Education - Ethinic Differences In Achievement Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is Engelman’s argument on language (External Factors)?
Cultural deprivation theorists see a lack of linguistics skills as major cause of underachievement for some minority ethnic group children, leaving them poorly equipped for school. An early study by Engelman claimed that the language spoken by low-income Black American families is inadequate for educational success, arguing that it is ungrammatical and disjointed.
What is a criticism of Engelman’s argument?
Labov found that Black American speech was perfectly logical. When using formal, structured interviews to study the language of Black American children, Labov found that they appeared to be uncomfortable and reluctant to respond.
What is Moynihan argument on family structure (External Factors)?
Cultural deprivation theorists argue that this failure to socialise children adequately is the result of a dysfunctional family structure. Moynihan argues that because many black families are headed by a lone mother, their children are deprived of adequate care because she has to struggle financially in the absence of a male breadwinner. The father’s absence also means that boys lack an adequate role model of male achievement. Moynihan sees cultural deprivation as a cycle where inadequately socialised children from unstable families go on to fail at school and become inadequate parents themselves.
What is a criticism of Moynihan argument?
Driver criticises cultural deprivation theorists for ignoring the positive effects of black family structures on achievements. He shows that the black Caribbean family, far from being dysfunctional, provides girls with positive role models of strong independent women. Driver argues that this is why black girls tend to be more successful in education than black boys.
What is Lupton’s arguments on white working-class families (External Factors)?
The low levels of aspiration and achievement may be the result of a lack of parental support. Lupton studied four mainly working class schools - two predominately white, one serving a largely Pakistani community and the fourth drawing pupils from an ethically mixed community.
She found that teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in the white working class schools - despite the fact that they had fewer children on free school meals (a common measure of poverty among pupils). Teachers blamed this on lower levels of parental support and the negative attitude that white working class parents had towards education. By contrast, minority ethnic group parents were more likely to see education as “a way up in society”.
What is a criticism of Luptons argument?
Luptons study could have led to the teachers labelling the children which would have affected their academic results.
What is Rex’s arguments on racism in wider society (External Factors)?
Rex shows how racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and how this worsens the poverty faced by minority ethnic groups. In housing, for instances, discrimination means that minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class. His study showed how in the wider society different groups are favoured more. Rex applied to multiple jobs undo the name ‘John Smith’ and got replies back along with nicer responses whereas the one signed ‘John Patel’ had fewer responses and showed discrimination. This also shows how ethnic minorities will also be forced into choosing sub standard accommodation compared to white people = Howard’s housing.
What is another argument that backs up Rex’s views?
Wood sent three closely matched job applications to each of almost 1,000 job vacancies. These came from fictitious applicants using names associated with different ethnic groups. For each job, one application appeared to come from a white person and two from members of minority groups. Wood found that only one in 16 ‘minority’ applications were offered an interview, as against one in 9 ‘white’ applications.
This helps explain why members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to face unemployment and low pay, and this in turn has a negative effect on their children’s educational prospects.
- Criticism = Things have changed and there are now more rules to protect people from discrimination as it is taken more seriously.
What is Fosters argument on black pupils and streaming (Internal Factors)?
Foster found that teachers stereotype of Black pupils as badly behaved could result in them being placed in lower sets than other pupils of similar ability. Streaming Black pupils on the basis of negative stereotypes about their ability or behaviour can result in a self-fulling prophecy of underachievements.
What is Archers argument for Chinese pupils?
Archer argues that even those minority pupils who perform successfully can be pathologised (seen as abnormal). For example, Chinese students were simultaneously praised and viewed negatively by their teachers. While successful, therefore, Chinese students were seen as having achieved success in the ‘wrong’ way - through hardworking, passive conformism rather than natural individual ability. This meant they cook never legitimately occupy the identity of ‘ideal pupil’. Archer sum up the teachers view of them as a ‘negative positive stereotype’.
Teacher stereotyped Chinese families as ‘tight’ and ‘close’ and used this to explain the girls supposed passivity (similar to the way teachers often see south Asian girls as victims of oppressive family situations). Teachers also tended wrongly to stereotype their Chinese students as middle-class.
The results of the distinctions that Archer identifies is that even the success of minority ethnic group (and female) pupils will only
What is Fullers arguments on rejecting negative labelling (Internal Factors)?
Fuller describes how instead of accepting negative stereotypes of themselves, the girls channelled their anger about being labelled into the pursuit of educational success. Unlike other successful pupils, they conformed only as far as the schoolwork itself was concerned. They worked conscientiously, but gave the appearance of not doing so, and they showed a deliberate lack of concern about school routines. They had a positive attitude to academic success but, rather than seeking the approval of teachers, they preferred to rely on their own efforts and the impartially of external exams.
Firstly, pupils may still succeed even when they refuse to conform. Secondly, negative labelling does not always lead to failure. These girls were able to reject the labels placed on them and they remained determined to succeed. There is no self-prophecy.
What is Sewell’s argument on the variety of boys responses (Internal Factor)?
Sewell focuses on the absence of fathers and the influence of peer groups and street culture to explain the underachievement of black boys. However he also notes that their responses to schooling, including racist stereotyping by teachers,can affect their achievement. He identifies four such responses:
- The rebels = were the most visible and influential group, but they were only a small minority of black pupils. They were often excluded from school. They rejected both the goals and the rules of the school and expressed their opposition through peer group membership, conforming to the stereotype of the anti-authority, anti-school ‘Black macho lad’. The rebels believed in their own superiority based on the idea that black masculinity equates with sexual experience and virility. They were contemptuous of white boys, who they saw as effeminate, and dismissive of conformist black boys.
- The conformists = were the largest group. These boys were keen to succeed, accepted the schools goals and had friends from different ethnic groups. They were not part of a subculture and were anxious to avoid being stereotyped either by teachers or their peers.
- The retreatists = were a tiny minority of isolated individuals who were disconnected from both school and black sub culture.
- The innovators = were the second largest group. They valued success, but did not seek the approval of teachers and conformed only as far as schoolwork itself was concerned.
Sewell shows that only a small minority fit the stereotype of the ‘Black macho lad’. Nevertheless, teachers tend to see all black boys in this way and this contributes to the underachievement of many boys, whatever their attitude to school. Furthermore, many of the boys negative attitudes are themselves a response to this racism. This is a disadvantage because the teachers stereotyping causes to lead to self-fulfilling prophecy.
What is a criticism of Sewell’s argument?
Sewell is assuming that all black boys are gonna believe in the self-fulfilling prophecy which will affect the whole of their education but just because some boys will believe in the stereotypes that the teachers hold against them doesn’t mean all of them will believe that it will determine everything.
What is Mirza’s argument on failed strategies for avoiding racism (Internal Factors)?
Mirza found that racist teachers discouraged Black pupils from being ambitious through the kind of advice they gave them about careers and options choices. For example, teachers discouraged them from aspiring to professional careers.
- The colour blind = teachers who believe all pupils are equal but in practice allow racism to go unchallenged.
- The liberal chauvinist = teachers who believe black pupils are culturally deprived and who have low expectations of them.
- The overt racists = teachers who believe black pupils are inferior and actively against them.
Much of the girls time at school was spent trying to avoid the effects of teachers negative attitudes. The strategies they employed to do this included being selective about which staff to ask for help; getting on with their own work in lesson without taking part and not choosing certain options so as to avoid teachers with racists attitudes.
However, although the girls had high self-esteem, these strategies put them at a disadvantage by restricting their opportunities.
What is Coard’s argument on the ethnocentric curriculum (Internal Factors)?
The term ethnocentric describes an attitude or policy that gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one particular ethnic group, Whig disregarding others. The ethnocentric curriculum is thus curriculum that reflects the culture of one ethnic group - usually the dominant culture. Many sociologists see the ethnocentric curriculum as a prime example of institutional racism because it builds a racial bias into the everyday workings of schools and colleges.
Coard explains how the ethnocentric curriculum may produce underachievement. For example, in history the British may be presented as bringing civilisation to the ‘primitive’ people’s they colonised. He argues that this image of black people as inferior undermines black children’s self-esteem and leads to their failure.
What is a criticism of Coards argument?
There has been a movement to help correct this = National curriculum was abolished which means the schools can teach according to the communities that they have e.g. black history month and culture days.
What is Moore’s and Davids’ argument on marketisation and segregation (Internal Factor)?
They show how selection procedures leads to ethnic segregation, with minority pupils failing to get into better secondary schools due to discrimination. For example, they found that primary school reports were used to screen out pupils with language difficulties, while the application process was difficult for non-English speaking parents to understand.
This procedure favoured white pupils and disadvantaged those from minority ethnic group backgrounds. Moore and Davenport thus conclude that selection leads to an ethically stratified education system.
The commission for racial equality identified similar biases in Britain. It noted that racism in school admissions procedures means that children from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to end up in unpopular schools. The report identifies the following reasons:
- reports from primary schools that stereotypes minority pupils.
- racist bias in interviews for school places
- lack of information and application forms in minority languages.
- minority ethnic group parents are often unaware of how the waiting list system works and the importance of deadlines.
What is a criticism of Moore and Davenports argument?
More of the application is based on the catchment area (how close they are to the school) less on the actual interview which means the date is not very representative and valid because it is only a bit of an area that is being investigated meaning the results wouldn’t be generalisable.
