The graph shows that more Pakistani students answered the questionnaires.
Question 3
Which school do you attend?
The table shows that more respondents attended public schools rather than a private school.
Question 4
How long have you been attending your school?
The graph shows that most of the respondents were in their fourth year of high school.
Question 5
Do you feel that teachers talk to you differently because of your ethnicity?
The graph shows that majority of the students have never been mistreated be teachers because of their ethnicity.
Question 6
P =Primary, Q = questionnaire, T = table
PQT:1
The table that the minority of ethnic respondents that teachers did treat differently ended feeling like it was their fault.
Question 7
Do you think teachers that treat children differently because of their ethnicity is fair?
The graph shows that all the respondents think it is not fair that teachers treat children differently because of their ethnicity.
Question 8
Have you ever been racially abused or discriminated because of your ethnicity,
By a teacher:
By a student:
The graph shows that majority of the students haven’t been discriminated by teachers but majority of students have been discriminated by other students.
Question 9
Do you think other children get influenced by teachers, when teachers treat ethnic children differently?
The graph shows 70% of the respondents think the children get influence by teachers when they see them acting differently towards ethnic minorities.
Question 10
Have you ever witnessed a teacher treating a child differently because of his/her ethnicity?
The graph shows that 60% of respondents have witnessed children being treated unfairly because of their ethnicity.
Question 11
Why do you think teachers treat children with different ethnic backgrounds differently?
PQT:2
The table shows that 40% of the respondents don’t know why teachers treat children differently because of their ethnicity. And the rest think it may be because they are racist or because of things that are going on in the world.
Interviews
The tables below link to Aim 2 ‘To investigate how peer groups affect teacher’s attitudes to students’. The sociologist interviewed 10 high school students and asked them about their peers and their teacher’s behaviour towards them, below are the responses to the questions asked.
P= Primary, T= Table
PT1
The table shows that more Pakistanis were interviewed than any other ethnic groups.
PT2
The table shows that at least 2 or less respondents attended the same high school.
PT3
The table shows that majority of the students interviewed had a lot of friends.
PT4
The table shows that 50% of the respondents think that their friends have a lot of influence on them, and 50% of the respondents feel that their peers don’t have a lot of influence on them.
PT5
The table shows that 50% of the students say a teacher has never judged them, 30% say teachers do judge them and 20% say that teachers do sometimes judge them because of their peers.
PT6
The table shows that 50% of the respondents say that their teachers treat them in an unfriendly manner such as, ignoring them, picking on them or moving them.
PT7
The table shows that 60% of the respondents feel pressured by they peers to do things, and 40% say they don’t let their peers control them.
PT8
The table shows that majority of the students think that it is unfair that teachers treat children differently.
PT9
The table shows that 40% of students haven’t been treated differently but 60% have been treated differently by thinking its always them.
PT10
The table shows that majority of the respondents have been in trouble by teachers as a result of their peers.
PT11
The table shows that 50% of respondents say that teachers treat them unfairly, however the other 50% feel teachers treat them fairly.
Secondary Data
Aim 3: ‘To find out how social class affects teachers attitudes towards students.’
Extract from:
Teacher Attitudes and Expectations Associated with Race and Social Class.
Pugh, Lee G
The extract tells us that a previous study undertaken to assess teachers’ social perceptions shows that the white upper-middle-class were favoured more than any other students.
Extract from:
Explanations: Marxism
Andy Walker Learning Online
The extract tells us that schools are seen as middle class institutions taught by middle class teachers. Marxists believe that schools are not designed for working class, working class failure is then guaranteed.
Aim 4: ‘To find out why teachers behave differently towards different genders.’
Extract from:
‘Schoolboy’s bias suit’
The Boston Globe
This extract tells us that the education system favours girls more than boys, and that teachers are stricter to boys than girls. They expect boys to be in trouble and they expect girls to be girly and clever.
Extract from:
Teaching for Gender Difference
Dale Baker
The extract tells us how the teacher behaves differently with boys and differently with girls, e.g. boys receive more teacher attentions and teachers fail to see girls raised hands expecting them to know the answer.
Extract from:
Girls’ Attitudes, Self-Expectations, and Performance
Michelle Maraffi
This extract shows that teachers pay more attention to boys than girls because they expect more from them.
Analysis
Primary Data
Aim 1: ‘To find out why teachers treat children differently because of their ethnicity.’ The researcher’s investigation revealed that teachers do mistreat a minority of students in school. This resulted in the minority of students beginning to dislike the teachers.
Whilst 30% of students have either racially abused or discriminated by a teacher more than once, 70% of respondents believe that children do get influenced to act the same as their teacher towards ethnic children. Also research shows that 60% of student have been discriminated or racially abused by a student once and 10% have been racially abused or discriminated more than once. This shows that teachers are very influential to children and that their behaviour has made an impact on children’s behaviour towards ethnic minorities
Aim 2: ‘To investigate how peer groups affect teacher’s attitudes to students’. The researcher found that 50% of the respondents felt they were easily influenced by their peers and 60% of respondents felt they were pressured by their peers into doing troublesome acts; however 60% of the respondents have said that they have been treated differently because of the peers they are involved with.
This is therefore creating a negative image for students as a whole and students as individuals, making them feel that the teacher doesn’t like them individually and that it’s okay to dislike people.
Secondary Data
Aim 3: ‘To find out how social class affects teachers attitudes towards students’
The extract from SD1 tells us that teachers, whether they are black or white, always have favouritism over their students. This data tells us that
Male and female teachers listened to 3 white and 3 black students representing upper-middle-class, middle-class and lower-class backgrounds. The findings were that white speakers were favoured to a higher degree than other students.
Also in SD2 the Marxists explain teacher’s attitudes to social class by stating that schools are seen as middle-class institutions and are children are taught by middle class teachers, and that schools are not for the working class so working class children attending schools are more likely to fail and not receive more support from teachers than middle class children.
Aims 4: ‘To find out why teachers behave differently towards different genders’.
The extract from SD3 tells us that teachers are negative towards girls in certain subjects and expect them to under achieve. Therefore the girls also believe this which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However in SD5 a boy files a lawsuit against his school because he feels that the education system favours girls rather than boys. He says that teachers are more firm with boys and let girls get away with things. Girls are placed in higher sets because more is expected from them.
The results the researcher got from the primary data showed that teachers have a great effect on students. They are a role models towards students so how they behave towards students, helps shape how an individual students turns out. However the secondary data shows that students do resist and rebel at the way the education system is run. Source SD5 ‘Schoolboy’s bias suit’ showed how a schoolboy went to court because he felt schools treated boys unfairly and were more lenient with the girls.
Although in SD3, the researchers found that teachers who were being negative towards girls in certain subjects such as; Physics and Maths, which are believed to be subjects which boys are more likely to take.
Girls began to under achieve in these subjects thus relenting to the self fulfilling prophecy.
Therefore the secondary data does support the information gathered from the primary data, in showing teachers behaviour and attitudes to students of different gender, class, peers and ethnicity.
Evaluation & Conclusion
Evaluation
Aim 1:’ To find out why teachers treat children differently because of their ethnicity’. For this aim the researcher closed questionnaires to investigate this aim. The strength of using closed questionnaire were that answering ‘tick box questions’ relieved tension off the respondents, they didn’t feel as if they had to reply with long winded answers. It also saved time when the respondents answered the questions. However the weakness of closed questionnaires was that some of the respondents couldn’t relate to any of the given answers which made it a bit difficult for them to answer.
Aim 2:’ To investigate how peer groups affect teacher’s attitudes to students’. The researcher also used closed questionnaires for primary research in this aim. The strength of using closed questionnaires for this aim was that respondents didn’t have to disclose his/her name, so the information given was kept completely confidential. Although the weakness of using closed questionnaires was that some of the questions given were misunderstood by some of the respondents, leading them to give an incorrect or improper answer.
Aim 3: ‘To find out how social class affects teachers attitudes towards students’. The researcher used books to gain secondary data. The strength of using books was that the books gave reliable data which could have been used for evidence. The weakness of using books was that some of the books were published quite a long time ago so they might have not been reliable because things changes over long periods.
Aim 4: ‘To find out why teachers behave differently towards different genders’. The researcher used the internet to acquire secondary data. The strength of using the internet was that the internet had a lot of readily available data; you could access relevant case studies worldwide through a simple search engine. There weren’t really any weaknesses of the internet, as the researcher was able to sift through the information and get directly to the information needed.
Conclusion
In Aim 1:’ To find out why teachers treat children differently because of their ethnicity’. The researcher found that teachers do mistreat children, purely based on their ethnicity. The researcher also found that the minority of children that have discriminated by teachers have reacted by thinking negatively and violently towards teachers.
For Aim 2: ‘To investigate how peer groups affect teacher’s attitudes to students’. The researcher found that teacher’s behaviour towards an individual student was spurred on by that individuals students peer groups. The researcher found a student who was involved with a troublesome peer group, was more likely to get in trouble by a teacher for bad behaviour even if it wasn’t his fault.
In Aim 3: ‘To find out how social class affects teacher’s attitudes towards students’. The researcher found that teachers favoured white middle class students. It didn’t matter whether the teachers were black or white.
For Aim 4: ‘To find out why teachers behave differently towards different genders’. The researcher found that teachers were biased towards girls than boys. They were more lenient with girls whilst boys were more likely to get considered deviant.
Hypothesis:
‘Teachers in secondary schools treat white children better than children of different ethnic minorities because white children tend to get better grades than ethnic children’
I think my hypothesis has proven to be correct, because teachers do treat children with a white background better than children from a black background or of ethnic minority.
Bibliography
Pugh, Lee G; (1993). Teacher’s attitudes and expectations associated with race and social class. Florida: ERIC
Baker, Dale; (1998). Teaching for Gender Difference. USA
Maraffi, M; (2003) Girls attitudes, Self expectations & Performance. Bristol: Oxford publishers.
[Date accessed: 1st January 2007]
[Data accessed: 7th January 2007]
