This primarily affected African American children because their education system was different from the white children. Negro schools had many restrictions such as the reading matter being restricted to the used and discarded volumes of the libraries of the white community (Johnson 268). Based on attention to this advertisement through the perspective of race, I observe that African American children were falsely depicted in the 1930’s because they lack a proper education system and they were not socially equal. Education affected the child’s self-esteem and self-worth. According to Charles Johnson’s article, “Education of the Negro Child” about sixty-five percent of African American children are classified as retarded and the majority are retarded by more than one year (Johnson 266).
Many sociologists have linked labelling in school, especially by teachers, with the difference in achievements in terms of ethnicity. Negative stereotypes and labels may cause teacher to treat students from an ethnic minority differently, which could in turn, disadvantage them and ultimately, result in them underachieving. Studies from different sociologists back up and support this. Gillborn and Youdell (2000) found in their studies that teachers were more likely to discipline black students quicker than they would with their white counterparts, due to the fact that teachers held “racialised expectations”. They argued that they stereotyped and expected black students to present behaviour such as threatening and challenging authority, which leaves the student feeling underestimated and picked on.
In turn, it has caused a lowering of standards, which has had its greatest impact on minority students. Whether one adheres to Hirsch’s views or not, he drives at one of our nation’s greatest concerns: the inequity of achievement in education. We should move to embrace educators who make education relevant to students, while also maintaining high standards for them. He makes some valid points
Racism is linked to the educational achievement of minority ethnic groups, however the connections are complex. Gilborn and Mirza conclude that ‘social class and gender differences are also associated with differences in attainment but neither can account for persistent underlying ethnic inequalities: comparing like with like, African Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils do not enjoy equal opportunities.’ They also argue that in promoting educational inclusion as a means of raising standards, there is a need ‘for clarity and guidance in translating the commitment to equality and inclusion into policy proposals and practice at the local and school level. A recent research report found that: • Children whose first language is other than English do not perform as well as other children across the Foundation Stage scales • Pupils for whom English was an additional language have lower attainment than pupils whose first language is English. The difference between the two groups is
Where as before they were consistently achieving the highest grades on the old assessments, on FSP black students were being introduced into a process of educational failure due to white supremacist attitudes which match those in the US which leads to failure being the only norm attributed to black people in life not just in compulsory learning. The issues faced by black people in the UK are almost identical to those in the US, however it is projected in a different context. Whereas in the UK students are separated into placement sets which provides the disadvantage, in the US students are separated into schools which have a dominate black populations and receives less funding than other schools with a majority white student body. With this distinction and comparison made between the Critical Race Theory of the US and the UK, the notion of “separate but equal” (US Department of Justice, 1896) exist in equal measure in both states. This paper would argue that the indoctrination of whiteness, as defined by Gillborn as the “assumptions and actions” (2008, p. 9) of whites, is maintained through an invisible and legal form of segregation, which exist in the schools of Britain.
Payne states that impoverished students face inequality at school, insinuating that the school should be responsible for helping to provide for these students so that they can have a better education. Gorski sees that responsibility lies most likely with us, who can aid teachers in offering a hand, as they are underpaid and are not able to do much on their own. The two authors have clashing ideas as to why students are in poverty: Payne believes that the impoverished students are lazy and have their own set of
Assess sociological explanations of ethnic differences in educational achievement Some sociologists argue that some ethnic groups maybe underachieving in the education system whereas some say that these ethnic groups differ in the education system. Material factors may affect ethnic groups in the education system, material deprivation explanations see educational failure as results from factors such as substandard housing and low income. Ethnic minorities are more likely to face these problems according to Flaherty as unemployment is three times higher for African and Bangladeshi/Pakistani people than for whites, Pakistanis are nearly twice as likely to be in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs compared to whites. Ethnic minorities are more likely to be engaged in shift work. These inequalities parallel those in educational achievement e.g.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Jane Elliot’s experiment first indicated that the students with blue eyes have superiority in intelligence, and that students with brown eyes were inferior. The next day she reversed this saying her statement was untrue and that the reverse situation now prevailed. The students that thought they were in the superior category oppressed the students in the inferior category, and the students in the inferior category exhibited negative self-worth and fear. Jane Elliot’s experiment exhibits prejudice because of the negative evaluations of the groups with different color eyes, and the members of these groups were not considered individuals. She based her judgments of them solely based on the physical characteristic of their eye color.
Ethnic minorities are also more likely to undertake low-paid, low-skilled work, and the vicious circle that stems from this – inferior housing, poorer living standards, and substandard schools in deprived areas – is actually partly caused by the welfare state system, which institutionalises this discrimination. The unique problems faced by ethnic minorities must be addressed individually, and until recently social policy has failed to do this. Furthermore, the emphasis on tackling crime that has underpinned New Labour's social policy and that of the previous Conservative governments has impacted on ethnic minorities due to the often discriminatory nature of initiatives to cut crime. The ‘stop and search' programme is unfairly targeted toward black youths, to the extent that many believe being black is tantamount to a social problem (McGhee, 2005). Such flaws in British social policy have undoubtedly contributed to a growing sense of isolation amongst ethnic minority groups, and thus it could be argued that social policy is often more harmful than
The following paper will argue against single-sex schools and display various reasons as to how they are counter-productive to student needs. A report published in the journal Science, states that students who attend single-sex schools are no better educated than those who attend co-ed schools. Plus, children are more likely to accept gender stereotypes when they go to an all-boys or all-girls school. "There's really no good evidence that single-sex schools are in any way academically superior, but there is evidence of a negative impact," said Lynn Liben, professor of psychology and education at Penn State and co-author of the study. "Kids' own occupational aspirations are going to be limited, and there could be long-term consequences where, for example, girls are used to being in roles only among other girls, then they have to face the real world where that's not the case."