External Factors: Social Class and Material Deprivation

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

Material explanations see the higher likelihood of educational failure amongst some ethnic groups as a result of poor housing, a low income & all the knock-on effects of these.

Pakistani, Bangladeshi & African Caribbean ethnic groups are more likely to be in lower class positions such as routine occupations (assembly line workers, factory workers) & elementary occupations (cleaners, labourers). This may result in poor housing, periods of unemployment, poverty & material deprivation

Question 2

Facts

Answer 2

• Certain minority ethnic groups are far more likely than white people to live in low income households & to be in the poorest 5th of the population.
• 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 3 times as likely to be homeless.

Question 3

Reasons for deprivation

Answer 3

Many live in economically deprived areas with high unemployment and low wage rates

Qualifications from other countries not recognised

Racial discrimination in labour and housing markets

Question 4

FSM

Answer 4

These inequalities are reflected in the proportion of children from different ethnic groups who are eligible for free school meals. The material deprivation explanation argues that such class differences explain why Pakistani pupils tend to do worse than Indian & white pupils.

Question 5

A03

Answer 5

However, even those Indian & Chinese pupils who are materially deprived still do better than most.

As well as this, Bangladeshi pupils have the highest rates of entitlement to FSM & used to be one of the lowest achieving groups but in recent years Bangladeshi students achieve above the national average at GCSE. This all suggests that material deprivation & social class factors do not completely override the influence of ethnicit