ethnicity revised Flashcards
external factor - material deprivation
Flaherty
- Pakistani and Bangladeshi - 3x more likely than whites to be poorest 5th
- African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi household - 3x higher unemployment
achievement in education mirrors eligibility for free school meals - material deprivation partly explains underachievement
Palmer
- ethnic minorities - 3x as likely to become homeless
- 1/2 ethnic minority children live in low-income households
external factor - material deprivation eval
Indian ethnic groups still do better, regardless of income - cultural factors must play a part
Postmodernists argue that class and ethnicity does not have an impact on identity - so it doesn’t shape a pupils’ experience of education
External factor - cultural deprivation
linguistic skills
DfES report - pupils where english additional language had lower attainment than when first language
More likely to speak restricted speech code - Bernstein
poor primary socialisation
- Black children do not learn cultural values for success eg deferred and instant gratification - Sugarman
Scruton - New right - low achievement of some ethnic minorities due to not embracing mainstream british culture - lower value on educational success
poor family structure
- 48% black caribbean families single parent compared to 22% white and 11% asian
Moynihan - level of lone mother families means families struggle economically and no male role model - cycle of underachievement
Murray - New right - absence of male role model means boys do not have adequate model of male achievement - leads to unemployment and rise of underclass
Sewell
Poor attitudes
Lupton - compared 4 working class schools - lack of support is key factor in educational failure
McCulloch - 16k pupil survey - ethnic minority likely to aspire to go to uni
cultural deprivation - Sewell
NOT lack of male role models - black boys underachieve
BUT lack of tough love from father
these present boys with media inspired role models of anti-school black masculinity
biggest barrier facing black boys is actually black peer pressure - speaking standard english and doing well in school is selling out to white establishment
cultural deprivation eval
Linguistic Skills
- Gillborn and Mirza - indian pupils achieve some of the highest grades despite having english as a second language
Socialisation
- Too deterministic and simplistic to suggest aspirations of black students and white students are different - class has to be considered
Family structure
- high-income single parent have high achievement
- African-Caribbean girls do better than boys
Poor attitudes
- Keddie - victim-blaming
External factor - cultural capital
Explains why Indian and Chinese pupils achieve higher results
Asian
Lupton - culture of respect towards adults and elders so respect teachers
Strand - analysis on longitudinal study of young people - 15000 interviews - indian parents have better control so more likely to complete school work and less likely to be truant
Basit - Pakistani and Indian - participants placed high value on education - education as blessing - poor parents make space for students to study
External factor - cultural capital - eval
some feminists - high levels of patriarchy in some Asian families and limits or conflicts this places on girl’s involvement on educational aspirations
Bagguley and Hussain - many young Asian muslim women face a conflict of parental expectations to marry and cater education around cultural expectations
External factor - Racism in society
Wood et al - 3 closely matched applications to 1000 job vacancies
- one in 16 from ethnic minority
- one in 9 from white
offered interview
Moon - study to compare discriminatory practices in employment
Top 100 Uk companies - Evan and Patel with same qualifications and experience - companies more encouraging to the white candidate
leads to
- low self esteem
- hostility to schooling
- low paid unskilled work
External factor - Racism in society eval
doesnt explain chinese students overachievement
strengths of external explanations
exposed weaknesses of outdated expectations - highlight need to look at social reasons
brought about social policies eg provisions for teaching English as a second language
limitations of external factors
cannot fully explain the differences - inequalities for African-Caribbean pupils progressively greater as they progress through school - so education system
Internal factor - teacher labelling
Black
Gillborn and Mirza - black children highest achievers in one local education authority on entry to primary school but by time at GCSE - worst results of any ethnic group
Strand - analysis of entire national cohort 7-11 year olds - more able black children made less progress than white peers
Asian
Wright - teachers assumed asian pupils has poor english and mispronounced their names
Shain - asian girls stereotyped as shy and passive - often dealt with more severely
Internal factor - teacher labelling evaluation
labelling suggests all pupils respond the same
Mac an Ghaill - can reject labelling and form pro-school subcultures
Fuller - study in high-achieving girls - reacted to racist labelling by working harder for success
Internal factor - subcultures
if pupil internalises the label - could form subcultures
Gillborn and Youdell - black pupils seen as disruptive and disrespectful - pupils responded negatively and behaviour worsened
Mirza - studied ambition black girls who faced teacher racism - colour blind, liberal chauvinists, overt racists
Sewell - black boys - conformists, innovators, rebels, retreatists
Fuller - black girls
Internal factor - subcultures eval
number of teachers actively labelling students in a racist way is likely to be very small - many sociologists point out unconscious biases are more likely eg why oxford and cambridge admit so few black students
not all pupils form anti-school subcultures when negatively labelled - interactionism - negotiate label
Internal factor - Institutional racism
troyna and williams - schools and colleges discriminate against ethnic minorities through their rules and practices - no headwear in schools discriminate against muslim girls
gillborn - marketisation has increased the ability to schools to select pupils
commission for racial equality - ethnic minority pupils more likely to end up in less popular schools due to lack of information, racist bias during interviews
Internal factor - Institutional racism eval
some postmodernists would argue that society is too fragmented and too complex for institutional racism to play such a large role
functionalists school acts as an institution to prevent anomie and reproduce value consensus - rather than institutional racism external values may be cause
Internal factor - ethnocentric curriculum
many school curriculums remain ethnocentric
Troyna and Williams - language literature and music reflect british and european culture
Ball - history national curriculum ignores ethnic diversity and promotes an attitude of little englandism
- formal curriculum - black is evil and white is good
history is white
ethnocentric curriculum promotes an image of black people as inferior - undermining self-esteem leading to underachievement
Internal factor - ethnocentric curriculum eval
postmodernism - due to globalisation and increasing immigration - schools do allow for greater celebration of diversity
functionalism - curriculum made to reproduce value consensus - if changed then may lead to anomie
internal strengths
interactionists - attempts to see things from social actors’ pov - more detailed insight
internal explanation eval
racism in schools cannot be complete explanation as chinese students perform well
findings based on qualitative research with small sample size so hard to generalise
