Differentiation In Educational Achievement -`

Differential Educational Achievement.

Differential educational achievement of social groups by social class, gender and ethnicity in contemporary society.

This article will specifically look at ethnicity.

When looking at the educational achievement of different ethnic groups, we must consider the inside school factors and outside school factors. Inside and outside school factors can both affect how a student achieves academically.

Outside factors include, cultural deprivation, material deprivation and the effects of parental support and family structure.

Inside factors include labeling theory, the ethnocentric curriculum and wider racism in society.

Outside school factors

Cultural Deprivation

Cultural deprivation can be defined as a person who has inferior norms and values. Cultural deprivation theorists argue the working class and different ethnicity fail to socialise their children adequately and these children grow up culturally deprived. The children lack the cultural equipment needed to do well at school so they end up underachieving.

Cultural deprivation

- Intellectual and language skills Bereiter and Engelmann 1996

- Family structure and parental support Lupton 2004

Intellectual and language skills

Bereiter and Engelmann 1996 found that language of poorer black American families is ungrammatical and disjointed (or in other words, slang). They argue these are deficient language skills so children are unable to express abstract ideas in education. Black American students who have deficient language skills therefore struggle with essays or class discussions which can lead to educational failure. Some claim that children who don t speak English as their first language are held back educationally. However, this view has been widely criticised. The Swann report showed that actually language is not a major factor in underachievement as in 2010 pupils with English as their first language were only 2.3 points ahead of those without English as their first language. Gillborn and Mirza (2000) found that Indian pupils do well in school despite English often not being their first language.

Family structure and parental support

There are sociologists who argue it may not be language that effects the achievement of students in school, but actually, can be the family structure and support. Lupton 2004 found that Asian households uphold values of respect and authority in the home which is therefore also reflected in school. Children have a lot of respect for their teachers just as they do their parents. This is similar to Archer and Francis (2017) who argue the reason Chinese pupils attain higher than any other ethnic group in the British education system, is because their parents were more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies and encourage educational success. Lupton (2004) found that lower working class white British families had a negative attitude towards school as their families had negative outlooks of school s o had low expectations for their child. The argument that Chinese students do better than White British students has been proven true as 2010 GCSE statistics in maths and English show 75.1% of Chinese students achieved 5 A*-C in comparison to only 57.5% white British students.

Parental support and family structures for Sewell (2009) plays a crucial role amongst black African pupils. He argued black students (especially boys) were more likely to be permanently excluded than any other ethnic group and that they were disproportionately put in bottom sets. Sewell argues these findings are mostly linked to black African pupils disproportionately being drawn into gang culture which emphasises macho masculinity and immediate gratification. This becomes more appealing to the boys than school which can lead to their underachievement. This argument can be widely criticised as theorists should aim to explain how racism in wider society has failed black students. But it is not only black students who disproportionately underachieve, white British working class pupils also do. Gillian and Evans (2006) have blamed this failure on low parental support and parent negative outlooks on education. White British street culture can be brutal as those involved often bring in the norms and values of the street culture in schools causing serious disruptions as Evans says white pupils play out the power game in schools, as they do on the streets . Lupton (2004) also found teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in white working class schools which again teachers blamed low level parental support.

Material Deprivation

Material Deprivation is described as the lack of physical necessities for example, lack of resources such as laptops, books, school essentials, money, living in an overcrowded home and poverty. Palmer (2012) found almost half of all ethnic minority children lived in low-income households suffering from material deprivation and ethnic minority households are three times more likely to be homeless. It is important to note that class will play an essential role when looking at educational attainment as it provides an overviewed approach. Ethnicity cannot be looked in isolation as intersectionality is the best way to holistically acknowledge what can affect someone in education.