Ethnic Differences in Educational Achievement Flashcards
What are some external reasons for black children’s underachievement in school, in relation to cultural deprivation?
- Intellectual and linguistic skills: Engelmann says the language spoken by low income black American families is inadequate for educational success as it is ungrammatical and doesn’t express abstract ideas.
- Family structure and parental support: Moynihan argues because many black families are headed by a lone mother they struggle financially as they lack a male breadwinner and this also means the boys lack a male role model, they’re inadequately socialised.
What does Sewell say is the reason for black boys underachieving?
- It’s not the absence of fathers as role models that leads to black boys underachieving, but it is the lack of fatherly nurturing (non-abusive discipline). Thus black boys find it hard to overcome the emotional difficulties of adolescence.
- They are drawn into an aggressive, macho type masculinity that rejects school authority and focuses on crime and acting as a ‘ghetto superstar’
- This provides a comfort zone for them as acceptance from the peer group compensates for their rejection from their fathers and a society they see as racist.
What is a criticism of Sewell’s views on black boys underachieving?
Gilborn argues it is not peer pressure, but institutional racism within the education system itself that systematically produces the failure of a large number of black boys.
What are the external reasons (cultural) for British Chinese students high educational achievement?
- Archer and Francis argue
British Chinese students have the highest grades at GCSE, this is because parents place a high value on education and have an ‘Asian work ethic’ - Working class parents wanted to provide their children with the opportunities they lacked.
- Parents invested in time, energy and money by hiring tutors, this was because a family standing in the community was partly related to the educational performance of their children.
What are the external reasons (cultural) for South Asian students high educational achievement?
- Basit conducted a study of 36 Indian and Pakistani students. Education was seen as a capital that would transform the lives of the younger generation.
- Parents emphasised the importance of education to lead to a good job and had aspirations of upwards social mobility.
- Archer furthers this by saying boys saw themselves as first and foremost Muslim and belonging to a positive masculine identity, they saw themselves as future breadwinners and so expressed an interest in education.
What can be said about Bangladeshi and Pakistani women in relation to education?
Hendessi says they’re invisible as they aren’t young offenders nor do they engage in anti-social behaviours.
Their underachievement is due to poverty, family and cultural norms which advocate early marriage and motherhood.
EVAL: Women organisations such as Southall Black Sisters have been solutions to this problem.
Why do white working class children underachieve?
McCulloch says they do not aspire to go to university, the low level of aspiration may be due to a lack of parental support.
How can we evaluate cultural deprivation theory, in relation to ethnicity and achievement?
Driver says black Carribean families provide girls with positive role models of strong independent women, so black girls tend to be more successful in education.
How does material deprivation affect ethnic minorities?
Palmer says many ethnic minorities live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates. This inequality is reflected in how a large proportion of children from ethnic backgrounds are eligible for FSM.
Material deprivation explains why Pakistani pupils do worse than Indian ones and that’s because Indian pupils are likely to come from better-of backgrounds and attend private schools.
What is a criticism of material deprivation?
Even Indian and Chinese pupils who are materially deprived still do better than most. Suggests that material deprivation factors don’t completely override the influence of ethnicity.
How is poverty a product of racism in wider society?
Rex says racial discrimination worsens the poverty faced by ethnic minorities.
EG: in housing minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people and in interviews they are less likely to be offered an interview.
Unemployment and low pay in turn has a negative effect on their children’s educational prospects.
Why do some sociologists argue internal factors impact ethnic educational achievement more than cultural deprivation?
- Strand found that black Caribbean boys that weren’t entitled to FSM, especially the more able pupils, made less progress than their white peers by a lot.
- This challenges the idea black children enter school underprepared, instead suggesting internal factors play a role in differences in educational achievement
How does labelling and teacher racism impact black children’s educational achievement?
- Interactionist Becker found that teachers often see black children as being far from the ‘ideal pupil’ as they were labelled as disruptive. This negative stigma may result in their failure.
- Gillborn and Youdell found teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others due to ‘racialised expectations’ of expecting them to be more rowdy and threatening to authority.
- This negative stereotypes mean teachers are likely to place black pupils in lower sets and this can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy where black pupils internalise the label that they will underachieve.
How does labelling impact Asian children’s educational achievement?
Wright did a study of a multi-ethnic primary school and found teachers held ethnocentric views that British Culture was superior.
Teachers assumed Asians
would have a poor grasp of English, left them out of class discussions and mispronounced their names.
This led Asians to feel marginalised, isolated and prevented them from participating in education fully.
Describe the pupil identities: ideal pupil identity, pathologised pupil identity and demonised pupil identity.
Ideal pupil identity: White middle class masculine identity, they achieve in the right way, through natural ability and initiative.
Pathologised identity: Asian, seen as a conformist and culture bound overachiever, through hardwork rather than natural ability.
Demonised identity: Black or white working class, seen as unintelligent, peer led, cultural deprived under achievers.
Archer argues ethnic minorities are likely to be seen as demonised or pathologised pupils.
