Attainment - black and minority ethnic groups (UK)

Teacher perceptions of parents, puils, cultures

White middle class children do well owing to advantages conferred by economic, social and cultural capital (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990); good family backgrounds, academic language used in school mirrored at home; home supports the school with high parental involvement including ensuring homework is completed, provision of additional tutoring to address weaknesses e.g. in maths, and cultural visits to museums, theatre, holidays abroad etc. to extend academic knowledge.

Institutional/cultural racism - Whereas White students are considered culturally rich cultural deprivation theories are used to account for Black underachievement i.e. they belong to cultures/families who do not favour high attainment/value education, are anti school, learning and studying hard, have low aspirations (see critiques, Yosso 2005; Rhamie 2012).