Black Caribbean children are still subjected to teacher racism which could be Free Essay Example

Black Caribbean children are still subjected to teacher racism, which could be the cause of exclusion, and are more likely to be categorised as having special education needs than other ethnic groups, with teachers more likely to underestimate this group of students by selecting lower examination tiers for them to sit, meaning that the highest grade they can achieve will be lower than that for the ethnic majority (Gillborn, 1990; king, 1991; Youdell, 2004, 2007; Rollock, 2007; Sleeter, 1993, 2012). This secondary education literature is meant to help contextualize why members of my sample may remark the education system as something that is set up to disadvantage black boys.

Maylor (2014), recognises the stereotype unconscious or conscious attitudes among teacher’s towards certain ethnic groups, particularly the Black Caribbean leads to teacher racism & institutional racism in schools thereby creating educational inequalities and unequal learning experiences. Black Caribbean children and young people of this ethnic group face humiliations and their abilities are underestimated which suggest that these teacher expectations are overruling these students’ academic talents.

Low teachers’ expectations, have been particularly cited by many researchers as contributing to low attainment amongst Black children (e.g. Gillborn and Youdell, 2000; Crozier, 2005; Maylor et al., 2006; Rhamie, 2007; DCSF, 2008b). Overall evidence suggests the disruptive or bad behaviour of Black children in the schools receive more adverse action against them than the pupils from other ethnicity. Black Caribbean children are getting excluded three times more than the exclusion rate of the entire pupil population (DfE 2015).Demie and McLean reveal the Black pupils when interviewed said that their teachers have told them that aren’t going to achieve high education and wouldn’t be getting in careers.

The conflict to this argument comes in the form of Sewell (2009, 2010) who suggests that academic achievement is solely down to how well a child has been raised and their resistance to peer pressure. Very few Black Caribbean students have overcome the negative attitudes of their teachers and tried to prove their teachers perception of they cannot achieve wrongly. Such cases are very less and is not same with the Black pupils, these negative attitude and low teacher expectations and unfair disciplinary actions is main contributor for their underachievement. Arora, states in his report Race and Ethnicity in Education that the teachers are the people who are responsible to improve the children’s learning experience and have positive impact on the schools and life of children so they need to well trained and have highest credibility and responsiveness.The greatest concerns the British education system has is the negativity, low expectations, discriminations faced by the students by their teachers. The stereotype attitude the teachers possess and have very low expectations from Black Caribbean pupils has been one of the major factors for the underachievement. . The stereotype belief of the teachers that people with black skin would belong to gang and involved in criminal activities would never achieve anything or would never go to University (Allen, 2017). They are discriminated and aren’t interested to speak and don’t put them at the level of their intelligence and are examined with lower grades. This low expectation toward the black Caribbean pupil may be lead to inequality and treat each student differently. These continuous negative flak and rejections faced by the Black children, develop the failing mindset and don’t even attempt to work hard and achieve in academics. The teacher racism is seen as the one they expect to be bright they could work hard and make them excel in their achievements while the students who the teachers have low expectations would never or rarely receive praised or any positive feedback is given to these students as they would perform poorly anyway. Parent Involvement:The involvement of parents in children education influences the educational outcomes as they are responsible to provide the resources to educate their children and enable them to attainment in academics. It has been observed through various studies that Black Caribbean parents have very low involvement in education resulting to the underachievement of their children. Research studies carried out by Smith on the Black men who achiever high grades in their academics and overcame the racism, stereotype attitudes of the teachers reveal that the parents involvement and their influence was higher in their education. Demie and McLean (2017) assert that parents play a key role in developing child’s mathematical, social and reading and writing skills in the early stages. Most of the Black Caribbean youth are illiterates, and their children would be at greater disadvantage to the aspirations of their parents. Some of the students have reported if their parent did not concern about their performance in schools, then due to lack of pressure they wouldn’t achieve or perform well without their involvement. The higher the support and expectations from Parents, the higher the academics attainment in the academics reveals Smith in his studies of successful Black youth in academics. When the bad behaviour of child remains unnoticed or has not been recognised at home , then if the rules of home aren’t followed then this kind of bad behaviour would be continued or practiced in school. This kind of behaviour is obviously unacceptable in schools and becomes the reason and evidence to understand high rate of exclusions (Clarke, 2013) of black Caribbean students and the reason for their underachievement. Harris and Goodall in their research found that parent’s involvement in their child’s education is related to their linguistic ability and socio-economic status. The positive attitudes towards education and aspirations also associated with the tight supervision of the parents. (Rampino and Taylor, 2013, p.11). McLean and Demie (2017), recognize and acknowledge that the parent participation, their literacy and involvement with the schools and teacher, these factors influence directly on academic performance of the Black students. Parents absenteeism or no involvement by the working parents also leads to the underperformance of the children. When there is no parental engagement in children while developing reading or writing skills and homework, lack of supervision would discourage and develop lack of interest towards learning among Black Caribbean pupils. The research carried out on the focus group revealed that Black Caribbean parents lack academic language and cannot access the curriculum. It has been identified that write in colloquial way, which turns as a barrier for Black Caribbean pupils achievement in schools throughout the academic year.

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