Internal factors(2) - ethnicity

Question 1

What is the Critical Race Theory?

Answer 1

A theoretical viewpoint that sees racism as an ingrained structural feature of society.

Say institutional racism is a ‘locked-in inequality’ - the scale of historical discrimination is so large there no longer needs to be any conscious intent to discriminate.

Question 2

What does Gillborn say?

Answer 2

Ethnic inequality is so deep-rooted in society that it is an inevitable feature of the education system.

Question 3

According to Critical Race Theorists, in what ways are the education system institutionally racist?

Answer 3

Marketisation and Segregation
The ethnocentric curriculum
Assessment
Access to opportunities
New IQism

Question 4

What does Gillborn say about marketisation?

Answer 4

Because marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils, it allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about school admissions.

Question 5

Describe Moore and Davenport’s research

Answer 5

They show how selection procedures lead to ethnic migration, with minority pupils failing to get into better secondary schools due to discrimination.

E.g. they found primary school reports were used to screen out pupils with language difficulties, and application processes are harder for non-English speaking parents to understand.

These procedures favoured white pupils and disadvantaged those from ethnic minority backgrounds. This therefore leads to an ethnically stratified education system.

Question 6

What did the Commission for Racial Equality note?

Answer 6

Racism in school admissions procedures means ethnic minority students are more likely to end up in unpopular schools.

E.g. ethnic minority parents are often unaware of how the waiting list system works and the importance of deadlines.

Question 7

What does ethnocentric curriculum mean?

Answer 7

A curriculum that reflects the culture of one ethnic group.

Question 8

Why do sociologists see the ethnocentric curriculum as a prime example of institutional racism?

Answer 8

It builds a racial bias into the everyday workings of schools and colleges.

Question 9

Give examples of the ethnocentric curriculum

Answer 9

Languages, literature and music

History

Question 10

Why does Ball criticise the National curriculum?

Answer 10

For ignoring ethnic diversity and promoting an idealistic view of british history (ignores the history of black and Asian people)

Question 11

What does Troyna and Williams say about the british curriculum?

Answer 11

Largely ignores non-European languages, literature and music.

Question 12

How does the ethnocentric curriculum produce underachievement?

Answer 12

Corad argues that the image of black people as inferior in history undermines black children’s self-esteem and leads to failure.`

Question 13

Who criticises Corad?

Answer 13

Maureen Stone - argues that black children do not in fact suffer from low self esteem.

Question 14

What does Gillborn say about assessments?

Answer 14

They are rigged to validate the dominant culture’s superiority.
E.g. primary schools used baseline assessments which tested pupils when they started schooling, but these were replaced by the foundation stage profile (FSP) which were based entirely on teachers’ judgements and completed at the end of the reception year.

This mean black pupils went from being the highest achievers to the lowest.
Gillborn argues this is because the timing and teachers’ judgements increased the risk of teachers’ stereotyping affecting the results.

Question 15

What was introduced to increase access to opportunities?

Answer 15

The ‘Gifted and Talented’ programme

Exam tiers

Question 16

Why was The ‘Gifted and Talented’ programme created?

Answer 16

Was created with the aim of meeting needs of more able pupils in inner-city schools.

Question 17

Although the ‘Gifted and Talented’ programme was seen to benefit bright pupils from minority groups, what did Gillborn find?

Answer 17

Found out that official statistics show whites are over twice as likely as Black Caribbeans to be identified as gifted and talented, and 5x more likely than Black Africans.

Question 18

What did Tiky et al fund about exam tiers?

Answer 18

In the 30 schools in the ‘Aiming High’ initiative to raise Black Caribbean pupils’ achievement, blacks were more likely than whites to be entered for lower tier GCSE exams. This was often because they were placed in lower sets but meant they could only gain a grade C at best.

Question 19

What does Gillborn argue about what he calls ‘new IQism’?

Answer 19

Teachers and policymakers make false assumptions about the nature of pupils ‘ability’ or ‘potential’. They see potential as a fixed quality that can be easily measured - and once a pupil’s potential has been measured, they can be put into the right set/stream, on to the gifted and talented programme etc.

G+Y note that secondary schools are using old school IQ tests to allocate pupils to different streams on entry.

Gillborn doesn’t think tests are a genuine measure of ‘potential’ and he concludes that the education system is insitutionally racist, creating an environment in which ethnic minority pupils are routinely disadvantaged.

Question 20

How does Sewell criticise Gillborn?

Answer 20

Gillborn suggests that internal factors are the main cause of underachivement, such as systemic racism. However Sewell rejects this - he agrees racism has not disappeared from schools, but says individual external factors are more to blame i.e. peer group and the nurturing role of the father.

Question 21

How can critical race theorists be criticised?

Answer 21

They claim insititutional racism prevents ethnic minorites from succeeding but this doesn’t explain why certain groups ‘overachieve’.

Indian+Chinese pupils perform better than white students - possibly showing that insitutional racism doesn’t play a part in achievement.

Question 22

How does Gillborn respond to this?

Answer 22

Argues that the image of of Indians+Chinese as hardworking ‘model minorities’ performs an ideological function/conceals the fact the education system is institutionally racist:

• makes the system appear fair and meritocratic
• justifies the failure of other minorities e.g. blacks
• ignores the racism ‘model minorities’ still suffer in schools

Question 23

What does Evans say about ethnicity and achievement?

Answer 23

To fully understand the relationship between ethnicity and achievement, we need to look at how ethnicity interacts with gender and class.

Question 24

What did Connolly do?

Answer 24

Conducted a study of 5+6yr olds in a multi-ethnic inner-city school.

Shows how pupils and teachers construct masculinity differently depending on a child’s ethnicity.

teachers saw black boys as disruptive underachievers and punished them more/channeled their energies into sporty. Boys responded by seeking status in non-academic ways (playing kiss-chase and football)

teachers saw Asian boys as passive, conformist, academic and other boys picked on them to assert their own masculinity. Both teachers and pupils saw Asian boys as more ‘feminine’, vulnerable and in need of protection from bullying.

Question 25

What is the ‘interactions effect’ as described by Connolly?

Answer 25

Class and gender interact differently with ethnicity depending on which ethnic group we are looking at.
E.g. there is a bigger gap between the achievements of white mc and white wc pupils than there is between black mc and black wc pupils.