Labelling and Teacher Racism

Question 1

What did Gillborn and Youdell find?

Answer 1

• teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour
• teachers expected black pupils to present more discipline problems and misinterpret their behaviour as a challenge of authority
• this led to further conflict

Question 2

What did Gillborn and Youdell conclude?

Answer 2

the conflict between white teachers and and black pupils stems from racial stereotypes teachers hold rather than the pupils actual behaviour

Question 3

What did Jenny Bourne find?

Answer 3

schools tend to see black boys as a threat and to label them negatively, leading eventually to exclusions

Question 4

How do exclusions affect achievement?

Answer 4

only 1 in 5 excluded pupils achieve 5 GCSE

Question 5

What does Osler note?

Answer 5

• black pupils appear more likely to suffer from unrecorded unofficial exclusions and from ‘internal exclusions’
  black pupils are more likely to be placed in pupil referral units that exclude them from access to the mainstream curriculum

Question 6

How does the negative stereotypes about black pupils ability from teachers result in?

Answer 6

more likely to be placed in lower sets

Question 7

What did Peter Foster find?

Answer 7

teachers stereotypes of black pupils as badly behaved could result in them being placed in lower sets than other pupils of similar ability and this could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of underachievement

Question 8

What did Cecile Wright find?

Answer 8

• despite the school’s apparent commitment to equal opportunities, teachers held ethnocentric views
• teachers assumed asian children would have a poor grasp of English so they were left out of classroom discussions or used simplistic language when talking to them
• asian pupils felt isolated when teachers expressed disapprovals of their customs or mispronounced their names