Ethnicity and Education (int and ext) MW1.pptx
STARTER: on your whitebboard, Rank the following groups in terms of achievement in education
(1-6 Highest achieving to lowest)
EXPLAIN YOUR REASONING FOR THIS…
Gypsy/ Roma
Chinese
Black Caribbean
Asian Indian
Asian Pakistani
White and Asian
Items in this lesson
STARTER: on your whitebboard, Rank the following groups in terms of achievement in education
(1-6 Highest achieving to lowest)
EXPLAIN YOUR REASONING FOR THIS…
Gypsy/ Roma
Chinese
Black Caribbean
Asian Indian
Asian Pakistani
White and Asian
TASK - Make a note of the top 3 and bottom 3 in the box
1. Chinese
2. Asian Indian
3. White and Asian
6. Gypsy/ Roma
5. Black Caribbean
4. Asian Pakistani
Learning objectives:
By the end of studying this topic, you should be able to:
Identify differences in educational achievement by different ethnic groups.
Explain the role of internal and external factors in affecting educational achievement of different ethnic groups.
Evaluate the usefulness of sociological theories in contributing to our understanding of ethnic differences in educational achievement.
Apply your knowledge of theories and research to real-life examples of educational achievements amongst different ethnic groups.
Thursday
Please bring your education, research methods booklets & your exam skills purple book for Thursday’s lesson.
We’re going to introduce Methods In Context :D
Ethnicity and education
Education with methods in context
EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY
Give examples of different ethnic groups in the UK. Highlight the general definition and difficulties of defining ethnicity.
TASK - Advantages and disadvantages of researching educational achievement using official statistics
Disadvantages:
Schools may “inflate” grades by including “soft subjects” and coursework grades in their results so data may not be valid.
Comparison over time may not be possible due to changes in assessments and qualifications.
Research findings may not be useful as they don’t tell us why the differences occur.
Advantages:
Data is easily accessible
Sample representativeness
Data is objective
Data is reliable
Easy comparison between groups
Research findings can be very useful
Research the Swann Report
Using the information on the QR Code and your own research:
(most of the information can be found on the article but further research is good practise)
Which ethnic minority group was found to be disadvantaged by the education system?
How were schools treating this group?
Summarise your findings in the box at the bottom of pg 58.
The report “concluded that the main problems were low teacher expectations and racial prejudice among white teachers and society as a whole.”
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION
Intellectual and linguistic skills
b) Attitudes and Values
c) Family structure and parental support
EXTERNAL FACTORS
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION
Intellectual and linguistic skills
Evaluation:
Swann Report (1985) found that language was not a major factor in underachievement
It found family structure has a greater influence on pupils’ achievement.
Gillborn and Mirza (2000) note that Asian students do very well despite not having English as their first language.
Gillborn and Youdell point to teacher’s racialised expectations as being more significant than language.
What might they argue has a greater influence on pupils achievement?
????
Attitudes and values
How are black children socialised according to cultural deprivation theorists and what impact does this have on their attitude towards education?
Who made a similar argument when discussing working class attitudes?
What else can be blamed for underachievement of Bangladeshi and Pakistani children?
Socialised into a subculture that instils a fatalistic, ‘live for today’ attitude which does not value education and leaves them unequipped for success.
SUGARMAN
Time spent at mosque etc.
Which ethnic group is most likely to be headed by lone mothers?
What is the impact of this family structure on children’s achievement?
Family structure and parental support
Cultural deprivation theorists argue that inadequate socialisation of children is the result of a dysfunctional family structure.
Moynihan (1965) claims that many black families are headed by lone mothers so their children are deprived of adequate care due to financial struggles and absence of male role model. This leads to a cultural deprivation cycle.
Q: Where do young black boys turn for an alternative role model?
Family structure and parental support
The New Right put forward similar explanations:
Pryce (1979) - Asian pupils are higher achievers because their culture is more resistant to racism.
Black Caribbean culture is less cohesive and less resistant to racism so many black pupils have low self-esteem and underachieve.
Pryce contributes the difference between the two cultures to the different impact of colonialism on each group.
Scruton (1986) sees the low achievement levels of some ethnic minorities as resulting from a failure to embrace mainstream British culture.
Murray (1984) argues that a high rate of lone parenthood and a lack of positive male role models lead to the underachievement of some minorities.
Experience of slavery was culturally devastating for black people, leading to loss of language, religion and entire family system.
Asian family structures, language and religions were not destroyed by colonial rule.
How could colonialism explain cultural differences
between Black Caribbean and Asian cultured?
DISCUSS AND SHARE
POST-IT RESEARCH TASK
Think of an alternative role model young black boys may look up to in the media – what is their view on education and how might this impact them?
Research and summarise reasons for underachievement amongst white working-class families.
Found that ethnic minorities are more likely to aspire to go to university than white British pupils.
Low level of aspiration and achievement amongst white working class pupils may be the result of a lack of parental support.
Ethnic minority parents were more likely to see education as “a way up in society”.
Argues that street culture in white working class areas can be brutal and so young people have to learn how to withstand intimidation and intimidate others.
School can become a place where the “power games” are played out again, bringing disruption and making it hard for pupils to succeed.
Criticisms of Cultural Deprivation Theory
Ignores how Black Caribbean families have positive role models in strong independent women which may explain why black girls a more successful than boys
Pupils do not underachieve because of their culture but due to racist attitudes towards them
Ignores schools’ ethnocentric biases: cultural deprivation is just victim blaming as ethnic minorities are different and not necessarily deprived.
Poverty is the true cause of underachievement: material not cultural deprivation.
This is EVALUATION for cult deprivation:
On a post-it, research and add a description of the AIM HIGHER programme
(purpose, target group, outcome)
On a post-it, research and add a description of the AIM HIGHER programme
(purpose, target group, outcome)
Aim Higher initiative: focused on children from lower socio-economic backgrounds living in areas characterised by low participation in higher education.
The aim of the initiative was to raise the aspirations of potential candidates, and to develop the abilities of under-represented groups so they could apply to college.
According to the brief, research suggests that the programme appears to have delivered some improvements in exam results, retention, and progression to higher education.
However, there appears to be little evidence that it was successful in influencing participants’ attitudes towards higher education.
This is EVALUATION for cult deprivation:
On a post-it, research and add a description of the AIM HIGHER programme
(purpose, target group, outcome)
MATERIAL DEPRIVATION
PAMLER (2012):
DISCUSS and summarise reasons for the material depravation amongst some ethnic minority groups.
HINTS: EMPLOYMENT, Neighbourhood, CLOTHING, LANGUAGE, RIGHTS, RACISM
Class inequalities between ethnic groups
How is the class inequalities for ethnic minority groups evident in schools?
How does being a working class ethnic minority pupil impact their educational achievement?
What did Modood’s study prove – what impacts students more; class or ethnicity?
What might be the reasons for these difference in educational achievement between ethnic groups?
Research and summarise criticisms of the material deprivation theory as an explanation of ethnic differences in educational achievement.
Too deterministic - Indian and Bangladeshi pupils suffer higher than average levels of poverty yet do better than average in education.
Social class cannot explain ethnic differences in underachievement because black middle class pupils do not perform better than white working class or white and Asian middle class pupils (Gillborn and Mirza).
Racism in wider society
Mason (2000) claims that “discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of Britain’s citizens of minority ethnic origin”.
Outside of school; how might different ethnic groups experience racism in the UK today? (Use Rex)
How does this clip show teachers making “racialised expectation”?
What do they assume about the girls behaviour?
Sensitive content…
Teacher
Problems with researching the effects of culture on educational achievement of different ethnic groups
Parents
Gate keepers/ Governors
Pupils
Think about the practical, ethical and theoretical issues that may affect this type of research. Make notes and share your ideas with the rest of the class.
Racism in wider society, EXAMPLES:
Noon (1993) found that when he sent identical letter of enquiry about future employment opportunities to the top 100 UK companies signed by fictitious applicants called ‘Evans’ and ‘Patel’
PREDICT THE FINDINGS…
2) WOOD ET AL (2010) Sent out 1000 fictitious applications . For each job, one applicant appeared to come from a white person and two from a member of a minority group – (through the use of fake names).
PREDICT THE FINDINGS…
FINDINGS: the companies were more helpful to the ‘white’ candidates.
FINDINGS: 1/16 ‘ethnic minorities’ applicants were offered an interview.
1/9 from the ‘white’ candidates were offered an interview.
TASK - Use the QR code and your research skills to find out about AWAAB ISHAAK – Write a summary on how racial discrimination leads to poverty…
Write 1 level 3 point for the following question
Identify strengths or weaknesses of using group interviews for researching ethnic difference in education (20 marks)
ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN ACHIEVEMENT
EXTERNAL FACTORS:
Cultural deprivation
Material deprivation
Racism in wider society
INTERNAL FACTORS:
Labelling and teacher racism,
Pupil identities
Pupil responses and subcultures
Institutional racism
If a group can begin their compulsory schooling as the highest achievers and yet finish it as the lowest achievers, this challenges cultural deprivation theorists who suggest children enter school unprepared.
Instead, this suggests that there may be internal factors within the education system that may be playing a major part in producing ethnic differences in achievement
Labelling and teacher racism
How are teachers labelling students in a negative way?
What is the difference between how black pupils and Asian pupils are labelled?
What is an ‘ideal pupil’ and who coined this idea?
How might negative labels affect educational achievement of different ethnic groups?
Labelling and teacher racism
Gillborn and Youdell (2001) :
How were teachers disciplining black students and why?
What assumptions did teachers make about black pupils behaviours?
Where did this behaviour from teachers stem from?
How did black pupils feel about their treatment?
Bourne (1994):
How is Bourne’s finding similar to Gillborn and Youdell?
Osler (2001):
What impact did exclusions have on black pupils – find the statistic!
Foster (1990):
Where are black pupils placed in the triage system?
Wright (1992):
What do Asian pupils experience in school and what does this lead to?
Suspended: Inequality in the school system (3:18)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwacH4-IBZw
Use the QR code to read about the racial disparity in exclusion between black and white students.
Find a statistic to support Bourne’s claim that black students are more likely to be excluded:
STATISTICS…
Black males are 3 x more likely than white males to be suspended in middle school. Black females are 4 x more likely to be suspended than females.
In 2006, 9,220 sample. 28% black boys and 18% of black girls were suspended. Compared with 10% of white boys and 4 % of white girls.
Q: Problems with researching the effects of teachers’ labelling on educational achievement of different ethnic groups?
Teachers may not be aware that they are displaying biased behaviour towards pupils so interviewing them may lead to invalid results.
Observing teacher-pupil interactions in lessons may result in a Hawthorne effect so results would be lacking validity.
Teachers and pupils may be unwilling to talk about this topic in fear of the consequences.
Head teachers and governors (the gate keepers) may be concerned that the research will create negative impression of their school so access may be difficult.
Archer (2010) - teachers’ constructs three different types of pupil identities based on ethnic stereotypes, they treat pupils from different ethnic groups more or less favourably.
RESEARCH THE FIND THE DESCRIPTION OF THE FOLLOWING:
The DEMONISED pupil identity
The PATHOLOGISED pupil identity
The IDEAL pupil identity
Archer (2010) - teachers’ constructs three different types of pupil identities based on ethnic stereotypes, they treat pupils from different ethnic groups more or less favourably.
RESEARCH THE FIND THE DESCRIPTION OF THE FOLLOWING:
The DEMONISED pupil identity
a black or white, working class, unintelligent, peer-led, culturally deprived underachiever.
The PATHOLOGISED pupil identity
an Asian, “deserving poor”, conformist who is likely to achieve through hard work only.
The IDEAL pupil identity
white middle class, masculine identity, achievement through natural ability and initiative.
Black minority pupils are likely to be seen as what type of pupil? Why?
Asian minority students are likely to be seen as what type of pupil? Why?
Demonised - loud, challenging, excessively sexual, un-inspirational home cultures.
Pathologised – quiet, passive, docile; when they challenge this stereotypes they are punished more harshly than others. If they perform well, seen as an ‘over-achievement’ as this should only be privileged, white, middle class pupils.
Discuss the image – how does it link to what we are learning?
How could ben react to these labels?
You’re violent and unintelligent!
SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY
Or…
They may become disruptive
They may withdraw from participation
May refuse to accept the label
May decide to prove it wrong by working extra hard to achieve success
Research and summarise details of the following studies:
Research and summarise details of the following studies:
Studied a group of black and Asian A Level students in a sixth form college.
Students who believed teachers labelled them negatively did not necessarily accept the label.
Responses to labels depended on ethnic group, gender and previous school experiences.
Mac an Ghaill also found that negative labelling does not inevitably result in self-fulfilling prophecy.
Studied a group of black girls in year 11 of a mixed comprehensive school where most black girls were placed in low streams.
The girls studied were atypical because they were high achievers despite their allocation to low steams.
Fuller found that the girls did not accept their negative labels, instead they channelled their energy into educational success.
Mirza (1992): avoidance strategies
Mirza (1992) studied ambitious black girls whose teachers discouraged them from aspiring to professional careers and identified three main types of teacher racism – match to the correct description:
The colour-blind
The liberal chauvinists
The overt racists
Girls responded by employing strategies such as being selective about which staff to ask for help, getting on with their work in lessons and choosing options which would avoid teachers with racist attitudes but these strategies put them at a disadvantage by restricting their opportunities.
teachers who believe black pupils are inferior and actively discriminate against them.
teachers who believe black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations from them
teachers who believe all pupils are equal but in practice allow racism to go unchallenged.
Sewell (2009): “loose cannons”
Sewell (2009) focused on the absence of fathers and the influence of peer groups and street culture to explain underachievement of black boys. Sewell identified four different types of boys’ responses to racist stereotyping by teachers – match to the correct description:
The rebels
The conformists
The retreatists
The innovators
largest group of black pupils, keen to succeed, pro-school, friends from different ethnic groups, anxious to be stereotyped.
small minority of visible and influential group of black pupils, often excluded from school, part of anti-school subculture, conforming to stereotype of “black macho lad”.
second largest group, pro-education but anti-school, valuing success but not seeking approval from teachers.
small minority of individuals who were disconnected from both school and black subculture and despised by the rebels.
Q: Problems with researching the effects of teacher’ racism on educational achievement of different ethnic groups?
Teachers may not be aware that they are displaying racist behaviour.
Observing teacher-pupil interactions in lessons may result in a Hawthorne effect so results would be lacking validity.
Teachers and pupils may be unwilling to talk about this topic in fear of the consequences.
Head teachers and governors (the gate keepers) may be concerned that the research will create negative impression of their school so access may be difficult.
Criticisms of the labelling theory and pupil responses
DISCUSS and summarise criticisms of the labelling theory and pupil responses as an explanation of ethnic differences in educational achievement.
Ignores racism in wider society by putting too much emphasis and blaming individual racist teachers.
Ignores factors outside the classroom which such as socio-economic status and parental influences.
Not all labelling leads to self-fulfilling prophecy as shown by Fuller and Mac an Ghaill’s research.
Institutional racism
Institutional racism refers to a discrimination that is built into the way institutions such as schools and colleges operate.
In what ways might schools routinely disadvantage ethnic minority pupils?
What does this mean?
Troyna and Williams (1986) argue that in order to explain ethnic differences in achievement, we need to consider the ways in which schools routinely and even unconsciously discriminate against some pupils, rather than just focusing on individual teacher racism.
Critical race theory
Critical race theory is a sociological theory which considers racism as an ingrained feature of society which operates at both individual and institutional level.
According to critical race theorists, institutional racism is a “locked-in inequality” - from a long history of discrimination.
Gillborn (2008) claims that ethnic inequality in education is “so deep rooted that it has become a practically inevitable feature of the education system”.
Critical race theorists see education system as institutionally racist in several ways:
TASK - Research and summarise the following ways in which educational system is institutionally racist: (use help sheet on teams)
1. Marketisation and Segregation
Moore and Davenport (1990) selection procedures lead to ethnic segregation, with minority pupils failing to get into better secondary schools due to discrimination e.g. process was difficult for non-English speaking parents to understand.
The commission for Racial Equality (1993) found ethnic minorities are more likely to end up in unpopular schools because:
Reports from primary schools that stereotype minority pupils
Racist bias in interviews for school places
Lack of information and application forms in minority languages
Ethnic minority parents are often unaware of how the waiting list system works and the importance of deadlines
2. The Ethnocentric Curriculum
David (1993) describes the National Curriculum as a ‘specifically British’ curriculum that largely ignores non-European languages, literature and music.
Ball (1994) criticises the National Curriculum for ignoring ethnic diversity and being ETHNOCENTRIC
Coard (1971; 2005) argued that the image of black people as inferior undermines black children’s self-esteem and leads to their failure.
3. Assessment
Gillborn (2008) Independent ‘baseline assessments’ in primary schools have been replaced by the foundation stage profile (FSP in 2003. Overnight, black pupils now appeared to be doing worse than white pupils
The FSP is based entirely on teachers’ judgements, whereas baseline assessments often used written tests as well
4. Access to Opportunities
Gifted and Talented: created to meet the needs of more able pupils in inner-city schools, but is not seen as equal because whites are over twice as likely as black Caribbeans to be identified as gifted and talented, and 5 times more likely than black Africans
5. The ‘new IQism’
Teachers see potential as a fixed quality that can be easily measured so they can be put into the ‘right’ set or stream, or onto G&T etc. Only accounts for what a person has already learnt to do or what they can do, not what they may be able to do in the future. Gillborn concludes that the education system is institutionally racist, creating an environment in which ethnic minority pupils are routinely disadvantaged.
Criticisms of institutional racism
Focuses on racism as an internal factor affecting achievement of ethnic minority pupils but ignores racism in wider society.
Evidence shows that some ethnic groups perform better despite being subjected to institutional racism, such as Indian and Chinese pupils.
Sewell claims that institutional racism is not powerful enough to prevent some students from succeeding in education – Cultural deprivation is more important
Exam skills practice
Outline two external factors which may lead to ethnic differences in achievement. (4)
Outline three ways in which ethnic minority pupils may respond to labelling. (6)
Item F: Investigating Ethnic Differences in Education
Not all ethnic groups do equally well at school. In general, pupils of Chinese and Indian heritage achieve more highly, while pupils from Black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds do less well. Black pupils are also more likely to be formally excluded from school than those from other ethnic groups. Some White groups, such as Roma/Gypsy children, do particularly badly. These patterns may be due to a variety of home and school factors. Sociologists may study ethnic differences in education by using overt non-participant observation. This method allows the researcher to witness interaction processes first hand. However, the researcher may find that it is not easy to observe certain important situations and settings, such as pupils’ home lives. Furthermore, those being observed may choose to behave differently when a researcher is present. Sociologists may also study ethnic differences in education by using written questionnaires. Questionnaires can be distributed widely to pupils, teachers and parents. However, people are less likely to respond unless they have a particular interest in the subject of the research. Furthermore, some people may not be willing or able to complete the questionnaire.
Applying material from Item F and your knowledge of research methods, assess the strengths and limitations of using overt non-participant observation for investigating ethnic differences in education. [20 marks]
MIC skills practice
