Assess the importance of home factors in creating ethnic differences in educational achievement.

Ethnic differences in educational achievement indicate natural differences and ability.  Studies and explanations show that Indian and Chinese students are with no doubt achieving the best grades, whereas Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students are under-achieving. A student’s home and cultural background contribute in creating ethnic differences in educational achievement. This essay is going to assess the importance of home factors in creating ethnic difference in educational achievement.

According to Mori Poll, white parents showed less interest in education than other ethnic groups that had higher expectations. However this may be true for Chinese and Indian students that are achieving well, but false for Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani students that are under- achieving despite parents having higher expectations.

Bereiter and Engleman put forward cultural and linguistic deprivation as an explanation of the under achievement of ethnic minority. The culture and language of black students is seen as deficient and lacking background knowledge as well as experience required for educational success. This view attracts a criticism because Baratz argues that black students are not culturally deprived but they are culturally different. Similarly Troyna and Williams support Baratz because they disagree with Bereiter and Engleman and argue that black speech is not inferior, but it is the teachers and the school that don’t accept and value their language. However, this leaves black students at a disadvantage because the education system fails to recognise their culture as a result creating ethnic differences in educational achievement.

Social class has a huge impact on creating ethnic differences in educational achievement. Indian and Chinese students often come from middle class families were they have educational values and strive for the best, whereas Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi come from working class families where they don’t have educational values and are usually materially and culturally deprived. Therefore this shows that social class plays a major role in creating ethnic differences in educational achievement because middle class families have more educational values than working class families.

Black students often come from lone parent families, therefore they lack a male role model (boys in particular), which means that they might not cope well to authority; according to…