Differential Educational Attainment by Ethnicity

Question 1

Define ethnicity.

Answer 1

An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other, usually on the basis of presumed similarities such as a common language, ancestry, history, society, culture, nation or social treatment within their residing area.

Question 2

Define ethnocentric curriculum.

Answer 2

This refers to the attitude or policy which gives priority to a particular ethnic group whilst disregarding others. It could be argued that the curriculum today is based on the white culture.

Question 3

Define institutional racism.

Answer 3

Institutional racism is a form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions. It is reflected in disparities regarding wealth, income, criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education, among other factors.

Question 4

Define marketisation.

Answer 4

Marketisation or marketization is a restructuring process that enables state enterprises to operate as market-oriented firms by changing the legal environment in which they operate.

Question 5

What percentage of British African students are on FSM?

Answer 5

40.3%.

Question 6

What percentage of British Caribbean students are on FSM?

Answer 6

29.2%

Question 7

What percentage of White British students are on FSM?

Answer 7

11.5%

Question 8

What percentage of British Indian students are on FSM?

Answer 8

6.0%

Question 9

What percentage of British Chinese students are on FSM?

Answer 9

3.2%

Question 10

What percentage of British African students gain a grade 5 and above in English and Maths at GCSE?

Answer 10

41.1%

Question 11

What percentage of British Caribbean students gain a grade 5 and above in English and Maths at GCSE?

Answer 11

31.4%

Question 12

What percentage of White British students gain a grade 5 and above in English and Maths at GCSE?

Answer 12

42.6%

Question 13

What percentage of British Indian students gain a grade 5 and above in English and Maths at GCSE?

Answer 13

62%

Question 14

What percentage of British Chinese students gain a grade 5 and above in English and Maths at GCSE?

Answer 14

75.3%

Question 15

According to Archer and Francis, how are Chinese students at a cultural advantage?

Answer 15

The high achievement of British–Chinese pupils in the British education system is established in the official literature, but few studies have asked British–Chinese pupils or parents about the factors contributing to their success. This paper explores value of education as a possible contributory aspect. It investigates the extent to which British–Chinese pupils and their parents value education, and the rationale behind their constructions in this regard. Cultural issues in the transmission of values are also explored. The findings demonstrate that British–Chinese pupils and their parents place an extremely high value on education, irrespective of social class and gender. However, pupils and parents do not necessarily provide the same explanations for this value.

Question 16

According to Tehmina Basit, who studied three generations of families of Pakistani and Indian origin, how did the participants view free state education?

Answer 16

Age determines income to an extent that varies according to educational capital and occupation, and occupation is itself partly determined by educational capital and also by gender and inherited cultural or social capital (Bourdieu, 1986). There is a great deal of polarity between young people who are well qualified and from privileged families and those who do not have qualifications and employment and are therefore disadvantaged and socially excluded. Citizens of the same country, thus, have different experiences of growing up due to a variety of factors. While class is one of them, ethnicity is another significant factor (Basit, 2009).

Question 17

Even the poorer families made sure their children could study at home. How?

Answer 17

Poorer families are less likely to want to send their children back to school amid the Covid-19 pandemic, despite these pupils having fewer opportunities for home learning, a survey suggests.

Children from better-off households are spending an additional 75 minutes a day on educational activities than their peers from the poorest households during the lockdown, research has found.

Pupils from the wealthiest families will have done seven full school days’ worth of extra home learning by June 1, when more pupils could return to school, according to an Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report.

If children do not go back to school until September, the gap between the most affluent and the poorest pupils will double to three school weeks, the study warns.

Question 18

What percentage of White British families are lone parent families?
Asian?
Black Caribbean?

Answer 18

In 2019, 14.9% of the families in the UK were lone parent families (2.9 million)

7. 5%
8. 3%

Question 19

Tony Sewell argues that the performance of some Black Caribbean pupils at school can be partially explained by the relatively high proportion of Black pupils raised in one-parent families. Give two reasons why, according to Sewell, this might lead to underachievement.

Answer 19

vement
In this 1997 study Sewell argues that a culture of hyper-masculinity ascribed to by some (but not all) black boys is one of the main factors explaining the educational underachievement of black boys. This study is an interested counter point to previous studies such as those by Cecile Wright and David Gilborn which emphasized negative teacher labeling as the main explanation for differential achievement by ethnicity.

For an overview of the other in-school factors that explain educational achievement by ethnicity, please see this post.

Street culture and black masculinity
An extremely high proportion of Black Caribbean boys are raised in lone-mother household, with the father being absent. In the late 1990s when Sewell conducted his study, 57% of Black Caribbean families with dependent children were headed by a single parent, compared to only 25% of white families.

This means that many black boys lack a father figure to act as a role model and provide discipline while they are growing up, which makes this group more vulnerable to peer pressure.

Young black men are disproportionately drawn into gang culture which emphasizes an aggressive, macho form of masculinity which emphasizes the use of violence as a means to gain respect, values materialist displays of wealth such as the latest street fashions and crime, rather than ‘hard work’ as a quick and easy (‘smart’) route to financial gain.

Question 20

According to Gillborn and Youdell, why might black pupils be more likely to be negatively labelled?

Answer 20

• Based on racial expectations, they believed black pupils had more discipline problems.
• Saw their behaviour as threatening.
• More likely to be punished for the same behaviour.
• Pupils felt they were being picked on.

Question 21

According to Gillborn and Youdell, how do we know that some teachers had lower expectations of black pupils? Give two examples.

Answer 21

Addressing the ‘the social class attainment gap’ in education has become a government priority in England. Despite multiple initiatives, however, little has effectively addressed the underachievement of working‐class pupils within the classroom. In order to develop clearer understandings of working‐class underachievement at this level, this small research study focused on local social processes by exploring how secondary school teachers identified and addressed underachievement in their classrooms. Our analysis shows how teachers’ identifications of underachieving pupils overlapped with, and were informed by, their tacit understanding of pupils’ social class position. While many teachers resisted the influence of social class, they used stereotypes to justify their practice and expectations, positioning pupils within educational and occupational hierarchies. This, we conclude, suggests the need for more systematic attention to the micro‐social processes that provide the conditions through which working‐class underachievement is produced.

Question 22

How many Black Caribbean students compared to White British students are permanently excluded or received a fixed period exclusion?

Answer 22

• The highest temporary exclusion rates were among Traveller of Irish Heritage pupils (17.42%, or 1,742 exclusions per 10,000 pupils) and Gypsy and Roma pupils (16.52%, or 1,652 per 10,000 pupils)
• The lowest rates were among pupils from the Chinese (0.50%, or 50 per 10,000 pupils) and Indian ethnic groups (0.75%, or 75 per 10,000 pupils)
• Out of the 6 aggregated ethnic groups, the highest rates were among pupils from Mixed (5.89%, or 589 per 10,000 pupils) and Black (5.56%, or 556 per 10,000 pupils) backgrounds
• The temporary exclusion rate for White British pupils was 5.70%, or 570 per 10,000 pupils

Question 23

What is a self-refuting prophecy?

Answer 23

A self-defeating prophecy is the complementary opposite of a self-fulfilling prophecy; a prediction that prevents what it predicts from happening. This is also known as the prophet’s dilemma. A self-defeating prophecy can be the result of rebellion to the prediction.

Question 24

In her study, ‘Young, Female and Black’, what was the impact of negative labelling on black girls?

Answer 24

In 1992, Heidi Safia Mirza published ‘Young, Female and Black’, which was the culmination of her research of 198 young woman and men, including 62 black woman aged 15-19 who were the main focus of the study. They all attended two comprehensive schools in south London. Heidi Safia Mirza conducted observation in the school, used questionnaires to obtain basic data on the sample, and conducted informal interviews both with members heidi of the sample and with parents. She also used secondary sources such as school records and exam results. Heidi Safia Mirza carried out detailed case studies of three black women.

Question 25

According to Gillborn and Youdell, how did the introduction of league tables lead to an ‘A to C’ economy in schools?

Answer 25

Theorists argue that we acquire basic values and attitudes needed for educational success through primary socialisation in the family. However many working class families fail to socialise their children adequately, as a result they develop culturally deprived. There are three main aspects of cultural deprivation : Intellectual development, attitudes and language

Question 26

Explain how the ‘A to C’ economy might negatively impact on the chances of black pupils.

Answer 26

Poverty remains a stubborn fact of life even in rich countries like Canada. In particular, the poverty of our children has been a continuing concern. In 1989, the Canadian House of Commons voted unanimously to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by 2000. However, the reality is that, in 2003, one of every six children still lived in poverty. Not only have we been unsuccessful at eradicating child poverty, but over the past decade, the inequity of family incomes in Canada has grown , and for some families, the depth of poverty has increased as well. Canadian research confirms poverty’s negative influence on student behaviour, achievement and retention in school.

Question 27

According to The Longitudinal Study of Young People in England in 2012, how many black Caribbean pupils are entered for higher-tiered GCSEs compared to white British pupils?

Answer 27

A recent analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) indicates a White British–Black Caribbean achievement gap at age 14 which cannot be accounted for by socio‐economic variables or a wide range of contextual factors. This article uses the LSYPE to analyse patterns of entry to the different tiers of national mathematics and science tests at age 14. Each tier gives access to a limited range of outcomes with the highest test outcomes achievable only if students are entered by their teachers to the higher tiers. The results indicate that Black Caribbean students are systematically under‐represented in entry to the higher tiers relative to their White British peers. This gap persists after controls for prior attainment, socio‐economic variables and a wide range of pupil, family, school and neighbourhood factors.

Question 28

How is the teaching of languages in schools ethnocentric?

Answer 28

This article, based on a deep ethnography in schools located in a disadvantaged multicultural context in Geneva (Switzerland), questions the way in which the local school system and teachers comprehend the cultural diversity of students and their parents. Oscillating between recognition and assimilation, teachers publicly adhere to discourses that emphasise cultural diversity, while limiting its expression, especially when a student encounters school difficulties. Teachers’ meetings with parents are significantly influenced by the majority perspective, leaving the parents with little place to express their own needs. Nonetheless, within the conversation, some parents are able to assert practices that differ from those promoted by the host society. Ultimately, it seems that, in the absence of a multicultural position, teachers are limited to adopting hybrid practices that create unease and are evidence of limited understanding of multiculturality.

Question 29

How might the curriculum of subjects like history and geography be ethnocentric?

Answer 29

This article explores the continued importance of teaching a diverse curriculum at a time when issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity have been increasingly sidelined in the political discussion around ‘British’ values and identities, and how these should be taught in schools. The 2014 History National curriculum, in particular, provoked widespread controversy around what British history is, who gets included in this story and how best to engage young people in increasingly diverse classrooms with the subject. The new curriculum provides both opportunities for, and constraints on, addressing issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity, but how these are put into practice in an increasingly fragmented school system remains less clear. Drawing on the findings of two research projects in schools across England and Wales, this article examines the challenges and opportunities facing teachers and young people in the classroom in the teaching and learning of diverse British histories. We argue that it is not only the content of what children and young people are taught in schools that is at issue, but how teachers are supported to teach diverse curricula effectively and confidently.

Question 30

How might the timing of school holidays e.g. Christmas, be considered to be ethnocentric?

Answer 30

It could affect Muslims and Jews if they celebrate Ramadan or Yom Kippur.