ETHNICITY EXTERNAL FACTORS

Question 1

Tony Sewell (Fathers and gang culture)

Answer 1

• Argued that they are related to the highly relatively high proportion of Black African pupils raised in lone-parent families.
• Basing his ideas on research with 11-16-year-old pupils in a London school, he claims that being brought up by a lone mother can lead to some boys lacking male role models and the discipline provided by a father figure.
• As a result, they may be attracted to gangs that encourage an aggressive and macho form of masculinity which does not value respect for authority.
• These attitudes tend to result in a lack of concern for academic achievement and a rejection of the values of school.
• Although this only affects a minority of Black African pupils, it depresses the overall performance of Black minority ethnic groups.
• Sewell’s research linked to family life and gang culture within the education system.
• He argues that black students do worse than their Asian counterparts

Question 2

Eval (David Gillborn)

Answer 2

• A critical race theorist, and argued that it is not peer pressure, but institutional racism within the education system itself that reproduces the failure of large numbers of black boys, such as the assessment game.

Question 3

Moon and Ivins (Parental education interests)

Answer 3

• In a telephone survey of a representative sample of over 1,500 parents/carers of ethnic minority children,
• parental involvement with their children’s education was greater in minority ethnic groups than in the population as a whole.
• a higher proportion saw their children’s education as mainly the parents’ responsibility rather than the school’s, and this was particularly true of Black Caribbean and Bangladeshi parents.
• A very high proportion (82%) went to parents’ evenings whenever there was an opportunity
• although Pakistani and Bangladeshi parents = less confident about helping their children with homework, largely because they lacked the cultural capital to which Bourdieu referred.
• Black Caribbean, Asian parents are more successful than their White British equivalents in getting their children, including those who are relatively unsuccessful at GCSE, to stay on in education at the end of compulsory schooling, and to enter higher education.

Question 4

Eval (Ruth Lupton)

Answer 4

• Argued that this was actually because 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 5

Vincent et al (Black Caribbean middle-class parents)

Answer 5

• Found that black middle-class parents were particularly concerned with
  actively involved in their children’s schooling \ enrolling their children in a range of extra-curricular activities extra tutoring,
• often making particular efforts to meet teachers, insisting on high standards,
• However, they often found teachers treated them as if they knew led about their children’s education than white middle-class parents, despite having similar qualifications, and expected black middle-class parents and pupils to be far less interested in education than their white peers.

Question 6

Eval (David Gillborn and Deborah Youdell)

Answer 6

• This however lacks weight as teachers have ‘racialised expectations’.
• Teachers expected black pupils to present more discipline problems and misinterpreted their behaviour as threatening or as a challenge to authority.
• When teachers acted on this misperception, The pupils responded negatively and further conflict resulted.
• In turn,** black pupils felt teachers underestimated their ability and picked on them**

Question 7

Tehmina Basit (Cultural factors and Indian/ Pakistan pupils)

Answer 7

• Found that cultural factors had an impact on educational achievement in British Asian communities
• Basit studied three generations: grandparents, parents and children. and collected data
• saw free state education as a ‘blessing’ because it generally offered more opportunities than were available in their countries of origin.
• They therefore tended to put considerable effort and resources into helping their children.
• Even the relatively poor parents had managed to provide space to study, desks, computer and internet access for their children, and most of the children had their own rooms.
• Parents expected their children to work hard and, many being well qualified themselves, actively helped their children with their studies.
• This educational capital was believed to be the most significant asset a young person could acquire and the families provided a range of supporting mechanisms to enable the young people to realise this aspiration”.
• While all the grandparents were from working-class backgrounds, some of the parents had gained middle-class jobs via educational success, and they wanted, and expected their children to be at least as successful.
• Although the parents could not afford to move to expensive areas and gain access to the best schools, they did try to help their children get into selective schools, sometimes by arranging private tuition.

Question 8

Eval (Tariq )

Answer 8

• ethnic minorities actually have cultural capital, especially if they are recent migrants = have been downwardly mobile or they may not be able to get jobs in line with their skills, experience and qualifications due to discrimination, or because they lack familiarity with British culture.
• As a result, they may be better educated than most white British parents from the same class background.

Question 9

Lupton (White working-class pupils and parents attitudes)

Answer 9

• Lupton - four mainly working-class schools two predominately white, one serving a largely Pakistani community and the fourth drawing pupils from an ethically mixed community.
• She found - teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in the white working-class schools, despite the fact they had fewer children on free school meals.
• Teachers blamed this on lower levels of parental support and the negative attitude that white working-class parents had towards education.
• By contrast, ethnic minority parents were more likely to see education as ‘a way up in society’.
• This is also backed up Gillian Evans, who argued that street culture in white working-class areas can be brutal and so young people have to learn how to withstand intimidation and intimidate others, which makes school a place full of power games,

Question 10

Eval (Andrew McCulloch)

Answer 10

• In a survey of 16,000 pupils, he found that ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university than White British pupils; they had higher aspiration