External Factors and Ethnic Differences in Achievement

Question 1

What is the cultural deprivation theory?

Answer 1

Underachievement of some ethnic groups is due inadequate socialisation in the home. It has 3 aspects: intellectual and linguistic skills, attitudes and values, family structure

Question 2

How does intellectual and linguistic skills affect achievement?

Answer 2

• Bereiter and Engelmann see the language spoken of low-income black American as inadequate. And those who don’t speak English at home are held back educationally.
• In 2010, pupils whose first language wasn’t English were 3.2% behind of those who had English as their first language.
• In a school in America, African American English speakers were taught mainstream English. Broken English, e.g Caribbean, is devalued and the elaborated code is needed for school

Question 3

Give evaluation for linguistic skills affecting achievement

Answer 3

Gilborn and Mirza (2000) note how Indian/Chinese pupils do well despite not having English as their home language

Question 4

How does attitudes and values affect achievement?

Answer 4

• White working class are less likely to want to go university as a result of lack of parental support. Lupton found white schools had poorer behaviour and less aspirations despite less people on FSM compared to the ethnic schools. Teachers blamed it on lack of parental support and ethnic parents valued education more
• Some black and ethnic minority children are socialised into fatalistic subculture due to negative experiences with education or society itself
• Sewell argues that Asian families have an ‘Asian Work Ethic’, meaning they place a high value on education. Lupton suggests the adult structure in Asian homes mirror that in education so respectful behaviour was expected. However, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students are not doing as well as other Asian groups

Question 5

How does family structure affect achievement?

Answer 5

• Moynihan (1965) argues as many black families are headed by lone mothers, children are deprived of adequate care, financially and a male role model.
• Murray (1984) argues lone parenthood leads to a lack of positive role models
• Pryce (1979) argues the family structure of black communities is traced back to slavery, where families were separated and culture was lost. Fathers didn’t learn roles of providing and protecting and this was passed down. Their culture is less resistant to racism as it was destroyed by colonial rule, leading to more low self-esteem and underachievement

Question 6

What is Sewell’s main argument?

Answer 6

• Instead of a lack of father figure, the problem is lack of fatherly nurturing, resulting in black boys finding it hard to overcome emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence.
• Street gangs of other fatherless boys offer loyalty and love. They present with a media inspired role model of anti-school black masculinity, MTV rap videos.
• Many black boys are thus subject to peer pressure. Sewell interviewed successful black boys and they felt the biggest barrier was black peer pressure. Speaking Standard English was seen as ‘selling out’ to the white establishment.
• Gillborn, critical race theorist, argues it isn’t peer pressure but institutional racism within the education system that produces the failure of black boys

Question 7

What is compensatory education?

Answer 7

It is the main policy used to tackle cultural deprivation. The aim of Operation Head Start in the USA was to compensate children for the cultural deficit they are said to suffer because of deprived backgrounds

Question 8

What are criticisms of cultural deprivation theory?

Answer 8

• Driver (1977) says it ignores the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement. Black families aren’t dysfunctional and provides girls with a positive role model of an independent women, explaining the gender gap in black pupils
• Lawrence (1982) challenges Pryce’s view and argues black pupils underachieve due to racism, not low self-esteem
• Critics of compensatory education see it as imposing white culture and propose multicultural education, values ethnic differences, or anti-racist education, a policy that challenges discrimination in schools

Question 9

What does Guy Palmer find?

Answer 9

• Ethnic minorities are more likely to face material deprivation:
• Half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income houses, compared to a quarter of while children
• Ethnic minorities are twice as likely to be unemployed compared to white people
• Minority households are 3x more likely to be homeless
• Half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned £7 per hour, compared to a quarter of white British workers

Question 10

What are (more) statistics with ethnic minorities being more materially deprived?

Answer 10

• Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are more likely to engage in low paid housework
• Ethnic minority workers are more likely to engage in shift work
• 15% of minority houses are overcrowded compared to 2% of white houses
• 70% of Bangladeshi, 60% of Pakistani and Black African pupils live in the 20% most deprived post code areas compared to less than white British pupils

Question 11

Why might ethnic minorities be at a greater risk of unemployment, overcrowding and low pay?

Answer 11

• Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment low wage rates
• Cultural factors may prevent women from working outside the house
• Lack of language skills
• Racial discrimination in the labour market and housing market

Question 12

Give evidence that class doesn’t override ethnicity

Answer 12

• In Chinese groups, there’s barely a difference in class achievement
• Modood (2004) found the effects of low income were much less for other ethnic groups than for white pupils, so it isn’t a major cause of ethnic minority underachievement.

Question 13

How does racism in wider society affect achievement?

Answer 13

• Rex shows how racisms leads to social exclusions and worsens poverty. e.g, minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class
• Wood et al (2010) sent 3 closely match job applications, only changed names associated with different ethnicities. They found only one in 16 ‘ethnic minority’ applications were offered an interviews , compared to one in nine ‘white’ applications