What Are Some of The Causes of Differential Educational Achievement?

University Degree Education and Teaching

Sociology

What Are Some of The Causes of Differential Educational Achievement?

There are many different causes for differential educational achievement. Some of these will be explored in this report. Many people believe that the difference in achievement is because of the individual’s attitude towards working in the school environment. However, by comparing different factors in a child’s life, it can be seen that their attitudes are not the only thing that can affect how they learn.

Ethnicity

Stereotyping/Labelling

Stereotyping is a major problem within the school system, and this often leads to inequalities between different cultural groups. These stereotypes are often generalised, so this increases the inequality because everybody from that ethnical group is treated the same, regardless of the individual’s targets intelligence or attitude.

There is evidence of this in the examination entries in a Midlands Comprehensive School in a report by Cecile Wright in 1986. This table is shown on the next page. These results show the numbers of pupils who were put into different exam sets. Students were able to do a mixture of CSE and O-levels, but only students who did O-levels could go on to do higher education and A-levels.

According to the results table, it appears that Afro-Caribbean children were treated differently to Whites or Asians. Afro-Caribbean’s who scored the same as White pupils in a test were put into CSE groups instead of O-level groups. This trend seems to run throughout the 4 subjects that were examined: English, Maths, French and Physics. The Deputy Head Teacher of this particular school later admitted that the settings of the groups was not solely based on the scores, as perhaps it should have been, but it was also based on the teachers opinion of the individual. The Deputy Head was quoted to have said –“it is the case that the school tends to put dutiful children in O-level groups.” One English teacher also said that Afro-Caribbean children were a “disruptive influence.” This system of setting the children based on the teachers’ opinion instead of only the tests scores could lead to discrimination because the teachers could be racist. Gillborn (1990) found that Afro-Caribbean children were more likely to be given detentions than other students. He also found that some teacher misinterpreted the dress and manner of speech of most Afro-Caribbean pupils as representing an extra challenge

This divide of Afro-Caribbean people and Whites continues outside of the education system. The average hourly wage for a black person is £4.48, when for a white person it is £5.48. This difference could be because of the apparent inequality in schools.

Asian people are labelled as having a very high level of intelligence. This means they would be treated differently to students from other ethnical groups. In the study by Cecile Wright (1986), all of the Asian pupils appear to have been treated much the same as Whites and were put into O-level groups, despite sometimes getting the lowest ...

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This divide of Afro-Caribbean people and Whites continues outside of the education system. The average hourly wage for a black person is £4.48, when for a white person it is £5.48. This difference could be because of the apparent inequality in schools.

Asian people are labelled as having a very high level of intelligence. This means they would be treated differently to students from other ethnical groups. In the study by Cecile Wright (1986), all of the Asian pupils appear to have been treated much the same as Whites and were put into O-level groups, despite sometimes getting the lowest scores. This, again, is a generalised statement so may not be true for every Asian person or comprehensive school.

Other Examples of Apparent Ethnical Discrimination (All studies taken from Sociology for AS level, written by S. Moore, S. Chapman and D. Aiken)

Research by Drew (1995) has shown that West Indian females, although they initially suffer from disadvantages, by the time they take their GSCE’s, have overcome these and generally do better than most white pupils. Wright (1992) observed Asian children in primary schools and found the many teachers paid less attention to Asian pupils, particularly girls. These teachers assumed they had poor command of English and therefore involved them less in discussions and used simplistic language. In contrast, West Indian males who are from a ‘working class’ background generally do worse. They tend to be expelled; dominant the schools for special-needs, and generally take fewer GCSE’s than any other ethnical group. These stereotypical views lead to discrimination against certain groups of people. Due to this, the pupils learning ability may not be fully developed and they may suffer from this.

The table below shows the examination entries in a Midlands comprehensive school. It is based on a study by Cecile Wright (1986)

Third Year exam results (out of 100) Set Placement (O-GCE O-level)

Class

Stereotyping & Labelling

In today’s society, the government believes that the classes system no longer exists. However, very few people want to agree with this. It is possible that some sort of class system still exists when examining the educational system. It used to be believed that the intelligence of a child could be determined by what social class they were in. To some extent, this is still true because some Universities would favour a student who went to a private school, even if another student got higher examination results than them, but went to a state school. This can be seen as discrimination against certain social groups because children from a working class background are less likely to get into a public school for various reasons (they cannot afford the education fees, they do not portray the ‘right’ image etc).

Poverty & Underachievement

Previously, poverty has been linked to underachievement in schools. The Secretary of Education, Estelle Morris, stated that children from a ‘working class’ background are less likely to gain 5 A*-C grades at GCSE level. The lack of disposable income leads to material disadvantages, and then in turn can lead to educational underachievement. The family may not be able to raise money for educational school trips, or additional learning materials, for example, a computer connected to the Internet. The child may also suffer from poor health, and a study carried out by Cambridge University also a close link between poverty and truancy among primary school children. Both of these factors lead to a decrease in school attendance level, and the child missing out on valuable learning time, making it more likely for the child to underachieve in examinations. The amount of extra learning materials at home can have an affect because the child has access to more information and different learning styles. This means the may be able to understand the work better, and thus achieve a higher mark. These statements are, however, generalised and may not apply to every ‘working class’ family.

Financial Support & Higher Education

If there is less financial support, then children may miss out on school trips, or extra resource material at home. If the children did not do as well in their GCSE’s, then they cannot go on to do higher education (A-levels etc) or go to university. This means that they can not get as higher status job as a person who went on to continue their education. The cycle then continues, with the children of a ‘working class’ person not earning as highly as a person in a higher status job.

Parental Interest

The amount of parental interest in education can encourage a child to do better, or not put as much effort into their studies. Estelle Morris stated in a newspaper report that children from a background where both parents were ‘professionals’ were more likely to go to University. Because of the social stereotype of the ‘working’ class, the parents of working class children as seen to be more difficult and do not take as much interest in their children’s education. This may influence the child and discourage them from working at school and getting good qualifications. If a child’s parents show an interest in their school work, then the child is more likely to take pride in what they do, and work harder in order to please their parents.

Gender

Stereotypes of Males & Females

There have always been very strong gender related stereotypes. This is mainly because of the high levels of inequality in the past; women were always seen as the weaker sex that needed to be protected by a man (the stronger sex). These inequalities then influenced the roles that males and females did in the home. Women stayed at home and looked after the children and the men worked and provided financial support for the family. These social stereotypes can be very influential during Primary Socialisation. Up until recently, at an early age, boys were always taught to be boys by being tough and manly in their approach to people and emotions. Girls, on the other hand, cried and discussed their feelings and emotions more. This continued into secondary school life where boys were meant to be better at more practical subjects, for example, sciences and PE, and girls preferred written or creative work, for example, English and art. These divides led to different subjects being viewed in different ways. Science was seen as being a traditionally masculine subject, and it demonstrated sexual inequalities. Teachers were predominantly male, science lacked presence of females, and girls were alienated from experiments. These reasons can be recognised as factors that affected how well girls did in science. These are all generalised statements-and in many cases are not true.

GCSE Results

Traditionally, girls have always done better than boys in GSCE and A-level examinations. However, in recent years, boys have seen to be ‘catching’ the girls up in both sets of examinations. According to the Joint Qualifications Report that was published on 22nd August 2001, girls out-performed boys in 35 of the 37 subjects. The two subjects where boys did better than girls were biology and physics. The same report also states that, overall, 61.5% of subjects taken by girls gained a C grade. This compares to 52.6% of the boys exams that were awarded C grades or above.

New Role Models

A new contemporary role model can be used to explain the varying examination results. The new ‘lad’ culture portrays boys as being into football, alcohol, male magazines and having a ‘tough’ image. This image does not include trying hard at school, and with more teenage boys apparently following this trend, this could explain why boys do considerable worse than girls in exams. However, not all boys follow this role model.

Conclusion-How Relevant Are Each Of These Factors In Terms Of Educational Achievement?

After looking into the matters of educational achievement and the three factors of ethnicity, class and gender, it can be seen that they indeed have an affect on how highly a child achieves during their educational years. Stereotyping, labelling and, due to these, discrimination was a major cause of underachievement because this system appears not to consider the attitudes, intelligence or ability of the individual and because of this, people can be labelled as something that they are not. Discrimination can be identified in all of the three cases, so this makes it a larger problem. I think this is wrong because it is impossible to say that, because a child comes from a certain background, they will gain higher or lower marks than the next person.