Sociology: Education - ethnic differences (internal factors)
Labelling and teacher racism
- Lupton carried out research into the experience of ethnic minorities using 2001 school census and found that ethnic minortities experience greater levels of isolation and segregation inside of schools than outside
- teacher labelling and racism can lead to a negative self fulfiling prophecy.
- while groups such as chinese and white middle class are labelled positively, others such as afro-caribbean are perceived as threat or macho
- Gilborn and youdell - teeachers were quick to discipline black boys than others for the same bheaviour
- peter foster - black students were placed into lower streams as a result of negative stereotypes
- Asian students are often subject to racism as teachers hold ethnocentric views against them e.g. asian students are given easier work and are spoken easy english. this puts them at a disadvantage as they are not receiving the same level of education as white pupils.
AO3 - Labelling and teacher racism
- cannot be assumed that only ethnic minorities underperform, as white working class males are the najority group who are at most risk of underperforming
Marketisation
- running schools like businesses can disadvantage ethnic groups who dont know how ot play the system e.g. school prospectus may not be in their language or not understand the application process
- equally, ethnic minorities may not afford to send children to schools outside their catchment area or lack the cultural capital to challenge school decisions regarding admissions
AO3 - Marketisation
- However other ethnic groups are more than capable of doing so
- recent increases in immigration especially from eastern europe shows students achieving above average results and higher rates of progress than other groups for whom english is their 2nd language
Pupil responses to teacher labelling - fuller
- Fuller examined a group of black yr 11 girls in a london comprehensive school.
- instead of accepting the negative stereotypes of themselves, the girls channeled their anger through the pursuit of educational success.
- however unlike other successful pupils, they didnt seek approval of teacher nor limit their choice of friends to other academic achievers.
- shows students still succeed even when they refuse to conform
Pupil responses to labelling - Mac an Ghaill
- similarly done a study on black and asians taking their a-levels
- how they responded depends on factors such as the nature of schools e.g. some girls felt that their experience of going to an all girls school gave them greater academic committment helping them overcome labels