Assess sociological explanations for ethnic differences in achievement. (20 Marks) There are many reasons for ethnic differences in achievement, it’s been found that Indian and Asian pupils achieve higher than White, African-Caribbean, and Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils. One possible cause of ethnic differences in education is labeling, sociologist Gillborn found that teachers would label and therefore discipline black pupils quicker than other pupils which would do the same things and this would create a self fulfilling prophecy of the teachers thinking that black pupils would misbehave and do poorly and the pupils would accept that and with the extra lack of teacher help and increased discipline would therefore fail. Gillborn and Youdell think that this is because teachers label black pupils as being more likely to cause problems and rebel, with the teachers labeling the black pupils like this it makes them feel picked on and that the teachers underestimated them. Another result of the negative labeling of black pupils is the higher exclusion rate and the higher chances of black pupils to be put in sets below their actual abilities, which can only lead those black pupils to underachieve.
For example black pupils are often seen as disruptive. Gilborn and Youdell (2000) found that teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour. They argue that this is the result of teachers ‘racialised expectations’. They found that teachers expected black pupils to present more discipline problems and misinterpreted their behaviour as threatening or as a challenge to authority. In turn, black pupils felt teachers underestimated their ability and picked on them.
In the United States there are a lot of stereotypes about students of color. These stereotypes stem from facts regarding the current black-white achievement gap in education. Paige, Witty, Lynch, and Thernstrom give support on the facts of the achievement gap and why it still exists today. The achievement gap in education has also been discussed in many documentaries, including, “The Lottery” and “No Textbook Answer.” These two documentaries will be used to help answer the research question: Why does the achievement gap in education exist? This achievement gap is present before children even start school.
Recent studies highlight the effects of racism. It is believed that ethnicity influences such factors, leading to an impact upon their education. This essay will assess sociological explanations of ethnic differences in educational achievement, using research from sociologists such as Modood, Gillborn, Mirza and Wright. Modood was one of the major sociologists. He found figures on the higher and lower levels of achievement from different ethnic groups.
On the other hand, Gilbon recognises the processes committed in school which create the ethnic differences in attainment, he found that Afro-Caribbean boys were often labelled “unruly” “disrespectful”, they were also more likely to be given detentions than other pupils. This was because teachers misinterpreted their dress and manner of speech as a challenge to their authority. These actions lead these boys to have a self fulfilling prophecy which results in them
This is supported by the Swann Report which suggests that social class accounts for at least 50% of achievement differences. However, Gillborn and Mirza suggest that social class isn’t as influential as ethnicity as even Black pupils from middle class backgrounds still perform poorly compared to others of the same class. Thus, underachievement cannot be primarily due to home background factors so others must account for the
This classification makes sense because if crime is caused by terrorists; terrorist will cause crimes. If the majority of minorities are in prisons, then people of color will end up in prison. On the opposing side of racial profiling, many minorities feel that it is a form of racial discrimination that only hurts the good image law enforcement upholds. For example, the California Highway Patrol has recently been taken to court for the misuse of racial profiling. Therefore, a compromise must be made because it would be ideological to believe that there can be a government that bans the use of racial identification.
When looking at the mandatory test scores of minority inner city students, specifically African American students, they are significantly lower than White American suburban students, hence the achievement gap. When the achievement gap is mentioned most people automatically think of the difference in grades, standardized-test scores, dropout rates, and college-completion rates between White Americans vs. African American students, but it goes much deeper than that. When determining the gap one must look at many other factors other than race, such as the child's economic status, where they live and the schools they attend, as well as how much parental involvement there is. When the achievement gap is mentioned the instant thought of White vs. Black students comes to mind. Black students scoring lower than White students, but this can be looked at from many different angles.
Asses the view that the main cause of underachievement in education is a students ethnicity. Most studies have found out that, overall, ethnic minorities tend to do less well than other members of the population, in educational performance 73% of pupils of Indian origin pupils achieved 5 A* - C passes at GCSE level compared to 56% of white pupils and 47% black pupils. In-School Factors such as teacher labelling, institutional racism, ethnocentric curriculum and finally the selection process have a big effect on different ethnicities. These are interpretivist views and they believe achievement is linked to internal factors. However structuralist such as functionalist and marxist believe there are also other factors outside of school that affect educational achievement such as cultural, material and linguistic deprivation.
This decision, known as Brown v. Board of Education, declared segregation of public schools unconstitutional. The court declared that racial segregated schools caused Black children to receive a lower quality of education than their more privileged Caucasian-American peers. African-American and Caucasian-American students are now able to attend the same schools, and sit together in the same classrooms. This decision was by far one of the most important decisions made in