Looking and Black and Minority Ethnic BME Student Performance

1
Working Session 1Gender, Ethnicity and Student
Attainment in HE from analysis to
action.Association of University Administrators
Conference,Exeter University, 6th 8th April
2009

• Looking and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)
  Student Performance
• Dr Gurnam Singh, Teaching Development Fellow,
  Centre for the Study of Higher Education,
  Coventry University

2
Session aims

• To bridge the divide between research, policy and
  practice in relation to BME degree attainment by
• Identifying the nature of the problem
• Raising some of the conceptual challenges
  associated with diversity
• Examining alternative explanations for
  differential degree attainment and implications
  for policy and practice
• Enabling participants to reflect upon their own
  and their institutional approach to the issue.

3
What is the problem?

• If you belong to a visible minority you are more
  likely to perform less well than a white
  student in HE .
• Despite controlling for other factors which
  impact on attainment, we find that ethnicity is
  still statistically significant in explaining
  attainment in HE all students from minority
  ethnic communities are found to be less likely
  to achieve a better degree relative to White UK
  Irish students and this result holds at all
  levels of attainment. (Broecke and Nicholls
  (200717)
• This is broadly the case whether you are
  attending the London School of Economics or
  London South Bank University, Durham University
  of Derby University.

4
Key research findings

• Problem with BME category and validity of
  statistics Connors et al. (2004)
• Some BME groups have difficulty forming
  relationships Connors et al., 2004 Tikly et
  al., 2006).
• BMEs found in more challenging subjects with
  higher failure rates (Leslie, 2005 Connors et
  al., 2004)
• Favour post-92 sector where higher proportion of
  BME experience lower student satisfaction (Jessop
  and Williams, 2005 Runnymede Trust, 2006
  Connors et al., 2004 Farwell et al., 2008
  Fielding et al., 2008)
• Institutional and individual racism - Low tutor
  expectations leading to culture of alienation,
  bullying and harassment (Connors et al., 2004
  Farwell et al., 2008)
• Lack of BME role models and mentors amongst
  professional and academic staff (UCU, 2006
  Connors, 2004 HEA, 2008).
• Wolverhampton study revealed inappropriate and
  underdeveloped student support systems are based
  on traditional student and poor staff awareness
  (Ahmad, 2006 Pinnock, 2008)
• Non involvement in SU clubs and societies
  (Fischer, 2006)
• Lack of engagement with BME students and tutors
  (Fischer, 2006)

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However, the picture is quite confusing!!

• Fielding et al (2008) looking at NSS 2006 data
  and 2004-5 HESA data used by Broecke and Nicholls
  (2007) uncover some interesting differences
• Entry Qualification Some indication that lower
  entry qualification can influence achievement but
  varies across disciplines. Also, for BME students
  with A Level only entry, achievements are a
  little higher.
• Age Net gap between various BME groups and
  White students is much wider for mature students
  with Bangladeshi and Chinese students faring the
  worst.
• Gender Some indication that BME males do less
  well than females
• Residence Net gap in achievement between various
  Asian groups and White students is narrower for
  those students living at home.
• Deprivation Some evidence of small but
  significant impact. Indeed, for areas of high
  deprivation gab between BME students and their
  white peers narrows and possibly reverses!
• Type of Institution Broadly speaking the higher
  the proportion of BME students the higher the
  differential - Blacks out perform Whites in
  institutions with low numbers of BME students!
• Source Fielding, A et al (2008) Degree
  attainment, ethnicity and gender Interactions
  and the modification of effects - A quantitative
  analysis. University of Birmingham and Centre for
  Multilevel Modeling, University of Bristol
• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/o
  urwork/research/EDA_Quantitative_Report_March08.pd
  f

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Why is the picture confusing?

• Problem with ethnic categorisation. Categories
  can not really tell us anything about individual
  experience.
• Focussing on categories and student
  achievement/performance may actually take our
  attention away from institutional structures and
  pedagogical practices
• Reduces the historical struggle of justice and
  equality (political and pedagogical) to an
  endless wild goose chase for the absolute
  truth.
• We can get lost in the numbers game. We need to
  find a way forward that moves us beyond a
  complete reliance on positivistic approaches to
  more action orientated research.

7
What can focussing on diversity and ethnicity in
HE lead to?

• Increased bureaucracy - becomes part of the
  performance/audit /tick box/paper trail culture
  can lead to
• Displacement - struggle for justice becomes a
  struggle to look good and/or damage limitation
  
• Dissipation - of commitment and energy from
  tackling the problem to endless analysis
• De-politicisation The oppositionary and
  potentially divisive discourse of social
  justice and rights becomes transmuted into a
  technical challenge of managing diversity
• A feel-good factor - marketing tool showcasing
  of diversity successes where diversity becomes
  synonymous with the presence of BMEs. ...adds
  spice and colour to mainstream white culture.
  (Ahmed (2007246)
• A feel-bad factor if it has the effect of
  exposing inequality, injustice then it could lead
  to anger and recrimination.
• Equality, justice and inclusivity
• Stronger, dynamic, modern institution.

8
The Challenge of Super Diversity

• 20 of ALL children belong to an ethnic minority
• In terms of mixed marriages we see the following
  stats
• 50 Black Caribbean Men
• 20 Black African men,
• 10 Indian men and women
• 40 Chinese women.
• Since 1995 the number of children of Caribbean
  heritage with one white parent has risen from 39
  to 49. Among the Indian population it has
  increased from 3 to 11, for Pakistanis from 1
  to 4, and for Chinese from 15 to 35.
• (Platt, 2009)

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The Challenge of Super Diversity Continued...

• Britain can now be characterised by
  super-diversity, a notion intended to underline
  a level and kind of complexity surpassing
  anything the country has previously experienced.
  Such a condition is distinguished by a dynamic
  interplay of variables among an increased number
  of new, small and scattered, multiple-origin,
  transnationally connected, socio-economically
  differentiated and legally stratified immigrants
  who have arrived over the last decade (Vertovec,
  20061)
• For example, among Somalis in the UK and in
  any single locality we will find British
  citizens, refugees, asylum-seekers, persons
  granted exceptional leave to remain, undocumented
  migrants, and people granted refugee status in
  another European country but who subsequently
  moved to Britain. A simple ethnicity-focused
  approach to understanding and engaging minority
  groups in Britain, as taken in many models and
  policies within conventional multiculturalism, is
  inadequate and often inappropriate... (ibid17)

10
Rapid Demographic shifts - US

• By the year 2040, whites will no longer make up
  the majority of U.S. citizens. Theyll be
  surpassed in numbers by a steady percentage of
  blacks, a modest growth in Asians, and most of
  all by a booming rise in Latinos.
• By 2100, the percentage of American whites will
  shrink dramatically, Whites, about 70 percent of
  the population now, will get whittled to just 40
  percent.
• Source U.S. Census Bureau

11
Greater London
Source GLA http//www.london.gov.uk/gla/publicati
ons/factsandfigures/dmag-update-19-2008.pdf
12
Why do BME students do less well than white
students i.e. how can we explain the gap in
degree attainment?

• If we assume that the statistics are in fact
  highlighting a phenomena, then we can posit 2
  broad hypothesis to explain the causes.
• It is due to individual factors
• It is due to structural factors
• Each one of these can be examined in terms of
  essential characteristics of BME students or
  alternatively how they are constructed.
• Essential characteristics
• Socially constructed characteristics

13
Essentialist and Constructionist conceptions
of BME and White students - The tale of the
three umpires, Cantril cited in Henshel and
Silverman, (1975)
Somes balls and somes strikes, and I call em
as I sees em!
Some are balls and some are strikes, and I call
them as they are!
Somes balls and somes strikes, but they aint
nothing till I calls em!
14
Another way to understand the difference

• Essentialist
• the respectable child of old-fashioned
  exoticism. It demands that sources, forms, style,
  language and symbol all derive from a supposedly
  homogeneous and unbroken tradition.
• (Salman Rushdie, 199267)

• Constructed
• All the world's a stage, And all the men and
  women merely players They have their exits and
  their entrances And one man in his time plays
  many parts,
• (William Shakespeare, As You Like It 2/7)

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Individual
Essentialist
Constructivist
Structural
16
(No Transcript)
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The Pygmalion effect revisited

• The main idea concerning The Pygmalion Effect
  is that if you believe that someone is capable of
  achieving greatness, then that person will indeed
  achieve greatness. In other words, believing in
  potential simply creates potential Machaalani
  (2005)
• There are many determinants of a teacher's
  expectation of her pupils' intellectual ability.
  Even before a teacher has seen a pupil deal with
  academic tasks she is likely to have some
  expectation for his behavior. If she is to teach
  a 'slow group,' or children of darker skin color,
  or children whose mothers are 'on welfare,' she
  will have different expectations for her pupils'
  performance than if she is to teach a 'fast
  group,' or children of an upper-middle-class
  community. Before she has seen a child perform,
  she may have seen his score on an achievement or
  ability test or his last years' grades, or she
  may have access to the less formal information
  that constitutes the child's reputation. (p.
  viii). Rosenthal, R., and Jacobson, L. (1968).
  Pygmalion in the classroom Teacher expectation
  and pupils' intellectual development'. New York
  Rinehart and Winston.

18
What can we do?

• Complex holistic problem needs wide range of
  strategies
• RD need to develop better year on year data
  for departments and subjects.
• Student voice needs to be facilitated/heard.
• Develop champions within departments
• Collaborate with nearby institutions (old and
  new)
• Link to broader student experience, retention,
  progression and employers engagement strategies.
• Examine composition/experience of BME staff.
• Promote action orientated mini projects within
  departments.

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What can we do continued...?

• Promote a true anonymous marking policy.
• Consider wider variety of assessment methods e.g.
  More use of oral exams, formative assessment,
  PBL.
• Need to develop more personalised learning
  packages.
• Additional support in ways that is not
  stigmatising.
• Expose trade secrets to non-traditional
  students.
• Affirmative action strategies .e.g. Targeted
  bursaries, parental engagement. Not to exclude
  whites but work harder at including BMEs

20
Summary concluding comments to blame the
victim

• BME underachievement, whilst being a complex
  phenomena cannot be explained simply in terms of
  individual deficit models.
• Data and monitoring has tended to be an end in
  itself we must link research to action, not
  least because we have a legal duty to do so.
• Although universities are rightly considered to
  be cosmopolitan institutions with a strong a
  sense of moral purpose, this does not make them
  immune to institutional discrimination.
• Diversity and attainment in higher education is
  no longer a particular phenomena related to
  ethnicity with widening participation it has
  become a pervasive phenomena.
• Like the issue of global warming, we need to act
  NOW, even if we are not sure what the true
  nature/scale of the problem is.

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It the seemingly impossible possible
Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC 28th August1963
Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC 20th January
2009
22
References

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  barriers to embedding equal opportunities in the
  curriculum, PRI, University of Wolverhampton.
• Ahmed, S (2007) The Language of Diversity, in,
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• Bird, J ed. (1996) Black Students and Higher
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• Broecke, S. and Nicholls, T. (2007), Ethnicity
  and Degree Attainment, Department for Education
  and Skills Research Report RW92. Available from
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• Connors et al. (2004) Why the Difference? A
  closer look at Higher Education Minority Ethnic
  Students and Graduates, Institute of Employment
  Studies.
• Fielding, A et al (2008) Degree attainment,
  ethnicity and gender Interactions and the
  modification of effects - A quantitative
  analysis. University of Birmingham and Centre for
  Multilevel Modelling, University of Bristol.
  http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/o
  urwork/research/EDA_Quantitative_ReportMarch08.pdf
  
• HEA. (2008) Ethnicity, Gender and Degree
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