External factors (ethnicity)

Question 1

What are the external factors for ethnicity and educational achievement?

Answer 1

Cultural deprivation
Material deprivation and class
Racism in wider society

Question 2

Describe what the cultural deprivation theory sees

Answer 2

Sees the underachievement of some ethnic groups as the result of inadequate socialisation in the home.

Question 3

What are the 3 main aspects of cultural deprivation?

Answer 3

Intellectual and linguistic skills
Attitudes and family
Family structure and parental support

Question 4

Why do cultural deprivation theorists say about 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 haven’t been able to develop reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Question 5

What do Bereiter and Engelmann say?

Answer 5

They consider 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 do official statistics show about children who don’t speak english at home?

Answer 6

Children who don’t speak english as their first language aren’t majorly affected by this.

In 2010, pupils with English as their first language were only 3.2 points ahead of those without English as their first language when it came to 5 GCSE A-C passes including english and maths.

Question 7

What do Gillborn and Mirza note?

Answer 7

Indian pupils do very well despite often not having English as their home language.

Question 8

Why do cultural deprivation theorists say about attitudes and values?

Answer 8

See lack of motivation as a major cause of the failure of many black children.

Question 9

According to cultural deprivation theorists, how are most children socialised? (attitudes and values)

Answer 9

Most children are socialised into the mainstream culture, which instils ambition, competitiveness and willingness to make sacrifices necessary to achieve long-term goals. This equips them for success in education.

Question 10

However, according to cultural deprivation theorists, how are black children socialised? (attitudes and values)

Answer 10

By contrast, cultural deprivation theorists argue some black children are socialised into a subculture that instils a fatalistic ‘live for today’ attitude that doesn’t value education and leaves them unequipped for success.

Question 11

What do cultural deprivation theorists say failure to socialise children adequately is a result of?

Answer 11

A dysfunctional family structure

Question 12

What does Charles Murray argue?

Answer 12

Argues that a high rate of lone parenthood and a lack of positive male role models lead to the underachievement of some minorities.

Question 13

What does Scruton argue?

Answer 13

Sees the low achievement levels of some ethic minorities as resulting from a failure to embrace mainstream british culture.

Question 14

What does Pryce say?

Answer 14

Sees family structure as contributing to the underachievement of black Caribbean pupils in Britain. From a comparison of black and Asian pupils, he claims that Asians are higher achievers because their culture is more resistant to racism and gives them a greater sense of self-worth. By contrast, Caribbean culture is less cohesive and less resistant to racism. As a result, black pupils have low self-esteem and underachieve.

Question 15

What does Sewell argue?

Answer 15

It isn’t the absence of fathers as role models that leads to black boys underachieving. Instead, it is the lack of fatherly nurturing or “tough love” - this results in black boys finding it hard to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence.

Question 16

What happens as a result of a lack of fatherly nurturing according to Sewell?

Answer 16

Street gangs offer ‘perverse loyalty and love’ and present black boys with a media-inspired role model of anti-school black masculinity (rap lyrics and MTV videos).
Therefore, many black boys are subject to powerful anti-educational peer pressure.

Question 17

What did Sewell find?

Answer 17

Many black boys are subject to powerful anti-educational peer pressure.

Most of the academically successful black boys that Sewell interviewed felt that the greatest barrier to success was pressure from other boys. Speaking standard english and doing well at school were often viewed with suspicion by their peers and seen as ‘selling out’ to the white establishment.

Question 18

According to Sewell, why do black students do worse than their Asian counterparts?

Answer 18

Because of cultural differences in socialisation and attitudes to education. While one group is being nurtured by MTV, the other is clocking up the educational hours. Sewell concludes that black children (particularly the boys) need to have greater expectations placed on them to raise their expectations.

Question 19

However what do critical race theorists argue? (criticise Sewell)

Answer 19

It isn’t peer pressure but institutional racism within the education system itself that systematically produces the failure of large numbers of black boys.

Question 20

What does Lupton argue about Asian families?

Answer 20

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 21

Why are white working class pupils less likely to aspire to go to university?

Answer 21

Low levels of aspiration and achievement are a result of lack of parental support.

Question 22

What did Lupton study and find?

Answer 22

Studied 4 working class schools : 2 predominantly white, one largely pakistani and the 4th drawing pupils from an ethnically mixed community.

She found teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in the white wc schools - despite having fewer children on free school meals (a way to measure poverty). Teachers blamed this on lower levels of parental support and the negative attitude white wc parents have towards education.

By contrast, ethnic minority parents see education as “a way up in society.”

Question 23

What does Evan say about street culture in white wc areas?

Answer 23

Evan (2006) argues 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. In this context, school can become a place where the power games that young people engage in on
the street are played out again, bringing disruption and making it hard for pupils to succeed.

Question 24

What policy has been adopted to tackle cultural deprivation?

Answer 24

Compensatory education

Question 25

How does Driver criticise the cultural deprivation theory?

Answer 25

Geoffrey Driver (1977) criticises cultural deprivation theory for ignoring the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement. He shows that the black Caribbean family, far from being
dysfunctional, provides girls with positive role models of strong
independent women. Driver argues that this is why black girls tend to be more successful in education than black boys.

Question 26

How can Pryce’s view be criticised?

Answer 26

Errol Lawrence (1982) challenges Pryce's view that black pupils fail because their culture is weak and they lack
self-esteem. He argues that black pupils under-achieve not because of low self-esteem, but because of racism.

Question 27

How does Keddie criticise the cultural deprivation theory?

Answer 27

Keddie sees cultural deprivation as a victim-blaming explanation. She arques that ethnic minority children are culturally different, not culturally deprived. They under-achieve because schools are ethnocentric: biased in favour of white culture and against minorities.

Question 28

Why do these critics oppose compensatory education?

Answer 28

They see it as an attempt to impose the dominant white culture on children who already have coherent culture of their own. They propose two alternatives:

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

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

Question 29

What does material deprivation mean?

Answer 29

Material deprivation means a lack of those physical necessities that are seen as essential or normal for life in today’s society, In general, working-class people are more likely to face poverty and material deprivation.

Question 30

According to Guy Palmer, why are ethnic minorities more likely to face material deprivation?

Answer 30

Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households, as against a quarter of white children.

Ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed compared with whites.

Ethnic minority households are around three times as likely to be homeless.

Almost half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under €7 per hour, compared with only a quarter of white British workers.

In addition, ethnic minority workers are more likely to be engaged in shift work, and Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are more likely than others to be
engaged in low-paid homeworking.

Question 31

Give reasons why some ethnic minorities

may be at greater risk of the material deprivation that results from unemployment, low pay and overcrowding

Answer 31

• Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates.
• Cultural factors such as the tradition of purdah in some Muslim households, which prevents women from working outside the home.
• A lack of language skills, and foreign qualifications not being recognised by UK employers. These are more likely
to affect recently arrived groups, many of whom are refugees. Most members of established minority groups are fluent in English.
• Asylum seekers may not be allowed to take work.
• Racial discrimination in the labour market and housing market

Question 32

Does class override ethnicity?

Answer 32

Research shows that even those Indian+Chinese pupils who are materially deprived do better than most e.g. in 2011, 86% of Chinese girls who received free school meals achieved 5 0r more higher grade GCSEs, compared with only 65% of white girls who were not receiving free school meals.

This suggests that material deprivation and social class factors don’t completely override the influence of ethnicity.

Question 33

What does John Rex show?

Answer 33

Shows how racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and how this worsens the poverty faced by ethnic minorities.

Question 34

How are members of ethnic minorities discriminated in housing?

Answer 34

Minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class.

Question 35

How are members of ethnic minorities discriminated in employment?

Answer 35

In employment there is evidence of direct and deliberate discrimination.

Wood et al sent 3 closely matched job applications using names associated with different ethnic groups to nearly 1000 job vacancies. For each job one application came from a white person and two from members of minority groups. Wood found only 1 in 16 ‘ethnic minority’ applications were offered an interview as against 1 in 9 white applicants.

This explains why members of ethnic minorities are more likely to face unemployment and low pay - which has a negative effect on their children’s educational prospects.