international baccalaureate africa, europe and middle east regional conference liverpool, 26-29...

International Baccalaureate

Africa, Europe and Middle East regional ConferenceLiverpool, 26-29 September 2010

‘Education for Intercultural Understanding and Respect: a critical race perspective’

David Gillborn, Institute of Education, London


1. The image of White racial victims

2. Race, class and educational achievement

3. Racism across the education system

1: The image of White racial victims

http://www.channel4.com/news/media/immigration/immigration_survey.pdf

Which ONE if any of the following groups of people do you think suffers the greatest discrimination in British society today?

Nationally Rep. Sample

Muslim 22%


http://www.channel4.com/news/media/immigration/immigration_survey.pdf

Which ONE if any of the following groups of people do you think suffers the greatest discrimination in British society today?

Nationally Rep. Sample

Muslim 22%

White British 21%


Is [immigration] good or bad for Britain?Bad: 52% Working class 33% middle

You are labelled a racist if you criticise the amount of, or conduct of, immigrants

Agree: 76% working 78% middle

Is [immigration] good or bad for Britain?Bad: 52% Working class 33% middle

You are labelled a racist if you criticise the amount of, or conduct of, immigrants

Agree: 76% working 78% middle

Which of the following would you say has the most NEGATIVE impact on life in Britain today?

Working Class: Drink/drugs (35%) > disrespect (23%)

> immigration (21%) > rich/poor gap (17%)

Most immigrants to Britain end up fitting in here if they're given sufficient time to do so

Agree: working class 71% middle class 76%

School low achievers are white and British, The Times

White boys ‘are being left behind’ by education system, Daily Mail

White boys ‘let down by education system, Daily Telegraph

Deprived white boys ‘low achievers’, Daily Express

White working-class boys are the worst performers in school, Independent

Half school ‘failures’ are white working-class boys, says report, Guardian

White boys falling behind

White, working-class boys have the worst GCSE results

… Just 24 per cent of disadvantaged white boys now leave school with five or more good GCSEs. This compares with 33.7 per cent for black African boys from similar low-income households. There were fears last night that the figures could hand votes to the far-Right British National Party because additional funding is available to help children from ethnic minorities.

Daily Mail, 13 January 2007

I don't want to stir up racial hatred, but…

Cameron Watt, deputy director of the Centre for Social Justice and a key figure involved in a report on the subject published recently by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, said: "There's a political lobby highlighting the issue of underachievement among black boys, and quite rightly so, but I don't think there's a single project specifically for white working-class boys. I don't want to stir up racial hatred, but that is something that should be addressed.“

Times Educational Supplement, 12 January 2007

Department for Communities & Local Government (2010) Tackling race inequality: a statement on race. London: HMSO.

We must recognise that we will not succeed in addressing racism without tackling all forms of prejudice and discrimination. (p, 12)

We must recognise that we will not succeed in addressing racism without tackling all forms of prejudice and discrimination. (p, 12)

‘Racism is also achieving a political voice through the British National Party (BNP) and other extreme racist groups. These groups seek to exploit legitimate worries (p. 10 ) … When we target help at one group, we cannot allow others to be left behind or to feel disconnected, otherwise there is a risk that our efforts will be exploited by those who would distort them to drive people apart. (…) No favours. No privileges. No special interest groups. Just fairness.’ (p. 12)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

White Boys FSM Bl. African Boys FSM White Boys Non-FSM

24.0%

56.0%

33.7%

5A*-C by FSM status & Ethnic Group

Source: Department for Education & Skills (DfES)(2006) National Curriculum Assessment, GCSE and Equivalent Attainment and Post-16 Attainment by Pupil Characteristics in England 2005/06. SFR 46/2006, London, DfES, table 32.

32% points

9.7% points

2: Race, class & educational achievement

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20

30

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60

70

Indian WhiteBritish

Bl.African

Bangl. Pak. Mixed(W/BC)

Bl.Carib.

5+ A*-C incl. English & maths by ethnic group (percent, all pupils)

Source: DCSF (2009) Key Stage 4 Attainment by Pupil Characteristics, in England 2008/09’ (SFR 34/2009) table 2

White working-class boys are the worst performers in school, Independent

Half school ‘failures’ are white working-class boys, says report, Guardian

57% described self as “working class”

Source: Survey by the National Centre for Social Research cited in BBC News Online (2007) What is working class? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6295743.stm

13.2% of students receive Free School Meals

Source: Department for Education & Skills (DfES)(2006) National Curriculum Assessment, GCSE and Equivalent Attainment and Post-16 Attainment by Pupil Characteristics in England 2005/06. SFR 46/2006, London, DfES, table 32.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

White Bl. Caribbean Pakistani Bl. African Bangladeshi

FSM Status by Ethnic Group (percent, all pupils)

10.2%


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50


21.5%


10.2%


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50


21.5%

31.1%


10.2%


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50


34.3%

21.5%

31.1%


10.2%


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50


34.3%

21.5%

31.1%


46.2%

10.2%


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Indian WhiteBritish

Bl.African


Bl.Carib.



0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Indian WhiteBritish

Bl.African


Bl.Carib.

FSM

5+ A*-C incl. English & maths by ethnic group (FSM only: percent, all pupils)


FSM FSM FSMFSMFSMFSM

3: Racism (business as usual….?)

“… institutional racism misses the fact that in many parts of the country, the colour of disadvantage is white as well as brown or black (…) these days, it is not simply to do with race, but a host of other factors, often including your economic background.”

Critical Race Theory

Derrick Bell Richard Delgado Kimberlé Crenshaw

Gloria Ladson-Billings William Tate IV

CRT begins with a number of basic insights. One is that racism is normal, not aberrant, in American society. Because racism is an ingrained feature of our landscape, it looks ordinary and natural to persons in the culture. Formal equal opportunity – rules and laws that insist on treating blacks and whites (for example) alike – can thus remedy only the more extreme and shocking forms of injustice, the ones that do stand out. It can do little about the business-as-usual forms of racism that people of color confront every day …

Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic (2000, p. xvi)

The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.

The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (1999, p. 28)

Institutional Racism: outcomes not intentions

Racism & Education

Racism & Education

Teachers

Racism & Education

Teachers

• Under-estimate academic ability

• Over-estimate challenge & threat

• Discipline Black students more severely

• Disproportionately place Black students in bottom

sets

• View Black families as disrupted & unsupportive

Racism & Education

Teachers

Policymakers

Public Administration Select Committee: Inquiry into Good Government 23 October 2008http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/public_administration_select_committee/pasc0708goodgovt.cfm

… much of our policy making is evidence free, prejudice driven and hysteria driven (particularly hysteria generated by the press).

Paul Flynn MP

‘The gifted and talented scheme will identify children by looking at ability, rather than attainment, to capitalise on the talents of the individual child, regardless of ethnic background’

Departmental rebuttal on BBC News On-Line (2002)

‘Gifted & Talented’

White

Black Caribbean

Black African

Racism & Education

Teachers

Policymakers

Ofsted: schools inspectorate

Racism & Education

Teachers

Policymakers


• Race equality training is piecemeal

• Refuse to check race equality compliance

• Race inequality is not identified

– even when the evidence is reported!

Racism & Education

Teachers

Policymakers


Media & Commentators

Dr Patricia Morgan

“from the research group Civitas”

Dr Patricia Morgan

“from the research group Civitas”

“What do you mean by ‘family life’? Because I think we’re getting to a feral situation where we have men, sort of tom-catting ’round the neighbourhood siring children in various homes. [draws breath]

This is almost return to planet of the apes.”

(…)

It is in - prominent amongst West Indians. An- and sadly, its one of the - it seems to be the reason for the higher educational failure rate – and occupational failure rate – of Black boys.”

BBC radio 5live, 11 December 2006

micro-aggression

The ‘many sudden, stunning, or dispiriting transactions that mar the days of women and folks of color.

Like water dripping on sandstone, they can be thought of as small acts of racism, consciously or unconsciously perpetrated …

These assumptions, in turn, continue to inform our public civic institutions – government, schools, churches – and our private, personal, and corporate lives’

Delgado & Stefancic (2001, p. 2)

Conclusions

Conclusions

Race inequality is not an accident

Conclusions

• Policy takes for granted the centrality of a white subject;

• Race equality and ethnic diversity are treated as peripheral – complicating factors – outside the ‘mainstream’;

• Policy promotes structures, procedures and priorities that actively disadvantage minoritized groups.

Race inequality is not an accident

What about racism?

Does current practice – and the plans for the future – recognize the complexity of racism?

Or do they ‘blame the victim’?

Racism: subtle, extensive and complex;

Policy: usually sustains inequality rather than challenging it.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress…

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.”

Frederick Douglass (1857)

Racism, Progress and Political Struggle

International Baccalaureate

Africa, Europe and Middle East regional ConferenceLiverpool, 26-29 September 2010


David Gillborn, Institute of Education, London

The Colour of Numbersproblems with statistical research

Everything that can be counted, does not necessarily count; everything that counts, cannot necessarily be counted.

Albert Einstein

Myth of Numbers == science, neutrality, truth

Racism is hidden amid a range of other factors (maternal education; prior attainment; setting; etc)

Inequalities are ‘removed’ by ‘controlling’ away all but the most extreme inequalities

Wiping the slate clean: past inequalities are blamed on the student (prior attainment erases all prior racism)

Resistance & Racism

• Education is worth fighting for

• Don’t wait for (or trust) favours from above

• Make connections

• Document what you do: measure success

• Historicize

• Survive: be strategic

• Success is never final

0

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Indian WhiteBritish

Bl.African


Bl.Carib.



international baccalaureate africa, europe and middle east regional conference liverpool, 26-29...

Documents

times white boys

daily mail white boys

middle slide

white british21

white boys low achievers

education system slide

london slide

guardian slide