Factors That Are The Main Cause Of Differences In Education
Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view that factors and processes within the school are the main cause of differences in the educational achievement of different social groups.
A person’s social class, ethnicity and gender have a major contribution to how a student achieves in education. In this essay I aim to assess the internal factors into why they make such a difference in education rather than the individual’s intellectual capacity.
The first social group I will assess the internal factors of is social class. One factor affecting the educational achievement of different social groups is labelling. Gillbourn and Youdell found that teachers see children of a middle class background are more likely to enter higher …show more content…
Becker claims that students are classified and racially stereotyped by teachers as not being ideal pupils. Gillbourn also argues that labelling is likely to result into a self-fulfilling prophecy causing disruption from black students. Research shows that black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students are mainly below the national average indicating that the factor of ethnicity does in fact play a large part in the achievement of a student. This could also be related to the ethnocentric curriculum. This is when the curriculum of an education system is culturally biased prioritising white cultures. Troyna and Williams are of the opinion that certain lessons such as English language and History are ethnocentric therefore putting other students at an advantage.
In contrast, some are of the opinion that students of different ethnicities are of a disadvantage due to external factors such as language and linguistic skills not the curriculum. However, Gillbourn and Mirza point out that having English as a second language is not a barrier to success. Another external factor effecting the educational achievement of different ethnicity students is material deprivation. Flaherty highlights that Pakistani’s and Bangladeshi’s are 3x more likely to be in the poorest 5th of the population than white
A person’s social class, ethnicity and gender have a major contribution to how a student achieves in education. In this essay I aim to assess the internal factors into why they make such a difference in education rather than the individual’s intellectual capacity.
The first social group I will assess the internal factors of is social class. One factor affecting the educational achievement of different social groups is labelling. Gillbourn and Youdell found that teachers see children of a middle class background are more likely to enter higher …show more content…
Becker claims that students are classified and racially stereotyped by teachers as not being ideal pupils. Gillbourn also argues that labelling is likely to result into a self-fulfilling prophecy causing disruption from black students. Research shows that black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students are mainly below the national average indicating that the factor of ethnicity does in fact play a large part in the achievement of a student. This could also be related to the ethnocentric curriculum. This is when the curriculum of an education system is culturally biased prioritising white cultures. Troyna and Williams are of the opinion that certain lessons such as English language and History are ethnocentric therefore putting other students at an advantage.
In contrast, some are of the opinion that students of different ethnicities are of a disadvantage due to external factors such as language and linguistic skills not the curriculum. However, Gillbourn and Mirza point out that having English as a second language is not a barrier to success. Another external factor effecting the educational achievement of different ethnicity students is material deprivation. Flaherty highlights that Pakistani’s and Bangladeshi’s are 3x more likely to be in the poorest 5th of the population than white