How cultural deprivation affects the educational attainment of students.

Introduction

I will be examining how cultural deprivation affects the educational attainment of students. To gain the best results and produce a detailed analysis of results I take will only examine two ethnic groups, Indian and African Caribbean students. I will then be able to compare educational attainment and discover reasons why the two different ethnic groups have varied educational attainment levels. This is an important area of sociology as it appears to be the case presented by statistics showing how some ethnic groups under achieve compared to others. 2002 GCSE exam results showed how Indian students were among the top performing ethnic groups were as black African Caribbean students had the lowest levels of attainment.

The concept of cultural deprivation will have will have many different aspects that I will need to consider. One form of cultural deprivation is that some students may receive less support from family then others for many reasons. Parents have other dedications such as work or look after other siblings. Some students may not need the motivation to do well from the family and may still do well.

My aim will be to compare educational attainment of Indian and African Caribbean students. I will then try to establish a link between attainment levels and cultural deprivation.

Objectives

Study educational attainment of ethnic groups and establish patterns.
Research previous or relevant studies that give information about family support.
Find out what forms of cultural deprivation are likely to affect ethnic minority students.
Come to a conclusion of the impact of family support on education attainment.

I feel that there will be a strong relationship between levels of education attainment and cultural deprivation. However, I feel that there will be a number of different reasons why some ethnic groups are underachieving.

Context

Government figures from 2002 exam results show that Indian pupils had high achievement levels with 66% of Indian students achieving 5 or more A*-C GCSE grades. The lowest levels of GCSE attainment were among Black Caribbean pupils. Only 23 per cent of Black Caribbean students achieved five or more A*-C grade GCSEs. Pupils from the Other Black, Black African and Pakistani groups had similar low levels of attainment. These statistics are relevant to my study as they show evidence that there is a gap of the educational attainment from different ethnic groups. This is relevant to my hypothesis as cultural deprivation could be part of the reason for some ethnic minorities are performing poorly.

Another concept linked to my study is the home background of the ethnic group. African-Caribbean’s, like Asian families, tend to reflect the societies from which they migrated. A large proportion of Afro-Caribbean households in Britain are single parent families, but perhaps the key point is that Afro-Caribbean families tend to be mother-centered. Geoffrey Driver (1982) found that a large proportion of African Caribbean families were matrifocal or the male was playing a small role within the family. This could be a disadvantage for some ethnic groups. High numbers of lone parent families in Afro-Caribbean communities could be a reason for the low educational attainment of West Indians. This is likely to lead to less parental support as lone parents may feel it is more important to put “food on the table” and play an “instrumental” role rather than providing family support. This is linked to my hypothesis as some ethnic minorities maybe disadvantaged by having a family structure that does not suit the education system.

Speech codes used at school may also affect educational achievement for some ethic minorities. Language barriers may prevent ethnic minority students to understand or to be understood. Bernstein gave ideas of how there are two distinct speech codes that are used. Ethnic minorities are confined to using the “restricted code” which would be a disadvantage as teachers are most likely to use the “elaborated code”. White students may be fluent in both the restricted and elaborated code. This is linked to my hypothesis as it gives ideas of how ethnic minorities maybe at a disadvantage and how the education system benefits white students.

Parental interest is also an important factor. Douglas found that parental interest is the most important factor that will affect educational progress. Parental interest may also be a deciding factor when encouraging their children to carry on into further education. Douglas measured parental interest by the number of visits parents made to their children’s school. Ethnic minority parents were found to be the least likely to visit. This maybe because of language barriers that may have limited communication. Douglas found that some ethnic minorities were more likely to make school visits than others. Indian and Chinese parents were among the most likely to take interest in their children’s education. Bangladeshi and African Caribbean parents were found to take the least interest in their children’s education.

Some Ethnic minorities are also likely to be deprived of values, attitudes and skills that are required for educational success. This is then likely to lead to a lack of ambition and value for education. Some ethnic minority students may accept that education is not the key to success and will not take it seriously. While a large proportion of ethnic students will reject education and accept failure, others will work hard for success. This is particularly the case with Indian and Chinese students. Even if families are from a working class background, children are encouraged to work hard and are told the importance of education. This would support Douglas’s conclusion that parental encouragement is the most important factor for a child’s educational progress.

Sullivan (2001) suggested that there are at least 3 aspects that will give students an advantage with their educational progress. The first is that families will reproduce advantages over and over again in the form of capital, culture and social aspects. Secondly, family structure and family process will shape the students capabilities and opportunities. This was also suggested by (Schoon et al 2003). Thirdly, the students role and educational attainment will then shape present and future pathways. African-Caribbean students may be disadvantages and continue to be for many generations. Once the family is structured in such a form, it may prove to be difficult for members to “break away”. For Indian students, it will be an advantage. Year after year, high educational attainment will be maintained. This theory suggests that the educational attainment of Indian and African Caribbean students will differ for generations to come.

Francis (2000) said that the changing structure of education is a factor that will need to be considered. The shift to more coursework-based education may be a reason for underachievement of some ethnic groups. However, Francis found that the shift affected gender more than ethnic groups. The coursework-based education may benefit the more “dutiful” female students rather than the anti-learning stance that maybe taken up by males. Females are found to have more dedication over their education while males are likely to “cram” in the short term for exams. This is a disadvantage to males as there are now ...