Topic 3 - external factors - cultural & material dep. & racism in wider society Flashcards
What are the main explanations for ethnic differences in achievement?
Cultural and material deprivation, class and racism in wider society
What reason do CD sociologists argue is the cause of underachievement of some ethnic groups?
A result of inadequate socialisation in the same home
What are the three main aspects of the CD theory?
- intellectual and linguistic skills
- Attitudes and value
- family structure and parent support
intellectual and linguistic skills
What do CD theorists see as a major cause of underachievement in many minority children?
Lack of intellectual and linguistic skills
What do low income black families lack according to CD theorists? How does this affect the students in school?
- Lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences
- Leaves them unprepared as they haven’t been able to develop reasoning and problem solving skills
What does Bereiter and Engelmann 1966 argue?
A study claimed the language spoken by low income black African families is inadequate for educational success, arguing it is ungrammatical and disjointed
What did Labov 1973 find?
They reject Bereiter and Engelmann’s claim
Black American speech was perfectly logical
What is April Becker- Bell 2020 view of CD theorists?
Views arguments like Bereiter and Engelmann’s examples of ‘anti-black’ linguistic racism which labels black speech codes as inferior and white speech codes as superior
What does April Becker- Bell 2020 argue ?
Both are equally valid but ‘white mainstream English’ dominates in the education system and wider society. She describes this as ‘linguistic violence’
What is a common misunderstanding when looking at ethnic differences in achievement?
Kids who don’t speak English at home may be held back educationally
What does official statistics on Attainment 8 scores 2018 show?
That on average, kids whose first language isn’t English, in fact perform slightly better (47.2) points than those who speak English at home (46.5)
What did Demie and Mclean 2017 do and find to prove the statement?
Could also be argues that language may not be as important in explaining underachievement as some claim
Ranked the different reasons for the underachievement of black Caribbean pupils in order of importance
- found that language barriers and literacy levels were well behind internal factors e.g. teachers ‘low expectation, stereotyping and institutional racism’
According to CD theories, a lack of what causes major underachievement?
Lack of aspirations
What does socialisation into mainstream culture instil in most children?
Instil aspiration, competitiveness and willingness to make sacrifices necessarily for long term goals
These attitudes and values make them ready to succeed in education
what is the result of this socialisation into mainstream culture?
how are EM children socialised differently according to CD theorists?
How has studies disproved this theory?
into a subculture that instils a fatalistic attitude that doesn’t value education and leaves them unprepared for success
EM pupils DO tend o have high aspirations
What did Platt and Parsons large scale nationally representive data find?
what did the finding show?
Among 7.14 year olds, minority ethnic groups, girls and boys, had higher career aspirations than their white counterparts and were more likely to aspire to higher paid jobs
Minority ethnic group families aren’t socialising their children into low aspiration as CD theorists claim.
Archer et al found what about EM groups?
EM groups identify racism rather than low aspirations as a major barrier to achieving their goals.
What do CD theorists also argue is another cause of inadequate socialisation?
dysfunctional family structure
What does Moynihan 1965 argue?
That because many black families are headed by a lone mother, their kids are deprived of adequate care because she has to struggle financially in the absence of a male breadwinner
The father’s absence also means boys lack a good role model to aspire to be like
How does Moynihan see CD?
Kids from inadequate socialisation in unstable families go on to fail in school and become inadequate parents themselves
Sewell: Fathers, gangs and culture
What does sewell say?
what does it result in?
It’s not the absence of the father but the lack of fatherly nurturing of ‘tough love’ ( firm, fair. respective and non-abusive discipline) that leads to underachievement
Results in black boys finding it hard to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence
absense of fathers, gangs and culture
What does Arnot say?
With the absence of a loving father, and the restraining influence this figure would come with, has led to boys, who offer them a ‘perverse loyalty and love’
these present boys with a media inspired anti-school black masculinity. which is reinforced by rap lyrics and MTV videos
According to sewell, what are many black boys having to deal with in school? Use an e.g. from his study to answer
- Many boys are thus subject to powerful anti-educational peer group
- most of the academically successful black boys that sewell interviewed, fact that the greatest barrier to success was peer pressure from other boys
- Speaking in standard english and doing well at school were often viewed with suspicion by their peers and seen as ‘selling out’ to the white establishment
According to sewell, why do black students do worse than asian students?
- because of cultural differences in socialisation and attitudes to education
- he sees it as while one group is being nurtured by MTV, the other is clocking up the educational hours
- concludes to mainly black boys needing to have greater expectations placed on them to raise aspirations
A03 of sewell
accused of downplauong the impact of racism
e.g. critical race theorists i.e. Gillborn 2008 = it is not peer pressire or absent fathers but institutional racism in the education system that systematically produces the failure of large number of black boys
asian families
How do asian students benefit from supportive families according to sewell?
Indian and Chinese pupils benefit from supportive families that have an ‘Asian work ethic’ and place a high value on education.
What does Lupton 2004 argue?
adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model that operates in schools.
According to Lupton,how are Asian families similar to the model that operates in schools?
respectful behaviour was expected from children at home, and this has a knock-on effect in school, since the parents will be more likely to be supportive of the behaviour policies in school.
White W/C families
What did McCulloh 2014 survey find?
16,000 pupils found that ethnic minority group pupils are more likely to aspire to go university than White pupils
white w/c families
What did Lupton’s study find?
- White w/c may have low aspirations/achievement due to lack of parental support.
- She studied four schools and found that teachers reported low level behaviour in White WC students and blamed this on low levels of parental support and negative attitudes white w/c parents have.
- EM parents however saw education as a ‘way up in society’.
White w/c families
What did Evans find?
street culture in white working-class areas can be brutal and so young people have to learn to withstand intimidation and intimidate others, so school becomes a place where the power games that young people engage in on the street are played out again.
What does Evans findings lead to?
to the underachievement of white working-class students who mightbring these power games and thusdisruption to their schoolmaking it hard for pupils to succeed. For example, e.g. more likely to start fights with their peers and have gaps in learning due to exclusions
Compensatory education
What is the main policy that has been created to deal with CD ?
Compensatory education
What is compensatory education?
government education policies such as Operation HeadStart in the USA that seek to tackle cultural deprivation by providing extra support and funding
Studies that support the concept of CD
- Archer and Francis
- Basit
- Sewell
- Chinese parents see education as a ‘family project’. They have high expectations and invest lots of time and money on their education
- Asian parents view education as a type of capital that can transform their lives. Children are offered a lot of material support
- African-Caribbean boys brought up by single mothers lack the discipline provided by fathers and may be attracted to gang culture which offers both status and brotherhood but tends to be anti-academic.
Studies that support the concept of CD
- Bereiter and Engelmann
- Lupton
- Murry
- – (old study) children of first-generation immigrants experienced problems in the educational system such as linguistic deprivation. However, most BAME children are raised to speak English as their first language today, so this explanation is probably only valid for the children of recent immigrant groups (e.g. Eastern Europe).
- Asian children especially those from Muslim backgrounds, are generally well-behaved at school and work hard because their parents bring them up to respect teachers. As a result, parents are generally supportive of school rules, policies and sanctions
- high rates of lone parenthood and lack of positive male role model leads to underachievement in some ethnic minority students
critism of CD theory
What does driver argue?
what does Lawrence argue?
What does Keddie argue?
- CD theory ignores the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement. He argues that black Caribbean families are far from dysfunctional and provides girls with positive role models of strong independent women. this is why black girls tend to be more successful than black boys in education.
- challenges Pryce’s view that black pupils fail because their culture is weak, and they lack self-esteem. He argues that black student’s underachieve because of racism
- CD as victim-blaming explanation. She argues that ethnic minority children are culturally different, not culturally deprived. They underachieve because schools are ethnocentric: biased in favour of white culture and against minorities.
Why do these critics oppose compensatory education? Driver , Lawrence and Keddie
What do these critics propose to help EM students?
- they claim this is an attempt to impose dominant white culture on children who already have their own culture. They propose alternatives:
- Multicultural education – valuing minority cultures and including them in a curriculum.
- Anti-racist education – challenging prejudice and discrimination in schools and wider society
What does MD mean?
In general, whose most likely to face poverty and MD?
What are MD explanations for educational failure?
- lacking the physical necessities that are seen as important or normal for life in today’s society
- W/C PEOPLE
- a result of factors like substandard housing and low income.
What problems are EM more likely to face?
What are three points that palmer found
- like inadequate housing and low income
- Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households, compared to a quarter of white children
- EM are more almost twice as likely to be unemployed compared to whites.
- EM households are around three times as likely to be homeless.
Almost half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under £7 per hour, compared to only a quarter of white British workers.
what are EM more likely to engage in?
What are the 5 reasons that EM groups are more likely to suffer from MD that comes from unemployment, low pay and overcrowding?
- shift work and Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are more likely than others to be engaged in low-paid homeworking.
1. Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates.
2. Cultural factors such as the tradition of purdah in some Muslim households, which prevents women from working outside the home.
3. A lack of language skills, foreign qualifications not being recognised by UK employers. These are more likely to affect arrived groups, many of whom are refugee and may even speak English.
4. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work
5. Racial discrimination in the labour market and housing market.
According to MD theories, what explains the differences in achievement between Pakistani students and Indian and White pupils?
that the differences in achievement where Pakistani students do worse than Indian and White pupils can be explained in terms of these class differences
Generally, how are Indian students in a better postion?
generally from better-off backgrounds - the EM group that’s most likely to attend private schools
Does class override ethnicity? 5 points inc. Modmood
- MD does not completely override the influence of ethnicity.
- For example, materially deprived Indian and Chinese students still do better than other ethnic groups (e.g. white) who are not materially deprived.
- This can be seen where in 2011, 86% of Chinese girls who received FSM achieved 5 or more higher GCSE than 65% of white girls who were not receiving FSM.
- This shows MD and social class does not completely override the influence of ethnicity.
- Tariq Modood – children from low-income families do less well but the effects of low income were much less for other ethnic groups than for white students. So, ethnicity does matter in addition to class
racism in wider society
What does racism mean?
what do some sociologists argue poverty comes from?
: a system/beliefs that defines people as superior or inferior, and justifies their unequal treatment, based on biological differences e.g. skin colour. Individual racism refers to the prejudiced views and discriminatory behaviour of individuals.
Racism
racism in wider society
What does Mason say about racism
What does Rex show? Use an example
- ‘discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of Britain’s citizens of minority ethnic’
- Racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and how this worsens the poverty faced by EM.
For example, in housing discrimination means that EM are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class
Accoeding to MC theorist what is their evidence of in employment?
direct discrimination
What did woods et al 2010 find?
what does this explain?
al researched job applications and used very similar applications with ‘EM’ or ‘white’ names.
They found – 1/16 ‘EM’ applications offered an interview, but 1/9 ‘white’ applications.
why members of EM are more likely to face unemployment and low pay, and this in turn has a negative effect on their children’s educational prospects
