Topic 3 - Ethnic Differences in achievement

Question 1

How do Cultural deprivation theorists explain underachievement of some ethnic groups?

Answer 1

• They argue its due to inadequate socialisation within the home and their explanation has 4 main aspects
• Intellectual and linguistic skills
• Attitudes and values
• Family structure
• Parental support

Question 2

What do CD theorists argue about intellectual and linguistic skills?

Answer 2

• Argue that many children from low income black families lack the intellectual stimulation needed for success and this leaves them poorly equipped for school as they have not been able to develop problem solving skills
• Bereiter and Engelmann see language spoken by low income black American families as inadequate for educational success

Question 3

What do CD theorists argue about attitudes and values ?

Answer 3

• They suggest that the lack of motivation is a cause of failure among many black children
• Most ethnic groups value education less, and this may be due to subcultural values, and most children are socialised into a culture which instils ambition, competitiveness and w willingness to make sacrifices in order to succeed in education
• However Some black children are socialised into a subculture that instils a fatalistic “live for today” attitude which does not value education and leaves them unequipped to succeed in education

Question 4

What do CD theorists argue about Family structure?

Answer 4

• They argue that failure to socialise children adequately is due to the result of the dysfunctional family structure
• Moynihan argues that many black families are headed by a lone mother and as a result this mean that their children are deprived of adequate care because she struggles financially due to the absence of a male breadwinner, the absence of this also means that boys lack an adequate role model of male achievement , and Moynihan sees this as a cycle
• New Right also put forward a similar argument , Murray argues that high rates of lone parenthood and a lack of a positive male role model leads to underachievement of some minorities

Question 5

What does Sewell argue?

Answer 5

• Says that it is the absence of father nurturing and tough love from the father
• This results in black boys finding it hard to behave in school
• Street gangs of fatherless boys offer black boys loyalty and love
• And these boys are media inspired by role model of anti school black masculinity and this image is often reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV videos
• ## In his interview he found that the black boys found that the greatest barrier to success was the pressure from other boys as if they conformed with the school values it would be seen as selling out to the white establishment

Question 6

What are Asians families seen as?

Answer 6

• Contrasting with Black families, Asian families are described as supportive of educational authority
• Asians have an Asian Work Ethic and value education highly

Question 7

What does research show about white working class families?

Answer 7

• A survey by McCulloch found that ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university than white pupils
• This may be due a lack of parental support
• For example Lupton studied 4 schools, 2 white, 1 pakistani and 1 that mixed all kinds together
• And she found that teachers reported poorer level of behavior and discipline in the working class white schools, and teachers blamed it on a lower levels of parental support whilst on the other hand, ethnic minority parents were more likely to see education as a way up in society

Question 8

What do critics of CD theory argue ?

Answer 8

• Driver criticises it for ignoring the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement, and he shows that the black caribbean family is far from being dysfunctional because it provides a positive role model for girls of one of a strong independent women and Driver argues that this is why girls tend to be more successful than boys in education
• Keddie views it as a victim blaming explanation, and she argues that ethnic minorities are not culturally different just they are culturally deprived, they under achieve because the curriculum is ethnocentric

Question 9

What did Guy Palmer find?

Answer 9

• Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low income households
• Ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed compared to whites
• Ethnic minorities are 3 times more likely to be homeless

Question 10

What are reasons why some ethnic groups may be at greater risk of material deprivation?

Answer 10

• Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment rates and low wage rates
• Cultural factors such as tradition for example some Muslim households prevent women working outside the home
• Racial discrimination

Question 11

What do Gillborn and Youdell find and argue ?

Answer 11

• Found that teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behavior
• G and Y argue this a result of teachers racialised expectations, they found that teachers expected black pupils to present more discipline problems and they would often misinterpret their behavior as threatening or a challenge to their authority and whenever teachers acted on this it would spark a negative response and more conflict would occur
• Thus this may lead to higher exclusions of black pupils

Question 12

What was found about exclusion of Black students?

Answer 12

• Bourne found that schools tended to see black boys as a threat and thus label them negatively which would lead to exclusion
• Osler found that black pupils were more likely to suffer from unrecorded and unofficial exclusions and from internal exclusions where they were sent out of class

Question 13

How are Asians victims of labelling ?

Answer 13

• Wright in her study found that despite the schools commitment to equal opportunites, teachers held ethnocentric views meaning they believed British culture was superior
• This would affect how they related to Asians for example a teacher would assume that they have a poor understanding of English and thus leave them out of class discussions
• This would cause them to feel isolated and cause them to feel marginalised

Question 14

What are the three types of pupil identities?

Answer 14

• The ideal pupil, which is the white, middle class, masculine pupil , and this pupil is seen as achieving in the right way
• The pathologised pupil, which is an Asian, feminised, and this individual is viewed as overachieving and is seen to succeed through hardwork rather than natural ability
• The demonised pupil, A black or white working class, hypersexualised identity. This pupil is seen as unintelligent
• And according to Archer, ethnic minority pupils are more likely to be seen as demonised or pathologised pupills

Question 15

What does Archer argue about chinese pupils?

Answer 15

• Argues that even minority children who perform successfully can be pathologised
• An example of this is Chinese pupils who are praised and viewed negatively by teachers simultaneously
• They were seen as having success in the wrong way which was through hardwork rather than natural ability
• This meant that they could never legitimately occupy the identity of the ideal pupil

Question 16

What Fuller’s study?

Answer 16

• Fuller’s study of a group of black girls in year 11 helps to show a good example of pupils responding by rejecting negative labels
• The girls were untypical because they were high achievers in a school where most black girls were placed in low streams
• Fuller describes how instead of the girls internalising the label , they channeled their anger about being labelled into the desire to gain educational success
• They did not seek approval from their teachers and preferred to rely on the rely on their own efforts

Question 17

What is evaluation of Fuller’s study?

Answer 17

• Based on one singular school and cannot be generalised
• Not all students would be able to resist the negative label

Question 18

What did Mirza find?

Answer 18

• Found that racist teachers discouraged black pupils from being ambitious through the kind of advice they gave about careers and option choices
• She identifies 3 main types of teacher racism
• The colour blind, teachers who believe all pupils are equal but still let racism to go unchallenged
• The Liberal Chauvinists, teachers who believe black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them
• The overt racists, teachers who believe blacks are inferior and actively discriminate against them

Question 19

According to Sewell what are the 4 types of responses to schooling ?

Answer 19

• The rebels, most visible and influential group , but was only a small minority of black students and were often excluded from school and rejected the goals of the school
• The conformists, were the largest group, and these boys were keen to succeed and accepted the school’s goals
• The retreatists, were a small group who were disconnected from both school and black subcultures
• The innovators, second largest group, but were pro-education but anti schools , they valued success but not the school itself

Question 20

What do Critical Race theorists argue?

Answer 20

• see racism as an ingrained feature of society
• believe that institutional racism is a locked in inequality
• see the education system as institutionally racist

Question 21

How has Marketisation caused ethnic inequalit?

Answer 21

• Gilborn argues that because marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils it allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about school admissions
• this is supported by a study by Moore and Davenport which shows how selection procedures leads to ethnic segregation, as minority pupils fail to get into good secondary schools due to discrimination
• For example they found that primary schools used to screen out pupils with language difficulties by making the application process more difficult for non english speaking parents to understand

Question 22

How does the Ethnocentric curriculum produce ethnic differences ?

Answer 22

• Ethnocentric means a policy or attitude that gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one particular group
• The ethnocentric curriculum reflects the culture of one cultural group and this builds in racial bias into the everyday working of schools
• When learning languages students are often forced to pick a european language
• and this makes students feel invisible and devalued and could lead to low self esteem and disengagement from school
• However while it may ignore Asian culture , Indians and Chinese pupils still perform above average

Question 23

What does Gilborn argue about Assessments ?

Answer 23

• Argues that Assessments are rigged, in order to validate the dominant culture’s superiority.
• If black children succeed as a group the rules will be changed to re engineer failure
• For example in the past primary school used baselines assessments which tested pupils when they started compulsory education, however these were replaced in 2003 called the FSP and the result of it was that black pupils now suddenly seen to be doing worse than white pupil
• Gillborn says this was because the FSP was based entirely on teacher judgements, whereas baseline assessments often used written tests and also because there was a change in timing as the baseline tests were usually done at the start of primary school, however the FSP was now done at the end of reception
• Gillborn concludes that these factors increase the risk of teachers stereotyping affecting results

Question 24

What is the new IQism argument ?

Answer 24

• In the new IQism, Gilborn argues that teachers and policy makers make false assumptions about the nature of pupils abilities and potential
• They see potential as a fixed quality that can be easily measured, and once a pupils potential is measured they can be placed in the right stream or set
• Gillborn and Youdell note that secondary schools are increasingly using old style IQ tests to allocate pupils into different sets
• However according to Gillborn all a test can do is tell us what a pupil had already learnt or can do now and not what they may be able to do in the future
• To conclude this shows how the education system is institutionally racist as black pupil are often placed in lower sets due to biased tests

Question 25

What does Gillborn argue about the overachievment of Asians?

Answer 25

- Argues that the image of Indians and Chinese as hardworking model minorities performs an ideological function and helps to conceal the fact the education system is institutionally racist - As it makes the system appear fair and meritocratic , and it it also justifies the failure of other minorities such as blacks, that they fail because they are unable or unwilling to make the effort