education - ethnic differences - internal factors

Question 1

labelling

Answer 1

•black pupils - gillborn and youdell found that teachers had ‘racialised expectations’ about black pupils and expected more discipline problems and found their behaviour as threatening. this can cause underachievement because it leads to:
-higher levels of exclusions of black boys
-black people being placed in lower sets and streams
•asian pupils - wright found that asian primary school pupils were stereotyped by their teachers and treated differently:
-teachers assumed the children would have a poor grasp of english so they used simplistic language when speaking to them
-they mispronounced children’s names
-they saw them as a problem they could ignore
as a result, asian pupils, especially girls were marginalised and prevented from participating fully, affecting their self esteem

Question 2

pupil subcultures

Answer 2

pupils may react in a variety of ways to racist labelling in school, including forming or joining pupil subcultures
•sewell found that black boys adopted a range of responses to teachers’ racist labelling of them as rebellious and anti school
-conformists: were the largest group. they were keen to succeed, accepted the schools goals and had friends from different ethnic groups
-innovators: were the second largest group. they were pro education but anti school. they valued success but not teacher approval
-retreatists: were a tiny minority of isolated individuals disconnected from from both school and black subcultures outside it
-rebels: were a small group but highly visible minority of black people. they rejected the schools goals and rules and conformed into the black stereotype of the ‘black macho lad’. they despised both white boys and conformist black boys. there aim was to achieve the status of ‘street hood’
•however, despite only a small minority of black boys actually fitting the stereotype of the ‘black macho lad’, teachers tended to see them all in this way

Question 3

institutional racism

Answer 3

this is where policies and attitudes unintentionally discriminate against ethnic minority groups
•wright found that even though members of staff were committed to equal opportunities, asian girls got less attention from teachers and their cultural traditions were disapproved

Question 4

the ethnocentric curriculum

Answer 4

•this is an important example of institutional racism.
•ethnocentric refers to an attitude or policy that prioritises the culture of one particular ethnic group while disregarding or downgrading others
•many sociologists have argued that the curriculum of british schools is ethnocentric
•ball sees the history curriculum as recreating a ‘mythical age of empire and past glories’, while at the same time ignoring the history of black and asian people
•troyes and williams note that gives priority to white culture and the english language

Question 5

‘model minorities’: indian and chinese pupils achievement

Answer 5

critics of the idea that they education system is institutionally racist point to the fact there is overachievement in so called ‘model minorities’. for example indian and chinese students perform better than the white majority. if there was really institutional racism, they argue, all minority groups would underachieve
•gillborn rejects this criticism. he argues that the image of hardworking ‘model minorities’ makes the education system seem meritocratic. this justifies the failure of other minorities bug making it appear that they are unwilling to make the effort to succeed