ethnicity and achievement

Question 1

overall patterns

Answer 1

white and asian perform better than black

chinese and indian better than pakistani

girls do better than boys

m/c better than w/c

worst achieving is white, w/c boys

Question 2

material deprivation

Answer 2

flaherty
pakistanis and bangladeshis 3x more likely to be in poorest 5th of pop

unemployment 3x higher for black african, bangladeshi and pakistani

15% of ethnic minority live in overcrowded conditions compared to 2%

palmer
50% of ethnic minority live in low income vs 25%
twice as likely to be unemployed

a lack of language skills and foreign qualifications - lower aspirations

Question 3

strengths of material deprivation

Answer 3

gilborn and mirza - class have 5 x the effect on educational achievement on ethnicity

the swann report - class does account for atleast 50% of different in achievement between ethnic groups

marxism

Question 4

material deprivation limitations

Answer 4

postmodernists - class and ethnicity does not have an impact on identity - choice - doesnt shape educational experience

pakulski and walters - concept of class is dead due to vast different lifestyles

bangladeshi students achieve higher than national average - most likely to live in poverty

Question 5

cultural deprivation - four ways

Answer 5

linguistic skills

primary socialisation

family structure

attitudes and values

Question 6

linguistic skills evidence

Answer 6

DfES report 2006 - pupils for whom english is an additional language had lower achievement than those whose first language was english

less likely to speech elaborated speech code Basil Bernstein

Question 7

primary socialisation evidence

Answer 7

the new right

ethnic group inadequately primary socialised eg black children

more likely to have immediate gratification

Scruton - low achievement results from failure to maintain british culture

Question 8

primary socialisation eval

Answer 8

scruton - temporal validity

deterministic - suggesting aspirations of black students and white students are different - class has to be considered

Question 9

family structure

Answer 9

applied to the underachievement of black caribbean pupils

inadequate socialisation seen as a result of dysfunctional family

48% of black caribbean families single parents compared to 22% of white and 11% asian

Moynihan - lack male role models created cycle of underachievement - economic struggle
Murray - lack not socialised adequately - black

Question 10

family structure - sewell

Answer 10

sewell

lack of tough love from father leads to underachieving

absence of fatherly love filled through crime eg street gangs for support

Question 11

family structure eval

Answer 11

children of high income single parent families do well in education so poverty important

african-carribean girls do better than boys

driver - black caribbean families not dysfunctional - gender more of a factor

Question 12

attitudes and values

Answer 12

lupton - lack of parent support is a key factor
white parental attitudes vs ethnic minority

Ipsos MORI - 80% of ethnic minority students at secondary school aspired to go to uni compared to 68% white

Question 13

cultural deprivation eval

Answer 13

keddie - victim-blaming

culturally different not deprived

underachieve because of ethnocentric curriculum that favours white culture

Question 14

cultural capital

Answer 14

family structure - explain indian and chinese

strand - longitudinal study - indian parents have greater control over children so more likely to complete homework and attend school

vincent - black african m/c parents take high interest in education - good networks so positive achievement

basit - pakistani and indian - high value on education and free education is a blessing

Question 15

cultural capital eval

Answer 15

feminists - patriarchy in some asian families and conflicts on girls’ involvement in educational aspirations

Question 16

racism in wider society

Answer 16

wood et al - 1000 job vacancies with different ethnic names - 1 in 16 while 1 in 9 white got offered interview

racism in society leads to low self esteem, hostility to schooling

Question 17

british asian women

Answer 17

bagguley and hussain

Cultural factors, especially the focus on marriage can deter their aspirations away from education due to the cultural pressure

Question 18

cultural factors at home for asian women

Answer 18

Cultural factors, especially the focus on marriage can deter their aspirations away from education due to the cultural pressure, or cause them to decline cultural factors and continue into education - come into conflict with values of family

Question 19

is british asian women research valid

Answer 19

Interpretivist - yes? Interview - qualitative - gave in-depth detail

Positivist - no? - interview - low in quality as not quantitative
- Researchers asian - could interpret answers differently (may be biased) - lack objective - hawthorne affect - interviewer affect - rapport trust

Question 20

strengths of external factors

Answer 20

exposed weaknesses of earlier genetic-based explanations - social rather than biological

brought about social policy initiatives to improve education

empirical evidence eg swann report found huge amount of evidence for material and cultural factors

Question 21

limitations of external factors

Answer 21

cannot fully explain the difference in achievement
- inequalities for african-caribbean pupils become progressively greater as progress through school so internal factors

Question 22

internal factors

Answer 22

labelling
subcultures
institutional racism
ethnocentric curriculum

Question 23

labelling of black pupils

Answer 23

strand - more able black children made less progress due to lack of teacher support

mirza - 4 types of teacher racism
- overt racism - inferior
- colour-blind - racism goes unchallenged
- crusaders - antiracist teaching but backfires
- liberal chauvinists - try to help but patronising

Question 24

labelling of asian pupils

Answer 24

wright - teachers assumed asian pupils had poor english and mispronounced names

shain - asian girls challenge stereotype of quiet and passive - often dealt with more severely than other pupils

Question 25

subcultures for black pupils

Answer 25

gillborn and youdell - teachers saw as disruptive, threatening and disrespectful - anti-school subculture formes in bottom set

sewell - teachers has racist stereotypes and pupils reacted in one of four ways
- conformist - accept rules
- innovators - work hard but reject other rules - girls
- rebels - dismissive on conformity and often suspended
- retreatists - disconnected from schools

Question 26

eval of subcultures and labelling

Answer 26

fuller - study in high-achieving girls
- reacted to racist labelling by working harder for sucess

Mac an Ghaill - students can reject labelling and form pro-school subcultures

deterministic - not all teachers racist

institutional racism is bigger problem eg ethnocentric curriculum

Question 27

institutional racism

Answer 27

roithmayr - institutional racism is a locked in inequality - scale of historical discrimination so large there is no longer needs to be any conscious intent to discriminate

gillborn - marketisation increased ability of schools to select pupils - disadvantages ethnic minority

Question 28

british values

Answer 28

eg pimlico academy
- banned colourful hijabs and hairstyles that can block view
- history curriculum rewritten to focus more on white king and queens
- protests from students

Question 29

british values eval

Answer 29

pos
functionalism - social solidarity and value consensus
new right - sense of cultural belonging

neg
postmodernism - too structured, ignores globalisation
marxism - bowles and gintis - creates an obedient and passive workforce

Question 30

ethnocentric curriculum

Answer 30

many try to offer multicultural curriculum but fail
Troyna and Willians - non-european languages ignores - gcse mainly french and spanish

ball - history national curriculum ignores ethnic diversity - ignores history of black and asian people

models in textbooks often white

Question 31

ethnocentric curriculum eval

Answer 31

does not explain high achievement of indian and chinese students

postmodernists - due to globalisation and increasing immigration - schools should allow for more diversity

Question 32

strengths of internal factors

Answer 32

interactionists - approach attempts to see things from the social actors’ pov and allows detailed insight

explanations help us understand nature of social inequality and injustice within institutions

findings based on detailed, qualitative research so high in validity

Question 33

limitations

Answer 33

some sociologists - racism in schools cannot be complete explanations due to Indian and African students still performing well

most of findings qualitative and small sample sizes for hard to generalise

does not acknowledge material and cultural deprivation which both have significant influence