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Ethnic Differences in Achievement: External - Coggle Diagram
Ethnic Differences in Achievement: External
Evaluation of Cultural Deprivation Theory
Lawrence (1982):
challenges Pryce's view that black pupils fail because their culture is weak/ they lack self-esteem. Black pupils underachieve due to racism.
Keddie
: cultural deprivation is victim-blaming, ethnic minority children are not culturally deprived- they're culturally different. They underachieve because schools are ethnocentric.
Driver (1977)
: Cultural Deprivation theory ignores positive effects of ethnicity. Black Caribbean families are not dysfunctional- provide girls with positive role models of strong, independent women (explains why black girls are more successful in education than black boys)
Oppose "solutions" to cultural deprivation such as compensatory education as it simply imposes the dominant white culture on children who already have a coherent culture of their own. They propose 2 alternatives:
Multicultural education
: recognises and values minority cultures, including them in the curriculum
Anti-racist education:
policy that challenges prejudice/ discrimination in schools and wider society
Cultural Deprivation
Attitudes and Values
Most children are socialised into a mainstream culture that instils ambition, competitiveness, willingness to make sacrifices to achieve long-term goals = educational success.
Cultural Deprivation Theorists:
black pupils are socialised into a fatalistic, "live for today" attitude that does not value education and leaves them unequipped for success.
Sewell
: Black boys are subjected to powerful anti-school peer pressure, most of the academically successful black boys interviewed felt that the greatest barrier to success was pressure from other boys. Doing well at school is treated with suspicion, seen as "selling out" to the white establishment.
Sewell
:
Black students do worse than Asians because of cultural differences in attitudes to education
- whilst one group is
nurtured by MTV,
the other is
clocking up educational hours
.
Pryce (1979):
Asians are higher achievers than black pupils because their culture is more resistant to racism and gives them a greater sense of self-worth, whilst black Caribbean culture is less cohesive, less resistant to racism= black pupils have lower self-esteem and underachieve (due to the different impact of colonialism)
Intellectual and Linguistic Skills
Bereiter and Engelmann:
Children from low-income black American families suffer from verbal deprivation. Their language is inadequate for educational success as it is ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas.
Evaluation
Official stats: in 2010 pupils with English as their first language were only 3.2 points ahead of those without English as their first language in gaining 5 A*-C GCSEs
Gillborn and Mirza (2000)
: Indian pupils do very well despite often not having English as their home language.
Many children from low-income, black families lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences, leaving them poorly equipped for school as hey have not developed reasoning and problem solving skills.
Family Structure and Parental Support
Asian Families
Sewell (1997):
Indian and Chinese pupils benefit from supportive families that have an "Asian work ethic" and place a high value on education
Lupton (2004):
Adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model in education. Asian children (especially Muslim), are well-behaved/ work hard because their parents expect them to be respectful towards adults= parents always generally supportive of school behaviour policies and sanctions.
Archer and Francis (2005):
Chinese parents see education as a "family project", have high expectations of their children, and invest lots of time and money into their education.
Basit (1997):
Asian parents view education as a type of capital that can transform the lives of their children= offer their children lots of support.
W/c Families
McCulloch (2014):
surveyed 16,000 pupils, found that ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university than white British pupils
Lupton
: Low aspiration is due to low parental support.
Studied 4 w/c schools (2 mainly white, 1 with a large Pakistani community, 1 ethnically mixed).
Poorer behaviour/ discipline in the white w/c schools despite having fewer children on FSM (less poverty)
failure= due to less parental support: white w/c parents had negative attitudes to education, whilst ethnic minority parents saw education as "a way up in society"
Dysfunctional family structures- lone parenthood
Failure to adequately socialise children is due to a dysfunctional family structure:
Moynihan (1965)
: many black families are headed by a lone mother= children are deprived of adequate care as she struggles financially in the absence of a male breadwinner. Absence of father= boys lack an adequate role model of male achievement= go on to fail at school and become inadequate parents themselves (cycle of cultural deprivation)
Murray (1984):
high rate of lone parenthood and lack of positive male role models leads to underachievement amongst minorities.
Sewell
:
Black boys underachieving is due to a lack of fatherly nurturing and "tough love" (firm, fair, non-abusive discipline)= find it hard to overcome emotional/ behavioural difficulties of adolescence.
Without this restraining influence of a nurturing father, street gangs offer black boys "perverse loyalty and love", presenting them with a media-inspired role model of anti-school black masculinity.
Arnot (2004):
describes it as an ultra-tough ghetto superstar, an image constantly reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV videos.
Ethnic Material Deprivation
Palmer
Almost
50% of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households
compared to 25% of white children.
Ethnic minorities almost
2x as likely to be unemployed
than whites
Ethnic minority households are
3x as likely to be homeless
Almost
50% of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under £7 an hour
, compared to 25% of white British workers
Ethnic minorities at greater risk of material deprivation :
many live in economically depressed areas, with high unemployment, low wage rates
A lack of language skills and foreign qualifications not being recognised by UK employers= low income
Asylum seekers may not be allowed to take work
FSM and achievement
Bangladeshi, Black African and Pakistani students have highest entitlement to FSM
: achieve below average
Indian pupils have lowest entitlement to FSM, from better-off backgrounds: generally achieve above average.
= Material factors are to blame for ethnic underachievement
Evaluation
: Indian and Chinese pupils who are materially deprived still do better than most-
86% of Chinese girls on FSM got 5+ higher grade GCSES in 2011, compared to 65% of white girls who were NOT on FSM= material deprivation/ class does not override the influence of ethnicity
Racism in Wider Society
Rex (1986):
racial discrimination leads to social exclusion, which worsens poverty faced by ethnic minorities. E.g. in housing, discrimination means minorities more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class
Wood et al (2010):
Evidence of direct and deliberate discrimination in employment. Sent 3 closely matched job applications to almost 1000 job vacancies, using names associated with different ethnic groups. Only 1/16 "ethnic minority" applications were offered an interview, compared to 1/9 "white" applicants
Mason (2000):
discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of ethnic minorities in Britain
Explains why ethnic minorities are more likely to face unemployment and low pay, which has a negative effect on their children's educational prospects