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Ethnicity and Education - Coggle Diagram
Ethnicity and Education
Genetic theories
New Right thinkers like Murray, Herrnstein and Eysenck proposed genetics do play a part in intelligence and educational attainment.
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Herrnstein- claimed that in the late 1960s between 40% and 80% of the differences in IQ scores is explained by inherited differences in intelligence. Measured by twin studies where identical twins have been reared in different environments but still maintained similar IQ results.
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Poverty and Class
Strand (1999)- found children from disadvantaged backgrounds failed to make expected progress. Material deprivation can prevent good education and deprived areas have worse schools.
Critic: Children from ethnic minority groups like Pakistani and Bangladeshi suffer higher average levels of poverty (2.4 times more likely- ONS 2018), yet do better in education so other factors must explain this. 41% of Bangladeshi children live in poverty.
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Cultural differences
Strand (2007)- analysis of 2004 study found Indian students are the ethnic group most likely to complete homework 5 evenings a week and the group whose parents are most likely to say they know where their child is when they're out.
Francis and Archer (2005)- high value placed on education by parents and a strong cultural tradition of respect for one's elders. High educational aspiration transmits from parents to children, derive positive self-esteem from being good students.
Chua (2011)- described Chinese parents as 'tiger parents' who do not accept failure and demand educational attainment from their children.
Burgess and Wilson (2008)- among Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, black Caribbean and black African families, over 90% of parents want their child to stay on at school at 16 compared to 77% of white families.
Basit (2013)- used focus groups and in-depth interviews with parents and grandparents in British Asian families and found all generations placed a high value on education, especially grandparents who saw free state education as a 'blessing' because they didn't have such opportunities in their countries of origin. They thus put special effort into ensuring the children had access to computers and study spaces and were happy to provide the resources to make the most of their education.
Ethnocentric curriculum
The notion that the curriculum focuses on a particular ethnic group. E.g. History is taught from a white British perspective. It puts ethnic groups at a disadvantage as their history is not being represented (exclusion).School holidays focus on Christian beliefs, Western sports, uniform regulations, impact identity and self-esteem of ethnic minority learners.
Ball- the UK curriculum is 'little Englandism', focusing on the triumphs of the British Empire and the elite white (colonisation). Limited representation of African and Caribbeans as focused on slavery and Civil Rights. Limited representation of Chinese learners. The message that their history is not important enough to be studeied. Lack of role models.
Coard (2005)- curriculum suggested 'white is good and black is primitive'. White people are portrayed as good and having 'saved and educated the minorities'.
2013 Gov reformed the history curriculum, telling an 'island story' from the magna carta to the invention of the internet.
Critic: achievement of pupils from white backgrounds is lower than all ethnic minorities apart from black Caribbean and Pakistani students. The ethnocentric curriculum has little impact on specific subject areas like maths and science.
Fordham and Ogbu (1986)- argue notions of 'acting black' and 'acting white' became identified in opposition to one another. Hence because 'acting white' includes doing well in school and 'acting black' implies not doing well in school.
Racism
Swann Report (1985)- argued schools were institutionally racist. Self-fulfilling prophecy, hidden curriculum, books and teaching materials.
Wright (1992)- although teaching staff opposed racist views, they were often stereotyping learners as 'problematic'. Asian girls tend to be seen as more submissive and were overlooked whilst black Caribbean boys were seen as having low potential which leads to poor behaviour.
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Richardson (2005)- African Caribbean boys are between four and fifteen times more likely to be excluded than white boys.
Critic: Mirza (1992)- 'myth of underachievement' as girls in her study did better than boys or their white counterparts and achievement of black girls is underestimated. But although resentful of labelling attitudes, the girls were psychologically undermined by the different treatment.
Single-parenthood
African Caribbean communities tend to have relatively high levels of lone parent family dynamics. This impacts finances which impact educational attainment.
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Abbott (2002)- development of 'gangsta' culture with the absence of positive black male role models at home and in school.
Sewell (1997)- black Caribbean boys may experience considerable pressure by peers to adopt norms of an 'urban' or 'street' subculture. More importance is given to unruly behaviour with teachers and antagonistic behaviour with other students than to high achievement or effort to succeed. He found four subcultures: conformists, innovators, retreatists and rebels.
Criticism: 20.7% of black African households are lone parent with dependent children, compared to only 16.6% of black Caribbean households. However, black African children do better at GCSEs than black Caribbean children (48% compared to 30% get 5 GCSEs A*-C including English and Maths).