ETHNICITY AND ATTAINMENT

Question 1

What are the explanations to white working class underachievement?(factors outside)

Answer 1

Factors outside school:
-Material Deprivation
1-Marilyn Howard-poor diet/housing/lack of materials
2-David Bull-Hidden costs of education e.g music lesson/school trips etc..

-Cultural Deprivation
1-JWB Douglas-lack of intellectual skills/working class subculture:parental attitudes
2-Basil Bernstein-Language Codes
3-Barry Sugarman-Fatalism,immediate gratification, collectivism,present time orientation

-Family structure and parental support
1-White working class parents may have had a poor experience of school themselves. They have therefore have less trust in their children’s school. And so they may not:
-Check/help with homework
-Attend Parents Evenings
-Encourage the educational ambitions of their children

Question 2

What statistics does the 2004 Sutton Trust Survey show?(White working class underachievement)(factors outside)

Answer 2

White working class children themselves maybe less ambitious for themselves:

Percentage of 14-16 year old with university aspirations:
Ethnic Minority students: 80%
White Students: 68%

Question 3

What is the loss of white working class culture and identity?(factors outside)

Answer 3

• Since globalisation, many traditional working class jobs have been lost =. This has decimated many working class communities, especially in the North.
• With the decline of religion in the white working class, churches no longer form a central focus in the community. People no longer experience the social solidarity of shared ritual and belief. Churches no longer bring people together to celebrate culture and faith.
• Today the local pub is often the centre of the white working class community.

Question 4

White working class communities are increasingly affected by what type of unemployment?(factors outside)

Answer 4

Generational unemployment , gang culture, crime and violence, drugs and alcohol dependence, and a breakdown of traditional community social solidarity.

This may be manifesting itself in the rejection of traditional political structures and the rise of anti-immigration, anti-establishments political philosophies.

Question 5

What does Gillian Evan (2006) argue that the white working class culture is increasingly brutal and violent. What is this a result to?(factors outside)

Answer 5

This may be as a result of increasingly brutal and violent. This may be a result of increasing poverty and frustration at the lack of opportunities they face.
-The power games off the streets now play themselves out in school.

Question 6

What does Charles Murray say about white working class family structure? (factors outside)

Answer 6

White working class families are more likely to be single parent families tan middle class families.

• Working class adults tend to have more children and to have them at a younger age.
• Working class families are more likely to be unstable, since they are more likely to cohabit than to marry.
• This means white working class boys are more likely to lack male role models.

Question 7

What are the explanations to white working class under achievement? (inside schools)

Answer 7

1) Labelling theory: White working class students may be more likely to be labelled by teachers as unambitious and unmotivated. They are more unlikely to under perform on standardised tests and be placed in lower sets and streams. Also they are more likely to form anti-school subcultures.
2) Ruth Lupton(2004)- Studied 4 working class schools: white schools showed poorer levels of behaviour and discipline than the largely Pakistani or ethnically mixed school.

Question 8

What are the writes you could use to explain white working class underachievement inside school? (Labelling theory sociologists)

Answer 8

1) Ray Rist
2) Howard Becker
3) Nell Keddie
4) Cicourel&Kitsuse

Question 9

What are the writes you could use to explain white working class underachievement inside school? (Self-fulfilling prophecy theory sociologists)

Answer 9

1) Colin Lacey
2) Subculture theory
3) Rosenthal&Jacobsen
4) Stephan Ball
5) Paul Willis

Question 10

What are the factors outside of school affecting ethnicity and educational attainment?

Answer 10

1) Family structure and adult role models
2) Cultural deprivation
3) The peer group

Question 11

What does Daniel Moynihan (1966-USA) state and who agrees with him?(outside school)

Answer 11

• American black families fail to socialise children adequately because of dysfunctional family structure.
• Lone mums struggle financially and boys lack male role models. Cultural deprivation is a cycle-this is likely to repeat itself generation after generation.

Charles Murray agrees

Question 12

Explain the difference between Black Caribbean and Black African boys?(outside school)

Answer 12

1) Black African families are more likely to be nuclear. This not only potentially provides 2 incomes and therefore a higher standard of living, it also means black African boys have father figures an role models.
2) Ken Pryce (1979-UK): Slavery destroyed family structure for blacks in UK and Caribbean. Therefore, Black British/Caribbean culture is less cohesive and less resistant to racism than Asian culture. This leads to low self-esteem and underachievement.

Question 13

Which sociologist did a research on ‘Fathers, Gangs and Culture’.? And explain his research.(outside school)

Answer 13

Tony Sewell: argues that it is not the absence of fathers as role models that leads to black boys underachieving. Instead, Sewell 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 the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence. In the absence of restraining influence of a nurturing father, street gangs of other fatherless boys offer black boys ‘preserve loyalty and love’. These present boys with a media inspired role model of anti-school black masculinity. Furthermore, many black boys are subject to powerful anti-school peer-pressure whereby, academically successful boys said in an interview with Sewell that both academic success and speaking in standard English were viewed with suspicion in their peer groups. Sewell argues that we need to raise both the aspirations and expectations of black boys in order for them to move up nationally within the education system.

Question 14

What is a criticism towards Tony Sewell’s methodology?(outside school)

Answer 14

However, there are many criticisms towards Sewells methodology as it can be argued that he lacks representativeness as a tiny sample used compared to the bigger picture.

Question 15

What are the explanations towards ethnicity and educational attainment inside schools?

Answer 15

1) Teacher labelling and racism
2) Pupil response and subcultures
3) The ethnocentric curriculum and institutional racism

Question 16

What was Cecil Wright 1992 ‘Racism in primary schools’ research?(Teacher labelling-factors inside)

Answer 16

Teachers were genuinely committed to the idea of racial equality. However, Wright still found evidence of discrimination in the classroom.
-Black students, especially boys were more likely to be disciplined and received disproportionate amount of negative attention from the teacher.

Question 17

What did Gilbourn&Youdell (2000) state?(Teacher labelling-factors inside)

Answer 17

• During the process of educational triage, as members of lowers sets ethnic minority students are less likely to receive extra support and focus from teachers. Their education is rationed.
• Teachers have radicalised expectations of students. They are quicker to discipline black students.
• Black students were found to be much more likely to be placed in lower sets and excluded from school than any other ethnic group.

Question 18

What are the types of Typologies of teacher racism expressed by Heidi Mirza?(Teacher labelling-factors inside)

Answer 18

1) Liberal Chauvinists- Teachers who assume all ethnic minorities are culturally or materially deprived and who therefore lower their expectations for what they can achieve. Often patronising in their manner.
2) The colour blind- Teachers who refuse to recognise the diverse background of their students, and refuse to accept that racism exists in their school. They often fail to challenge racist comments expressed during lessons.
3) Overt Racists-Teachers who were openly racists believing black students are inferior and openly discriminating against them.

Question 19

What is Mary Fuller’s research? (pupil response and subcultures) (factors inside)

Answer 19

-Mary Fuller found out that working class black girls in London responded to teacher labelling by rejecting school rules and giving the appearance of not working and not caring. However, they wanted their qualifications and actually worked very hard for them. Fuller’s study show that children are not passive actors in schools. They are able to reject labels. It also shows that students can reject conformity and still succeed in education.

Question 20

What is Tony Sewell’s opinion on pupils response and subcultures?(factors inside)

Answer 20

Tony Sewell’s study on pupil response and subcultures, whereby he identifies four such responses: the conformists which is the largest group, theses boys valued their education and accepted school rules and goals. They avoided subcultures groups and did not want to be labelled by teachers or their peers. The second response was the innovators who were the second largest group, they rejected school rules but valued their qualifications. They worked hard in school but distanced themselves from the conformists. Thirdly, the Rebels which were the most visible group, they were a small minority who completely rejected the goals of the school. They valued their peer group and had a strong sense of their own superiority over white boys and conformist balck boys. Lastly, were the Retreatists, a tiny minority of very isolated students who were disconnected from the school and the different sub cultural groups with it.

Question 21

What did Troyna and Williams say about Ethnocentric curriculum?(factors inside)

Answer 21

Troyna and Williams argue that to explain ethnic differences in achievement, we need to go beyond simply examining individual teacher racism. We must also look at how schools and colleges routinely and even unconsciously discriminate against ethnic minorities. They therefore make a distinction between: individual racism that results from the prejudiced views of individual teachers and others and institutional racism which is discrimination that is built into the way institutions such as school and colleges operate. However, the impact of the ethnocentric curriculum is unclear. Chinese and Indian students appear to be unaffected by the lack of focus on their cultural heritage.

Question 22

What does Stephan Ball say about the ethnocentric curriculum?(factors inside)

Answer 22

The 1988 National Curriculum ignores cultural and ethnic diversity. The history curriculum ignores the history of black and Asian people.

Question 23

What is institutional racism? (Troyna Williams) (factors inside)

Answer 23

• We Need for go beyond simply examining individual teacher racism, we must look at how schools a colleges routinely and even unconsciously discriminate against ethnic minorities
• There is individual racism: that results from the prejudiced views of individual teachers and others
• Institutional racism: discrimination that is bikini into the way institutions such as schools of colleges operate

Question 24

What are the explanations of the academic success of Asian students?

Answer 24

1) Family structure and ,material factors
2) Parental attitudes and cultural values
3) Language Skills

Question 25

Family structure (explanations of the academic success of Asian students?)-outside factors

Answer 25

Chinese and Indian families are more likely to have both a mother and father at home, creating a higher average income, and more support for children.

Question 26

Parental values and attitudes (explanations of the academic success of Asian students?)-outside factors

Answer 26

parental values and attitudes as Asian parents often have high aspirations for their children and positive attitudes towards school. Sociologists, Tony Sewell argues that both Indian and Chinese students benefit from the high value their parents place on education He argues education is culturally more highly valued than in other groups. Likewise, Ruth Lupton similarly argues that adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model that operates in schools. She found that respectful behaviour towards adults was expected from children. This had a knock-on effect in school, since parents were more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies.

Question 27

Student aspirations (explanations of the academic success of Asian students?)-outside factors

Answer 27

some sociologists suggests that Asian students may set very high goals for themselves both academically and for their careers. This may reflect both parental attitudes and cultural expectations. This is evidently shown by the 2004 Sutton Trust Survey whereby the percentage of 14-16 year olds with university aspirations showed that 80% were Ethnic minority students and 68% were white students.

Question 28

English as an additional language(explanations of the academic success of Asian students?)-outside factors

Answer 28

linguistic skills as Hedi Mirza found that Indian students do very well even when English is not spoken at home. EAL students perform less well on assessments in younger years, but by age 16 they outperform native English speakers. This may be due to how learning several languages simultaneously affects the brain (e.g. students appear to ‘blossom’ after a certain point.)

Question 29

What are the explanations of the academic success of Asian students -inside factors

Answer 29

teacher labelling as sociologists Archer argues that teachers tend to see Chinese students as bright, extremely hard working, but very passive. Teachers stereotyped Chinese families as ‘tight’ and ‘close’ and used this to explain the girls’ supposed passivity (similar to the way teachers often see South Asian girls as victims of oppressive family situations.) teachers also tended wrongly to stereotype their Chinese students as middle class. The result of the distinctions that Archer identifies is that Chinese and Indian students are more likely to end up in higher sets. This may result in pro-school subcultures. However, critics may disagree with Archer’s viewpoints as Cecile Wright argues that teachers assumed that Asian students would have a poor grasp of English and left them out of class discussions or used simplistic, childish language when speaking to them. As a result they attained less due to them being marginalised.