Download The Education Act defines educational disadvantage as “the

The Education Act defines educational disadvantage as “the impediments to
education arising from social or economic disadvantage which prevents students
from deriving appropriate benefit from education in schools.” A more general
definition sees educational disadvantage as “a situation whereby individuals in
society derive less benefit from the education system than their peers” (Combat
Poverty Agency, 2003).
Sociologists like Bourdieu have suggested that studying the education system with
attention to its social divisions and social conflict might illuminate education’s function in
the reproduction of society’s inequalities and its role in reinforcing the acceptance of the
status quo. Sociologists Bowles and Gintis researched and suggested similar influences
from the field of education. They found that some country’s education laws ensured that
schools not only teach the necessary skills or national language but also the cultural
values supportive to capitalism. Compliance, punctuality, discipline and obedience to
hierarchal structures are central to the education systems’ ‘hidden’ curriculum, with its
task of ensuring that its products (the Graduates) are useful and supportive to the
system of capitalism (Macionis and Plummer, 2002). The hidden curriculum teaches
young people to ‘know their place, and sit still in it’. If education therefore reproduces
the inequalities, how does one who aims to work in education resist this role. And what
does race have to do with it?
Of course one could question if the race of the teacher and pupil really matters,
especially since evidence for physiological differences between humans fail to support a
racial classification.
However evidence of a few studies has suggested that the racial interactions between
teachers and students could influence student performance in several ways. One study
conducted in Tennessee for example came to the troubling conclusion that Black
students learned more from black teachers and white students from white teachers,
suggesting that the racial dynamics within classrooms may contribute to the persistent
racial gap in student performance (Dee, 2004).
Using ethnographic data, Mica Pollock for example interrogates taken-for-granted beliefs
about race and racial identities to shows how race is, and is not spoken about in
schooling systems and how silences around ‘race talk’ can paradoxically contribute to
the racial inequities educators seek to eliminate (Pollock, 2004).
Although race is becoming a more and more unpopular and contested construct,
empirical evidence shows that the category remains ‘intact’ and a relatively stable
marker of belonging. Through a series of interviews with 30 teachers in different schools
another study by Sleeter discovered that most teachers assumed a “colour-blind”
attitude - in other words, “they see children as children and do not see race”. The
problem with this attitude, Sleeter argues, is that most of these teachers “did not focus
directly on the distribution of resources across groups or the ideology of equal
opportunity. Instead they conceptualized racism as the unfair application of (probably)
accurate generalizations about groups to individuals, in a way that biases one’s
treatment of them”. By subscribing to the ‘American dream’ (or, in Sleeter’s view,
illusion) of equal opportunity, these “colour-blind” teachers ignored the critical
underlying issues of socio-economic inequality and institutionalized racism. (Sleeter and
Christine, 1993)
In the next paragraphs I aim to critically discuss the relationship between race and
ethnicity. A critical or conflict discussion needs therefore to focus on its role in
reproducing educational disadvantage and socio-economic inequality
Who are benefiting less?
Answer depends on who you ask
Marxist: Those who are Exploited
Functionalists: Those with lower motivation and lower effort thus lower merit
Interpretative: ?
The statistics indicate the Lower social classes and Ethnic minorities
What does it mean that they are benefiting less?
Lower rates of participation: They are less present
 Access to education
 Attendance at sessions
Lower rates of achievement; More of them leave the education system with
lower qualifications
 Academic performance/ achievement: Qualifications: Children from Afro-
Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi background tend to do poorly
compared to white children, as do Travellers & Gypsy/Roma pupils
compared to non-Traveller groups (Ms Keane’s Notes)

Achievement may also imply: Ability to influence their
o Social position
o Feel appreciated
o And find meaning in their own lives
This often means: Work or Occupation that is rewarding in appreciation, selfesteem and material means. Feel proud, feel appreciated and must be able to
make ends meet.
Why are they benefiting less?
Most commonly heard answer is because they have less motivation and less
effort and every so often less ability (physiological)
Meritocracy: They therefore deserve to have a lower standing and less resources
Is this true?
OECD Report findings:
‘Immigrant children express equal, if not more, motivation to learn mathematics
than their native counterparts and very positive general attitudes towards school,
suggesting that they bring with them a strong potential on which schools can
build more effectively’ (OECD Report: Van Kemenade et al, 1992).
Many children from Indian backgrounds do very well at school. Overall they have
a slightly greater chance of going into higher education than white children
(Rasool, 1999)
However other rapports indicate that there might be a problem with motivation:
‘Research indicates that, even in their school years, young people from ethnic
minorities have such low expectations for gainful employment that this impacts
on their ambitions for further education (Hussain, 2007).’
Some children are motivated others are less. Hussain suggests this could also be
because their expectations for future employment. What are those expectations?
‘even for those with qualifications, there is evidence that ethnic minorities of
non-Western origin do not benefit fully from their education and skills, whether
obtained in Denmark or in any other country’ (Hussain, 2007).
Why don’t the benefit from their educational skills?
Of those who do reach universities, the vast majority study subjects such as the
natural sciences, IT, engineering and managerial sciences, but very few turn to
social sciences or the professional fields that confine job opportunities
primarily to the Danish labour market, such as law, sociology and national
economics (Hussain, 2007).
One other report suggests:
The higher-level qualifications achieved by Afro-Caribbean’s are more likely to be
vocational rather than academic (Ms Keane’s Notes)
One can suggest that academic achievements have only minimal benefits if
graduates are not enabled to positively influence
 Their position in society,
 Their appreciation from society and their
 Ability to live meaningful lives because some
professional fields confine job opportunities primarily to the Danish.
Some of the following reports indeed suggest that this ability is most severely
affected by discrimination sometimes based on Race but currently more based
on ethnicity
Roma, Travellers and Muslims have recently been named explicitly as groups
with unemployment rates within varying from 15 – 60% while the Europe
average is around the 5%. How could this affect pupils expectations?
Bourdieu explains that parents from higher social layers of society are more
capable of providing their children with necessary financial and cultural
resources; they thereby also provide them access to the best positions in
employment (Bourdieu, 1977).
Bourdieu uses his theory of ones Habitus (Cognitive result of your socialization
affecting the way you perceive your environment and your opportunities in life)
and field (Position in the social world) to illustrate the influence of the material
and social environment on ones cognition. Parents and environment not only
provide the material resources available to students but also the cognitive and
cultural resources e.g.: expectations and tastes
If you see for example how education has benefited your parents and if
opportunities (you may avail off if you succeed) become visible and perceived as
attainable because your cultural resources (Cultural Capital) you may be more
motivated to do good than if you are only able to ‘dream’ of having a small
chance but only if you do very good.
Motivation in the classroom, cognitive resources or habitus may therefore show a
relationship with expectations regarding ones place in the ‘field’ or ones relative
position in the social world.
The roots for educational disadvantage therefore do not only rest in the realm of
education alone but maybe even more so in society or expectations of society.
How do such expectations relate to the realities in employment within European
societies? Data from Denmark shows that:
Withstanding the fact that households with a Muslim background compose the
largest share of non-Western minorities in Denmark; Muslims have much higher
unemployment rates, particularly those from non-European countries. For
example, in 2000 the unemployment rate for people with origins in Somalia, Iraq
and Morocco stood above 65%, as compared to about 18% for native Danes,
7% for the EU immigrants and 5% of the general EU working-age
Data from the rest of the EU shows this:
Non-European migrants in the Netherlands and Denmark, Turks in Germany,
North Africans in France, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis in the UK) have activity
rates that are 15 - 40 per cent below that of natives or Western migrants.
Female immigrants from Muslim countries have particularly low activity rates and
are largely excluded from the labour market. The same is true for recently
arrived refugees in all Member States and certain disadvantaged minority groups
(Roma in most Member States, Travellers in Ireland).
(EUMC report by John Wrench, et al)
But can these high levels of employment be related to racism?
Data from Sweden:
‘Research in Sweden showed that having an Arabic-sounding name significantly
reduced an applicant’s chances of finding work, and another study showed that
changing to a Swedish name improved them. Such findings explain the
development in 2006 of experimentation with anonymous CVs as a fairer way of
making applications for jobs, this initiative being considered in various ways in
France, Belgium and Sweden’. (Report on Racism and Xenophobia in the Member
States of the EU by EUMC)
Data from European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights:
‘A new development in 2006 concerned several cases of ‘personal testing’, where
individuals who have been told that a job is no longer available, and suspect that
they have been told this simply because of their ethnic origin, arrange for a
friend or a representative from an NGO to make the same application, and find
the job still vacant. In 2006, cases of this were reported from France, the Czech
Republic and Hungary, and in each of these countries the evidence from this
‘personal testing’ was ruled as acceptable in court to prove that discrimination
had occurred.
The Czech and Hungarian cases both concerned Roma, and this is consistent
with a Hungarian survey finding in 2006 that 40 per cent of Roma respondents
had personally experienced being told in person that a job was no longer vacant,
after having been previously told over the phone that it was available.’
(Report on Racism and Xenophobia in the Member States of the EU by EUMC)
To illustrate how widespread and pervasive this obstacle of discrimination is
among the Dutch, follows some data from the E-Quality fact-sheet on
discrimination in the Dutch employment market:
‘Research in Rotterdam among 40 Muslim ladies with headscarfs showed that 25
encountered problems while applying for jobs relating to their headscarf. Of the
15 who did not encounter problems many argued that they did not even bother
to apply with some employers because it was already made known to them that
a headscarf would not be tolerated. The research also showed that even when a
headscarf was accepted this was in jobs demanding lower qualifications (for
example cleaning), while the same company would not find a headscarf
acceptable in higher positions’
As both Denmark and Germany have recently been named as the countries with
the most serious incidents of Racism and Discrimination it may not come as a
surprise that 2002 UNICEF,
report on education mentions that:
A child at school in Canada, Finland or Korea has a higher chance of being
educated to a reasonable standard and a lower chance of falling a long way
behind the average than a child born in Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary or
the United States
(‘A league table of educational disadvantage in rich nations’, Innocenti Report
Card No.4, November 2002.).
One may notice that countries like Germany and Denmark are both mentioned
above for high employment rates for immigrants and higher chance of
educational disadvantage for immigrants. This answer suggests how the high
prevalence of racism and discrimination in society (reflected in those
unemployment rates) and consequently a pupils awareness of their position in
society might affect pupils cognition in the sense of expectations and motivation;
resulting in a reduced ability to benefit from the education system.
When Malcolm X told Mr Ostrowski (his teacher) about wanting to become a
lawyer he suggested that he’d much better be more realistic about being a
nigger. Instead the told him that he was loved but better off doing something
with his hands like his carpentry work. Malcolm became aware that becoming a
lawyer would involve taking a place in the field beyond what was deemed
possible, expected and accepted for a nigger. Like the Lads in Paul Willis 1977
book he became aware that society was not really meritocratic and of the
importance and ‘inescapability’ of his societal position. He also became more
angry. What was the effect on his motivation? Malcolm dropped out of school
and was shortly after running prostitution and gambling rings on the streets of
Chicago.
Like Malcolm X Pierre Bourdieu also recognised the importance of ones objective
position within the social world. However Bourdieu does not view humans as
puppets; he suggested in his theory of practice that humans remain capable of
conscious deliberation of options and subjective decisions in the ‘game’ of life. As
skilled tennis players humans acquire a ‘feel for the game’ and while incapable of
rational decisions they make practical decisions as practical knowledge is capable
of sustaining confusing or even conflicting meanings because the overriding logic
is practical. After a life transformation in prison Malcolm became the leader of
the Black Muslims and from his own practical and conscious deliberations he
became more than a victim of educational disadvantage but an inspirational
figure for millions of black people.
Teachers, parents and pupils are therefore also regarded capable of challenging
society and educations role in reproducing educational disadvantage by
conscious deliberation and practical actions:
1. Teachers and Parents can challenge less motivated students by reinforcing
a pupil’s confidence in the attainability of ‘dreams’. Goals short term but
also long term must look attainable to students regardless of their race or
ethnicity. That means that they must have good expectations for all
pupils. (If you have a teacher that shows interest in helping you because
he/she really believes that you can do good and tells you that; it will not
only make you feel worthwhile but it also motivates you to proof that you
are worthy).
2. Society MUST ENSURE that dreams really ARE as attainable for minorities
(or those from a socially disadvantaged background), as they are for the
advantaged, by seriously monitoring the prevalence of discrimination
especially when it comes to employment. Society must ACT against
Racism.
3. A lack of data on the prevalence of racism and discrimination and
subsequent government action has often been cited as a challenge to
efforts directed at challenging above mentioned findings. Adequate
recording of incidents might be accompanied by more research into the
relationship between employment perspectives and motivation in the
classroom and the relationship between employment perspectives and
racism
4. Assessment methods may offer more opportunities to ‘do good’ by being
more continuous in stead of one end of year exam. This will not only
improve the quality and quantity of learning but will also make success
look more attainable and occasional failure less serious
Researchers in education and teachers may have to question children who show
less motivation, about their expectations in relation to employment. In the case
of ethnic minorities especially about their concerns regarding racism and access
to certain sectors and positions in employment so that they can be reassured
that society is seriously tackling the problem of racial inequality and that their
dreams ARE attainable. Children need to know that they CAN be the best in
what their good at and that society will appreciate their excellence equally. One
researcher of EUMC remarked:
Excellence without equity breeds disparity, while equity without excellence
breeds mediocrity. Proposed education reforms and public policies must weigh
equity as fully as excellence or they will merely exacerbate racial inequalities.