The Perceptions of African-Caribbean boys about their Educational Achievement. Christopher George Barnett MPhil University of York Education December 2011 Abstract Aim: This study aims to investigate The Perceptions of African-Caribbean boys about their Educational Achievement. The study wants to investigate the factors that might affect the perceptions, which this cohort has of their educational achievement. The study will look at factors such as family background and the cultural identity of African-Caribbean boys within secondary education and will also look at factors such as racism in British society, school curriculum and potential teacher racism as factors that could affect the perceptions of African-Caribbean boys about their educational achievement. Sample: Twenty African-Caribbean males within secondary education. This sample is aged 15-16 years old and is about to sit their GCSE examinations. African-Caribbean means black boys of African heritage, Caribbean heritage and mixed African and Caribbean heritage. Method: Participants engaged in semi-structured interviews of around one hour mainly about their family backgrounds, experiences at school and experiences in wider society. I was also able to get background information on all of my participants from the deputy headmaster of the sample school. Results: My sample’s perceptions varied in terms of their educational achievement. This was mainly dependent upon their family background and consequent cultural identity. These factors affected how this sample perceived racism in and outside of school and how they responded to the level of black history and culture taught at their school. Conclusion: This study looks at a black ethnically diverse sample that includes black boys of African heritage, Caribbean heritage and mixed African and Caribbean heritage, which is a rare cohort in terms of the current literature that exists on black male achievement. This study concluded that Family dynamic and cultural identity are the main factors in terms of those black boys who have identities that are conducive to the formal structure of secondary education and those black boys whose identity is not conducive to this academic environment. Black boys who have a negative learner identity are much more affected by racism and a lack of black historical-cultural knowledge within the school curriculum. Therefore both cultural identity and racism were major factors in terms of the perceptions this cohort had about their educational achievement. 2 Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….2 Contents…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3 List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………………………..8 Authors Declaration………………………………………………………………………………………………..9 1) Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10 2) Methodology………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 a. Data…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..13 i. Macro Subjective…………………………………………………………………………..13 ii. Mezzo Objective……………………………………………………………………………13 iii. Mezzo Subjective…………………………………………………………………………..14 iv. Micro Objective……………………………………………………………………………15 v. Micro Subjective……………………………………………………………………………16 b. Findings……………………………………………………………………………………………………..16 3) Literature Review……………………………………………………………………………………………………17 a. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….17 b. Socio Political Infrastructure………………………………………………………………………18 c. Material Well-Being……………………………………………………………………………………22 d. English Language as Imperialism………………………………………………………………..32 e. The Criminal Stereotype of the Black Youth and the Hoodie Icon………………34 f. Police Racism……………………………………………………………………………………………..37 g. Racism and Reason…………………………………………………………………………………….39 h. The Curriculum………………………………………………………………………………………….42 i. Teacher Racism………………………………………………………………………………………….49 j. The effect of government politics………………………………………………………………54 k. Good Pedagogic Practice……………………………………………………………………………56 l. Good Practice in school……………………………………………………………………………..57 m. High Black Parental Discipline…………………………………………………………………….61 n. Low Black Parental Discipline…………………………………………………………………….63 o. Black Academic Achievement…………………………………………………………………….66 p. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………69 4) Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………………………………75 a. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………75 b. Research Philosophy…………………………………………………………….……………………76 c. Research strategy……………………………………………………………….……………………..79 d. Research Design…………………………………………………………………………………………80 e. Sampling……………………………………………………………………………………………………83 f. Data Collection: The Development of the Interview Schedule…………………..85 g. Data Collection: Validity and Reliability………………………………………………………89 h. Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………..94 i. Data Collection: Sample Characteristics……………………………………………………..97 Discussion of data findings 5) Macro Subjective……………………………………………………...……………………………….……….. 108 a. Introduction................................................................................................. 108 3 b. Socio-Political infrastructure……………………….............................................. 109 i. Introduction................................................................................... 109 ii. Discussion...................................................................................... 110 iii. Conclusion....................................................................................... 117 c. British Racism and Material well-being....................................................... 118 i. Introduction…...................................................................................118 ii. Discussion........................................................................................ 118 iii. Conclusion........................................................................................ 130 d. The English vernacular as imperialism........................................................ 131 i. Introduction..................................................................................... 131 ii. Discussion........................................................................................ 132 iii. Conclusion........................................................................................ 133 e. The Criminal Stereotype of Black Youth and the Hoodie Icon.................... 133 i. Introduction..................................................................................... 133 ii. Discussion........................................................................................ 134 iii. Conclusion....................................................................................... 141 f. Racism and Policing......................................................................................141 i. Introduction......................................................................................141 ii. Discussion.........................................................................................142 iii. Conclusion........................................................................................145 g. Racism and Reason.......................................................................................145 i. Introduction......................................................................................145 ii. Discussion.........................................................................................145 iii. Conclusion........................................................................................149 h. Conclusion of Chapter..................................................................................150 6) Mezzo Objective……………………………………………....……………….………………………..………152 a. The Curriculum.............................................................................................152 i. Introduction......................................................................................152 ii. Discussion.........................................................................................153 iii. Conclusion........................................................................................169 7) Mezzo Subjective…………………………………....…………………………………………………………..172 a. The School................................................................................................... 172 b. Introduction.................................................................................................. 172 c. Teacher Racism........................................................................................... 173 i. Discussion........................................................................................ 173 d. School Intervention..................................................................................... 187 i. Black History Month....................................................................... 187 ii. The ACE and ASPIRE projects......................................................... 191 e. Conclusion.................................................................................................... 194 8) Micro Objective…………………………………………....……………………………………………………..199 a. Family Background...................................................................................... 199 i. Introduction.................................................................................... 199 ii. High Discipline................................................................................ 199 iii. Poor Discipline..............................................................................