Topic 4 : Ethnicity And Education

Question 1

Why do Indian and Chinese students do comparatively better

Answer 1

Value education
Strong work ethic
Pushy parents
‘Work’ the system
Positive behaviour
High aspirations

Question 2

Themina Basit

Answer 2

British Asian communities - Pakistani and Indian

Value education due to poor education in country of origin - saw free education as a privilege

Even poor families stressed importance of education and managed to provide materials - parents actively helped their children study

Parents expected their children to be successful - social mobility

Question 3

Wanless report

Answer 3

Black students - particularly boys

More likely to be excluded

Disproportionately in bottom sets (NOT reflecting their ability)

Less likely to be identified as G+T

Question 4

Which CAGE group have the worst progress

Answer 4

White WC boys do worst in terms of progress
24% of white PP boys achieved 5 A* - C GCSEs

Why?
Low aspirations
Ignored by society
Labelling
Boys - crisis of masculinity
Glamorisation of anti school subcultures

Question 5

CULTURAL FACTORS

Ethnic group: black Afro-Caribbean British
AO1 : what aspect is at play?
AO2 : HOW/WHY is it impacting this ethnic group?
AO3 : evaluation

Answer 5

AO1 :
- racism in wider society: media/police - labelling and SFP
- sewell - black boys feel pressure by peers to adopt an anti school subculture
- HH - high % of maternal single parent households (NR say this leads to educational underachievement)

AO2 :
Marginalised / alienated - lack of ‘tough love’ for many
- leads them into subcultures and sometimes gangs. Black masculinity - huge pressure from other boys on rejecting academics to gain status

AO3 :
- AIM Higher programme to increase AC WC boys into higher education
- Ofsted now look at progress of PP specifically, and underperforming groups

Question 6

What cultural factors impact education (ethnicity)

Answer 6

Language
Parental engagement
Socialisation
Family background / structure
Aspirations
Subcultures
Impact of media
Value of education
‘Working the system’

Question 7

CULTURAL FACTORS

Ethnic group: British Pakistani and Bangladeshi
AO1 : what aspect is at play?
AO2 : HOW/WHY is it impacting this ethnic group?
AO3 : evaluation

Answer 7

AO1 :
- Pakistani parents actively help children study and invest financially
- expect children to be at least as successful as they were
- high expectations and close knit families yet they tend to underperform compared to their Indian peers

AO2 :
- Bangladeshi and Pakistani women more likely engaged in low paid housework
- almost half Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under £7 an hour, compared to 1/4 of white British
- crozier - examined racism among Pakistani and Bangladeshi students : found they experienced racism from school system and pupils. They had anxieties about safety. They feel marginalised by ethnocentric curriculum yet achieved well despite this

AO3 :
- home factors important
- cultural barriers for south Asian girls greater than for boys
- strand : relative poverty explains underachievement at GCSE rather than cultural factors

Question 8

CULTURAL FACTORS

Ethnic group: Indian / Chinese
AO1 : what aspect is at play?
AO2 : HOW/WHY is it impacting this ethnic group?
AO3 : evaluation

Answer 8

AO1 :
- value education
- strong work ethic
- pushy parents
- work the system
- high aspirations
- close knit families combined with high parental expectations lead to high achieving children

AO2 :
- wright : found that teachers perceived Asian children as a problem that could be excluded from classroom discussion. As teachers ignore Asian pupils, it must be home factors which explain why Asian students do the best in school
- strand : found Indian students complete HW 5 evenings a week
- pryce - Asian resilience against racism and more self worth leading to high achievement

AO3 :
- tiger parenting
- family background helps explain Indian performance in education
- parental aspirations are important

Question 9

CULTURAL FACTORS

Ethnic group: white British
AO1 : what aspect is at play?
AO2 : HOW/WHY is it impacting this ethnic group?
AO3 : evaluation

Answer 9

AO1 :
- white wc often underachieve and have low aspirations
- lack of parental support
- low aspirations - ignored by society, labelling, boys - crisis of masculinity, glamorisation of anti school SC

AO2 :
- McCulloch - ethnic minority more likely to go to uni than white wc
- lupton - white wc families - low aspirations. Teachers blamed this on lack of parental involvement
- Evans - WWC street culture attracts them away from school

AO3 :
- feel excluded from culture of school as they feel school doesn’t reflect their culture
- class and gender also influence achievement

Question 10

Cultural deprivation - ethnicity and education

Answer 10

Underachievement is a result of inadequate socialisation

Language spoken by ethnic families inadequate for educational success. AO3 - Indian children do just as well as white middle class students despite not speaking English at home

Black children do not have the attitudes to promote educational achievement - black families instil fatalistic attitudes - black children at a disadvantage when attending school. Because black families are headed by lone parents, children lack an adequate male role model in addition they lack the economical foundation for progression in school

Driver and Ballard - Asian family culture brings educational benefits as their parents have more positive attitudes towards education with higher aspirations for career options.
Lupton - Asian families promote respect for elders which helps their attitudes towards authority figures

AO3:
Driver - CD theory ignores the positive effects of ethnicity on educational achievement.
EG black family structure can show a strong independent woman as a role model explaining why black girls achieve better than black males.
Keddie - families are culturally different not deprived, they under achieve due to ethnocentric bias schools not their family.

Question 11

Material deprivation - ethnicity and education

Answer 11

Educational failure results from ethnic minorities not having the adequate materials for achievement

Flaherty - Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were three times more likely to be amongst the poorest of the population, more likely to engage in low paid word and twice as likely to be in low skilled low paid work

SWANN report - social class has a 50% effect on educational achievement

AO3: Gillborn and Mirza - social class factors do not disregard the effects of culture as, even when social class has been accounted for, ethnic differences in achievement still exist

Question 12

Racism - ethnicity and education

Answer 12

Racism in wider society

John Rex - racial discrimination worsens poverty which leads to poor educational performance
EG - housing = minorities are more likely to be in poor accommodation
- employment = ethnic minorities face extensive discrimination

This in turn leads to poor educational prospects.

Question 13

External factors for ethnicity and education

Answer 13

Cultural deprivation
Material deprivation
Racism

Question 14

Achievement in education in ethnicity - internal factors

Answer 14

Labelling and teacher racism
Pupil responses and subcultures
Ethnocentric curriculum
Institutional racism
Selection and segregation

Question 15

Wright and Connelly

Answer 15

Teachers label :
Asian girls - conformist and quiet
Afro-Caribbean - troublemakers and low ability

Question 16

Impact of labelling on black students

Answer 16

Black students often in lower sets, marginalised and have negative experiences and relationships

This treatment leads to further disruption as students fall behind

Question 17

How has marketisation disadvantaged BME groups?

Answer 17

Schools have more control to select students and through labelling BME are disadvantaged - ethnic discrimination

Labelling and racism in interview stages
BME parents lack knowledge of system
Catchment issues - affordability

Question 18

Ethnicity and internal factors - labelling and teacher racism

Answer 18

Gilborn and Youdell - teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour

‘Radicalised expectations’ - teachers expected black students to present more discipline negatively and misinterpreting behaviour as a challenge to authority

When teachers acted on this misinterpretation, the pupils responded negatively and further conflict resulted. Black students felt teachers picked on them and underestimated their ability

Question 19

Ethnicity and internal factors - pupil responses and subcultures

Answer 19

Research shows that pupils respond to labelling in a variety of different ways.

Mary Fuller- study on a group of black girls. The girls did not accept their negative labels - they channelled their energy into educational success. This study highlights how negative labelling does not always lead to failure.

Tony Sewell - examines the responses black pupils adopt to cope with racism. He found teachers had a stereotype - sees all black boys as rebellious, anti authority and anti-school.
Sewell identifies four ways in which the boys respond to racist stereotyping;
The Rebels; Often excluded from school, rejected goals and rules of school, black ‘Macho Lads’. The rebels believed in their own superiority and saw white boys as effeminate.
The Conformists; Keen to succeed, accepted school goals/values. Friends from ethnic groups. Not part of subculture, anxious to avoid being sterotyped.
The Retreatists; Isolated individuals, disconnected from school and black subcultures, they were despised by the rebels.
The Innovators; Pro-education/anti-school (liked education but hated the way school was). They conformed only as much as was needed to work.

Question 20

Evaluation of labelling and pupil responses

Answer 20

Rather than blaming the child’s home background, as cultural deprivation theory does, labelling theory shows how teachers stereotypes can be a cause of failure

Does not consider other factors then just in the classroom. Racism in wider society needs to be addressed. Educational policies and the influence of family and media also plays a part.

Not all students that are labelled become an SFP and fail. Mary Fuller’s study some students reject their label

Question 21

Ethnicity and internal factors - ethnocentric curriculum

Answer 21

Tronya and Williams - the British curriculum gives priority to white culture and English language. It teaches subjects like British history, British literature and European languages.

Question 22

Ethnicity and internal factors - institutional racism

Answer 22

Discrimination is built into the way institutions, such as schools, operate - The ethnocentric curriculum is an example of this

Schools give low priority to race issues and fail to deal with pupil’s racist behaviour

Question 23

Ethnicity and internal factors - selection and segregation

Answer 23

David Gillborn (1997) - government policy of marketisation has given greater scope for schools to select pupils and put ethnic minority students at a disadvantage

This is because selection gives more opportunity for negative stereotypes to influence school admission.