ethnicity and education Flashcards
what reasons are there for the differences in achievement between ethnic groups?
- material deprivation
- parent, student or school factors
- class, gender, ethnicity
- recent immigration
- ethnic group subcultures
- cultural capital
ethnicity
people who share common history, customs and identity
what is the division of ethnicities in the uk?
white 87.1%
asian 7%
black 3%
mixed 2%
how does material deprivation affect differences by ethnicity?
- attainment gap due to social class was 2x as large as the biggest ethnic gap and 6x as large as gender
strand 2015 longitudinal study of 15000
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how do parental, student or school factors affect differences by ethnicity?
Strand
- ethnic minority parents= more positive attitude than white british parents= better achievement
- strand (2015) student factors- ethnic minority groups are more likely to have resilience factors, meaning positive attitude towards school, hw every evening + plans for the future
- risk factors are welfare, truancy, police involvement and special needs, which white british more likely to have
- quality of school= little effect apart from teacher expectations on Black Carribaean students
how does class, gender ethnicity affect differences by ethnicity?
- white students are more affected by class than any other group
- white w/c girls= lowest attitude out of all female ethnic groups but better than white w/c boys
- gender gap in favour of girls= particularly high for Black Carribean + Bangladeshi students
how does recent immigration affect differences by ethnicity?
- qualifications in home country that are not recognised here resulting in low income jobs, but being overqualified as they still have the skills
- education = way out of poverty they came from whereas white= fatalism
(Strand)
how do ethnic group subcultures affect differences by ethnicity?
(Archer and Francis)
- chinese parents and children place high value on education regardless of class- lots of time, energy and money is spent on supplementary education
- standing in the community is affected somewhat by child’s academic success
- parents and children both have high hopes
(Archer+ Francis, semi structured interviews, w/ 80 14-16y/o british chinese students )
how does cultural capital affect differences by ethnicity?
Bordieu
- chinese & indians = largest proportion of m/c members + highest attainment, may result from having cultural capital
- however, pakistanis and bangladeshis have lots of low income members and are performing better than their class position would suggest.
(Bordieu
research based on interviews of 30 Chinese parents and 30 London teachers in a school w/ Chinese students )
league tables
ranking of school results
ethnocentrism
belief that one culture is superior to another (curriculums can be quite ethnocentric)
institutional racism
racial prejudice + discrimination that are part of assumptions and operations of institutions
background info on the change in educational policy towards ethnic achievement
- focus on black carribean male ‘underachievement’ while racism in schools was not addressed by policy (80s-90s)
- from 90s focus changes to ‘Black achievement’, although no improvements are really made due to the curriculum being quite ethnocentric and only featuring black people as slaves, excluding them.
HOWEVER why are Asian pupils performing so well despite this?
Gillbourn and Youdell (systematically neglected)
- some students were ‘systematically neglected’ by having their achievements underestimated and they were put into lower sets with less experienced teachers, less attention + help.
^ this most commonly happened to black caribbean+w/c - black students were expected to present disciplinary problems, so their control and punishment was given greater importance than academic concerns
Sewell
- black masculinity= boys may lack the correct positive male role model + discipline that can be provided by a father figure, this can make them vulnerable to peer group pressure (many black caribbean boys are raised in lone parent fams)
- gangs of boys emphasise an aggressive + anti-authoritarian form of masculinity that the above boys are drawn into, this gives them the acceptance they feel they lack form absence of father figures.
