These pessimistic experiences of school have a tendency to be endured by pupils from minority groups. Predominantly hard hit, are pupils from West Indian and other black backgrounds; substantiation of their under-achievement is abundant. This is highlighted in the UEA Studies of 1966 and 1968 (Egglestone, Dunn and Aryali, 1989). Black students tend to be perceived by teachers as a standardized group of automatically low ability and disruptive agitators. Whereby teachers should primarily be looking at these black students as individuals with differing abilities. Teachers expect less, so black students don’t receive as much encouragement as other students. Therefore it is hardly surprising that black students live up to the expectations of their teachers, thus fulfilling a self-fulfilling prophecy. It was also found to be the case, that during ‘O’ levels despite results of equivalent or greater intelligence, 25% of Affro-Carribean boys were entered for the exams, as opposed to 53.4% of white boys (Egglestone et al, 1986). It was also ascertained that students of middle-class African origin performed better on a Stanford Binet IQ test than comparable white students (Bagley, 1975).
Driver (1982) claims that cultural deprivation theory is guilty of ‘ethnocentrism’, as it judges ethnic minority cultures from a white middle class point of view. It neglects to concede to the fact that other cultures are different rather than inferior. Cultural deprivation theory, therefore, plays a role in the negative stereotyping of black culture.
Driver maintains that Afro-Caribbean culture has a great deal of strength that encourages academic accomplishment. His study of black girls determined them to be academically more successful than black boys and white girls. He says that the West Indian Culture is matrifocal (especially in comparison to their white female counterparts). West Indian girls are therefore socialised to secure high status positions and acquire the values likely to attain academic success. Similar observations have been made about Asian culture; Indian children are likely to go to school with a strong awareness of ethnic identity and personal worth. This is because the Asian culture stresses the obligations to family and religion and emphasizes the pressure not to under achieve.
Now we shall look at race and qualifications in the table below. It uses LFS data for 1987 – 1989 to compare the qualification levels held by people aged 16 – 64 (59 for women) for different minority ethnic groups in Great Britain. Both males and females of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin are not as well qualified as those from other groups. Also note that women from these groups were also more likely to be economically inactive.
(Central Statistics Office, 1991, p.60)
* Includes African, Arab, Chinese and other stated and mixed origin.
** Includes don’t knows and those who did not state their ethnic origin.
In the Rampton Report (1981) it was found that significant numbers of West Indians were underachieving. Equally, figures found in the Swann Report (1985) were revealed to be similar, which demonstrates the existence of racism and discrimination in schools.
THE SWANN REPORT: The Swann Committee report, Education for all, was published in 1985 (Department of Education and Science, 1985). It was a culmination of an inquiry, which had begun in 1979 during a rather uneasy history. The report was subject to much controversy, in addition its chairman Anthony Rampton was replaced. It was criticized for being anodyne, for overemphasis on underachievement, and for failing to tackle the problem of racism. However, significant sections reveal the discussion of racism. Some of these views are as follows:
- People from social, cultural and ethnic groups should be presented as individuals with every human attribute.
- The variety of social, cultural and ethnic groups and a perspective of the world should be evident in visuals, stories, conversation and information.
- Cultures should be empathetically described in their own terms and not judged against some notions of ethnocentric or Euro-centric culture.
- The curriculum should include accurate information on racial and cultural differences and similarities.
- All children should be encouraged to see the cultural diversity of our society in a positive light.
- The issue of racism, at both institutional and individual level, should be considered openly and efforts made to counter it.
The Swann Report undoubtedly attached some magnitude to the role of the education system in explaining underachievement. It recognized that only a small minority of teachers were deliberately racist, but thought that there was a great deal of ‘unintended’ racism. Teachers with their books and other materials that they used, sometimes corroborated a negative image of ethnic minorities.
EVALUATION
Some of the findings shown in this report have been shocking and should be addressed and tackled immediately. There have been a fair amount of sound objectives, nevertheless, not enough initiatives have been taken to attain an ideal system. Regrettably, unless you are white, preferably male and middle class, the institution of the school may not be beneficial to your development. You may possibly recall your time at school as being prejudice, exasperating and full of misplaced opportunities.
Nevertheless one question that we must ask ourselves is “Are there any problems with using statistics”? There are a number of points that can be made here:
- A small number of statistics are available that explore the patterns nationally.
- Many studies are only small-scale, based on one area, e.g. Manchester.
- Numerous studies use categories to classify ethnic groups that are too general, e.g. the term ‘Asian’ does not allow us to see the differences in achievement levels between Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students.
- On the whole the statistics produced do not allow us to observe the potential influence of social class background.
CONCLUSION:
The 1944 Education Act is aimed to give equality of educational opportunity for all children, regardless of their ethnic background. However despite these efforts, sociological evidence has made it clear that not all children of the same ability achieve the same success in education, and inequalities in education remain.
We live in a multicultural society in Britain; therefore our education system should reflect this regardless of ethnicity. In an ideal world we should consider teaching in such a way that subjects should become less ethnocentric (biased towards a particular society and culture) and become more multicultural based with regards to subjects such as history, language and religion. At the moment the education system tends to be ethnocentric, which may contribute to low self-esteem in the ethnic minority students. If we are going to have multi-cultural students, then we also need to have a balance in place, with multicultural teachers too. Of course in theory this would be great, but in practice can this really happen in Britain?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bagley (1975) Educational Psychology Lecture Notes
Browne (1998) An Introduction to Sociology, Polity Press
Chitty (1992) The Education System Transformed, Baseline Books
Cohen and Manion (1981) Perspectives on Classrooms and Schools, Cambridge University Press
Dale (1989) The State Education Policy, Open University Press
Haralambos and Holborn (1995) Sociology Themes and Perspectives, Collins Educational
Finch (1984) Education as Social Policy, Longman Group Limited
Mason (1995) Race and Ethnicity in Modern Britain, Oxford University Press
Meighan (1986) A Sociology of Education, Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Pilkington (1984) Race Relations in Britain, University Tutorial Press
Skellington, Morris and Gordon (1992) ‘Race’ in Britain today, Sage Publications in association with Open University
Twitchin and Demuth (1981) Multi-Cultural Education Views from the Classroom, British Broadcasting Corporation
Wilson and Kidd (1990) Sociology and Modern Studies for GCSE, Collins Educational
REFERENCES
Eggleston, Dunn and Aryali (1986) UEA Studies of 1966 and 1968
Rampton (1981) The Rampton Report
Swann (1985) The Swann Report
