Internal factors

Question 1

How does labelling and teacher racism affect e/m pupils

Answer 1

Gillborn and Youdell- teachers hold racialised expectations. they expect black pupils to present behavioural problem and misinterpret their behaviour as challenging to their authority.Therefore, teachers are more likely to discipline black boys even for minor offences for which white students were not disciplined. The pupils react negatively to this which leads to further conflict.

Question 2

labelling and teacher racism affect e/m pupils(Wright)

Answer 2

studied a multi-ethnic primary school through observations of interactions of teachers and students. She found that teachers hold ethnocentric views – see British culture and English language as superior to all other cultures. This leads them to label Asian pupils as lacking English language skills, express disapproval of their customs and mispronounce their names. This marginalised Asian students, e.g. excluded them from class discussions.

Question 3

labelling and teacher racism affect e/m pupils(Foster)

Answer 3

found that teacher’s stereotypes of black students as badly behaved could result in them being placed in lower sets which can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of underachievement.

Question 4

labelling and teacher racism (osler)

Answer 4

black pupils are the most likely group to be permanently excluded from schools, but also face unofficial exclusions such as being sent out of class (Seclusion). This reduces their opportunities to learn.

Question 5

Evaluation of labelling and teacher racism

Answer 5

the theory is deterministic as it assumes that just because students are labelled, they will accept the label. However, Mac an Ghaill’s study shows the students can reject the labels.

Question 6

Pupil identities and Archer’s

Answer 6

argues that teachers’ way of seeing something excludes e/m students from the image of the ideal pupil. These teacher attitudes create three different types of pupil identities:
1.Ideal pupil-white, middle class, masculinised identity,
these pupils are seen as achieving as a result of natural ability.
2.The pathologised pupil- Asian, deserving poor, feminised identity, asexual or with an oppressed sexuality, these pupils are seen as conformist and culture-bound achiever who has to work hard to succeed.
3.The demonised pupil-black or white, working class, hyper sexualised identity, these pupils are seen as unintelligent, culturally deprived underachievers.
e/m pupils, even those who are high achieving, are seen as either pathologised or demonised pupils. Archer calls this negative positive stereotyping.

Question 7

Pupil subculture and how it effects e/m pupils

Mirza

Answer 7

Black girls tried to avoid racism by avoiding choosing subjects taught by racist teachers. However this restricts the aspiration of black females as they don’t try to ask for help thus the girls underachieve.

Question 8

Pupil subculture and how it effects e/m pupils

Sewell

Answer 8

teachers had a stereotypical view of black machismo – expect black boys to be rebellious and anti-school. Boys responded in 4 ways:
1.rebels – opposed to school rules and goals, often excluded, formed anti-school subcultures
2.conformists – respected school rules, aimed for
success
3.retreatists – isolated from school and the rebels, 4.innovators – pro-education, but anti-school.
However, even the conformists faced teacher labelling as well as bullying from their peers.

Question 9

Pupil subculture and how it effects e/m pupils

Fuller

Answer 9

studied year 11 high achieving black girls in a London comprehensive school. She found that black girls rejected negative labels applied to them and turned anger at being labelled into pursuit of educational success, but the girls didn’t conform by seeking the approval of teachers and were friends with low achieving girls. This shows that the self-fulfilling prophecy doesn’t always happen.

Question 10

Pupil subculture and how it effects e/m pupils

Mac an Ghaill

Answer 10

studied Asian and black A Level students and found that students can reject the negative labels applied to them by teachers.

Question 11

what is Ethnocentric curriculum

Answer 11

means regarding your culture as superior to all
others.
Curriculum – things learnt at school through subjects.

Question 12

Ethnocentric curriculum

Troyna and Williams

Answer 12

British curriculum gives priority to British culture and English language, it ignores non-European languages, music and literature.

Question 13

Ethnocentric curriculum

Coard

Answer 13

there is a lack of black literature, history, music and role models in the curriculum, e.g. History teaches that the British civilised the ‘primitive’ people they colonised – this may create low self-esteem among black students and lead to failure. Also, the association of the word ‘black’ with negative connotations may affect the self-esteem of Afro-Caribbean students.

Question 14

How can you evaluate the Ethnocentric curriculum

Answer 14

Indian and Chinese students’ achievement is high so

there is little evidence that the ethnocentric curriculum has any effect on achievement.

Question 15

How did Assessments effect e/m pupils

Answer 15

Gillborn argues that the introduction of Foundation stage profiles has led to the underachievement of e/m pupils. Before 2003, every year schools had baseline tests which e/m pupils did substantially well in. However since the introduction of FSP it all comes down to teacher judgement and the shocking thing is that now e/m pupils seem to be doing worse than white people.This shows that teachers’ stereotyping of pupils affects the results.

Question 16

How do Access of opportunities effect e/m pupils

Answer 16

The gifted and talented program was created in order to meet the needs of more able students however Gillborn argues that it discriminates against e/m. This is due to the reason that teachers tend to pick white students for g&t program rather than e/m

Question 17

How do Access of opportunities effect e/m pupils

Tikly

Answer 17

found that e/m pupils are more likely to be entered
for foundation tier exams at GCSE and placed into lower sets. This is often based on teachers’ assumptions about students’ behaviour rather than their actual ability.

Question 18

What is the critical race theory

Answer 18

sees the education system as institutionally racist.

Question 19

How does institutional racism effect e/m pupils

Answer 19

Gillborn refers to this as the locked in inequality whereby the scale of discrimination is so large
that there is no longer any conscious intent to discriminate as discrimination is fully built into the way schools operate. For example Afro-carribean pupils are underestimated and put into lower tier exams. this means they cant get a higher grade than a C grade.These decisions are made by teachers and could be based on stereotypes.

Question 20

How does marketisation,selection and segregation effect e/m

Answer 20

Gillborn argues that marketisation means that e/m are at a disadvantage as negative stereotypes can affect admission decisions
Moore and Davenport – minority pupils fail to get into better schools because these school use primary school reports to ‘screen out’ ‘problem’ students. Also, Non-English speaking parents may not understand the
application process. That puts ethnic minority students at a disadvantage.

Question 21

Evaluation of marketisation,selection and segregation

Answer 21

It is possible that parents send their children to
schools where most of the other students are of the same ethnic background as a way of protecting their children from racism. This then causes ethnic
segregation between schools.

Question 22

Policies to tackle the differences in ethnic groups’ educational achievement

Answer 22

Assimilation-1960s– the focus was on integrating ethnic minority children into the mainstream British culture to help improve their achievement.
Multicultural education – 1980– the idea was to
create a broad curriculum which would value all cultures thus raising the ethnic minority children’s self-esteem. This policy has been criticised for including stereotypical aspects of different cultures, but failing to tackle institutional racism in education.
Social inclusion – 1990 onwards – monitoring the
achievements of ethnic minority pupils and amending the Race Relation Act to make schools legally responsible for promoting equality.