House keeping
I will no longer mark work
which is:
1. Not in a book.
2. Stuck in properly –
single sided.
3. Date and title.
4. The questions must be
written out.
5. Fill in your own tracker.
6. Answer my questions.
Home Learning
1. Define the term educational triage (2m)
2. Briefly explain how pupils’ identities may
lead to underachievement (2m)
3. Outline three ways in which pupils may
respond to streaming. (6m)
4. Evaluate the view that social class differences
in achievement are the result of what goes
on in schools. (20m)
Define the term educational triage (2m)
The need to gain a good league table position
creates
an educational triage and A-C economy.
Pupils -Triage
Those who will
pass anyway
Borderline C/D
students
are targeted
for extra help
Hopeless cases –
largely ignored
Briefly explain how pupils’ identities
may lead to underachievement (2m)
Archer – WC class identities / habitus
not recognised by MC school system.
Create alternative ways of creating
self-worth and identity that are not
about education.
WC get the message that education
is not for likes of them and actively
choose to reject it as it does not fit
their lifestyle.
Working class students seen as
inferior, their preferences, clothing,
accents and appearance are seen as
tasteless.
WC kids see education as alien and
unnatural.
To be educationally successful, they
felt they had to change the way they
talked and presented themselves.
They had to lose themselves to fit
into university and professional
careers.
Outline three ways in which pupils
may respond to streaming. (6m)
High streams – high self-esteem – high
expectations. Pro-school norms and values.
Low sets – low self-esteem, anti-school subculture.
Woods – Retreatism, Ritualism, Rebellion
Furlong – No fixed response.
Evaluate the view that social class differences in
achievement are the result of what goes on in schools.
(20m)
In-school
factors
Teacher
Labelling
Selffulfilling
prophecy
Streaming
Pupil
subcultures
Pupils’ class
identities
Quick questions to start
1. Who coined the terms ‘elaborate’ and ‘restricted code’?
2. What explanation did Sugarman give for middle class
successes over the working classes in education?
3. What experiment did Rosenthal and Jacobson conduct in
1968?
4. According to Becker (1971) what criteria did the teachers
use in his study use to ‘judge’ and label ‘ideal’ students
and other pupils?
5. What are the two subcultures titled in Lacey’s study?
6. How were students differentiated in Lacey’s study?
7. Differentiation leads to what according to Lacey?
Ethnicity
Post-it Note
Challenge:
and
achievement
Define Ethnicity
Defining Ethnicity
“People who share common history, customs,
language, religion, culture and who see
themselves as a distinct unit”
•Problem of measuring ethnicity?
•Should Asian be grouped together?
•How do you classify people of dual heritage?
•Is ethnicity different to race?
Task
On the sheet, arrange the cards you have been
given into an order. Blu tack them on.
Highest
Achievers
Lowest
Achievers
Now annotate the sheet – what factors might affect
attainment? Why might ethnicity play a role?
Chinese girls
Chinese boys
Indian girls
Indian boys
White girls
Pakistani girls
Black Caribbean
girls
White boys
Pakistani boys
Black Caribbean
Boys
Irish Traveller
boys
Irish Traveller
Girls
1) Chinese girls
2) Chinese boys
3) Indian girls
4) Indian boys
5) White girls
6) Pakistani girls
7) Black Caribbean girls
8) White boys
9) Pakistani boys
10) Black Caribbean Boys
11) Irish Traveller boys
12) Irish Traveller Girls
Other problems...
• ‘One snapshot in time’
• Some pupils may resit exams or add
to their qualifications after leaving
school.
Ethnicity: The Facts
• Inequalities in educational achievements of
different ethnic groups.
• Whites and Asians do better than students who
identify as Black.
• Significant variation in each group (Asians –
Bangladeshi & Pakistani do worse that Indians)
• Gender and class differences in each group.
• White boys on FSM are worst performing group.
Is cultural background influencing achievement?
Language
Outside School
(External) Factors
Social class
and
material
factors
Gender
Family
Differences
The school
system is
racist
Stereotyping
Setting and
streaming
Inside School (internal)
Factors
Pupil/teacher
relationships
Lack of
role
models
Exclusion
Labelling
Cultural Deprivation
Intellectual and
linguistic skills
EM underachievement
due to inadequate
socialisation in the home.
Family Structure
Attitudes and
Values
Intellectual and Linguistic Skills
1. Low income EM
families lack
intellectual stimulation
and experiences.
2. Lack of Standard
English may be a
barrier to educational
success.
• Gillborn and Mirza
(2000) Indian pupils do
very well in spite of
often not having English
as a home language.
Attitudes and Values
• Lack of motivation and ambition among some
ethnic groups.
• They are not socialised into a ‘pro-school’ culture.
Is this true?
Is this racist?
Family Structure
• Failure to socialise children due to dysfunctional
family structures.
• Murray (1984) high rates of lone parenthood and
a lack of positive male role models.
• Pryce (1979) Impact of colonialism determines
different ethnic groups resistance to racism.
Asian Families
• Driver & Ballard (1981) Asian family structures
have educational benefits. Asian parents
positive about education, high aspirations and
supportive of school behaviour policies.
• Khan (1979) Some Asian families are ‘stressridden’, bound by tradition and a controlling
attitude towards children and girls.
Tiger Mother
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDdEnKPA5_s
1. What reasons might Amy
Chua give for explaining
why Chinese students
perform better at school?
2. Can you remember any of
her ‘Tiger Mother’
parenting tips?
Sewell: Tough Love
• Not the absence of fathers but lack of
nurturing ‘tough love’ to help black boys
overcome problems of adolescence.
• Fatherless boys use media - anti-school black
masculinity.
• Biggest barrier to success is black boy peer
pressure
Important study: Arnot (1998)
In addition to internal factors, Sewell argued that
many black, male role models for young black
men are what Arnot defines as ‘ultra-tough’
ghetto superstars – images constantly reinforced
in the media, and played out in school.
White working-class families
• EM more likely to aspire to
HE.
• Teachers hold negative
views about white working
class parents.
• White working class kids
have lower aspirations and
worse achievement.
Criticisms of Cultural Deprivation
1. Ignores the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement.
2. Black pupils do not fail because of weak culture rather due
to RACISM.
3. Victim-blaming – EM children are not culturally deprived but
culturally different.
4. The curriculum favours white culture and is ETHNOCENTRIC.
5. Education should be multi-cultural and anti-racist.
Activity – PERCy –Ethnicity and
Cultural Deprivation
Point
Explain
Research
Critique
• Children from EM groups fare less well in school
because of cultural deprivation
• This means …
Point
1. Children from ethnic minority groups
may fare less well at school because of
linguistic deprivation.
Point Explanation
1. Children from ethnic minority groups may
fare less well at school because of linguistic
deprivation.
2. This describes how children from some
ethnic minorities may not possess the English
skills needed to succeed in British education,
often because English is a second language
Point Explanation Research
1. Children from ethnic minority groups may fare less
well at school because of linguistic deprivation.
2. This describes how children from some ethnic
minorities may not possess the English skills
needed to succeed in British education, often
because English is a second language
3. Mac an Ghaill (1988) even suggested that black
Caribbean students often encounter problems
because the Creole or patois that their parents
speak does not ‘fit’ with the formal English
required in exams. Bowker (1968) agrees that a
lack of standard English can be a major barrier.
Point Explanation Research Criticism
1. Children from ethnic minority groups may fare less well
at school because of linguistic deprivation.
2. This describes how children from some ethnic minorities
may not possess the English skills needed to succeed in
British education, often because English is a second
language
3. Mac an Ghaill (1988) even suggested that black
Caribbean students often encounter problems because
the Creole or patois that their parents speak does not ‘fit’
with the formal English required in exams. Bowker
(1968) agrees that a lack of standard English can be a
major barrier.
4. However, this idea is not a rule, as statistics show that
Chinese and Indian students are the most academically
successful students. For many of these students, English
is not their mother tongue either.
Material Deprivation
• Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are 3X more likely than whites to
live in poverty.
• 50% of EM children live in low-income households compared
to 25% of whites.
• 15% of EM households are overcrowded.
• EM x3 likely to be homeless.
• Pakistanis x2 more likely to be working in unskilled or semiskilled jobs.
It is about POVERTY not Culture.
Does class override
ethnicity? Discuss.
Racism in wider society
Poverty amongst EM groups due to wider racism in
society.
•Discrimination in housing.
•Discrimination in employment
Noon (1993) Letters of Application – same details
with the name ‘Evans’ and ‘Patel’. Companies more
positive about Evans.
Scale 1 - 10
The education system is racist. Race inequality
is a fundamental, constant and central feature of
education today.
Gillborn.
Internal Factors
Individual
teacher
racism
Institutional
racism
Internal factors and eth
differences in achievemen
Individual
teacher
racism
What stereotypes do
you think exist about
certain ethnic
groups?
"Mexican cars are just going to be
a lazy, feckless, flatulent, oaf with
a moustache leaning against a
fence asleep looking at a cactus
with a blanket with a hole in the
middle on as a coat"
Richard Hammond
Labelling and teacher racism
• Teacher may attach labels to students:
Bright/stupid, troublemaker/obedient etc
• Interactionists focus on the different labels
teachers give to students from different
ethnic backgrounds.
• Negative labels may lead teachers to treat
ethnic minority pupils differently.
Gillborn & Youdell (2000) Teachers have racial
stereotypes about black pupils.
Teachers quicker to discipline black pupils than others
for the same behaviour.
Racialised expectations – teachers expect more
discipline problems therefore the students behaviour is
interpreted as a challenge. Black pupils respond
negatively to this which escalates the problem.
These stereotypes lead to allocation in lower sets or
exclusion.
Exclusions from school
• Four-fifths of permanent exclusions are boys.
• Black Caribbean pupils x4 as likely to be
permanently excluded from school as White
British pupils.
• Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi children are
all less likely to be permanently excluded from
school than White British pupils.
Why are exclusions so high?
Bourne (1994) – black boys seen as a threat,
negatively labelled which results in exclusion.
Osler (2001) – Black pupils also suffer higher
rates of hidden or internal exclusions and more
likely to go to PRUs.
Foster (1990) Black boys more likely to end up in
lower sets despite their abilities.
Wright (1992) Asian Pupils
Observation study of a multi-ethnic primary school.
Teachers assumed Asian pupils would have a poor
grasp of English so spoke down to them or left them
out of discussions.
Teachers mispronounced their names.
Marginalisation
Pupil Identities
Archer (2008) Teachers have stereotypical ideas about EM pupils’
identities.
The Ideal Pupil – white, middle class, masculinised identity,
normal sexuality
The Pathologised Pupil – An Asian, ‘deserving poor’
feminised identity, asexual, plodding conformist, overachiever,
success through hard-work rather than talent.
The Demonised Pupil – black or white working class,
hyper-sexualised identity, unintelligent, peer-led, culturallydeprived underachiever.
Pupil Responses to Subcultures.
Fuller (1984)
• Study of Y11 high achieving
black girls in a london school.
• Rejected negative labels about
themselves.
• Channeled themselves into
their studies – did not seek
teacher approval – socialised
with low achieving black girls.
Mac an Ghaill (1992)
• Study of black and Asian A
level students.
• Students believed the
teachers had negatively
labelled them but did not
accept the label.
• No self-fulfilling prophecy.
Important study: Heidi Mirza (1992)
• Mirza found that racist teachers often discouraged black
pupils from being ambitious through the kind of advice
they gave them regarding careers.
• Pupils strategies to cope involved avoiding certain
teachers, not asking for help, not choosing certain
options which impacted on their success.
• In her research, Mirza uncovered 3 main types of teacher
racism.
The colour-blind: They believed all children were equal,
but let racism to go unchallenged.
The liberal chauvinists: Teachers that have low
expectations of black students and believe they are
culturally deprived
The overt racists: They believed black children were
inferior and actively discriminated against them.
The crusaders: These were not racist – they were a
small minority of (young) teachers who actively sought
to fight racism and challenge their racist colleagues.
Important study: Sewell (1998)
• Black boys deal with racism in a variety of ways
• Teachers’ stereotypes about black machismo see all
black boys as rebellious and anti-school.
• Sewell said that boys respond in a variety of ways…
Rebels
Conformists
Retreatists
Innovators
Goal of
success
Follow
school
rules
Behaviour
Rebels
No –
make
their
own
No –
make
their
own
Conformed to a stereotype of the
‘black lad’. Rebellious. Disliked white
boys (girly) For a (anti-school)
subculture. The biggest, most visible
group
Conformists
Yes
Yes
Keen to succeed and do well so
followed school rules – friends from all
ethnicities – not part of a subculture
and did not want to be stereotyped
Retreatists
No
No
Very small minority of isolated boys.
Disconnected from school and black peers.
Innovators
Yes
No
The second largest group. Pro-education, but
anti-school. Did not seek teachers’ approval.
Distanced themselves from conformists, but
kept credibility with rebels.
Goal of
success
Follow
school
rules
Behaviour
Rebels
No –
make
their
own
No –
make
their
own
Conformed to a stereotype of the
‘black lad’. Rebellious. Disliked white
boys (girly) For a (anti-school)
subculture. The biggest, most visible
group
Conformists
Yes
Yes
Keen to succeed and do well so
followed school rules – friends from all
ethnicities – not part of a subculture
and did not want to be stereotyped
Retreatists
No
No
Very small minority of isolated boys.
Disconnected from school and black peers.
Innovators
Yes
No
The second largest group. Pro-education, but
anti-school. Did not seek teachers’ approval.
Distanced themselves from conformists, but
kept credibility with rebels.
Evaluation of Labelling and Pupil Responses.
Rather than blame the victim, these theories
suggest teacher stereotypes can cause failure.
Deterministic – once labelled not all students
become self-fulfilling prophecies, many reject and
challenge the labels.
 Bigger Picture – blaming individual teachers does
not examine the wider issues such as
Government policy, racism is society.
Institutional Racism
“Discrimination built into the way schools and
colleges operate”
Evidence:
•Ethnocentric curriculum.
•Racism not seen as an important issue.
•Assessment
•Access to Opportunities
“Locked in inequality”
Critical race theory.
“Less overt, more subtle ,
less identifiable in terms of
specific individuals … it
originates in the operation
of established and respected
forces in society”
The scale of historical
discrimination is so large
that the inequality is selfperpetuating. It feeds on
itself.
Ethnic inequality in
education so deep rooted,
so large that it is a
practically inevitable feature
of the education system.
Institutional racism?
Troyna and Williams (1986)
Ethnocentric Curriculum
• A policy which gives priority to
one culture over others.
Activity:
• National Curriculum ignores
non-white history, languages,
literature and music.
To what extent is this true
today?
• History – British presented as
bringing civilisation to the
world.
• Poor teaching of Asian
languages.
What has your education
been like?
Indian and Chinese
students achievement is
above the national average
Ethnocentric curriculum?
Languages
History
Literature
Music
Arts
Gifted and
Talented
Selection and Segregation
Gillborn (1997)
Marketisation – schools
more able to select their
pupils.
CRE (1993) Admission
procedures mean EM
children less likely to get
into desirable schools.
Recent years have seen a
growth in minority faithbased schools.
Very Important study...
Commission for Racial Equality (1993)
Racism in school admissions means that ethnic
minority children are more likely to end up in
unpopular schools. Because...
1. Primary school reports stereotype minority pupils.
2. Racist bias in interviews for school places.
3. Lack of info and application forms in minority
languages.
4. Minority parents are often unaware of how the
waiting list system works and the importance of
deadlines.
Selection and Segregation
• Gilborn (1997) argues that the marketisation
of schools (the competition for places) has
given schools greater scope to select pupils.
• More choice means that negative racial
stereotypes might play a part in (not)
selecting certain students.
Access to Opportunities
G&T
programme
Exam Tiers
The New
IQism
Criticisms of Institutional Racism
1. Sewell – the underachievement of black boys
is mainly a product of external factors such as
peer group pressure.
2. Overachievement of Chinese and Indian
pupils.
Model Minorities
• Chinese and Indian pupils overachievement
makes the system look fair and meritocratic.
• Justifies the failure of other groups as
individual fault or problematic home life.
• Model minorities still experience racism in
schools.
Ethnicity, class and gender
Evans (2006) to understand
the different achievement of
different groups we need to
understand how ethnicity,
class and gender interact.
Connolly (1998) study of a
multi-ethnic primary school.
Pupils and teachers
construct masculinity
differently depending on the
child’s ethnicity.
Black boys = disruptive.
Asian boys = vulnerable,
academic.
Plan me!
Evaluate the view that ethnic differences in
educational achievement are primarily the result
of factors outside the school (20 marks).
Plenary : Scale 1 - 10
The education system is racist. Race inequality
is a fundamental, constant and central feature of
education today.
Gillborn.
“That’s great honey, you’ll
make a good receptionist
one day”
“Shall I compare thee to a
summers day…”
“Your labels won’t stick to
us!”
Sort out
racism in
“Stop that
nonsense at
once!”