify with school less

Question 42

How is instional racism shown through assessment?

Answer 42

If black children start to improve, the rules are changed to induce failure. When the FSP was introduced, black children suddenly started to do worse.