Education - Ethnicity Flashcards
(51 cards)
Provide trends indicating ethnic differences in achievement.
- Chinese, Indian, and Bangladeshi pupils do better than the average
- White pupils are completely average
- Black Carribean and Pakistani students do worse than average
What are the 3 external explananations for ethnic underachievement in education?
- Cultural deprivation
- Material deprivation
- Racism in wider society
What are the three aspects of cultural deprivation theory?
- Intellectual and linguistic skills
- Attitudes and values
- Family structure and parental support
Outline the intellectual argument of cultural deprivation theory.
Many black children from low-income families are understimulated, without enriching environment, leaving them ill-equipped without reasoning and problem solving skills.
Bereiter and Engelmann (1966) and language in black households:
Language used in low-income black American families is ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas, leaving black children ill-eqipped to express and even understand the same concepts as white pupils.
Give a criticism of Bereiter and Engelmann (1966) and language in black households:
Keddie: BAME children are “culturally different not deprived” and are punished by the ethnocentric white culture favouring system
How do the attitudes and values some black children are socialised into leave them ill equipped for education?
Rather than being socialised into the mainstream culture of ambition and competitiveness, some black children are socialised into a fatalistic and present time oriented culture that devalues education, possibly due to inadequate family structures.
Moynihan (1965) and black matrifocal families:
There are two effects of 25% of black families being singularly matriarchal: the children are deprived of adequate education because the mother struggles financially and the young boys lack an adequate role model of male achievement.
This is a cycle.
Who agrees with Moynihan?
The New Right and Murray (1984)
Give a criticism of Moynihan (1965) and black matrifocal families:
Driver (1977): lone mother creates positive matriarchal figure for young black girls
Pryce (1979) and colonialism:
Pryce argued that black Caribbean culture was less resistant to racism and provides less self-worth than Asian culture, causing black pupils to underachieve. This is due to the devastating effects of colonialism and slavery on Black language, religion and family structure.
Give a criticism of Pryce (1979) and colonialism:
Lawrence (1982) argues that black pupils underachieve due to racism, rather than low self-esteem
Sewell (2009) and street gangs:
Many young black boys seek the “tough love” (respectful and non-abusive discipline) that they do not get from patriarchs, in street gangs that offer “perverse loyalty and love”. These groups often view speaking in Standard English and doing well in school as selling out to the white authority and so pressure members to not.
Give a criticism of Sewell (2009) including a theorist.
Gillborn (2008): it is institutional racism that systematically produces the failure of large numbers of black boys.
Lupton (2004) and Asian families:
The authority of adults in Asian families reflects that of teachers in schools, Asian students are pre-disposed to this system so are rewarded.
What did Lupton (2004) say was the difference between W/C white and BAME parents’ views on education?
White W/C parents have a negative attitude whereas BAME W/C parents are more likely to view it as “a way up in society”. This is why we see lower levels of achievement among the white w/c.
How has cultural deprivation attemptedly been solved?
Compensatory education programmes
Summarise ‘Sure Start’
3,500 local Sure Start children’s centres in the most deprived areas providing integrated education, care, family services, etc. to promote the physical, intellectual, and social development of the babies. Austerity has led to the underfunding or foreclosure of most centres.
Why don’t critics like compensatory education and what are the alternatives?
Donzelot (1977): sees it as imposing the dominant white culture onto children with their own.
- Multicultural education that recognizes and values minority cultures
- Anti-racist education that challenges prejudice in the system
Give 2 of Palmer’s (2012) examples of BAME material deprivation.
- ethnic minority children are 2x as likely to live in low income housing (1/2 vs. 1/4)
- ethnic minority households are 3x more likely to be homeless
Give two reasons why ethnic minorities may be at greater risk of material deprivation.
- Cultural factors like Purdah which prevent women from working
- Foreign qualifications that are not recognised by Uk employers
Summarise Wood et al’s (2010) experiment on racism and employment.
Fictitious, near-identical applications to 1000 job vacancies; 1/3 appearing white, 2/3 appearing to be from BAME.
- BAME applicants were half as likely to get an interview as white applicants
According to Gillborn and Mirza (2000), what was the difference in black children’s achievement in one LA on entering primary compared to GCSE.
20 percentage points above local average on entry.
21 percentage points below average on GCSEs, the worst of any ethnic group.
Gillborn and Youdel (2000) and labelling of black pupils:
Teachers expect black pupils to present more discipline problems.
They discipline black pupils quicker and more harshly, largely disproportionately.
This has multiple consequences, all of which lead to black pupils struggling:
- Higher rate of official exclusion (Bourne (1994))
- Higher rate of internal exclusion
- Higher rate of referral
