Ethnicity and Achievement Flashcards
What are the internal factors?
- Labelling
- Ethnocentric curriculum
- Institutional Racism
- Subcultures
What did Gilborn and Youdell and find about teacher labelling?
AO1
- Teachers have racialised expectations
- Expected black students to have discipline problems and so were quicker to discipline black pupils
- Misinterpreted black students’ behaviour as being threatening/a challenge to authority
How can we analyse Gilborn and Youdell?
AO3
Not as relevant today as there are more black teachers - less likely to have these expectations
How can we evaluate Gilborn and Youdell?
(deterministic)
AO3
- Mac an Ghail study on black A Level students found students did not accept negative labels especially girls from all-girls secondary schools who had a greater committment to academics
- Fuller: ambitious black girls who rejected their negative labels and achieved
What did Ball say about the ethnocentric curriculum?
AO1
- ‘Little Englandism’: national curriculum ignores cultural and ethnic diversity and promotes an attitude of ‘little englandism’
- e.g. history curriculum tries to recreate an age of ‘past glories’ whilst ignoring black and asian history
How can we analyse Ball?
AO3
- Not relevant today as we now have things like Black History Month, multicultural education (MCE), and appreciate other cultures in education
How can we evaluate Ball?
AO3
- David: national curriculum is ‘specifically British’ and ignores non-european languages literature and music
- Due to the privatisation of education not all schools have to follow national curriculum and can incorporate other cultures if they choose
How else is education ethnocentric?
Don’t need to learn scholars just extra in case comes up as short answer q
- Troyna and Williams: curriculum gives priority to white culture and english language - must resit if you don’t past english language
- David: national curriculum is ‘specifically British’ and ignores non-european languages literature and music
- Coard: white saviour narrative presented in history may cause minority students to have low self esteem
- Uniform is based on western style of clothing
What is institutional racism?
Racial discrimination that is built into the way institutions operate . This could lead to pupils being treated unfairly because of their race.
What did Wright find about institutional racism?
AO1
- Asian students especially girls were marginalised and felt isolated
- Teachers mispronounced their names, expressed disapproval of their customs, and assumed they didn’t speak English well - spoke to them childishly and excluded them from discussion
What did Mirza find about instituional racism?
AO1
- Studied ambitious black girls who faced teacher racism
- Found that racist teachers discouraged black students from being ambitious when giving them careers advice
- Identified 3 types of teachers:
- The colour blind: weren’t racist themselves but let racism go unchallenged
- Liberal chauvanists: believed black students were culturally deprived and had low expectations
- Overt racists: believed black people are inferior and actively discriminated against them
The girls had spent a lot of time avoiding effects of negative teacher attitudes e.g. by not participating or asking for help which restricted their opportunities
How can we analyse Mirza?
( second point can be used for teacher expectations too)
AO3
- 2015 poll of 450 BAME teachers found that 62% felt that schools treated BAME students unfairly
- Black carribean students are 3x more likely to be excluded than white students
How can we evaluate Mirza?
AO3
Fails to consider that there is an increase in ethnic minority teachers which would decrease racism
What did Fuller find about subcultures?
AO1
- Black girls labelled negatively by schools channelled their anger into pursuing educational success
- Worked hard in education but didn’t show concen for school rules
- These girls rejected labels and forced a pro-school subculture to ensure they succeeded
How can we analyse Fuller?
AO3
Not applicable to boys who are less likely to reject labels
How can we evaluate Fuller?
AO3
Small sample size of only 8 girls
What did Shain find about subcultures?
AO1
Studied 44 Asian girls aged 13-16, mostly Pakistani in 8 schools.
Found 4 types of subcultures:
1. Gang girls: anti-school, saw school as racist. Led to emphasis of their own culture - withdrew from other students
2. Survivors: conformed to school values in order to achieve academic success despite also believing the schools were racist and sexist
3. Rebels: labelled this by teachers, saw unequal gender relations at home, in school, and in their community - anti-school
4. Faith Girls: prioritised their religion over ethnicity - integrated with girls from other ethnicities. Used survival activities to gain academic success
What are the external factors?
- Material deprivation
- Cultural deprivation
- Language barriers
How does material deprivation impact minorities?
AO1
- Swann Report found that minorities are more likely to live in poverty and this low socioeconomic status was a major factor in low achieving for AfroCarribean pupils
- Tanner et al: this is because education is expensive - books, uniform, trips etc cost a lot
How can we analyse the Swann Report?
AO3
Gov statistics show that Pakistani and Bangladeshi are more likely to be unemployed and so be materially deprived
How can we evaluate material deprivation?
AO3
Functionalists: this is not a problem as inequality is necessary for society to function
What did Bourdieu find about cultural deprivation?
AO1
- Some cultures like Chinese and Indian place greater importance on education - have largest proportion of MC members (who have cultural capital)
- This leads to them having higher educational attainment than other minorities
- Pakistanis and Bangladeshis do better than they should be given their social class implying this is due to their cultural capital
What did Madood find about cultural deprivation?
AO1
Asian families have cultural capital because they have:
- A powerful desire from migrant parents to improve their position and prospects for their children
- High value placed on education makes this possible
- This value is passed on to their children
How can we analyse cultural deprivation?
AO3
20% of Indian and 36% of south asian migrants are overqualified for their WC jobs - have MC cultural capital just unable to attain the appropriate jobs
How does Basit evaluate Madood?
AO3
Supports - education is seen as a tool to transform lives of younger gen in south asian families
How does language barriers impact achievement?
AO1
- Bourdieu - minorities are more likely to speak in restricted code whereas schools use elaborated code
- Not speaking English fluently will make it harder for minority pupils to access resources
- Labelling theorists suggest its not language alone but having an accent that influences teacher expectations
How can we analyse language barriers?
AO3
Gilbourn and Youdell found that teachers assumed asian students had a low profficiency in English
How do Driver and Bollard evaluate language barriers?
AO3
Found that asian students with EAL had become as good at English as their peers by the age of 16
How could family structures cause underachievement?
(unlikely to come up - backup point)
AO1/2/3
Sewell claimed that as afrocarribean families are most likely to be lone parent, young boys do not have a positive role model and so are attracted to anti-school/gang culture
ANALYSIS: Black people have highest rate of lone parent (24.3%) - relevant today
EVAL: New Right - lone parent families inadequately socialise children causing them to become delinquents
