Ethnicity - External Factors - Cultural Deprivation

Question 1

What is the definition of ethnic groups?

Answer 1

Ethnic groups are defined as ‘people who share common history, customs and identity, as well as, languages and religion, and who see themselves as a distinct ‘unit’.
Ethnic groups are part of a culture - things that are learned, shared and valued by a social group.
(Definition by Lawson and Garrod (2000)).

Question 2

What does Hastings say about educational progess for white pupils?

Answer 2

Hastings (2006) says that white pupils make less progress between ages 11-16 than black or Asian pupils, and it is possible that whites may soon become the worst performing ethnic group in the country.

Question 3

What aspects of cultural deprivation are there?

Answer 3

Cultural deprivation theory sees the underachievement of some ethnic groups as the result of inadequate socialisation in the home.
The explanation has 3 main aspects:
- intellectual and linguistic skills
- attitudes and values
- family structure and parental support

Question 4

What do cultural deprivation theorists say about the lack of intellectual and linguistic skills?

Answer 4

They argue that many children from low income black families lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences.
This leaves them poorly equipped for school because they have not been able to develop reasoning and problem solving skills.

Question 5

What does Bereiter and Engelmann say about language?

Answer 5

Bereiter and Engelmann say the language spoken by low income black American families as inadequate for educational success.
They see it as ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas.

Question 6

What are the complications of having English as a second language?

Answer 6

Children who do not speak English at home may be held back educationally.
It is also a struggle for parents to understand how education works and their children’s progress (they are unable to communicate to teachers
about it).

However, it isn’t seen as a major factor. Gillborn and Mirza (2000) note that Indian pupils do very well despite often not having English as their home language.

Question 7

What do cultural deprivation theorists say about motivation in the education system?

Answer 7

Cultural deprivation theorists see the lack of motivation as a major cause of failure for many black children.
Where most children are socialised into the mainstream culture, which instils ambition, competitiveness and willingness to make the nessassary sacrifices to achieve long term goals. This equips them for success in education, unlike black children.

Question 8

What do cultural deprivation theorists say is the attitude of black children in education?

Answer 8

Cultural deprivation theorists argue that some black children are socialised into a subculture that instils a fatalistic, ‘live for today’ attitude that does not value education and leaves them unequipped for success.

Question 9

What do cultural deprivation theorists say about family structure and parental support?

Answer 9

Cultural deprivation theorists argue that this failure to socialise children adequately is the result of a dysfunctional family structure.

Question 10

What does Moynihan say about family structure and parental support?

Answer 10

Daniel Moynihan (1965) argues that because many black families are headed my a lone mother (matriarchal family), their children are deprived of adequate care as the mother has to struggle financially in the absence of a male breadwinner.
The father’s absence also means that boys lack an adequate male role model.

Moynihan also sees cultural deprivation as a cycle. Inadequately socialised children from unstable families go on to fail at school and become inadequate parents themselves.

Question 11

What does Murray say about family structure and parental support?

Answer 11

Charles Murray (1984) argues that a high rate of lone parenthood and a lack of positive male role models leads to the underachievement of some minorities. (Link to the New Right).

Question 12

What does Scruton say about family structure and parental support?

Answer 12

Scruton (1986) sees the low achievement levels of some ethnic minorities as resulting from a failure to embrace mainstream British culture.

Question 13

What does Pryce say about family structure and parental support?

Answer 13

Pryce (1979) sees family structure as contributing to the underachievement of black Caribbean pupils in Britain. He claims that Asians are higher achievers because their culture is more resistant to racism and gives them a greater sense of self-worth.
In contrast, he argues that black Caribbean culture is less cohesive and less resistant to racism.
As a result, many black pupils have low self-esteem and underachieve.

Question 14

How does Pryce link educational underachievement to culture history?

Answer 14

He argues that this difference is the result of the differing impact of colonialism on the 2 groups.
He argues that the experience of slavery was culturally devastating for blacks, it meant they lost their language, religion and entire family system. In contrast, Asian family structures, languages and religions were not destroyed by colonial rule.

Question 15

What does Sewell say about fathers in relation to cultural deprivation?

Answer 15

Sewell (2009) argues that it is not the absence of fathers as role models that leads black boys to underachievement - it is the lack of fatherly nurturing/‘tough love’ (firm, fair, respectful and non -abusive).
This results in black boys finding it hard to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties in adolescence.

Question 16

What does Sewell say about gangs in relation to cultural deprivation? And what does Arnot say to support this?

Answer 16

Sewell (2009) that street gangs of other fatherless boys offer black boys ‘perverse loyalty and love’. This presents boys with a media-inspired role model of anti-school black masculinity.

Arnot (2004) describes this as ‘the ultra-tough ghetto superstar, an image constantly reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV videos’.

Question 17

What does Sewell say about culture in relation to cultural deprivation?

Answer 17

Sewell (2009) says that many black boys are a subject to powerful anti-educational peer group pressure.
Most of the academically successful black boys who Sewell interviewed felt that the greatest barrier to success was pressure from other boys.

Speaking in Standard English and doing well at school were often viewed with suspicion by their peers and seen as ‘selling out’ to the white establishment.

He argues that black students do worse than their Asian counterparts because of cultural differences in socialisation and attitudes to education.
While one group is being nurtured by MTV, the other is clocking up the education hours.

He concludes that black children (especially boys) need to have greater expectations placed on them to raise their aspirations.

Question 18

What is the evaluation for Sewell’s view on the role of fathers, gangs and culture in relation to cultural deprivation?

Answer 18

Gillborn (2008) argues that it is not peer pressure but institutional racism within the educational system itself that systematically produces failure of large numbers of black boys,

Question 19

What did Lupton say about Asian families?

Answer 19

Lupton (2004) argues that adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model that operates in schools.
Found that respectful behaviour towards adults was expected from children, the knock on effect of this was that parents were more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies.

Question 20

What did McCulloch say about white working class families?

Answer 20

McCulloch (2014) carried out a survey of 16,000 pupils, she found that ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university that white British pupils. This low level aspiration and achievement may be a result of a lack of parental support.

Context: most research has focused on black family structures as possible causes of underachievement. However, white working class pupils often underachieve and lower aspirations.

Question 21

What did Lupton find out about white working class families?

Answer 21

Lupton studied 4 mainly working class schools. 2 were mainly white, 1 was largely a Pakistani community and 1 was a ethnically mixed community.

Found that teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in white working class schools - despite that they had fewer children on free school meals (poverty indication).
Teachers blamed it on lower levels of parental support and the negative attitude that white w/c parents had towards education.
In contrast, ethnic minority parents were more likely to see education as ‘a way up in society’.

Question 22

What does Evans say about white working class families?

Answer 22

Evans (2006) argues that street culture in white w/c areas can be brutal, young people have to withstand intimidation and intimate others.

This street behaviour then may be used in school, bringing disruption and making it hard for pupils to succeed.

Question 23

What was the main policy that was introduced to tackle cultural deprivation in compensatory education?

Answer 23

Operation Head Start was introduced in the USA to tackle cultural deprivation.

Question 24

What was the aim of Operation Head Start?

Answer 24

To compensate children for the cultural deficit they are said to suffer because of deprived backgrounds.

Question 25

How does Driver criticise the cultural deprivation theory?

Answer 25

Driver (1977) criticeses the theory for ignoring he positive effects of ethnicity on achievement.
He shows that the black Caribbean family provides girls with positive role models of strong independent women.
He argues that this is why black girls tend to be more successful in education that black boys.

Question 26

How does Lawrence criticise the cultural deprivation theory?

Answer 26

Lawrence (1982) challenges Pryce’s view that black pupils fail because their culture is weak ams they lack self-esteem.
He argues that black pupils underachieve not because of low self-esteem, but because of racism.

Question 27

How does Keddie critcise the cultural deprivation theory?

Answer 27

Keddie sees cultural deprivation as a victim blaming explanation.
She argues that children of ethnic minorities are culturally different, not culturally deprived.
They underachieve because schools are ethnocentric; they are biased in favour of white culture and are against minorities.

Question 28

How do these critics oppose compensatory education?

Answer 28

These critics see compensatory education as an attempt to impose the dominant white culture on children who already have a coherent culture of their own.

Question 29

What are the 2 alternatives to compensatory education said by critics?

Answer 29

1) Multicultural education: a policy that recognises and values minority cultures and includes them in the curriculum.

2) Anti-racist education: a policy that challenges the prejudice and discrimination that exists in schools and wider society.