Ethnicity Differences in Education

Question 1

Highest-achieving groups

Answer 1

Chinese and Indian/asian groups more likely to achieve 5 or more GCSE passes and get better A level results

Question 2

Lowest-achieving groups

Answer 2

Black Caribbean, Pakistani, Bangladeshi overall have below-average reading skills, evidence suggests get put in lower streams despite higher ability

Question 3

Social class and material factors

Answer 3

. More likely to live in low income households
. Around 2/5 ethnic minorities lived in poverty 2012-2013
=material deprivation, lack of cultural and social capital

Question 4

Gillborn and Mirza

Answer 4

Point out that while social class is the most influential, it doesn't override influence of ethnic inequality.
E.g. M/C white students perform better than black Caribbean despite being in the same social class

Question 5

Language

Answer 5

. 18% of pupils in primary school don’t have English as their first language- official statistics 2013
. Language differences may cause difficulties in school work and communication= mistaken for lack of ability
. However Swan Report (1985) found that for the majority language factors had little importance

Question 6

Family life and parental support

Answer 6

. Parental involvement important
. Despite ethnic minority parents thinking education a way for social mobility, some place higher importance than others e.g. Asian to W/C black caribbean
. Vincent (2011) found m/c black caribbean parents actively concerned with childs education however teachers treated them like they had less knowledge

Question 7

Racism among pupils

Answer 7

Cline et al found racism common among pupils in school. Lots of race-related nicknames such as “Paki”, “Chimpanzee” and etc. This racial harassment contributes to low self-esteem and makes their school experience distressing

Question 8

Teacher expectations, stereotyping, labelling and conflict in the classroom

Answer 8

Only small percentage of teachers consciously racist- hold stereotypical expectations like asians will do the best, whilst black Caribbeans having the least potential. This then leads them to be placed in lower streams.

Question 9

Ethnocentric school curriculum

Answer 9

Many schools have strong equal opportunity policies to tackle racism to try and include minority ethnic group cultures within curriculum. However the curriculum is still very white washed and often degrading to minority ethnic cultures such as through history and their countries being seen as poor and helpless.

Question 10

Pupil responses and subcultures of resistance

Answer 10

Black caribbeans responded to the denial of status and respect by forming subculture of resistance, which gave them status through black macho masculinity leading to that stereotype for all. However Fuller in the 80’s found that black girls who were stereotyped tried really hard to succeed and prove the teachers wrong, although still didn’t conform to ethos

Question 11

External reasons for under-achievement: cultural deprivation

Answer 11

• intellectual and linguistic skills ( black, low income groups)
• attitudes and values: black children socialised into fatalistic ‘live for today’ attitude
• Scruton: low achievement result of failure to embrace and conform to British culture

Question 12

External reasons for underachievement: material deprivation

Answer 12

• Almost 1/2 of EMC live in low income household
• 3x more likely to be homeless
• Even if materially deprived Chinese and Indian still do better than white

Question 13

External: wider society

Answer 13

• Racism leads to social exclusion and poverty
• Discrimination in and out of classroom
  Noon (1993): sent identical letters to UK companies, one with ethnic second name and one with ‘white’= white candidate got more helpful and informative replies