Ethnic Differences in Education

External factors - Factors outside of the school

• Cultural deprivation
• Material deprivation
• Racism in wider society

Internal factors - Factors inside of the school

• Labelling
• Institutional racism (the ethnocentric curriculum)

External factors

Cultural deprivation

Ethnic minority students are inadequately socialised by their families, leading to them being culturally deprived as they lack the cultural equipment needed to succeed in education.

Bereiter and Engleman – The language used by low-income black families is deficient, due to them using a restricted language code. This places black students at a disadvantage as the elaborated code is used in schools, for example by teachers and in textbooks.

Evaluation

…Though, there was little improvement and the gap in achievement still remained.

As a result, Baker-Bell – It is the school's linguistic supremacy that needs to be tackled as it dominates over other forms of language.

This suggests that cultural deprivation is only part of the explanation and there are perhaps internal factors at play. Arguably it is the school ethnocentrism, and bias towards Western culture that causes ethnic minority underachievement.

However Gillbourne – Questions why Indian pupils do so comparatively well if language is such a factor. This suggests that there are other factors at play.

Material deprivation:

Palmer – Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households

Thus, ethnic minority children are more likely to lack the material necessities required to succeed in school, such as financial support. This results in them having to do without useful equipment such as internet access which would enhance their educational achievement.

Waldfogel and Washbrook – Discovered that 62% of the poorest groups had no internet access. Thus, ethnic minority students risk falling behind as they experience difficulty studying at home, consequently resulting in them underachieving.

Evaluation

This suggests that ethnicity and social class factors are interrelated. Thus, failing to acknowledge this risks the effects of cultural deprivation being overestimated and the effects of poverty and material deprivation being under-estimated

However, Indian and Chinese pupils who are materially deprived still perform better than other ethnicities in education. This suggests that material deprivation and social class factors do not completely override the influence of ethnicity.

Racism in wider society:

Rex - Racial discrimination leads to social exclusion which can worsen the poverty faced by ethnic minorities, for example in housing. As a result, ethnic minorities may begin to feel marginalised and have lower aspirations, leading to them being demotivated in school as it is part of the establishment that is excluding them.

Evaluation

Internal factors

Labelling

Howard Becker - Teachers negatively label ethnic minority students, influencing their self-concept. For example, teachers assume Asian pupils have a poor grasp of English, and black pupils are disruptive, so have lower expectations. This causes them to experience a self-fulfilling prophecy, correspondingly become demotivated and potentially polarise into a school subculture, consequently having a negative effect on their achievement.

Evaluation

Though...

Tony Sewell – Discovered that black males would form an anti-educational peer group, finding role models outside of school.

Therefore, a gender dimension should be considered as people from different genders within an ethnicity may react differently to being negatively labelled

Institutional racism (the ethnocentric curriculum)

The national curriculum can be seen as a form of institutional racism as it disadvantages ethnic minorities by mainly focusing on Western culture.

To illustrate 87.5% of the AQA history specification is based on Western culture

As a result, ethnic minorities may begin to feel marginalised, placing them at a disadvantage as they struggle to identify with what they are being taught.

Evaluation

Ball – Chinese students, who are also ethnic minority students haven't experienced the same negative impact on their achievement.

Sewell – argues that this may be because Asian families have an 'Asian work ethic' which values education, thus encouraging Asian pupils to achieve highly.

Therefore, this suggests that there are perhaps external factors influencing achievement such as family cohesion and a strong support system.

Ethnic differences in achievement conclusion:

We cannot look at internal and external factors in isolation from each other.

For example, Teachers label ethnic minority students primarily based on stereotypes which can stem from racism in wider society

Ultimately suggesting that the internal and external factors are interrelated and thus shouldn't be looked at separately.