Sociology Education, Ethnicity Differences.

People who share common history, customs and identity as well as in most cases, language and religion and who see themselves ans a distinct unit.

Language barriers.
Attitudes and values.
Family structure.

Language barriers: lack of intellectual and linguistic skills as a major cause for many minority children.
Bereiter & Engleman consider the language spoken by black American families as inadequate for educational success. Bowker identifies the lack of standard english as a major barrier.
However the Swan Report found that language was not a factor in underachievement while Gillborn and Mirza note that Indian pupils do very well despite often not having English as their home language.

Attitudes and values: Lack of motivation is seen as a major case of the failure pf many black children. Most other children are socialised into the mainstream culture which insists in ambition, competitiveness and the sacrifices necessary to achieve long term goals.

Family structure: Some culture theorists argue that this failure to socialise children properly is the result of a dysfunctional family structure.
Moynihan argues that many black families are headed by lone mothers thus their children are deprived of adequate care because she has to struggle financially in the absence of a male breadwinner. The father's absence also means that boys lack a positive role model.
Murray argues that high rate of lone parenthood and a lack of positive male role models lead to the underachievement of some minorities.
Scruton sees low achievement as a result of failing to embrace mainstream British culture.
Pryce claims from a comparison between Asian and Black that Asians are higher achievers because theri culture is more resistant to racism and gives them greater sense of self-worth, by contrast he argues African Caribbean culture is less cohesive and less resistant to recism. As a result black pupils have low self-esteem and underachieve.

Driver & Ballard argue that Asian family structures are beneficial. Asian parents have a more positive attitude towards education.
Lupton argues that adult authority is similar to the model that operates in schools.
However some sociologists see the Asian family as an obstacle to success, despite their high levels of achievement of some Asian minorities. Khan describes Asian families as "stress ridden" bound with tradition and with a controlling attitude towards children, especially girls.

Working class white pupils under achieve and have lower aspirations.
This may be the lack of parental support.

Head start, Sure start.

Diver criticises cultural deprivation theory for ignoring positive aspects of ethnicity on achievement. Black Caribbean families, far from being dysfunctional provides girls with positive role models of strong independent women. Driver argues this is why girls are more successful than boys.
Keddie sees it as victim blaming.

-Pakistanis and blangladeshis are over three time more likely than whites to bein the poorestfidth of the population.
-Unemployment is three times higher for African and Blangladeshi/Pakistani people than for whites.
-15% of ethnic minority households live in overcrowded conditions compared to only 2% of white households.

Mason puts it "discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of Britain's citizensof minority ethnic origin".
Rex shows hoe racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and how this worsens the poverty faced by ethnic minorities. Discrimination means that ethnic minorities are often forced into substandard accomodation than white people of the same class.
In employment too, Noon sent identical letter of enquiry about future employment opportunities under the names "Evans" and "Patel". In termns of helpfulness and replies, the companies were more encouraging towards the white "candidate".

Black pupils: Gillborn found that teachers were quick to discipline black students because they saw them as a threat to their authority and safety. When teachers acted on this misconception pupils responded negatively and further conflict resulted. He concludes that much conflict between pupils and teachers stem from racial stereotypes. This may explain the higher level of exclusions from school of black boys.
Foster found that teachers's stereotypes of black pupils behaving badly coulsd result in them being placed in lower sets and lower sets mean lower levels of achievement.
Asian pupils: Wright's study of a multi ethnic primary school shows that Asians can also be victims of teachers' labelling. She found that despite their apparent commitment to equal opportunity they regarded British culture as more important. They assumed Asian pupils had a poor grasp of English and left them out of class discussions or used simplistic childish language with them. They also felt isolated when teachers expressed dissaproval of their customs or misspronounced their name. However teachers generally didn't see them as a threat but as a problem they could ignore. The effect was that Asian pupils-especially the girls- were marginalised.

Fuller found that a group of black girls in year 11 in a comprehensive London school were high achievers in a school where the rest of the black girls were placed in low streams.
Instead of accepting the negative stereotypes of themselves the girls channelled their anger about being labelled into the pursuit of success. They didn't seek their teachers approval. They didn't limit their choice of friends and were friends with other black girls from lower streams.
They worked conscientiously but gave the appearence of not doing so, and showed deliberate lack of concern about school routines. They were anti school but pro education.
Mirza studied ambitious black girls who faced teacher racism. Mirza's girls failed to achieve because of their bad coping mechanisms, resulting in underachievement.
Their teachers held racist views, Mirza identifies three main types:
-Colour blind: teacher who believe all pupils are equal but allow racism to go unchallenged.
-Liberal chauvinists: teachers who believe black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them.
-Overt racists: teachers who believe blacks are inferior and actively discriminate against them.
Mirza's girls spent a lot of time avoiding racist teachers and were select about what staff to ask for help.
Sewell identifies four ways in which the boys respond to racist stereotyping.
-Rebels:conformed to stereotype "black macho lad". They believed their own sauperiority based on the idea that black masculinity equated with sexual experience and virility. Small minority but visible and influential.
-Conformists: largest group, these boys were keen to succeed, accepted school's goals anf had friends from different ethnic groups.
-Innovators: second largest group. Pro education but anti school.
-Retreatists: tiny minority, isolated individuals who were disconnected from both school and black subcultures.
Sewell recognises that other factors like the absence of fathers can contribute to under achievement.
EVALUATION:
However external factors can play a part.

Ethnocentric means attitude or policy that gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one particular ethnic group while disregarding the others.
Troyna & Williams describe the curriculum in British schools as ethnocentric because it gives priority to the white culture and English culture.
David describes it as "specifically british".

Gillborn argues that marketisation and selection policies have given schools a greater scope to select pupils and this has put some ethnic minorities at disadvantage because selection gives more scope for negative stereotypes and influence decisions about school admissions.
Gillborn's view supported by Moore & Davenport focuses on how selection procedures lead to ethnic segregation with minority pupils failing to get into better schools.