The Effect of Racism in Schools on Education Essays -- Papers

The Effect of Racism in Schools on Education I recent years there have been considerable interest in the educational performance of ethnic minorities. A number of studies have been carried on this issue, a common example is the government - sponsored Swann Committee report Education for all. This report carries out research on different aspect on educational performance, and one aspect that stands out form all is, racism in school. Although the precise findings of studies have varied, most have found that, overall, ethnic minorities (blacks, Asians and other nationalities) tend to do less well than other members in the population. The Swann report found important differences between ethnic minorities' children and white children. From a survey of five LEAs it was found that Asian children did almost as well as whites or 'others'. Asians were slightly less likely than 'others' to get five or more graded results in GCSE exam or any other sort of important examination qualifications. Although the Swann report did stress the importance of the Asian community doing quite well, a certain type of Asian community known as the Bangladeshi did particularly bad, was this, the result of racism or the result of ignorance. The Swann report found out that the average performance of West Indians was considerably worse than that of whites. A shocking five percent of West Indians passed an A Level and only one percent went off to university. All though not is all shocking a large percent of ethnic minorities between the age of 16 and 19 were in full time education. This can be backed up by Jones (sociologist) suggestion. Jones suggested that th... ...wn in subservient social roles such as servants. Coard claims that the people whose lives are studied and acclaimed are white. Black culture, music and art are all conspicuous by their absence from the curriculum, (IV) The attitudes to race conveyed in the classroom are reinforced by the pupils outside it. In playground arguments white children may retaliate by describing West Indians as 'black bastards'. Research has shown that teachers expect black children to fail and this produces a self fulfilling prophecy in which they live up to the expectation they have been labeled with. Not only are black children played in lower sets, they themselves believe that they are certain to fail. Research shows that a majority of West Indian children are portrayed by their teachers as underachievers with disciplinary problems.