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Ethnic Differences in Education

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Question: Using materials from Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological explanations for ethnic differences in educational achievement.

Statistics show that in Britain, young people of African-Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Somalian heritage are significantly underachieving in education. Children from Gypsy, Roma and traveller backgrounds are the lowest achieving of all.

Processes inside school can be a key factor as to why there are ethnic differences in education achievement.
The labelling theory says that teachers have different expectations of different ethnic minority groups. Gilbert (1990) found that teachers sometimes negatively label black students. Afro-Caribbean students were seen as a challenge to school authority and were therefore more likely to be excluded from school. Item A also reinforces this as it states that one possible reason for ethnic differences in educational achievement lies in the school system and that Black Caribbean boys are excluded more than any group. Gillborn calls this the ‘myth of the black challenge’. Teachers had high expectations of Asian students, which could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of success. In contrast, the negative labelling could result in a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. This can lead to ethnic differences in education achievement.

Outside school factors can also provide sociological explanations for ethnic differences in educational achievement. Language difference can affect achievement as language was a barrier for kids from Asian and Afro-Caribbean immigrant families when they first arrived in the UK.
Labelling theorists would say that language might not be a barrier, but dialects or having an accent might influence teacher expectations and lead to negative labelling, once again causing a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure and differences in educational attainment.

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