Starting from the position that factors leading
to black underachievement in schools continue to exist, how can we help the
individual develop strategies for achieving quality education?
C copyright BILL ZANETTI 48/458/5948 M
Ed May 99
For years the government has produced
reports describing black underachievement in schools, but what effect have
these reports had? Do the reports really attempt to address the problem?
In this dissertation I have developed
strategies to overcome underachievement amongst black school students, and I
have tested their value and appropriateness through case study interviews
carried out in the UK.
Based on these strategies and their
evaluation by interview, I produced a consistent approach that could give
direction towards helping begin to work on society’s problem of black
underachievement; this direction was epitomised by a staff development workshop
designed to help teachers address these issues.
First and foremost I would like to thank my interviewees whose
knowledge and wisdom greatly enhanced this research project. It is with regret
that for reasons of professional and academic integrity I am unable to properly
credit them here.
I would also like to strongly thank my
tutor, Donnie Macleod, who has managed to convert a bristly ageing socialist
suspicious of academia into something vaguely resembling academic
respectability, I hope.
Distance learning requires, if not demands, a good library
service. I would specifically like to thank Jean Jolly and her staff for their
invaluable help. I would also like to thank the administrative staff of
Northern College, who have enabled me to complete so far.
Bill Zanetti May ’99
All of my M Ed work can be accessed here: LINK
Each of the separate parts can be directly accessed using:-
Professional Biography LINK
Independent Study LINK
Dissertation LINK
I certify that this thesis does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university; and that to the best of my knowledge and belief it does not contain any material previously published or written by another person where due reference is not made in the text.
Bill Zanetti Bill Zanetti 4/4/99
Appendix 1A Final Plan
Appendix 1B Position Justification
Appendix 1C Research not Found & Support Letter
Appendix 1D Personal Biopic
Section 2.1 Motivation-Achievement
Section 2.3 Culture and Quality
Education
Section 2.4 Literature Summary
Appendix 2A Theories of Motivation
Appendix 2B Theories of Achievement
Appendix 2C Public School Approach to Education
Appendix 2D Practical Problems of Finance and Disruptive Students
Appendix 2E Emotional reaction to some
of Ford's position
Appendix 2F Botswana's White Model of Education
Appendix 2G Culture becomes an Excuse for Failure
Appendix 2H Assimilation and Socialism
Appendix 2I Personal Reflections on Lowest Common
Denominator Behaviour
Appendix 2J Moral Peoplehood
Appendix 2K Negromachy
Appendix 2L Further Counselling Strategies
Appendix 2M Philosophical Investigations of Quality
Appendix 2N Alienation and Quality
Appendix 2O Detachment in Meditation
Section 3.1 Research Paradigm why
qualitative.
Section 3.2 Data Collection Approach
Section 3.3 Case Study Methodology
Section 3.4 Research Methodology Summary
Appendix 3A Philosophical underpinnings of Qualitative Research
Appendix 3B Why the Phenomenalist Position might include Noumena
Appendix 3C The Human Being
Appendix 3D Provisions for Trustworthiness
Appendix 3E Interview Procedure
Appendix 3F Characteristics of Qualitative Research
Appendix 3G Sample Sheet
Appendix 4A Interview Diary
Appendix 4B Personnel Profiles
Chapter 5
Presentation of Findings
Section 5.1 Achievement-Motivation
Section 5.2 Racism Awareness Approach
Section 5.3 Performance-Oriented Model
Section 5.4 Cultural Attitude to Jobs
Section 5.5 Cultural Attitude to Black Rights and Consciousness
Section 5.6 Cultural Attitude to Assimilation
Section 5.7 Nigrescence Model
Section 5.8 Holding to Cultural Strengths
Section 5.9 Detaching from Race
Section 5.10 Racial Identity
Section 5.11 Working for Black Teachers
Section 5.12 Culture and Quality Education
Section 5.13 Trust
Section 5.14 Coping with Peers
Section 5.15 Mentoring
Appendices 5A-K Transcripts of Interviews
Appendix 6A Baseline Procedure - State of the Struggle
Appendix 6B Baseline School
Appendix 6C Business Interactions
Appendix 6D Back to Jamaica
Chapter 7 Conclusion of Findings
Appendix 7A Teachers' Workshop
Chapter 8 Evaluation
Chapter 9 Bibliography
& Additional Materials
Chapter 10 Overall Conclusion
Preface:- Preface added to online version, 2017.
I wrote too much. I can’t remember but a dissertation is only 20000 words, this
is 85000. To get the qualification I put good material in appendices and some
of the “chapters” are the required academic institutional format. Also
occasionally I have been unable to decrypt computer formatting I used 20 years
ago.
My main concern with this dissertation
is an examination of strategies for overcoming black underachievement in
schools (please see appendix 1A for the final plan I produced in the Research
Strategies module). To this end, the need to establish that there were factors
that continue to exist leading to this black underachievement was not an
integral part of the dissertation. To be blunt any teacher working in a
multi-ethnic school knows black students are underachieving, however in
appendix 1B I have presented a brief justification for the continuing existence
of such factors based on government reports – Rampton,
Swann and Ofsted. I would point out here that it is my view (substantiated in appendix 1B) that the
reason for the continuing existence of such factors is the lack of political
will to fully address the issue of racism. Without such will, racism will
continue and therefore the black underachievement I am discussing will not
disappear.
In Chapter 2 I will begin the Literature
Review in order to establish the required strategies. I will look briefly at
motivation and achievement as these are clearly issues related to
underachievement. Through a consideration of diverse views on motivation and
achievement theory, I will propound the view that learning is a natural
process. If students are lacking in motivation it is as a consequence of the
failure of the education system to dovetail into society and provide rewards,
not just financial, for academic success. In other words education and society
are not coordinated to enable the natural learning process to continue.
Through examination of US literature
concerning the counselling of gifted black children, mainly Donna Ford’s book –
“Reversing Underachievement among Gifted Black Students”, I will develop strategies
for overcoming black underachievement in UK schools. I will be questioning
positions held by many activists as to the need to develop black consciousness
and racism awareness, particularly at an early age. This is not to undervalue
such awareness and consciousness, but simply to ask whether it is appropriate
in the young and whether it can cause confusion and divert motivation. I feel
that many teachers are also confused as to the importance of such issues as
naturally black awareness and consciousness are outside the experience of white
teachers. One purpose of this dissertation is to show these professionals that
there are different perspectives on these issues, and hopefully through the
interview process show the teachers the differing perspectives and experience
of students.
In Chapter 3 I will examine the approach
to the research, namely the adoption of the case study methodology and the
qualitative paradigm. If the research is to have any meaning then any
strategies that I put forward must have relevance in practise. To this end it
will be necessary to interview various black people to determine their
appropriateness, hence I will try to justify the use of the in-depth interview.
As I am concerned about what these people think about the strategies, I propose
the use of the qualitative approach as a means of determining their views. As
part of this Chapter I will also consider various approaches to attempt to
remove bias in the interview process. I will also consider how I will prepare
myself for the interviews, how I will designate the sample, and where I will
conduct the interviews.
In Chapter 4, I will describe how I will
carry out the interviews mainly through the use of an interview diary.
In Chapter 5 I will present the
findings. With proper consultation I am also going to include in Chapter 5
Sections 5.1.to 5.15. These sections are the crux of my dissertation, the
corroborative testimony of the interviewees. In appendices 5A-K I present the
actual transcripts, but from these transcripts I have collated the quotes from
the interviewees concerning the strategies I developed in Chapter 2. To improve
the style of presentation I have commented on these quotes but the importance
as presentation of findings is in the quotes themselves.
In Chapter 6 I will draw together all
the findings and generalised discussion into a proper analysis. It should be
noted that the literature review led to a number of different but related
strategies, included in these was the strategy of mentoring. You will see in Chapters
5 and 6 that there are a great number of findings. Firstly this is because of
the number of strategies that will be considered, but secondly because I was
fortunate enough to discuss mentoring with a number of practising counsellors.
The discussions in the various sections of Chapter 5 are particularly
important, and should be noted for the wisdom of the interviewees, and the
relevance of their comments to the strategies developed. During the interview
process itself I began to question whether the "State of the
struggle" was the same as when I was teaching in Brixton. I will include
discussions of this in my interview schedule, and I would ask you to pay
special note to the testimony that is included in appendices 6A and 6B where I
presented baseline discussions on the "State of the Struggle" and its
effects in schools.
In Chapter 7 I will conclude the
dissertation, and in Chapter 8 I will evaluate the dissertation both in terms
of its process and value but also from the point of view of self-development. I
would like to note here that the value of such research is in its applicability
to the school situation. To this effect I would ask that you examine the teachers’
workshop in Appendix 7A with a view to implementation of the ideas contained in
this dissertation (my own work situation now precludes this).
Throughout the dissertation I have made
special use of appendices. Although each chapter of the dissertation has
integrity without the appendices, I have added the appendices at the end of
each chapter (as opposed to the end of the dissertation) because they help
describe the processes and debate that led to the summative chapter itself. I
encourage the reader to consider these appendices as more than fillers of
academic correctness; reading them in conjunction with the chapter will enhance
understanding. I hope the reader will note them before moving on to the next
chapter as it should give a fuller sense to the subsequent material.
Appendix 1a SUMMATIVE
PLAN
STAGE
A:- Setting out a general statement of the
question or topic of interest.
A GENERAL STATEMENT
Given that there are factors which
prevent black people from achieving quality education in schools how can we
help the individual develop strategies to be successful?
A typical racist stereotype is "Ah,
these blacks. Even when we give them Equal Opportunities Laws they still fail,
black people are still failing in our schools - they don't have the
intelligence to do the best jobs". I want to add evidence that will help
to counter such prejudices. Here I would like to define my use of the term
"black". Black people originally came from Africa so that is how I
will use the term. It will include Afro-Caribbeans,
people who are from Africa themselves or whose family comes from Africa, as
well as first and subsequent UK generations. It is my contention that there are
factors, both in society and in education, which prevent the practice of equal
opportunities (ie equal opportunities legislation is
in word only). Further these factors prevent black people from achieving
quality education and prevent them from entering what might be called the
quality professions. Much work has been done at high level to confirm that
these factors exist (irrefutably in my opinion) but I feel there is a need to
add to work on counselling strategies to overcome these factors in line with
recent US work. I hope to contribute to this.
STAGE
B:- Scrutinising the literature,
consulting, discussing with colleagues, clarifying key concepts
BACKGROUND STUDY
To begin with I want to establish how to
deal with the concept of quality education. Through background study I will
examine what I call processes to quality and use this in my interviewing. Let
me try to give some detail. A complete definition of what is quality education
cannot, in my view, be given (cf The Meno and Socrates' argument concerning Virtue). However
because it cannot be defined does not mean that we cannot strive to educate
towards quality. The importance of quality education is not the actual
achievement of quality but the passing on of the processes which will allow
people to achieve quality in their chosen professions. Typically this might be
teaching how to be creative rather than imitating the greats. Through the
background study I will point to many such processes, and through interviewing
I shall try to get the interviewee to discuss these areas from their own
personal experience in and out of the school system.
As will be later discussed such quality
issues might not be wanted in these chosen professions. A drug company might
want a research scientist to discover new treatments for disease but not if
those treatments are cheaper than the existing treatments the company provides.
Here we have a simple issue of alienation where the natural process towards
cheaper and better drugs is alienated from the profit motivations of the drug
company in real life. Do such issues of alienation particularly affect black
people in education? Do other issues of alienation affect them in particular? I
shall try to examine this issue of alienation (is it natural to treat people as
second-class because of the colour of their skin), and then again use my
understanding of alienation in the interview process to determine the
importance of this factor.
Motivation is a factor in educational
achievement, so from a psychological perspective I shall briefly examine
educational motivation. But the essential issue of the dissertation is that of
black achievement in the UK. This issue became current in the UK when
Afro-Caribbean parents, having immigrated postwar and
having suffered the indignities of racism at that time in order that their
children could receive a proper education on the golden streets of the
motherland, discovered that the education their children were receiving was second
rate. At the same time the children reacted to the poor standard of their
education by becoming disruptive in schools. Once this response and behaviour
had become entrenched the government reacted, and set up committees. These
committees fuelled by the riots or uprisings of the early 80's led to the Rampton and Swann reports. I contend that little has moved
on from there as can be seen when I compare it with the 1996 Ofsted report on
the achievement of Afro-Caribbean children, encompassed in their term Ethnic
Minority pupils. To me they are still attempting irrefutably to establish that
there is a problem. Based on my experience I have no doubt that the UK
education system is failing these children of African origin. For me the
important direction to take is to accept that these factors are present and
help students find ways of overcoming them in order to achieve quality
education. To this end recent US research can provide a model by examining the
work carried out there on counselling black children, specifically in the
education of gifted black children. The direction of these factors, although
not necessarily exclusively, should be towards quality education. Coming to
terms with this notion is very important to me in this dissertation, and it is
in this quality arena where I think the research could possibly have a spark of
originality.
C1 Formulation of specific research
questions.
C2 Identifying the population to which
the results will apply, the intended outcomes and the kinds of claims to be
made.
C3 Identifying the general research
strategy for data collection.
C4 Selecting or constructing the
appropriate techniques/tools/instruments etc for data collection.
C5 Undertaking pilot work.
C6 Plotting the time line.
C1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
As I am not defining and examining
particular factors my questions can, and perhaps should, be altered during the
process of my research; I want to be particularly open to the possibility of
learning about new factors through the interviewing processes. However I
initially plan to answer the following research questions:-
· Does achieving a quality education
affect the motivations of black people?
· How does alienation affect the
motivation of black people in achieving quality education?
· How can we counsel black students to
help them achieve quality education?
· What guidelines can we give teachers to
help them to advise black people as to how to achieve quality education?
Before I begin the interview process I
must answer these questions myself and I will then include my initial answers
in the dissertation as a sort of baseline. I am conscious that I bring a bias
to this research, to know this bias is to overcome it because I can be
conscious of my position by having written this baseline. Emphasis in interviewing
will also have to be a consideration, will I lead interviewees into the avenue of
processes to quality and give it greater emphasis than they would personally?
C2 POPULATION
My population is self-evidently black
people (black as defined above) who have been educated in the UK. I shall
attempt to make my interview sample as diverse as possible within certain
practical constraints. Whilst interviewing I shall try to vary population
factors such as age, generation, sex etc, and in my analysis I shall try to
consider factors such as family origin to see whether this has any bearing. As
I am using an individual case study method the breadth of these population
factors is important. It has to be recognised that the validity of any
counselling strategies that I come up with is in their applicability to real
life. If the strategies are only suitable for the individuals concerned then
the research is limited. But as the research is pointing towards a new
direction in the context of the population:-
Counselling Strategies for Achieving
Quality Education then I feel justified.
C3/4/5 COLLECTION
STRATEGY/SELECTION/PILOT STUDY
I have determined to follow a
qualitative approach to this study hence my main form of data collection will
be the in-depth interview - individual case study method. Before I can
interview I need to do some pilot work. My big practical problem is that I must
collect my data in the UK. To begin with I shall send questionnaires to the UK.
These will be sent to a personal friend, Gavin - a black man, and I will ask
him to circulate these pilot questionnaires to personal contacts. At the same
time there is a UK-educated Nigerian teacher in a local school here in
Francistown and I will interview her as a pilot study. At Christmas I shall be returning
to the UK for a personal visit. Whilst there I intend to start my serious
interviewing. Again I would hope that I could prevail on Gavin to introduce me
to people who would be willing to be interviewed. Possibly some of those who
completed pilot questionnaires would be interested in a full interview, I would
include that possibility in the pilot. Also as a soiree I might try to get a
group discussion going on the issue depending on interest. To broaden the scope
of interviewees I shall conduct "street interviews". I would focus
such interviews on education institutions as well as centres such as the Africa
Centre, ACER, and others. Between personal contacts and these "street
interviews" I would hope to get sufficient data.
An important aspect of my collection
strategy is a recognition of the difficulty of my position as a middle-aged
white man. I therefore must carry credentials. In terms of Gavin's
introductions my credentials are covered, I might have even met some of them.
For "street interviews" (interviews with people that I meet say at
students' union, Africa Centre, ACER or other AfroCaribbean
education centres) I will use two things. Firstly I will bring the magazines, Young Journal, I edited at the Youth Centre, at the time I found doors
opening to many interesting places simply by sending a complimentary copy and
asking to visit. At that time I always found the community extremely interested
in promoting its youth, the paid advert for the Granada Car Hire was not
expensive but I am sure he didn't gain much business from a Youth Centre
magazine. I would also carry a copy of the race sections of my personal
autobiography.
There is a hidden credential which I
cannot define - my attitude/persona. I worked for many years in Brixton
including work at the Gresham Supplementary Education Scheme (black education),
now I work in Botswana. Throughout this time I had much personal contact with
black people (especially women, say no more), all of this produces an attitude
or persona which removes some barriers, I feel this will be important in
allowing me to get interviews. I have carried out a literature search using the
keywords "black achievement" that led to references on "educating
gifted black children" and "counselling black children". This
search will give me information for the background study on black achievement,
together with the reports mentioned above, and will help me update my
questionnaire/interview strategy on determining counselling strategies
contained therein.
C6 TIME LINE
The time line is defined by the
collection strategy. The pilot study can begin now together with the pilot
interview, and then at Christmas I will begin the interviewing proper. As soon
as I have finished the pilot interview, and had the returned questionnaires I
can begin to update the questionnaire and interview strategy. Also at Christmas
I will develop the literature search, hopefully by using the rationales people
have used for coping with school. Following the interview process I will write
up the dissertation. I have then set myself a target date of May 1998, but at
the outside I will finish the M Ed in May 1999 so that I can hopefully graduate
in July 1999 at the end of my current contract. In August 1999 I would be
looking to change into teacher education; and this is one of the purposes of
studying for the M Ed.
STAGE D Collecting and Analysing Data
COLLECTION & ANALYSIS
My approach for analysing the data will
be based on the approach adopted by MM (Maykut & Morehouse) that
they characterise as interpretative-descriptive. I am not looking to build a
whole new theory based on observations made during the interview. It is my
intention to use the data gained in the qualitative interview as a description
of the way people have coped with the system. I would then need to interpret
their sophistic reality into a structure for reporting results in the context
of work done in the area eg Donna Y Ford.
My approach to coping with the data is
connected to the approach developed in MM Ch 9 (Maykut
& Morehouse) - they call it the constant comparative
method. Having conducted a pilot interview I found that the delicate nature of
the subject matter led to an unstructured interview despite having developed a
schedule and a series of questions. The reason for this is two-fold:- firstly,
racism is a sensitive area and experiences of racism are often painful, and
secondly the concepts of quality and alienation are not necessarily first-hand,
immediate concepts and to obtain useful comments based on these concepts might
be difficult. Questions cannot necessarily be confronted but can be teased
around, and perhaps answered by a question formulated in a completely different
way. The length of the interview will also be a problem for transcription.
Because the question might be developed in a meandering style, some of the
content of the interview will not be relevant for analysis. In the pilot
interview I also discovered that we revisited topics because further discussion
threw light on previous questions.
I will therefore produce a transcript
summary of the interview. This transcript summary will then be coded in such a
way that every concept the interviewee referred to will be coded as a separate
paragraph eg s1Ct1- subject 1 Concept 1. From there I
will cut and paste using the computer. Initially I will cut and paste into
subject areas such as quality, alienation, motivation etc, loosely based around
the interview schedule (set up files for each of these areas). Then I will
break down into other areas such as factors to help overcome alienation,
reasons for producing quality work, etc (again set up files for each of these
areas). These later broken down categories will be determined by the content of
the interviews, and as such cannot be defined now. I also found it useful once
I had conducted the pilot interview and examined my interview notes to write an
evaluation of the interview in terms of notable factors etc. My interview
schedule should provide the structure of these breakdown areas but I don't want
to be definitive about this in case the interviews produce a direction of study
I had not thought about. Following this process through in my mind now I will
produce a whole series of files which will contain interview references and
paragraphs about specific factors/topics. These could then form the basis of
the analysis for my final dissertation.
I am not sure what should be submitted
for the dissertation. Firstly there will be interview tapes, secondly there will
be the disorganised transcript summary, thirdly there will be the breakdown
into broad categories, and fourthly there will be the breakdown into specific
categories. Then there will be the dissertation. How much of this research
analysis is required to be submitted? The pilot's interview took two
double-sided tapes!!! Submit up to 40 tapes??
As Ch9 develops MM discussed ways of
organising their data. Their approach was to put the concepts or their terms -
units of meaning (my s1Ct1) onto index cards. Start with broad categories, set
up manila sheets in a research room, put all cards that "look/feel
alike" on one sheet, then as they build up, find a "rule of
inclusion" for some of the cards, thus excluding others which can then be
included under other rules etc. I am noting that I am aware of this process. I
can use the computer to fulfil many aspects of this process. I can use pinboards which will allow me to categorise files within
topics at a glance, making it easy for me to decide where to file the concepts.
This might be done along the lines of categorising alienation using the four
aspects of alienation that Marx defined. So my pinboard
would contain the following files:- Alienation, Alfromself,
Alfromman, Alfromspec. AlfromNat, Almiscell, and this pinboard would be visible on the screen at the same time -
a computerised manila sheet. Defining these pinboards
would be part of the emergent design of the qualitative analysis of my research
(as it has been in all aspects of my M Ed so far). I do not feel it is
appropriate at this stage to go further into the data analysis process because
going further can only be considered part of the analysis itself.
STAGE E Interpreting and Reporting
Results
CONCLUSION
Following the interviews and collation
process I will analyse the attitudes of the interviewees in the context of the
background studies. Hopefully these attitudes will give indications to
behaviour which will help me to discern counselling strategies to help black
students achieve quality education. From this I will try to develop a plan for
a teachers' workshop to promote these counselling strategies. As I have mainly
followed a qualitative analysis based on MM's book I intend to present my
conclusion mainly in the way they have suggested in Ch 10 throughout. Their
actual design is on p152 but I have made slight amendments.
Abstract
< Introduction ɮ)>
< Study Background ɯ)>
< Motivation ɯ.1)>
< Achievement ɯ.2)>
< Alienation ɯ.3)>
< Quality ɯ.4)>
< Design Research ɰ)>
< Trustworthiness for Provisions ɰ.1)>
< Methods ɱ)>
< Sample Population ɱ.1)>
< Methods Collection Data ɱ.2)>
< Data Procedures Analysis ɱ.3)>
< Outcomes ɲ)>
< of Analysis Attitudes ɲ.1)>
< Quality Education towards
Strategies Counselling ɲ.2)>
< - factors workshop Teacher?s ɲ.3)>
< Implications ɳ)>
< Bibliography ɴ)>
< Appendices ɵ)>
Questionnaire
Interview Schedule
Interview Sample Sheet
Sample Transcript Summary
Sample Interview - Tape
F) Sample file
of "cut-and paste" methodology for organising sample data.
Appendix 1B POSITION
JUSTIFICATION
In this appendix
I shall be examining the starting position that "factors leading to black
underachievement continue to exist". In the dissertation I am not
focussing on this starting position but want to consider the development of
individual strategies for promoting achievement. I believe that this emphasis
is not dodging the issue. For me the problem of research and study in this area
has been the focus on the need to establish that there is black
underachievement.
Based on my experience I would contend that anyone who has taught in
multi-ethnic schools would accept that there is black underachievement. As I stated in my
professional autobiography "Subjectively a teacher judges the intelligence
of students and uses that judgement to exact standards from the students. In my
view there was clear evidence for underachievement - and racism had to be in
part a cause". Further, this black underachievement has continued since
the issue was raised so strongly in the 70's and forcibly in the early 80's.
Aspects of the factors leading to the underachievement may have changed but the
actual underachievement is still a major problem. As part of my Analysis of
Findings in chapter 6, I will examine what I call a baseline school, primarily
to determine whether my assessment of the situation in schools is adequate. As
a corollary to that examination, I found that factors leading to
underachievement do continue to exist, although they have changed in time. This
theme of the change in the struggle frequently came up in the case study interviews I
carried out, and, throughout, the interviewees did not see any difference in
underachievement.
My main reason for accepting that the
position of black underachievement in schools has not changed is based on a
political perspective and a political evaluation developing from that
perspective. I shall present this viewpoint even though I would accept it is
not academic justification. Working in a capitalist system there is a need to
exploit a working-class ie cheaper labour.
Colonialism and neo-colonialism are different aspects of the same political
force where capitalism drives its interests into exploiting black people of the
Third World. In the UK this force wants to increase its profits by keeping down
wages, and one of the mechanisms it uses to divert the focus of the
working-class is racism in its many forms. Again an analysis of this aspect of
racism is not part of this dissertation but suffice it to say that there is not
the political will to remove scapegoat racism. For a fuller discussion on the
relationship between racism and colonialism please see part 5 of my
professional autobiography (LINK), specifically where I tried to justify the inclusion of a
section on colonialism as part of a racial awareness training.
As discussed below official government
approaches to the question of black achievement are fundamentally stuck in a
battle to establish the contention that black people are under-achievers in UK
education. Fundamentally the reason that I think the British situation is still
in the realms of establishing the contention is the lack of willingness of the
government to tackle the prevailing climate of racism that exists in the UK.
For this reason I feel there is a willingness to establish the contention but
not a willingness to provide adequately financed solutions. Working in
government-funded projects carried out on this issue was never adequately
financed yet when the Tories decided through the Baker plan and others to
apparently radically alter education as a whole there was finance for those
parts of education they wanted to promote. Cosmetic applications of interest in
the issue such as the Ofsted report are never meant to do more than assuage the
attacks of the black lobby, and to act as public peace offerings when
justifiable racial tensions spill out into actual violence.
In fact there is
a political mechanism used which indicates the validity of the starting
position, and that is the continuing political need to establish that
underachievement exists. For the last 20 years, the UK government has
commissioned various reports to examine the position of underachievement. I
shall examine in a little detail conclusions from these reports, but over 20
years that position has not substantially changed. This validates the starting
position in two ways. Firstly the reports are stating that there continues to
be black underachievement. Secondly it shows that, although many
educationalists have stated that there is an issue to be dealt with, the
government continues to finance reports that try to establish the problem
rather than finance projects that will try to overcome the problem. Again as I
stated in Part 5 of my professional autobiography (LINK), "If the political direction of the government is not
strongly active in fighting racism then the UK will continue to practice racial
disadvantage. With a Tory government that turns to a policy of repatriation as
a vote-winner, and a Labour party whose vote analysis is determining its
policy, there is little likelihood that the racist tide will be countered at
government direction - it is more likely to be swelled". I feel this is
sufficient to establish the lack of political will concerning the need to
overcome racism, during interviews many referred to a changing political
perspective, a change in the practice of racism but not a change in the racism
itself.
This word equation was part of the
racism awareness training I carried out. Fundamentally what it is alluding to
is that it is not the prejudices that are particularly important. It is not
pleasant to know that a person doesn't like black people but individual dislike
is not a serious problem but if that person then runs a company and then does
not employ black people, his power to influence the lives of black people
starts to come into play. If a large number of employers have these employment
prejudices then their combined power leads to racism. In an egalitarian society
a government would seek to redress such employment injustices.
It is not simply in employment that such
prejudices exist but throughout important aspects of life such as housing etc
(please see the Policy Studies Institute 5-yearly reports on Black and White
Britain for a continued statistical analysis of the face of UK racism). People
with prejudices hold the power within UK society, and government failure to
enact sufficiently powerful to eradicate these practices points to the lack of
political will because these people with prejudices are also voters.
Rampton Swann and Ofsted
Let us examine references from the three
main government-commissioned reports on black underachievement:-
Rampton (1981)
Swann (1985)
Ofsted (1996)
Please note that the years these reports
were published span and the timescale I am considering.
I want to begin by examining Rampton(1981), then Swann(1985), and then complete the
situational analysis by examining the Ofsted report (1996). In the preface (Rampton p1) the Rampton report
describes a recommendation of the parliamentary Select Committee on Race
Relations and Immigration. It recommended "as a matter of urgency the
government (should) institute a high level independent inquiry into the causes
of the underachievement of children of West Indian origin in maintained schools
and the remedial action required". Therefore the government has accepted
prior to the publication of Rampton that there was
black underachievement. Further, I claim little has been done on the
"remedial action required", in fact the very use of the term remedial
causes concern in me as a teacher because remedial departments in practice
focus their attention on low ability and discipline problems but black
underachievement is across all abilities. The stigma attached to an approach
described as remedial would be hard to overcome.
In the interim report's introduction Rampton (p3) stated that "From the evidence we have
obtained ....., and from our visits and discussions up and down the country, we
are convinced that West Indian children as a group are indeed underachieving in
relation to their peers."
How important is it to look at the
factors leading to underachievement? Back in 1981 Rampton's
point 7 in the Evidence for Underachievement stated that "We have met a
group of West Indians, currently studying in higher education, all of whom said
that they had faced particular obstacles and difficulties in the course of
their education which they had had to overcome to reach higher education. We
hope for our main report to be able to look into these difficulties and the
particular circumstances which have led to these and other West Indians to be
academically successful" Rampton [p10].
In Swann Ch 3 Annex E there is
"Revised Research Proposed on "Academically Successful Black Pupils" submitted
by the Research and Statistics Branch of the Inner London Education
Authority", but in my research I could find no evidence of anything coming
of this (see letter in appendix 1C to support this). And in the Ofsted report
of 1996 they don't even attempt to continue this theme. So effectively
government-funded committees have not looked into the "difficulties and
particular circumstances" referred to on Rampton
page 10.
So in the most
significant government reports on the achievement of these students, not one
committee has actually analysed the factors which have led to success amongst
some of these people. How can teachers possibly build success amongst these
students when there has been no serious governmental research into the factors
that lead to success? As Rampton, at government
committee level, flagged in 1981 the urgent need for research into these
factors, one can only assume that there is not sufficient government will to
help Afro-Caribbean students to be successful, even to this day in 1998. At a
time when teachers are under serious stress in their normal daily professional
duties, absence of governmental guidelines to focus on this matter is a serious
omission. Equally the lack of government funding to complete research such as
that suggested in Swann Ch 3 Annex E is significant. In this context the statement
in "The Context
for the Review" in the Ofsted report [p 1] is a serious understatement.
"More than a decade has passed since the last major review of the
educational experiences and achievements of ethnic minority pupils. .... During
this period, issues of race and equal opportunity have tended to slip from
policy agendas; this review demonstrates the need for this to change". I
don't find this very forceful considering the seriousness of the issue
especially when the report later states that "in some areas there is a
growing gap between the achievements of African Caribbean pupils and their
peers"[p2].
In fact as a way forward on the issue of
addressing the way racism affects the achievement the Programme for Action Ch 4
Rampton [pp 70-86] would still be appropriate with
suitable amendments to names of organisations or government. In Rampton Ch2 "Factors contributing to
Underachievement" we have a detailed contemporaneous analysis of the
circumstances that lead to the cycle of underachievement amongst these
students. Although this was obviously an important analytical stage at the time
we must move on from there. But I contend that all that has happened is that
this analysis has become part of the syndrome of "excuses for
failure", and that no programme has been enacted that could be described
as a programme that would give "reasons for success".
In Rampton's
introduction (p3 Item 3) "the West Indian's initial response was one of
suspicion and cynicism - suspicion about why their children had been singled
out for particular attention, and cynicism about whether anything worthwhile
would actually emerge from our work since their views had already been
expressed on a number of occasions, notably to the Select Committee, and little
action had resulted. Our response was to point out that the attention being
given to West Indian children was a direct result of the concern originally
voiced by West Indians and that our intention was to make practical
recommendations which might be taken to help West Indian children to reach
their full potential." I would like to ask the Committee now whether the
West Indian cynicism was founded in the light of 16 years hindsight, and
whether they feel duped by promises made to them, and whether they feel the
promises they made have been kept. Although positive advances can be described
the fundamental position is no better than that which existed prior to Rampton, and it could possibly be considered worse.
To conclude the position justification I
contend that the political will is not there to remove racism in UK society,
and in education this shows itself by continued underachievement amongst black
students: I have tried to show this by a brief consideration of the three
government-commissioned reports. This dissertation is concerned with strategies
for overcoming this underachievement so I have not pursued in detail
justifications for this position. I have made reference, particularly in the
discussion on the baseline school, as to the changing nature of the factors
leading to the underachievement, and many of the interviewees considered this
at my prompting so I would rather let them speak. On to the strategies!!!
During the research I wanted to check
out whether any research had been carried out by ILEA as per their
recommendations concerning studying high black achievers. Jean Jolly, head
librarian at Northern College, wrote back to me the following on 25/8/97 at 12.41.11:-
“Hi Bill,
Re the ILEA reference in the Swann
report. To try to follow it up, I checked International Eric, which contains
British education Index, to follow up any articles written about the report
which might mention the intention to do further research, I checked the
bibliographi9es of books on multi-cultural education published post-Swann, to
see if there was any mention there. I checked a set of ILEA catalogues which I
had kept even though ILEA dismantled years ago, because we often get references
to things that they published. I tried the British National Bibliography
which records all material deposited via copyright, and nothing there. I tried
on the Internet using COPAC which is a Union catalogue of a number of
University Catalogues but with nil results. I think I tried some other places
too but can’t put names to them just now. Basically I had hope that if the work
had proceeded, it would have been mentioned in a later text and that even if I
hadn’t found it, it may have cropped up in the wide reading you have set
yourself. I think that a cautious statement that to your knowledge the work
either didn’t proceed or had to be disbanded along with the ILEA should be
OK." I found nothing!!
Appendix 1D Personal Biopic
This dissertation grew out of ideas that
I studied in my professional autobiography (please see LINK). In the autobiography I referred to
parts of my personal history, and included a CV. Here is a short personal
biopic of relevant parts:
Sept 77 - June 85 Taught in a Brixton
comprehensive.
Sept 87 – Dec 92 Taught in a Hove
comprehensive
Jan 93 – Apr 99
Taught in a Botswana secondary school in Francistown
For further relevant details please see
my professional autobiography (LINK).
Section 2.1 MOTIVATION
– ACHIEVEMENT
Understanding the nature of achievement
is not as easy as populist journalists might pretend. Were
I to describe my qualifications outside academic circles, people might describe
me as having "achieved" yet within academic circles I might be
considered to have failed. When I consider those same qualifications I don't
consider myself a success academically because I don't feel that I worked well.
Yet at the time I was satisfied because all I wanted to do from an early age
was to get a degree. But when I described the apathetic scenario of getting a
degree to my grandmother in early adolescence, it brought her to tears and she
had to leave the room because as a teacher she thought it was a waste.
Throughout my life I found my qualifications adequate and a suitable passport,
until recently I decided I would like to teach teachers. Then the fact that I
had not completed an M Sc course in 1973 to a
sufficient level to qualify for a dissertation meant that I had not achieved.
But at that time my decision was reasonable because I wanted to concentrate on
my new career; as it happened that career did not come to fruition. Yet now I
am studying for an M Ed.
I think there is one clear conclusion
from the above paragraph, achievement is not an objective reality. My
qualifications are measurably defined ie degree, A
levels etc, but their meaning as a measure of achievement is an individual one.
This initial discussion is talking about achievement in measurable terms - exam
qualifications, but what happens when we start to consider achievement in other
terms? Let me again reflect personally. I began teaching because I had searched
briefly in other professions, and I decided that I wanted to be a teacher.
After a while in teaching I decided that job satisfaction was not enough, and I
began to seek social and spiritual reward, and a bit later on I began to seek
political justification for my existence. Then I decided that I wanted to work
abroad, to travel to see different parts of the world, yet I was still
teaching. Now I find that I am concerned about material wealth for my old age,
and financial reward is a primary consideration. I would claim that all
decisions were carefully thought out, and not precipitant, but substantively my
perspective on my achievement at being a teacher has changed drastically whilst
the job has been constant.
So again the question of achievement is
a variable, one could almost say that the level of achievement depends on how
the individual perceives it.
But even then that is not enough because
we don't live in isolation. Therefore we also have to consider the question of
achievement as others see it. For example is earning vast amounts of money an
achievement, yet others measure that as success of a sort. Others might claim
that as a teacher you cannot be a success in your early 40's unless you are at
least a deputy head. In Africa men are measured by the size of their families,
if you have no children you cannot be a success. I have also heard a man
measure himself as a success because his children have grown up and have jobs.
These measures of achievement are social by nature.
I therefore see the question of
achievement as a yin-yang of motivation-achievement, you cannot have
achievement without understanding the motivation. And yet motivation is not
necessarily enough. If I want to be a teacher is that enough? Not really,
because there are so many other factors in life finance, family, comfort, old
age/survival etc. Achievement and motivation balance their acts throughout life
- maybe that is an axiom?
In appendices 2A and 2B on Theories of
Motivation and Theories of Achievement, I have briefly examined some of the
current theories of motivation and achievement from "Psychology and the
Teacher by Child". Basically I found no pattern except what is summed up
by Child when he describes misapplied theory as giving some psychological indication.
"Long periods of unstructured, unguided, "accidental" practice
in the classroom are wasteful, frustrating and unnecessary. The gravest
disservice to our young would be to transmit, by default, the idea that
learning does not require personal effort and sacrifice" [p48]. Well in my
view we have committed that gravest disservice but that disservice has been
committed by society and not by the tinkerings of
discovery learning or teaching methods however misguided some may be. Don't
blame the teachers and teaching methods when students come to school with such
poor attitudes to learning.
There is no doubt in my mind that all
the possible motivations referred to in appendix 2A have their place in an
understanding of individuals motivation in education but in my view they are
missing the fundamental motivation because they are not trying to reflect on
the practice holistically. Learning itself is the fundamental motivation, it is
the natural order. As babies we have instincts to learn, and then as we grow
older we learn. We have survival instincts, we learn how to survive. In early
childhood we learn behaviour through experimentation and reward – the reward of
parental love. We are not capable of not learning, we experience, we analyse,
we learn. The question is not how do we motivate students to learn but how have
we removed the motivation that students are born with?
The problem is clearly linked with
achievement. If we accept that learning is a fundamental human motivation then
what are we learning for? Simplistically speaking we are learning for life. We
are not born with a desire to learn maths, but if we find that we have ability
in maths at school then we get encouraged by thoughts of achievement of various
sorts. These achievements could be getting exam passes, passes leading to jobs,
financial reward, money to bring up the family, and somewhere mixed in with all
those possible achievements might even be a desire to do maths because you
enjoy it. In life we cannot see motivation and achievements in isolation we
have to consider the holistic position, how does it relate to learning for
life? I would claim that subconsciously students are learning for life, and
that is the perspective they bring with them to school.
If this theory is reasonably accurate we
ought to be able to say that our education system should be in a good position.
Students come to that system with a desire to learn but anyone who works in
that system especially with secondary students knows that they are not dealing
with students motivated to learn. One could therefore argue that learning is
not the fundamental motive of humans, but I think there are strong indications
against this. Firstly at secondary school teachers always enjoy the fresh spark
that year 7’s bring into the classroom. OK it doesn’t last long but it is
there. I see this as a strong pointer to the notion that learning is
fundamental, and that our education system drives it out of us.
What drives it
out of us? At teacher training college I was imbued with the idea that education
was self-realisation (or Maslow’s self-actualisation) – the leading out of the
Latin root meaning, but when I started teaching the question of being part of
self-realising a student never entered into it. I came to realise that the best
I could do for the students was to provide them with exam passes. Why? The
higher the level of qualifications the greater the opportunities in jobs, thus allowing the
individual the greater opportunity for self-realisation through their
employment and the ensuing advantages of a fulfilling career with financial
rewards, family, position etc. In other words the ideal of self-realisation was
subdued under the notion that providing the opportunity for self-realisation
was the limitation of my position as a teacher.
Now one could argue that the school is
the place for teaching life skills ie learning for
life, but in practice this doesn’t work and needs a rethink. By the time the
students are old enough to start to comprehend life skills, they have also
become aware of the importance of exam passes, and that because life skills
don’t provide passes they are not interested. This is the logic students apply
even though from the point of view of learning for life, life skills ought to
interest them.
So again you might argue that the
contention that learning is a fundamental motivation is errant. However at the
same time that students are apathetic at secondary schools they continue to
learn about life but this is life dominated by peer acceptance. They learn
about fashion, music, even drugs, they pursue hobbies and leisure interests; in
fact the level of achievement many students reach in these non-academic
subjects is often very high eg drop-out computer
hackers! So I am claiming that students are motivated to learn but in practice
many learn outside of the classroom situation.
I think the apathy exhibited in schools
is a function of the way that school achievement fits in with the social
structure, it is a function of achievement. UK society does not have a high
correlation between school achievement and social achievement. Certainly for
those students who go on to university social success, in terms of career,
family etc, are usually achieved, but the majority of students are not capable
of reaching university so school has little meaning. In the Hove Comprehensive
where I taught (please see Appendix 1D), many students didn’t work because
Daddy would provide them with a job in the family business anyway, so why work?
If education only provides qualifications and not life skills, then one can’t
argue with these students.
Summarising this section on
motivation-achievement I would claim that there is a fundamental motivation of
learning for life that is part of the natural order. The education system fails
to capitalise on this fundamental drive because it provides very little in
terms of life skills. It only provides qualifications for the higher ability
students, and for these few per-cent the UK education system is a success and
it relates to their motivation of learning for life.
I have tried to demonstrate that
learning for life is a fundamental human drive but that the UK education system
is so far away from satisfying that fundamental drive it leads to
dissatisfaction and apathy amongst the students. What happens to those students
who are denied achievement in the system? They must divert their learning for
life into other arenas, and this is certainly true of black students.
Every black student knows of relatives
who have high qualifications but do not have jobs. They know of intelligent
people in their community who are considered ignorant by the dominant culture.
They know of people who have poor housing or who are refused housing, they grow
up recognising racism all around them. As Swann 6.1 [p36] describes it "we
believe that racism is an insidious evil which, for the sake of future unity
and stability of our society, must be countered. A clear distinction can be
drawn between what can be seen as "individual" racism and the broader
and more pervasive "climate" of racism and within that the way
institutions and established practices and procedures may serve to reinforce,
perpetuate and extend this". At the same time 10 years later the Ofsted
report [p78] avoids describing UK society as racist, and, whilst claiming that
there have been advances, describes the following aspects of racism in terms of
education:-
"The gap is growing between the
highest and lowest achieving ethnic groups in many LEA’s. African-Caribbean
young people, especially boys, have not shared equally in the increasing rates
of achievement; in some areas their performance has actually worsened.
“The sharp rise in the number of
exclusions from school affects a disproportionately large number of black
pupils.
“Even when differences in
qualifications, social class and gender are taken into account ethnic groups do
not enjoy equal chances of success in their applications to university."
When you consider the change towards cosmeticism and sugar-coating that is the presentation of
UK ad-man society, this description of the current education system and black
achievement is saying little different to Swann’s more realistic assessment
that there is individual and climatic racism to be encountered. Therefore if
learning for life means learning that you are going to have to learn to live in
a society with both individual and climatic racism, then it is even more clear
that black people cannot possibly exhibit the educational motivation that I
have described as part of the natural order of humans.
When you consider this context of a
racist society and what students have to look forward to in their adult life,
then it is little surprise that they lack the motivation to achieve. Ofsted
[p10] describes that "under-achievement refers to differences in the
average attainments of different groups, it says nothing about the specific
potential or achievements of any individual pupil". This Ofsted definition
makes it clear that it is not talking about individuals but an
"average", and this defines the context of this research. I am not
attempting to analyse racism or trying to prove that it continues to exist, I
want only to provide individuals with equal opportunities. As underachievement
continues, in Ofsted’s average sense, this does not mean that the individual
has to suffer, the individual can still achieve whilst the average still
represents underachievement.
But are we providing these individuals
with the correct approaches to the education system in order to allow them to
achieve? In section 2.2 I shall be examining these strategies to help the
individual.
In public office the UK position is
still in the realm of financing research to establish that there is a problem
of underachievement (I believe they don't wish to address the issue of UK
racism nor to finance a programme to counter that racism). In the last section
I used an Ofsted "definition" of underachievement as an average in
describing underachievement, accepting the notion of an average does not
prevent us from developing individual strategies – the purpose of this
research.
In chapter 2 of the Rampton
report, the chapter entitled "factors contributing to
underachievement", many causes were given but "that which was most
forcefully and frequently put forward by West Indians themselves was
racism" [Rampton p11]. Racism, in my view, is
the cause of underachievement, but it is utopian to claim that eradicating
racism is a solution. Over the las t 20 years many efforts have been made by
some very good individuals to overcome racism, but the statistical average of
underachievement I would claim is still a reality (see Ofsted report]. I
believe it is only by individual effort that underachievement can be defeated
rather than waiting for utopia.
"There is considerable evidence
that discrimination, both intentional and unintentional, can have an adverse
effect on how a West Indian child sees hims elf and
his ethnic group in relation to majority white society which can in turn have a
bearing on his motivation and achievement" [Rampton
p14]. Yes I agree there is such evidence but my approach is to say how can we
reactivate the natural motivation for learning, and therefore the achievement,
despite that discrimination.
Rampton [p15] then describes a cycle of
cumulative disadvantage discussed in a Government White paper "Racial
Discrimination" in 1975:- " ... relatively low paid or low status
jobs for the first generation of immigrants go hand in hand with poor
overcrowded living conditions and a depressed environment. If, for example, job
opportunities, educational facilities, housing and conditions are all poor, the
next generation will grow up less well equipped to deal with the difficulties
facing them. The wheel then comes full circle, as the second generation finds themselves
trapped in poor jobs and poor housing." Again this is not a solution,
cumulative disadvantage must be recognised as a factor affecting achievement
but we cannot wait for this cycle of disadvantage to disappear as it is as
entrenched in UK society as the racism. So therefore we need to look for a
solution that is independent of this cycle of disadvantage. Unfortunately to be
fair to UK practices I want to quote from Donna Ford's book "The ....
stories of many Black students ... have not been positive in education. This is
1996, and .... there is no such work on gifted, potentially gifted, or
underachieving Black students" [Ford p ix]. My interpretation of this
statement is that she is saying overcoming Rampton’s
cycle of disadvantage is long overdue in the States as well. We must begin to
develop positive strategies for dealing with this issue of underachievement
amongst black students, not just gifted people, and not remain static in the
polemical graveyard of debate, a graveyard that is manipulated by the right
wing to maintain stasis. What I am supporting is the approach concerned with
Reversing Underachievement among Gifted Black Students - the title of her book.
I maintain there is an industry of
excuse-makers. In the Rampton section on pre-school
provision, the report [p15] states that "a disproportionate number of West
Indian women are forced to go out to work because of their economic
circumstances ..... the percentage of West Indian men employed on night shifts
is almost double that of white males and the incidence of white males and the
incidence of one parent families is higher for West Indians than whites."
These sorts of pressures on West Indian families are indeed great, without
financial security, proper meaningful non-exploitative employment life is
indeed difficult. But to then offer these as excuses for students not to work
creates a further problem. In Africa the students have cried out for the
opportunities to educate themselves. In South Africa there were many
demonstrations by school students during the apartheid regime simply demanding
the opportunity to be educated. Here in Botswana (for a biopic please see
appendix 1D), the relative poverty of the students compared to the students in
the UK is significantly lower, yet the students go to school and try to work in
general. One parent families are not even discussed as a social problem as it
appears that the majority of children are brought up in one parent family
environments – although often extended one way or another.
It is difficult to draw comparisons
between vastly different cultures with great historical and financial
differences but what can be said is that there is evidence in practice
throughout the world that these factors can be overcome by black people.
It could be argued that the cumulative
burden of all these disadvantages placed on the shoulders of these young black
children is what leads to their underachievement, and I would fully agree that
that cumulative burden is very heavy. But what I am claiming is this, with the
correct attitude students can deal with all these burdens. It must certainly be
better for these children to attempt to cope with these burdens than to grow up
in a society that offers them excuses for failure rather than reasons for
success.
And the society I am referring to in
general is white society, white liberals who see the excuses for failure rather
than promoting the reasons for success. Some black people in my experience also
offer the excuses for failure but in general I found that the black people I
was working with and many of the parents continually promoted the approach
which demanded success whatever the burdens of a racist society on the backs of
their children.
I believe very strongly that we should
be advising teachers to look for these positive approaches, and support the
demands of the parents. Parenting is a difficult job, and there is no clear
right or wrong way of doing it, for example out here in Botswana corporal
punishment is accepted in the schools and at home. In my view the students here
have a better attitude to work than in the UK but some would argue that it is
not clear. In the UK I knew of some West Indian parents who beat – some used a
belt. I knew of teachers who would not write the truth about the children
because they feared that parents might beat due to what they wrote. Those same
parents who were beating the children loved them, what right have the teachers
to impose their own views on the parenting by not presenting the parents with
the full truth. Social workers have been guilty of the same sort of thing,
withdrawing black children into care due to beating because it is the belief of
the social worker that beating is wrong. I am not defending excessive corporal
punishment but there is no clear evidence of the rightness of one system or
another, it is the choice of a good parent.
Underlying all the discussion of all
these social factors of racism, cumulative disadvantage, family structure, and
cultural difference is one definite condition, and that is confusion. Black
students must be confused. These students are given all these excuses as to why
they are going to fail so even though they might want to succeed, the societal
approach almost demands a failure.
But many black students do not fail. I
have taught many black students whose personal history and excuses for failure
would have burdened me into prison but they were successful at school and went
on to university. (This can be considered a success although we then must consider
issues such as quality, employment, self-perception and others.)
What are the strengths of these
students? How can we promote these strengths in those students, how can we
develop those strengths in others? These are the real issues of promoting equal
opportunities in education, not a verbal/legal framework that the system has no
real intention of trying to enforce. This is why I am particularly interested
in work on gifted black children in the US. By the very fact that they discuss
counselling of gifted black children means that aspects of their education
system in dealing with this particular problem are way in advance of the
attempts at recognition of underachievement highlighted in Rampton,
Swann and the Ofsted report.
The fundamental deficiencies of the UK
educational model are exemplified in the marginalisation of black students
suffering under the pressures of racism. Suppose a black child is determined to
overcome the shackles that racism places on her, and then she determines a
strategy of working at school for a better job. If that child has the strength
to hold to that tool for success then she ought to be rewarded in the system,
but in practice that child will know of educationally-qualified black people
who do not have jobs. This is a deficiency in the model where good
qualifications should lead to jobs. The only rationale that can be offered to
such a student is that her chances of a job are increased by qualifications. Is
this rationale enough when all her life she is hearing of the racism in
society? Therefore she cannot have confidence in an arbitrary interview process
where the practices could be racist. So she cannot have confidence in the
rationale of increased chances, yet to be honest this can be the only strategy
to offer.
To summarise this strategy concerning
racism awareness, it is a movement away from a strong anti-racist approach with
students. Is it essential to continually provide young people with the
continuing burden of the racist reality? Allow these students to learn about
the racism for themselves in private, and then in their adult life. Each
student is different and at different stages in their lives they become aware
of the issue and then need counselling to cope with this. This will come mainly
from the family, but it can also come from educational counsellors. But
teachers have an important role in this. Teachers, in my view, should never
deny the existence of racism, Rampton’s cycle of
disadvantage continues to exist. But is it necessary in a maths lesson to have
a lecture on racism awareness? A sound byte – do not
deny, do not burden but counsel to achieve.
"A common misconception is that
students would not be underachievers if they would "just try harder",
"pay attention" and "listen"" Ford [p1]. I don't see
this as a misconception, and my disagreement with Donna Ford and others over
this issue is fundamental in terms of the deficiencies of the education model
we use.
Firstly it is easy to try harder for a
brief period of time but to maintain a permanent attitude of trying harder is
very difficult but in my view required. Paying attention is also significant,
and true listening, listening with an open mind as to being receptive to learn
requires an attention and concentration that is difficult to possess. So these
three attitudes, Ford encompasses in her underachievement misconception, are
essential for learning and so overcoming underachievement. It is attitudes such
as these three that I would like to see students focus on in order to be
successful.
But instead their attention is focussed
on other concerns. "For gifted black students, reversing underachievement
may be especially difficult if it is related to social barriers, such as
racism; to environmental barriers, such as poverty; or to educational barriers,
such as inappropriate curriculum" Ford [p2]. Donna Ford's book is
concerned with Gifted students but, because of the "average"
approach, I maintain that the black underachievement I am referring to applies
to all black students, Therefore this underachievement manifests itself as a
general lowering of black educational standards throughout however it is
measured. Now all of these concerns are legitimate and need to be addressed but
are students the ones to address them? Is it relevant for young inexperienced
minds who have not as yet learnt self-control to be expected to deal with and
cope with such complex questions?
In appendix 2C on Public Schools, I
demonstrated that a clear performance orientation is required in those
institutions. In my view this is for the simple reason that the stage of
psychological or concept development of school students does not equip them
with the mental tools for dealing with detailed life questions.
So an important question in terms of
achievement that I want to consider is this, how many of these
social-environmental-curriculum factors are actually important to the students
when they are at school? Or are they made important by the continual reference
to them from the media and community activists?
"In general strategies for
reversing underachievement must address academic skills deficits (such as
test-taking and study skills) and include curricular changes (such as
multicultural education) and instructional changes (such as accommodation of
learning styles). They should also include increased training among school
personnel in gifted and multicultural education and increased family
involvement" Ford [p63]. As discussed in appendix 2D on finance and
disruptive students, to suggest these changes is not practical as they are not
financially viable.
I am maintaining that our approach
should be to focus on the academic as exemplified by the three attitudes of
working harder, paying attention and listening. This focus should put the
emphasis on the student taking a performance-oriented approach ignoring or
fighting off the impact of racism in terms of the socio-economic factors,
unsuitable curricula and environmental factors. Although Ford is not using this
quote in this context, she does state on p 68 that "it is therefore
important to focus on gifted Black students' cognitive strengths by teaching
them how positive thinking can reduce their emotional upsets". Black
students should be helped to "realize that their intense feelings are not
(necessarily) caused by negative events but by the manner in which they
personalize, perceive and interpret those events" Ford [p68]. I want to
take this approach further, use the greater awareness that comes from being in
conflict to perceive these events as part of racism and then move them to one
side whilst you focus on your academic studies. Use their greater cognitive
strengths to focus (positively think about) on academic progress, allow
consideration of the wider racist issues to occur outside the school
environment and to be carried out in a positive and constructive fashion.
"Approaches have to be learning-oriented rather than treatment-oriented.
Ultimately we cannot place the responsibility for change directly on the
shoulders of students" Ford [p80].
Above I described an approach of
focussing on hard work, paying attention and listening. This approach goes
against the current educational direction of child-centred policies and
children's rights where criticism lays the blame on teachers rather than on the
failures of the students and the failure of society to motivate. In the public
schools these policies and rights are protected by the promise of reward in
adult life, in the state sector they are implemented during school life with
drastic educational consequences. What are a child's rights when they are too
young to know what they want?
When considering education and adult
life, the keynote is jobs and job skills. Now some argue that jobs are
controlled by white people, and in the majority of cases in the West this
cannot be disputed. So from the position of colour it is a racist issue. But do
you want to educate for a job or not? In appendix 2E on my emotional reaction I
describe a dilemma I have with the following argument, please note this dilemma.
I completely agree with Donna Ford's analysis that black people's skills are
being under-utilised, and that many skills gained in adversity would qualify as
aspects of intelligence. When those aspects of intelligence are not required
for jobs are you benefiting the students by encouraging those skills in place
of job skills? In practice it has the opposite effect. Rather than educating
for achievement in terms of qualifications and then jobs, you are educating for
disillusionment when those intelligent people do not get the rewards. The
realms of revolution are political. I f we want to overthrow capitalism, let's
form a vanguard party, create the conditions for revolution and start a war. If
not then let's help all our students make the best of the existing system and
get them the rewards of the system.
Let me try to exemplify the position I
have taken. "J E Gay (1978) noted that manifestations of giftedness in
Black students include the ability to quickly pick up racial attitudes and
practices, effectiveness at reading behavioural cues and their implications,
independence, originality, large vocabulary, and multiple interests" Ford
[p15].
"In general Black students prefer
to respond with gestalts rather than atomistic responses; they prefer
inferential reasoning to deductive or inductive reasoning; they focus on people
rather than things; they have a keen sense of justice and are quick to analyze perceived injustices; they lean toward altruism;
they prefer novel approaches and freedom (particularly relative to music,
clothing, speaking); and they favor nonverbal
communication modalities" Ford [p15].
"Low socio-economic status,
minority, and underachieving students may demonstrate their abilities best or
more often in non-school settings. They are often socially competent and aware.
These students may not perform well in school, but they are proficient outside
of school. In the real world they excel in an area of interest. These students
know how to adapt to the environment, which is a key characteristic of
intelligence" Ford [p17].
I could have chosen many similar quotes
from the book, all of which point to admirable qualities that black people
possess. I do not wish to dispute the validity of these statements but I want
to consider them in a job context only. But I say only, yet for survival in our
world some would consider this the most important context. Many of the above
attributes are clearly beneficial within a job context but clearly there are
some attributes which do not fit that environment. The workplace is governed by
its own rules, its own disciplines, all of which need to be adhered to. An
employer will choose someone who demonstrates qualities inside school rather
than outside. Many employment situations require adherence to the line, the job
discipline rather than independence, creativity and originality. Communication
within the job context is an essential skill - report writing, communication
within the chain of command. Often in business a sense of justice is a
hindrance when the so-called business ethic requires a harsh profit-orientated
strategy rather than a form of altruism. Although Ford did not in any way
suggest this, if we were to take the above quotes as being mission statements
for ideal educational establishments that education would be in a direction
opposite to that of the job market, and the skills required therein.
As I stated above I consider there are
many other examples within her work of statements which are clearly descriptors
of intelligence but not necessarily descriptors of employment skills. If there
is a link between education and the world of work, it is that qualifications
and a good school record provide you with a platform for entry into the
interview process if not into the job itself. Attributes, as described above,
are positive but not enough to get into the interview process. On top of this
when you add racist stereotypes such as non-conformity, ill-discipline,
disrespect and aggression, then the chances for successful entry into the job
market are limited.
I have difficulty deciding on the
balance of this issue and shall try to investigate this as part of my
dissertation. In theory as an outsider (white person) I can make statements
that black students should be encouraged to focus more on working harder,
paying more attention and listening. But I am describing this in the context of
not experiencing the racism myself so in practice my position might be totally
unacceptable due to the intensity of their experience of racism. I might even
be considered a racist for putting forward this position of focussing on
academic work irrespective, when there are all these other racial pressures
placed on black students. Therefore I must ask my interviewees their reaction
to my stance.
To summarise I propound a strategy of
working harder, paying attention and listening – the performance-oriented
model. At the same time I am asking that the social focus of education be
placed on this approach rather than opening the Pandora’s box of the adult
reality of the experience of racism.
Strategy
3 - Cultural Pragmatic Strategy
"Daddy what's work?" The
father answered "Billy, work is a big rock that you must push up to the
top of the tallest mountain you ever saw. You sweat and struggle and strain,
and finally you make it. Then you go home to rest. Only the next day, the rock
is back on your desk!" [Potter pp 46-47] Developing an Understanding of the
Effect of Culture on Achievement
I have no doubt at all that the question
of culture is having serious impact on black achievement, but I have serious
questions about the way it does and the way we can alleviate that impact. I
have two great difficulties in continuing the analysis of this question.
Firstly I am a white man discussing black culture - a culture that is obviously
not my own. Secondly factors affecting achievement are very mixed, it is often
convenient to label them as cultural - as being something beyond control to avoid
facing the reality of changing the circumstances.
Let me begin by
considering a view of the black African perspective on education. In appendix
2F on Botswana's "white" education I discussed how one African
country accepts a model that in some ways disadvantages them. So if Africans can accept a model of
disadvantage, until adults change it why can't UK black students be encouraged
to work under the UK education system? Let me reiterate a point I made in
appendix 2F, in Botswana the Batswana government are making the choice so we
have another issue of adult black empowerment (racism in society).
There are certain indicators that can be
drawn from an examination of the two education systems. Firstly it is not part
of black culture not to be motivated in education, in my view in Botswana it is
the reverse blacks in state education here are far better motivated than whites
in state education in the UK. Secondly black students can follow a UK
curriculum if they so choose, if they are so motivated. Thirdly black students
can be educated for business if they so choose. But we are not dealing with
Africans in education in Africa, we are dealing with blacks in education in the
UK - and the US in some ways. Why can't the prevailing African mentality and
motivation carry through to the UK system.
In appendix 2G on culture as an excuse
for failure I pose further questions relating to culture, jobs, and examine the
racist situation of the Rhodies and the Boers in
Southern Africa where an exploiting work situation continues within limits.
People are willing to work in all kinds of situations in differing cultures;
this is not right, it is capitalism. How important is culture, is it so
important that black people cannot work for capitalists? That is the question
and that has to be a question answered by the interviewees? This is pragmatism
not morality – survival through the wage packet.
By propounding the performance-oriented
model it could be argued that I am asking for acceptance of a racist system at
all costs, I could be accused of arguing for assimilation. I cannot
categorically refute this accusation but I am claiming that the pragmatic
approach which allows for material success in the workplace and cultural
integrity in private has its merits. I would further argue that raising issues
of assimilation can increase material and social disadvantage for those who
then become unsure of what they are doing – especially in the young.
Let me begin with a quote from Lena Dominelli [p2] "Assimilationist ideologies require
black people to accept white norms and mores as the standards for measuring
social organisation and behaviour without conceding equality, no matter how
successful black people are in living up to these expectations."
Let me firstly consider why the
performance-oriented model might be considered assimilationist based on this
quote, in doing this initially I shall use the terminology of black and white
unwillingly. I am asking that black students focus on passing their exams by
working harder, paying attention and listening. By the above quote from Dominelli exams would probably be described as white exams,
furthermore the reason for the performance-oriented model is to gain
qualifications to give one a better chance of getting a qualified job. In the
above terms those jobs would be white. By working for those qualifications and
by remaining in those jobs black people will be required to do things that
would cause themselves cultural conflict, and by carrying out these actions
black people could be seen as accepting white norms and mores. If the workplace
practices are seen as white then the social organisation and behaviour of the
workplace will be seen as white, and therefore marginalising the non-workplace
situation of the black people. If black people are successful in living up to
the expectations of qualifications and workplace, then they would be seen as
being raceless - being white. The question of cultural equality would not be
considered because those arguing would claim that the black people were at best
being raceless - at worst white. As such there is no equality of culture
because there is no cultural recognition.
All of the above arguments are
predicated on the assumptions of terminology ie the
assumptions concerning the terminology of black and white. If workplace
practices and examinations are seen as white and this is then counterposed to
black, then by those very definitions black people cannot possibly identify
with the qualifications and the workplace. Therefore by the terminology the
performance-oriented model has to be assimilationist.
Let me place the question of
qualifications, employment and workplace practices in another context, and that
context is wage slavery. We get qualified so that we can get a job so that we
can feed our families. Do we choose to go to work? Personally no, I would not
work if I had the money. Do I always get treated well at work? No. Do I have to
do things which I think are wrong because my employer wants it that way. Yes. Why?
Because it is right and fair - no! Because the employer pays the wages and I
need the money to survive. For black people the issue is worse because at work
they face issues of discrimination on a personal level from white employers -
please see appendix 2H on assimilation and socialism for a fuller discussion.
Is this treatment a fair price to pay? I
would say no, but I would say no for all of us - not just black people. Is the
worse price paid by black people justifiable? Again from a moral point the answer
is no but one of the premises of this dissertation is a recognition that racism
is an objective factor. So the question has to be asked on a personal level, is
the worse price that you have to pay as a black person worth it? And the only
answers to this are individual.
But as educationalists we need to
provide a situation where an individual can answer this question without bias.
Where does the bias occur? "Gilroy, in There Ain't
No Black, wants to locate blacks as falling historically outside the received
versions of the nation-state by cultural racism and choosing to remain outside
by choice" [Chrisman p54]. If we draw a parallel between received version
of the nation-state and the business community - and these are not too
different in the UK, then we begin to develop a bias. This bias is fuelled by
populist approaches, based on assimilationist perceptions, that qualifications
and jobs are part of the white system, and that blacks remain outside by
choice.
If we can begin to recognise as a
reality that working for a wage provides compromises faced by all people, and
that it is worse for blacks, then black students might reach the end of the
education mill with some qualifications. They can then join the world of work
and then ask themselves the question "Is the worse price you have to pay
as a black person worth it?"
In my view presenting young people who
are still unqualified with the dilemma of assimilationism only makes matters
worse for them when studying. Yes the issues must be addressed, adults must
address them. Let the students get qualified and then they are in a position to
choose. An unqualified young person has limited choice entering the job market,
education is essentially about choice in adulthood.
What am I saying about black rights? And
the answer is I am not sure. I have stated above my ideal position but idealism
is not an answer to black people who have to suffer the indignities of racism
on a daily basis and keep the money rolling in. The question of black rights is
an individual decision for each black person. But we are discussing education
and equal opportunities. If black people wait for a fair society they will wait
beyond their lifetimes. As an educator I want to provide people with equal
opportunities. I have no doubts at all that black people are not offered equal
opportunities under UK education but equally they do not take what is offered.
I want them to reach adulthood with the qualifications and an understanding of
the employment situation, and a foot in the door of the interview process and
then they can decide black rights or not. This is very pragmatic but that is my
position.
There is another area of cultural
assimilation and education that I have not discussed yet. And that is the
question of the importance of education as a process of assimilation. White
educators in the UK tend to view education very theoretically. If one describes
schools as an examination factory then one is attacked. Do we educate the whole
person, for a whole view of life in our society? It is my contention that we
don't. There is no doubt however that the prevailing culture has an impact on
the curriculum, academic and hidden, but again I have to question how important
this impact is on other cultures. This again is not a question a white person can
answer, but it is a question any person can pose. The answer has to be a
question of degree, and it will differ depending on different people. So when
legitimate concern is expressed about cultural assimilation through the
education process, I have to ask how much and then how important? And if it is
then used as an excuse for failure I have to ask again whether it is a
sufficient excuse?
To summarise this strategy is a little
difficult, as a sound byte it might be:- don’t be
cultural be pragmatic. Cultural issues take on an ill-defined form and young
minds cannot always clarify the difference between cultural factors and others.
Work at school to get a job and detach oneself from the cultural aspects and
recognise that working for a capitalist system places compromises on us a ll.
Examining the implications of assimilation in this context will be a part of
the interview process as well as seeing how much education and its content has
affected the interviewees from a cultural perspective.
Strategy
4 – Nigrescence Strategy
"Two decades ago Cross [1971]
developed the first theory of its kind called the "Negro-to-Black Conversion" to
explain the essence of racial identity for Blacks." [Ford 2 p410]. I want
to begin with this because Ford repeatedly refers to this model, and it appears
to me that this model has helped explain her own experience. I think it is
important for white readers to listen to black peoples' description of being
black, and although they cannot understand the experience at least they are aware.
There is a tendency for white liberals to say that black people behave like
this, or blacks should do this, but in reality we must listen and say
"this black person said this was a description of how they experienced
being black". We should not be attempting to put words into the mouths of
black people although all people have the right to question especially in an
academic forum.
For a full description of the model see
Ford pp104-106, but much of it is covered here. It is a five-staged model:-
1)
Pre-encounter
2)
Encounter
3)
Immersion-Emersion
4)
Internalisation
5)
Internalisation-Commitment
"During this initial stage of
identity development individuals view the world from a white frame of reference
such that they think and behave in ways that negate their Blackness" [Ford
2 p410].
"During this second stage, Blacks
want to be viewed as just "human beings" rather than associated with
a racial group" [idem]
"This stage seems to be the
antithesis of the pre-encounter stage. During this period of transition
individuals actually adopt a new frame of reference. They struggle to rid
themselves of an invisible identity and cling to all elements of Blackness.
They cherish and glorify all that is black" [idem].
"At this stage of development the
individual becomes more bicultural, pluralistic and non-racist (Cross, 1978). A
calm, secure demeanour replaces tension, emotionality, and defensiveness
(Cross, 1980). Internalized Blacks generally regard themselves positively"
[idem].
"This final stage of racial
identity development is distinguishable from the fourth stage, because the
individual becomes more active politically to bring about change for other
Blacks" [idem].
In line with my position of ignorance of
the experience (stated above) it is my intention to accept this model as a
description of black experience with two provisos. Firstly it is a model and
"has been criticised for its simplicity" [idem]. But that does not
invalidate it as a model, by their very nature models are simplistic to help
explain, but as such generalisations have to be considered carefully. Secondly
this is a model of US Blacks. In retrospect I can see such development having
taken place amongst black people I knew, it might be interesting to examine
research carried out by a black person on this model. It is my intention to
examine this model in my interview process. It is my view that this model does
not apply to Africans in African society although I can see certain relevance
here (but that is another issue), after all it was intended as a model of black
development in a white society.
I also want to state here one other
concern about this model, it is a model of racial identity development. As such
it does not discuss the question that I am raising which is the question of
relative importance, the importance of culture and race, as opposed to gaining
qualifications and job opportunities.
But whatever these provisos it is my
intention to now work with this model as an expression of black experience.
I
Think I Can See What She's Saying But ...
As stated above it is my intention to
examine some of Ford's work in light of my questions of importance and priority
concerning culture. At the end of this consideration I shall discuss her
counselling strategies, which I feel have relevance to my overall dissertation.
BUT I am concerned that some of her points qualify in the category of excuses
for failure and I find this worrying. To help with context I should explain
that Ford's work is also directed to counselling and the inadequacies of the
gifted programme in the US for black students, but I feel the issues she raises
have wider applications.
"Lindstrom and San Vant (1986) argued that gifted minority students find
themselves between "a rock and a hard place" (p584) when the cultural
expectation of their indigenous groups are in conflict with those of the
dominant group. They quoted one gifted Black student who said "I had to
fight to be gifted and then I had to fight because I am gifted"(p584).
Another student stated "I'm not white and I'm not Black. I'm a freak"
(p584)" [Ford 2 p409]. The student who is academically acceptable is not a
freak, he has become subject to a negative cultural model. Academic success is
inherent within black culture but with the focus on youth and hence those
people in the Immersion-Emersion phase of growth this student is placed in
conflict - feels s/he is a freak.
To use the
negro-to-black model it appears that certain cultural definitions are being
created in the Immersion-Emersion stage instead of the Internalisation-Commitment stage. In
appendix 2I describing "Personal reactions to Lowest Common Denominator
behaviour", I discussed negative aspects of youth culture I experienced.
In Appendix 2J on Moral Peoplehood I discuss Fordham's peoplehood concept of
supporting each other in adversity. I feel this survivalist consideration leads
to accepting some of the immoral aspects of youth behaviour because they are
their own. Accepting such behaviour, and putting forward the positive aspects
of such behaviour as being attributes that society should mould itself around,
is an inverted perspective. In part this is what I feel Ford does throughout,
and I feel this worship of youth is a problem for society in the West in
general. I think it adversely affects aspects of black culture greatly,
especially losing the traditional respect for age.
Accepting this model and recognising the
internalisation-commitment stage of this model as providing cultural leadership
is important. Together with a reversion to respect for age, these two can only be
good strategies. "Your mother" was the biggest insult when I was in
Brixton. It was an attack on the mother, and black students literally fought to
defend her honour. I see this as a perversion of the age-respect theme because
it seemed that fighting only needed the excuse, in other words rooted in the
culture is its own answers irrespective of whether whites respect their elders.
Hold to cultural strengths could be a strategy, highlight these strengths and
stop focussing on the weaknesses. Whites do not focus on the weaknesses, they
ignore and try to forget them. According to the wealthy whites, the wealth and
opulence of white society have developed from their ingenuity; centuries of
slavery and exploitation are conveniently ignored.
What is needed is a cultural PR
exercise. The media and certain members of the culture focus on the worse
aspects, there needs to be a counter PR-culture where the Cosby show and others are seen
as some form of norm and not decried because it does not depict the lowest denominator.
Don't sweep away and ignore the poverty and resulting problems but don't say
that it is the only culture. Black TV sitcoms usually focus on the more
affluent, set this as the cultural norm and let the leaders state this whilst
trying to work with the less fortunate - wealth-wise.
One issue to consider is the response to
racial identity and the way it affects achievement - I am following the
Negro-to-Black model as stated above. "Fordham argued that high-achieving
Black students must assume a "raceless" persona if they wish to
succeed academically. This racelessness occurs when they empty themselves of
their culture believing that the door of opportunity will open if they stand
raceless before it" [Ford 2 p410]. I believe that statements like this are
at the root of the problem that I am trying to get at. There is no raceless
persona for academic success in Africa. Black people study because they want
success, they want a good job. In saying that black students require an
attitude of racelessness for academic success Fordham is identifying academic
success with being white, he is identifying the world of job opportunity with a
white attitude, and he is therefore accepting as a cultural norm that blacks
will fail because of their race. I therefore feel that this concept of
racelessness is not helpful in consideration of the cultural position.
There is a type of raceless position
that could be adopted, a position that would be better described as being
detached from race. Although the curriculum is not 100% devoid of racial
content, academic qualifications can be gained through a disciplined approach
that says I have to pass the exams. Although some of the work introduces
conflicts because of racism the majority can be passed through this disciplined
academic approach. Why do I use the term detached from race? Because all the
time that one is sitting, or revising for, an examination one is still a black
person, a yellow person, a brown person or a white person. With a disciplined
attitude one can detach oneself from the pressures of racism and racial
identity and simply work for the exams. Having said this I know it is not easy
but isn't working towards this approach more beneficial in the long run?
I am proposing a
strategy that starts to see academic success as being detached from a position
of racial identity. I would like to take this a stage further. If students can
be encouraged to accept the internalisation and internalisation-commitment stages of the
negro-to-black model then academic success can be part of that developmental
model. However I have never worked with that model and I suspect that many
students are stuck in the Immersion-Emersion stages - I can see comparisons
with an adolescent rejection-of-the-system stage that I went through. But the
internalisation and internalisation-commitment stages are approaches to
encourage and work for as a strategy.
Having been critical of some of the
developmental work that Ford uses, I feel that many of the strategies she
offers are extremely positive.
It is quite clear that "the issue
of race may be particularly important for gifted blacks in the
Immersion-Emersion stage of identity development" [Ford2 p411]. By
recognising this teachers can counsel strategies around this. These might
include:-
If someone has reached the stage of
internalisation-commitment, they will be polite and respectful as would any
mature person. They would be racially aware but they will have a controlled
rage as to the position of black people in society and that rage will be part
of the driving force of their commitment. (Please see discussion on negromachy
in appendix 2K.) The counselling strategy here is to ask the students to have a
realistic perspective on the relationship between racial identity, academic success
and job opportunities. After examining certain cultural issues with the
students Ford suggests that "counsellors should work with these students
on problems associated with academic success and upward mobility" [Ford2
p412]. "As Graves (1977) stated achieving a measure of success in society
is, by and large, a far more difficult task for Blacks than it is for other
Americans"[idem] - other British people.
To summarise strategy 4 would be to
encourage counselling using the nigrescence model to help black students
achieve. I will be asking interviewees about its applicability to them.
Pirsig [p226] "A real understanding of
Quality doesn't just serve the System, or even beat it or even escape it. A
real understanding of Quality captures the System, tames it and puts it to work
for its own personal use, while leaving one completely free to fulfil his inner
destiny." I am
concerned that what is considered quality education in the UK system adversely
affects black people. In the Independent Study Module LINK I
have examined the question of quality education, and in appendix 2M on the
Philosophical Investigations of Quality I summarise these Study Module
proposals.
In sections 2.1 and 2.2 I have
considered the way that culture and racial identity have affected achievement
and considered strategies that can overcome this. I want to consider the
notions of quality presented in appendix 2M in light of the cultural
discussion. I also want to consider quality education in terms of the
performance-oriented model - try harder, pay attention and listen.
Let us now consider the
performance-oriented model. The theme of this model was to become detached from
issues of race and focus on qualifications to enhance job opportunities. Now
clearly this theme bears no relation to quality because the theme is not
quality education but qualification-orientation and job-skill attainment. But
what happens during the focussing process? The student must try harder, pay
attention and listen. These are all attributes of quality learning - processes
to quality. But what else is happening? Because of the focus on performance
wrong processes are removed such as false identification with white people,
becoming immersed in racial identity conflict, and other processes which create
mental confusion and thus restrict the creation of a channel to quality
learning. As mentioned in appendix 2O detachment is a process, which is used
during meditation to help focus on the issue of enlightenment. The
enlightenment that I am aiming for is quality education. As discussed in
appendix 2N alienation might also arise as a factor in preventing quality
education by creating barriers to the channels that could allow quality
learning.
Through alienation and an inability to
detach oneself from cultural imposition, I would maintain that rejection of
culture can restrict quality education. By working through the negro-to-black
racial identity development model we can overcome these restrictions. At the
same time to help work through underachievement I suggested a
performance-oriented model where students are encouraged to detach themselves
from race during studies and follow the three tenets of try harder, pay
attention and listen. By adopting both these approaches I would suggest there
is a greater chance of achieving quality education.
I am looking for strategies that will
help students achieve quality education. I have suggested that adopting the
nigrescence model together with the performance-oriented model will help
achieve quality. Yet at the same time if black students are alienated by
culture or by content from achieving quality education, then they would find it
difficult to achieve. Basically I need to find out whether what the UK
perceives as quality education, its curriculum, its content inherently affect
the way that black people receive their education. Does the education content
itself adversely affect black people. I need to know how people perceive
quality education, whether what is offered at school causes offence or
alienation, and therefore whether they can achieve quality education. I shall
investigate this as the quality education strategy in the interview process.
To begin this section I was examining
motivation and its relationship to achievement. I put forward the proposal that
rather than trying to build up atomistic motivations it would be better to
think of motivation in a more civilised survivalist position of learning for
life. This means that for our students to be well motivated they need to see
the correlation between their studies and the life they lead when they leave.
If the education system fails to have that correlation then this natural motivation
disappears and we have apathy and demotivation. This applies particularly to
black students who see around them family and friends with ability who have not
achieved in life due to the prevailing conditions of society. Then using the
Ofsted average notion of underachievement I demonstrated why it is
understandable that black students, on average, have lost that motivation and
are not achieving. But an average does not define an individual so we come to
the point of this dissertation in which I am trying to develop strategies to
help students achieve quality education.
Here are the strategies:-
To summarise this strategy concerning
racism awareness, it is a movement away from a strong anti-racist approach with
students. Is it essential to continually provide young people with the
continuing burden of the racist reality? Allow these students to learn about
the racism for themselves in private, and then in their adult life. Each
student is different and at different stages in their lives they become aware
of the issue and then need counselling to cope with this. This will come mainly
from the family, but it can also come from educational counsellors. But
teachers have an important role in this. Teachers, in my view, should never
deny the existence of racism, Rampton’s cycle of
disadvantage continues to exist. But is it necessary in a maths lesson to have
a lecture on racism awareness? A sound byte – do not
deny, do not burden but counsel to achieve.
Performance-Oriented
Strategy –
To summarise I propound a strategy of
working harder, paying attention and listening – the performance-oriented
model. At the same time I am asking that the social focus of education be
placed on this approach rather than opening the Pandora’s box of the adult
reality of the experience of racism.
Cultural
Pragmatic Strategy –
To summarise this strategy is a little
difficult, as a sound byte it might be:- don’t be
cultural be pragmatic. Cultural issues take on an ill-defined form and young
minds cannot always clarify the difference between cultural factors and others.
Work at school to get a job and detach oneself from the cultural aspects of the
system. Recognise that working for a capitalist system places compromises on us
all. Examining the implications of assimilation in this context will be a part
of the interview process as well as seeing how much education and its content
has affected the interviewees from a cultural perspective.
To summarise strategy 4 would be to encourage
counselling using the nigrescence model to help black students achieve. I will
be asking interviewees about its applicability to them.
I am looking for strategies that will
help students achieve quality education. I have suggested that adopting the
nigrescence model together with the performance-oriented model will help
achieve quality. Yet at the same time if black students are alienated by
culture or by content from achieving quality education then they would find it
difficult to achieve. To help with the development of strategy I need to know
how interviewees perceive quality education, whether what is offered at school
causes offence or alienation, and therefore whether they can achieve quality
education.
Appendix 2A Theories of Motivation
In this appendix I look briefly at
theories of motivation. Substantively I conclude in section 2.1 that learning
is a natural process, and that if a student is not motivated it is because what
the student achieves is not of value. Looking at the motivational theory in
this appendix, there is nothing that contradicts this.
In Psychology and the Teacher, Child
[p33] begins by examining three theories of motivation:-
1)
Instinct
2)
Drives
and Needs
3)
Cognitive
On p17 he describes a physiochemical
homeostasis "as the balance between need and satisfaction. When
"fuel" is running low in our bodies, the "homeostatic balance is
said to be disturbed". According to Child the physical part of the brain
which is supposed to regulate this is called the hypothalamus [p17]. I find
this natural balance idea interesting and feel that homeostasis need not only
be a condition of physiological appetites. What if we have a spiritual drive
and we make no effort to satisfy it, then our spiritual hypothalamus sends out
signals to tell us to get spiritual - a spiritual homeostasis. If we fail to do
so would that imply there is a psychological imbalance? [Child p39 mentions the
cognitive dissonance of Festinger, Piaget's equilibration and Bruner's mismatch
in this light].
I feel this natural notion of
homeostasis is important at all levels but I wonder if Child is particularly
interested in what might be termed the higher levels. When Child says that
assumptions "should be tempered with the possibility that our behaviour is
more than the sum of our physiological parts, and that conscious life is more
than an epiphenomenon arising from body functioning [pp27-28]", I feel
that his emphasis is not on the more esoteric levels such as quality.
In his description of the common ground
of psychological theories of motivation [p40], he describes the motivation as a
source of tension, and "successful tension-reduction" ..... "as
an event which is likely to be remembered, and so learning takes place"
[p40].
Child [p42] quotes Maslow’s pyramid as a
description of levels of motivation, and within this the motivation for
"self-actualisation" is seen as "the desire to fulfil one's own
potential." He also connects this to self-realisation, "We have to
know what we can do before we know we are doing it efficiently". In terms
of cognitive needs he says the "accumulation of knowledge is not enough.
With knowledge, humans tend to systematise, organise and analyse in a search
for order and meaning in the world; they possess a desire to understand"
[p43]. And we reach the order of Krishnamurti, an
order which is both spiritual and full of quality. And in terms of Maslow's
pyramid we have that "the relevance of these cognitive needs to the basic
needs is obvious when one considers the necessity of possessing the former in
order actively to seek satisfaction of the latter" [p43]. This order in
terms of motivation and achievement could quite easily be considered a
descriptor of quality education.
He then examines motivations from two points
of view giving examples of each:
Extrinsic
Motivation [pp44-46]
- incentives, knowledge of results, reward & punishment, co-operation and
competition. Remember Maslow's pyramid here.
Intrinsic
Motivation [p47] -
Curiosity, exploration and manipulation attention needs.
Perhaps most important about intrinsic
motivation is when Child [p47] describes these attention needs. "Belief in
these as components of human behaviour reflects an active rather than a passive
view of life, with humans as goal-orientated animals actively engaged in
exploring their environment. Children, once they can move, do not lie or sit
around waiting for information to wash over them; they actively seek out and
manipulate." Now unless this intrinsic motivation is instinct and disappears
after instinctive gratification then we have a question to ask in the UK
education system, where is that enquiry?
Appendix 2B Theories of Achievement
In this appendix I examine some of the
theories concerning achievement in an attempt to look briefly at what is termed
underachievement. It indicates that an holistic approach to achievement in line
with the notion of a natural learning process could be appropriate. The need to
achieve is clearly a motive of sorts, and is very clearly important with the
quality perspective of my dissertation. Child [p48] describes 3 aspects of the
need to achieve:
A) Cognitive
B)
Self-enhancement
C)
Affiliation
A)
is
the "need to know and understand",
B)
is
the "desire for increased prestige and status gained by doing well
scholastically, leading to feelings of adequacy and self-esteem",
and C) is "dependence on others for
approval"[p48].
If we are to consider this as a working model for achievement,
then the question is how do these factors of motivation interact? For some they
find academic success, and perhaps lacking in social skills or in some other
way not being popular C) is not important and they gain their self-esteem in an
isolated academic fashion.
But what are the pressures on a black
child in the UK? At Brixton Comprehensive when I was there, students
experienced a real negative motivation for academic success. Higher achievers,
known as "boffs", were regularly criticised
so C) meant you failed by peer pressure. Although the pressure from home was
usually very strong (many Afro-Caribbeans came to the
UK after the war - at the request of UK government - and put up with the racism
because they wanted the schooling for their kids), this never seemed to
overcome peer pressure. Combine this with the dubious connection between exam
passes and the power professions for black students and there is a strong
disincentive to achieve. By the power professions I mean senior civil servants,
senior ranks in the military, and captains of industry. In terms of the
interviews and questionnaire, it is important to find out what the attitude of
the interviewees to achievement was. Success/Failure Motivation
In our fashion-conscious consumer world
where advertising and the star have replaced the elders - parents and teachers,
appearance has become a strong measure of self-esteem amongst teenagers. But I
am not just talking about fashion. What does it look like if I work hard and
fail? An even stronger incentive to consumerism completely reemphasises the
priorities of students, it is almost now as if students are successful at the
expense of social acceptability.
Child talks about Fear of Failure when
he says "In an achieving society success is highly instrumental in gathering
esteem and respect, while failure is a standard way of losing esteem"
[p50]. I feel that he has not got his finger on the pulse of contemporary UK
teenagers, the Fear of Failure that many relate to is not fear of academic
failure but fear of being socially unacceptable.
Nowadays I feel UK students walk a
tightrope of appearance and acceptability, they have to do what appears right
by their peers and do sufficient to satisfy parents and elders/teachers. In
this situation academic achievement was rarely the single focus, if it is not
the singl e focus where is the quality education?
Self-Concept
"Well-designed motivation tests
used with both adult and school samples gave support to the high position of
self-concept in relation to achievement. The picture emerging with high and low
achievers is consistent and underlines the importance to high achievement of
the esteem one has been led to have of oneself (self-sentiment), of a sense of
duty, consciousness and acceptance of authority (superego), of curiosity, of
fear of insecurity ...., and of positive attitudes to school"[p54]. So
here we have in a sense a description of motivation and achievement that is
based on how the individual perceives themselves within the measures of
motivation and achievement.
From the above descriptions there is one
attitude that is clear, and that is that there is not a consensus of
understanding concerning motivation and achievement of students. Specifically
with regards to motivations there are various descriptions of instincts, needs
and drives, and the list of instincts "grew to 6000 in the 1920’s". I
see this as a problem of the fundamental position of logical positivism in the
academic world. By this approach of defining numerous drives, needs and
instincts, they try to synthesise a series of atomistic concepts into a theory
rather than detaching themselves from the situation and trying to perceive a
holistic approach to their epistemology. That holistic approach can be seen as
related to the natural process of learning and the achievement that ought to be
associated with it.
Appendix 2C Public School Approach to Education
In this appendix I wish to demonstrate
that in UK public schools the students don’t question values, they accept that
they have to work and they follow a performance-oriented approach.
The UK public school system works, for
what some would consider its intention, to provide qualifications and to
provide a platform for jobs. Do these schools allow students to consider the
value of the curriculum? Do they allow black students to dwell on the problems
of racism? Poverty is not usually a barrier in pay schools but would they allow
environmental factors to impinge on the students? No the education is simple,
get qualified. Go to prep and study. Pay attention in class and study. Revise
and learn for your exams. At the end of this process children of rich families
go off to attend university with better qualifications, and yet there is no
reason to contend that these children are more intelligent. But they have
remained focussed, or rather they have been forced to focus on the task at hand
- getting qualifications. Yes the old school tie network for jobs is important,
and those students will know that they will get a job if they go through their
school and get qualified. But the fact that there is a clearly-defined
qualification-job education model in these schools is an important part of
their raison d'etre, I perceive no deficiency in this
education model within their parameters.
Yet the whole public school system could
be questioned in terms of racism, social education, environmental education and
curriculum content; it can be questioned in the context of learning for life.
But the students don't question, they perform.
Appendix 2D Practical problems of Finance and
Disruptive Students
In the dissertation I quoted Ford
referring to various approaches for overcoming underachievement. I don’t
disagree with the approaches but they are not financially viable. In this
appendix I would like you to consider the financial implications in this
example and the educational advancement that might occur.
One aspect of the deficiency model that
black underachievement highlights is that of finance. There is little evidence
that the system actually wants to finance programmes that will lead to
equality, I have previously suggested that, in the UK, we must start from the
position that factors leading to black underachievement continue to exist. In
fact I would argue that the only time society responds is when the problems of
racism hit the streets such as the riots or uprisings of the early 80's.
Let's consider a
scenario. We have an able black boy in year 8 who is beginning to become
seriously disruptive. The school recognises he is intelligent but they have
also seen many such boys fail. An incident occurs and is recorded on his file,
maybe swearing, fighting or rudeness to a teacher. The head of year calls the
parents who are supportive. The boy agrees to change, he is put on report and
shows improvement. But his work is not really commensurate with his ability,
and after a while his discipline slips again until there is another incident.
The teachers and parents try again, and the boy settles down again. The boy
decides to walk a line between defiance, and limited work in school. At home he
behaves well but takes his anger out on the street.
Everybody ends up hoping it will be OK.
The teachers are trying to minimise the disruption in school, the parents have
a stable home, the boy realises it is probably easier just to keep out of
trouble in these situations, and the result is no education.
Already this boy has taken up more than
his fair share of school time. Why is the system going to invest more time and
money into him when they expect him to fail? And the boy, how much does he want
to pass? Yes he will say he wants to pass but then in practice events take over
and he loses interest.
Fundamentally that boy cannot be
successful unless he fully embraces school as an academic place. Exams cannot
be passed unless students revise. Using the three attitudes discussed in the
Performance-Oriented model he cannot be successful unless he tries harder -
permanently, pays attention, and listens with a learning mind. It might well
require a full-time team of teachers, counsellors, and psychiatrists to help
the boy commit himself to this approach. Will the state fund such an
undertaking - no? And then with other boys in his situation - again the answer
is no!
"In general strategies for
reversing underachievement must address academic skills deficits (such as
test-taking and study skills) and include curricular changes (such as
multicultural education) and instructional changes (such as accommodation of
learning styles). They should also include increased training among school
personnel in gifted and multicultural education and increased family
involvement" Ford [p63]. Advocating strategies, such as these, will not be
financially viable. In my experience the only time such approaches have been
undertaken even in part is as a containment exercise, and not with the ultimate
aim that the student will qualify - if they qualify it will be a fortunate
happenstance.
Appendix 2E Emotional Reaction to some of Ford's positions
In this appendix I want to describe a
dilemma that I am placed in by Ford's work and others. I want to describe my
emotions at this point. I am finding myself writing from a position where I am
beginning to attack work such as hers, yet at the same time I am deeply
sympathetic to what she is trying to do. There is an extremely serious
situation of black underachievement which, as a black woman, she understands
and has experienced, far more than I do or can as a middle-aged white man. But
she is trying to question various definitions. She is questioning what needs to
be considered as intelligent to suit attributes shown by some black youth, when
she describes leadership skills of gang leaders as intelligence then we are
entering a difficult realm.
As a socialist I have little time for
the moralities of the prevailing capitalist system, I am sympathetic to the
notion that capitalism on the world's stock exchanges is simply
institutionalised and socially-acceptable social crime. This is again where the
deficiencies of the education system show themselves by marginalising the achievement
of black people, by accepting specific aspects of criminal activity. In fact
some would argue that society educates towards this institutionalised crime,
improved technology facilitates it, and status and reward follow from it. If we
militate against this prevailing direction, for whatever social or altruistic
reasons, then it is we who will suffer in their terms, we who will not receive
the social and financial rewards.
Appendix 2F Botswana's White Model of Education
In this appendix I hope to show that it
is not that the curriculum is "white" that is the problem by
considering the education system in Botswana.
Many Africans
are very powerfully motivated to gaining an education even though the education
they are gaining could be called a white education. Here in Botswana, at
present the students work for Cambridge Overseas Certificate because the black
Government Ministry says so. In order to obtain this Cambridge certificate, which is
recognised as a job qualification, they have to pass English. Although their
national language is Setswana, and the majority speak that language, many fail
to pass English yet they pass other subjects. In other words because they fail
to pass an exam in someone else’s language they fail to get qualifications for
jobs. My view of the government position is that business requires English and
they wish to compete. In other words because black people want to function in a
business world they adopt a UK education model with all the disadvantages
stated above that come with it.
In this paragraph I use black and white
as descriptors to enable comparison. However business is business as part of a
capitalist system, and it is not helpful to use white as a descriptor of
business as discussed in Ch 6 Analysis of Findings. In Botswana black students
accept a white education system in order to gain work in their country because
the work in their country is part of the global business community which has
certain white aspects such as the language of English. Although affected by
being in Africa the business structures are little different to the business
structures of the UK and US. To paraphrase black Africa has accepted white
business, and adapts its education to work towards this business goal. I accept
that this is a simplistic position but as a generalisation I feel it has a
great deal of truth. Again simplistically black African students are motivated
to achieve within a white education model.
If we accept this then let us now
examine the differences between African students in Africa and black students
in the UK and US. One major difference is that a black government has made the
decision as to the curriculum, therefore the system is a Tswana system. Another
important difference is that the prevailing culture is Tswana and not white, so
that the black students are not in the minority.
Both of these reasons could completely
negate the point of comparing the African attitude to education, and the black
attitude to education in the UK and US but I don't think that's true, I think
there are lessons to be learnt. What happens to the crossover - Africans
educated in the UK or US? If they join the system early enough they suffer from
similar difficulties as do other blacks - this is borne out with data from an
interview with Grace (see her interview transcript in appendix 5F and
discussions in the sections of chapter 5).
Appendix 2G Culture becomes an Excuse for Failure
In this appendix I delve slightly deeper
into this question of culture and its implications in the work situation. In essence
this diversion appendix simply adds fuel to the position that it is the right
of the individual to choose – to choose to work as a wage-slave for money??
I have a difficulty here. My feeling is
that culture has become another of these excuses for failure. In some quarters
black students are told that they are working for the white system, and so they
are told not to do it, or worse it becomes part of the culture not to work so
the students fail. But how as a white person can I ignore the claims of so many
black people, especially intelligent ones, that they are alienated from their
culture by white education.
I cannot, but I do want to question some
of these cultural assumptions - even if I am questioning them from a position
of white ignorance. The question for me is that of importance. How important is
the cultural attack on black people by the white education system? Is it
important enough to say that it is so important that black people will never
try to work in business because they will never get qualified in school, that
they will never want to work in business because those businesses are
white-owned? In Africa these questions are not so important because blacks here
work to get qualified and work to get a job, but in a situation of a minority in
the UK and US they become much more important. My question is this, have they
become too important - an excuse for failure?
I also want to place these questions in
another context. Business does not really care if you are black or white so
long as you do things their way. For this reason I am not in big business, I
cannot do it their way but that is a choice I have made although financially it
is a decision I often consider. But if a black person joins a company and can
work within that environment and can make a profit for that company then it is
not in the company's interest to sack her/him. Out here many Batswana are
prepared to work for Boers and Rhodies because it is
a job and a pay packet. But, and it is a big BUT, in both circumstances they
are victim to racist practices. With the Boers and the Rhodies
it is obvious, blacks are often ordered about and treated in a second-rate
manner, but both sides set limits because in the end the profit motive is the
guiding factor. What will the employee take in order to keep the job? In the
multinational what subtle forms of racism will the black executive take in
order to get promoted?
Now you could argue that racism should
not happen, and therefore people should demand to be treated equitably but in
the end by making those demands you are likely to be limiting your
opportunities. Do you wait for the end of racism? Big business is not
concerned, they will always find people willing to work to create their
profits. As a socialist I would support a move towards global revolution of a
non-violent type to remove capitalism but there are no serious indications that
black people particularly want socialism, it is only that they want their share
of the cake equitably. (As a socialist I believe that they can only get their share
of the cake under socialism but that is another issue!!!).
In this appendix I want to develop the
notion that assimilation can be viewed within a framework. If we choose to make
the acceptance of a job as being assimilation in a black and white issue, then
that framework increases racial tension. If we see the acceptance of a job as
wage -slavery within a capitalist environment, it reduces racial tension and
directs that tension towards the 5% who own. If I was a capitalist I know what
I would want – divide and rule!
In racial terms this issue of
assimilation means black people are expected to behave like white people. But
let us look at this term in another context. This process of assimilation is
not a racial assimilation, it is big business assimilation; it is business
demanding that people behave in a certain way in order to continue to be paid.
So the question of assimilation is also related to the question of employment,
it is saying that if you want us to employ you then you must behave in a
certain way. Many black people see the way of being employed as being a white
way, and I can understand their way of seeing it because the bosses are usually
white. As a person who was not able to be assimilated into the ways of big
business, I can see an alternative assimilation. If I use the socialist analogy
I cannot go into big business and tell them they should work as socialists (I
know that is a contradiction in terms). But if black people are expecting big business
to change then it is another question, big business does not want to change but
it will employ black people who do what they want as readily as white people.
But in my view for this to happen black people will have to make more
sacrifices due to prevailing racism.
Are wage slaves treated differently
because they are black and white? The context of the situation is the same, the
employer chooses. Because the employer chooses and because the employer is
often white, then the black person is treated worse - but again it is a matter
of degree. It could be seen that the situation is not the whiteness of the
system against the marginalisation of blacks, but rather that it is the system
of wage slavery where blacks are treated worse than whites.
Is this distinction subtle and semantic?
No! To my mind that is because the question of assimilation on a personal level
can be seen as a question of control. If you are a wage slave your employer can
demand certain practices in the workplace but he cannot make demands on your
soul and your integrity as an individual. Yes you can be compromised within the
workplace situation but that is work, outside of work you live your life within
the customs and practices of your community. Accepted your culture is not
recognised at work but it is not a saleable commodity, it is not your labour,
your labour is what the employer pays for. In my view the process of working
for money assimilates you into wage slavery into a capitalist model, and with a
recognition of this comes a form of control. You have the control of your
labour, if your labour provides good work, sufficient profits, then the
employer can be compromised in terms of the worst aspects of her/his personal
racism. At the same time control comes from recognising that at work a person
is alienated form her/his race and culture but that
is the price to pay for being able to live in your own culture.
Am I saying black people should shut up
and take it? No! But at the same time if black people start to say to employers
you should work this way because black people work well this way, then it is a
non-starter. Big business has the money, big business has the power, big
business chooses the employees, that is the reality.
Appendix 2I Personal Reflections on
Lowest Common Denominator Behaviour
In this appendix I am trying to support
the suggestion that black people be involved in some sort of cultural PR
exercise. Some people describe some of the worst behaviour of black people as
being the norm, and at other times they reject as norm other forms of behaviour
which might be considered more socially acceptable by all. At times people are
their own worst enemy.
Ford describes a situation where black
students are in conflict with the system because they are black. They have to
struggle to overcome this conflict, and yet when they overcome this conflict
they are rejected by the black community. This is a theme which recurs
throughout Ford's work, and it is a theme that I have difficulty with. Although
it is nowhere near the same, let me state that as a young man I used to suffer
angst because I would go to the pub and the guys would make fun of me because I
was an academic or a teacher. Is it wrong to be an academic or a teacher? No.
Where was I wrong? Because I felt the angst and because I allowed my younger
insecurity to be played on by the envy of these people in the bar.
I am not describing the pub as being a
place full of ignorant and envious people but what I was being subjected to was
what might be described as the lowest denominator of my culture - the envy. Yes
there is this envy and it often gets expressed, but that does not mean that my
conduct has to be governed by this grossness. (Nor does it mean that I should
go to the pub and be arrogant about my academic/school background).
I think envy is
a keyword here. Academic achievement is an important issue within the black
community, and when some achieve and others don't then the others are envious
and try to influence. BUT this is not a cultural characteristic, it is not a description
of black people that they are failures, it is a description of a lowest
denominator nature. But sadly it is a descriptor that some have accepted as
cultural. "For some gifted black students, the mere act of attending
school is evidence of a semi-conscious - or even conscious - rejection of the
Black culture. School is perceived by some Blacks as a symbol of the dominant
culture communicating both directly and indirectly that to succeed Blacks must
become "un-Black" (Fordham 1988 p 58)" [Ford 2 p409].
When I was young I used to go to Old
Trafford to watch the football. Whilst there I witnessed certain behaviour
based on drunkenness and hooliganism, fortunately I never wanted to imitate it.
Some would argue that football is part of white culture but they would not
argue that this abysmal behaviour is cultural, no it is aberrant behaviour.
This lowest denominator behaviour is never accepted as white culture although
it could quite clearly be argued as such. Football is white culture but not
hooliganism. This rationalisation is accepted yet there is strong evidence that
it is not true. But when it comes to black culture lowest denominator behaviour
is accepted as cultural by many, both black and white.
I personally have never accepted such lowest denominator
behaviour as cultural but, on many occasions, I see the defensive attitude of
accepting this behaviour as a protective response to racism (see peoplehood
later - inc. Appendix 2J). I feel that it is
essential for leading black people to reject the lowest denominator behaviour
and isolate it from the cultural perspective. If leaders and academics in the
US accept gang behaviour as cultural, then the lowest denominator has begun to
dominate the cultural perspective and this can only be detrimental.
I feel this is an aspect of a wider
problem - the worship of youth. African tradition has a clear respect culture
based on age, sadly it is being practised less and less as western media gains
influence. In my view this aspect of respect establishes an order in society
which then creates a positive social order. This is not to say that old people
always behave respectably but the order that is created leads to more harmony.
Appendix 2J Moral Peoplehood
Although one can understand the need to
protect the community from the position of adversity within a racist society,
the notion of peoplehood without morality in the long run cannot be
constructive for black people. In this appendix I am asking for an element of
moral discernment.
As a minority, UK black people are under
pressure and tend to seek collective strength to overcome adversity - this is a
natural human response. "Previous generations had defined success for one
black person as success for all Blacks", this has been replaced with
"the perception that successful Blacks have "sold out" [Ford2
p409]. "Peoplehood, which is based on more than just skin color, represents a cultural symbol of collective identity,
ethnic consolidation (Green 1981), and mutual interdependence (Barnes, 1980)
among Blacks" [Ford3 p577]. In recognising the importance of peoplehood
there also needs to be a moral dimension that removes the lowest denominator
from being accepted as the cultural norm, that is not to deny acceptance of
this lowest denominator but to deny acceptance of it as the norm. In other
words adopt the position of stage 5 of Internalisation-Commitment by addressing
the issue of controlling stage 3 of the process - the Immersion-Emersion
cherishing of all that is black however immoral. If a black youth misbehaves it
is wrong irrespective of the racism in society. Combat the racism but also
combat the immorality. The principle of peoplehood does not prevent people from
accepting individual difference, from accepting the consequences of such
differences eg good and bad behaviour, but peoplehood
should not be blind, it should demand a moral position as well.
Appendix 2K Negromachy
In this appendix I try to point out that
it appears that some people are unable to accept normal behaviour for black
students. Rather than seeing positive attributes such as compliance
subservience and sensitivity to racial issues as being positive, it becomes
necessary for some to label it in a negative way as negromachy. This is an
additional example of PR requirements.
Negromachy is referred to as
"confusion about self-worth and dependence on the dominant culture for
self-definition. Gifted Blacks suffering from negromachy are thought to be
compliant, subservient, oversensitive to racial issues, and filled with
repressed rage" [Ford2 p412]. Such a student could also be described as
well-behaved and racially-aware - intelligent, but because that student is
black some adults in the immersion-emersion stage associate welleducated
black students with a negative image - negromachy. Of course some black students
exhibiting those characteristics might be going through a racial identity
crisis such as negromachy. Here in Botswana students could be described as
compliant, subservient, and sensitive to racial issues because their society
teaches them to repress their anger at injustices and conform to the required
social norm. It is not thought necessary here to coin a term like negromachy to
describe their normal upbringing - respectful compliance and controlled
subservience are virtues within the Botswana education system. Yet in the US
such students are suffering from negromachy. To my mind this confusion is
caused by the need of some to identify academic success, and success in jobs,
with white culture - as such the oppressor. I would suggest that this could be
part of the immersion-emersion stage of racial identity development, and needs
to be counselled against.
Rather than accepting positive attitudes
a term "negromachy" is created for attitudes that can only be seen as
virtues. When people are reaching a higher level of development epitomised by
the internalisation-commitment stage, someone has to invent a derogatory
explanation for that development. How selfdefeating!
Appendix 2L Further Counselling Strategies
In this appendix I have raised a number
of counselling issues and related strategies. As I am not investigating them as
part of my dissertation and interview process I have included them here for
consideration by teachers:-
"Parham (1989) delineated two
issues that counsellors might be required to address when working with black
students:-
a)
"self-differentiation
versus preoccupation with assimilation" (p217) inwhich
the individual strives to become comfortable with the recognition that he or
she is a worthwhile human being irrespective of valuation or validation by
whites
b)
"ego-transcendence
versus self-absorption" (p217) whereby the gifted Blackchild
strives to become secure with himself or herself so as to develop personal ego
strength" [Ford2 p411].
"Yalom (1985) recommends group
counselling .. to be characterised by:-
1)
Interpersonal
Interaction
2)
Establishing
Universality
3)
Instilling
Hope
4)
Imparting
Information
5)
Developing
socialization techniques" [Ford2 P414]
For a full description of these
counselling strategies see the Ford 2 article photocopied in appendix 2Q, but I
have raised them here because as principles they might help teachers.
In Yalom's 1) the context is to make
people aware of how others see them, in 2) people are to recognise that they
are not unique, in 3) hope and ambition provide motivation, in 4) students are
given the knowledge/information they need to move forward, and in 5) the social
skills provided might be how to function in two worlds - the world at home and
the world at work.
Counselling against defence mechanisms
is an important strategy. At the personal level excuses for failure can exhibit
themselves as defence mechanisms, associated processes might be denial or
disowning - "a conscious screening out of unpleasant information that
might threaten one's sense of self and peoplehood" [Ford2 p412]. These
mechanisms can be used to protect from pain and discomfort, and can take the
form of "denial of one's problem and projecting problems onto others"
[idem]. "Underachievement may be a way of disowning or denying one's
giftedness and abilities" [idem].
Counselling against isolation can be an
important strategy, "counsellors must teach gifted Black students how to
cope effectively with feeling different from, inferior to, and otherwise
isolated from both cultures - feelings expressed by many successful
blacks" [Ford2 p413]. "A positive identity, or enhanced self-concept,
is critical for the academic, social and personal success gifted Black students
need to reach the final stages of racial identity development" [Ford2
p413].
To begin the Independent Study module
(please see LINK) I tried to gain an understanding of quality, in the conclusion
I have tried to show that we cannot define quality. Paraphrasing Plato it is
only by divine fate that quality is present. But a definition is not a
prerequisite for understanding. It is accepted that we all have different
religious concepts of soul and spirit and it is not an academic necessity to
define these terms in order to use them. In the philosophical field quality
need not be defined, however we do need to try to understand it.
Quality is inherent in actions, and
these actions come from a quality person. What constitutes this quality person?
These are attributes such as virtue, honesty, self-knowledge described in the
above concept summary. How do we know quality actions? Because of our judgement
as a teacher, we see that a student is producing quality work, clarity and
precision in maths, creativity in art, etc. It is a perception, a recognition
of covert things, "if you got to ask what is all the time, you'll never
get time to know" Pirsig [p222].
One attribute of quality is professional
artistry, with all that Schon has written this will help in looking at
processes to quality and achieving quality education through educating the
reflective practitioner.
Understanding quality is like trying to
understand the divine; it is an understanding we can never achieve but we can
learn a great deal trying. Then I have tried to establish a number of processes
to try to achieve quality:-
1) Channels to Quality through peace of
mind, meditation, and
concentration.
2)
Removing
Hang-Ups
3) Reflection-in-Action
4) The Way of
the Ronin
5) Removing Wrong Processes
Can we then teach quality education? I
would contend that absolute quality can never be taught but we can teach
towards that goal, enhancing the gift of quality in the student but not
necessarily reaching the absolute. But being realistic when in education do we
ever achieve anything 100%? But the problem with quality is that we don't
really try.
Despite Plato's conclusion to the
contrary, I believe I have countered to suggest that a process to quality ought
to be possible within the realms of education, in some way teachable.
"Education is a force, a process which is shapeless and amoeba-like
attaching itself to the boundaries and limitations of those to be educated and
pull them towards Quality/arete, the attitudes of the truly educated."
So can we ever achieve quality
education? I believe that quality is something that can be taught through
processes. However this is not practical in our existing institutions with
society's current attitude to education. If we want quality we must decide to
reward through recognition those with quality, and also provide institutions
with the freedom and applicability to develop quality. But is that quality what
the system wants?
In this appendix I hope to demonstrate
that students experiencing alienation cannot achieve quality education.
An important
concept that regularly comes up concerning youth, particularly black youth, is
alienation; I feel it has an important bearing on quality education. According
to the dictionary alienation is the "result of being alienated", when
someone has caused you to "become unfriendly or hostile" and someone
has caused you "to feel isolated or estranged ". Let us consider how
this could be related to quality as described in Appendix 2M by seeing how
alienation could affect the 5 processes:
1) Channels to
Quality through peace of mind, meditation and concentration.
2)
Removing
Hang-Ups
3)
Reflection-in-Action
4)
The
Way of the Ronin
5) Removing Wrong Processes
Quite clearly if alienated one would
find it difficult to maintain the proper attitude to focus on the channels of
learning. One could remove hang-ups whilst feeling alienated but the alienation
is likely to be a greater hang-up. Reflecting would be difficult. As adults
when we are angry at work do we work well? Yet we ask alienated youth to work
in a system that they are estranged from. Effectively an alienated person has
to become strong in isolation if they are going to achieve, in some ways the
ensuing isolation is an advantage if your spirit is capable of coping, but if
not it is a problem as in the majority of cases. If one can bring one’s mind to
it then the removal of wrong processes is not difficult unless you are
focussing on such a wrong process as alienation. This issue of the relationship
between alienation and quality could be considered in much greater depth.
However using the philosophical deliberations of the study module, summarised
in Appendix 2M, clearly shows that an alienated person has far more
difficulties to overcome than for someone who sees the system as their own.
Marx describes
alienation as four categories (quoted in Meszaros
p14):
a) From Nature
b)
From
himself
c)
From
Species-Being
d)
From
other men
Clearly cultural or racial alienation has
components in categories b), c) and d). It is quite clear that for many people
culture can cause alienation and based on my arguments above would have their
path to quality education restricted.
Undoubtedly then black people can become
alienated because of other people's attitudes to their culture. As such they
are then restricted from receiving a quality education. In other words the
question of culture can significantly affect the question of quality education.
For me the issue of culture is as described before, how much should the
cultural issue be allowed to affect students in education?
If we consider the negro-to-black model
of racial identity development then black people who have internalised their
identities do not feel alienated from their identities, being committed to
working for racial equality is not alienation but a constructive response. It
is when someone is not comfortable with their racial identity that alienation
can occur.
So the issue of alienation is tied in
with the stages of racial identity development. If a person is identifying with
white people or unreasonably with black people ie
because they are black then alienation is occurring, and therefore there is a
restriction towards quality education.
Hence strategies that help black people
work through the stages of this model will help with alienation and lead to
quality education.
In this appendix I describe the process
of detachment as practised in certain meditation methodologies. I am suggesting
that similar approaches in education could help students overcome the emotional
turmoil of our education system, especially for black students in the UK system
During meditation you are trying to
achieve various states of consciousness, basically centring yourself, relieving
the stress of the day, and maybe trying to achieve more (not relevant here). If
some student has really rattled your cage or you have argued with the boss it
is very difficult to meditate without thinking about these events. You try to
calm your mind and then you start thinking about what happened. These events
are powerful to you at the time so there is no point in trying to push them to
one side and tell them to go away because they won't. Similar situations happen
when you go to bed, you want to sleep but these events rattle your cage and
keep you awake.
During meditation they say not to push
them aside but think about them. Can you resolve them? No. OK, think about
them, you cannot resolve them, you have tried, so quietly think they are not so
important. You have tried to solve them, there is nothing else to do, give them
less importance, calm down, they are not important. And gradually these events
become less important, you calm down and begin focussing more on your meditation.
Emotions are powerful, you cannot just
tell them to go away. So you let them have their head and gradually their power
dissipates and you can watch the emotions but without the emotions dominating
your state of being. This process is known as detachment.
In my dissertation I want to try to
counsel towards achievement of quality education. How is quality education
researched? Can we put a number to it? No, so a quantitative approach is not
appropriate; but that is only a negative justification for the approach I
intend to take. The main purpose of the dissertation is to determine
strategies, not to evaluate them in terms of how many people find them
successful. For both of these major tenets of my dissertation a qualitative
approach is more appropriate.
Quality, as in quality education, can
only be described within its own terms. In my Independent Study LINK and
in appendix 2M on Philosophical Investigation of quality, I put forward the
contention that we cannot define quality. If it cannot be defined then an
analysis cannot be quantified so quality can only be considered in qualitative
terms - descriptively. But that description needs to be academically acceptable
so I must follow the paradigm of qualitative research that is currently gaining
favour within academic circles. The rationale of MM's (Maykut
& Morehouse) book is to justify to a US academia
grounded in the quantitative approach that there is scientific value in
qualitative studies. "If the researcher cannot articulate, at least to
herself, the reasons for using qualitative methods in a research project, it is
likely that she will be unable to defend the project as a rigorous and valued
piece of scholarship" MM [p2].
In appendix 3A I have outlined a
consideration of the philosophical underpinnings of qualitative research.
Fundamental to that consideration was a discussion about what is appropriate
material to be studied in qualitative and quantitative research. Using Bacon's
"paradigm of reason and revelation", quoting from the same appendix,
"when I discount the positivist method of quantitative methods for
examining quality it is because I feel that quality is part of that area of
understanding that has become divorced from the scientific arena" - part
of "revelation".
In appendix 3B I described how the
phenomenalist position might consider noumena, in this case I am suggesting
that the noumena concerned would be quality or quality education. Following the
proposition that quality is an undefineable reality,
it still has to be recognised by a research paradigm otherwise how do we
research it? By considering quality as a noumenon we obtain our framework.
Fundamental to research on how
individuals develop strategies has to be an approach that actually considers
that humanity. In appendix 3C I consider how human beings are considered within
the phenomenalist paradigm, and therefore its appropriateness is clear. How can
we learn about strategies that individuals believe in or practise without
asking them how they individually cope?
In this section I have tried to
demonstrate that qualitative methods are best suited to research on quality
education. By examining the philosophical underpinnings of the paradigms of
research I have attempted to show that what might be termed the phenomenalist
paradigm is most applicable. By further analysis of that paradigm I have also
attempted to show that even if quality is not defined, I am proceeding as if it
is undefineable (for a full discussion of why this is
an appropriate approach please see my Study Module), it still does not prevent
qualitative research being carried out on the notion of quality education.
So far I have determined that a
qualitative analysis is more appropriate for determining the strategies for
achieving quality education; in section 3.3 I will show that a case study
approach is an appropriate form of data collection and will analyse appropriate
conduct for a case study interview. Let me now plan out the actual conduct of
the interview process.
To be perfectly blunt at the outset, my
interview process is governed more by non-academic reasons than academic ones.
From the professional biography (LINK), I determined that my field of interests were equal
opportunities and the achievement of quality education. Moving into a
relatively new area of counselling underachievers, as Ford describes it, my
population can only be UK-based. I therefore was restricted because I was
working in Botswana, and I could only interview during an end of contract visit
of five weeks.
I did make efforts to coordinate a
collection process through UK contacts but this did not materialise. I
therefore decided that I would have to conduct interviews on a relatively
ad-hoc basis. Statistically this did not worry me unduly. I am not using an
unbiased sample to make inferences about a population, therefore the sampling
technique did not have to be rigorously random. At the same time I didn’t want
to interview stereotypically, I therefore produced a sample sheet containing
typical population categories such as sex, age to maintain an appropriate level
of diversity for such a study – this is included in appendix 3G. My sample
strategy was to therefore conduct interviews with those who are willing on a
cold basis ie going up and asking them.
I conducted postal questionnaires for
reasons I will explain later, and after analysing their results I wrote to ask
for follow-up interviews. I asked the pilot to help me with a purposive sample
to no avail so I decided to conduct my interviews by venue initially, and then
be heuristic – play it by ear! I knew that I would be staying in two places –
London and Manchester, and both cities have thriving black populations. London
I knew better as I had lived there for 9 years, and spent personal time there
whilst living in Brighton. I decided to start at the NUT as I knew they had an
Equal Opportunities department. I was also partly familiar with the students’
union in Malet Street and the Institute of Education
nearby at Senate House. I decided to begin interviewing there. At the same time
I knew of a number of "multicultural centres" in London such as the
Gresham where I used to work, Ahfiwe nearby, ACER,
Institute of Race Relations, Africa Centre and others. I could visit all of
these. The person I was staying with in London worked in the youth service so I
could make contacts that way. And this is before I go to Manchester. So
although I have doubts about the process I do feel there are sufficient avenues
for collecting sample interviews.
Now this interview strategy appears
substantively vague but let me be clear that these interviews are part of an
emerging design; I therefore don’t want to be too prescriptive.
What is the purpose of the interviews? I
wish to discuss the strategies presented in the summary of Chapter2. It is my
hope that the discussions will support the work that I have done but suppose it
takes me in a new direction then I must follow. Suppose the work negates what I
am proposing, then I must follow that negation. I therefore must be flexible so
I have a loose interview collection strategy.
Because I will have such a short period
of time to collect the data, I must have completed proper preparation first.
Hence I must complete the literature review and the research methodology before
starting the interview process. But what if my research is groundless? I needed
to conduct some form of pilot research prior to the interviews.
I was very lucky. There was a black
person who had been educated in the UK working in Botswana, and I was able to
interview her. I conducted this interview early on during the development of
the Literature Review. As this was a first-stage pilot interview it was very
broad concerning the question of achieving a quality education. I have included
an interview summary in appendix 5J. I showed the interviewee the summary but
the interviewee declined to comment although she said it was an accurate
summary.
This pilot interview substantiated many
of the areas of concern of my study, and helped me to build up to the
dissertation as discussed in the Research Strategies module. Was the pilot
unique? Were the supportive views of the pilot unusual? I then sent
questionnaires to the UK by post, and obtained 3 responses. These
questionnaires were also helpful with their content, and showed me that I would
obtain something if I continued with the research. I have included the three
questionnaires as appendix 5K. I noted that their use was limited because
points could not be developed. I tried to contact them during the interview
process but they were not interested. At the end of the pilot discussions I was
able to produce a schedule for the conduct of interviews (see appendix 3E). As
part of a process of provisions for trustworthiness I answered the questions of
the interview schedule and also of some research questions I had developed in
the Research Strategies. By doing this I hoped to remove bias by recognising
what I brought to the interview process, my responses are in appendix 3D.
To conclude section 3.2 on data
collection, I have decided to conduct case study interviews because I am
interested in getting testimony of personal reaction within UK education. At
the same time I will be able to explore strategies for achievement through this
interview process. I have considered various approaches towards gathering the
interviews but concluded that a heuristic method most suited the emergent
design – play it by ear! Finally to ensure that the data collection would be
meaningful, and that my research had a reasonable basis for success I conducted
a number of pilot approaches including interview and questionnaires. These had
relative success so I felt that I would be able to gather the data through
interviews in the UK as hoped.
The basis of the research is to
determine strategies to overcome black underachievement. I need to determine
how individuals perceive strategies for underachievement either from their own
experience or from what they consider might be appropriate. It is my intention
to carry out the bulk of my research on an interview basis - case study
interviews.
In an interview
there are two people, and I want to examine this question from both sides.
Firstly my knowledge is limited because I am dealing with an area of black
experience so although I can work with explicit knowledge my understanding is
only second-hand and therefore limited. Secondly although my experience in this
area is quite large for a white person I do not possess a tacit understanding
of black experience, and therefore there are limitations.
Thirdly it has been a long time since I
worked with black people in the UK so I will not understand what I might call
the contemporary code of communication. It is common amongst oppressed
communities to develop a way of speaking to each other that excludes outsiders,
part of this is called patois, part of it can be heard in the lyrics of rap
music etc. Further age distances you from the young with regards to this code.
At the time I was working in the community I had knowledge of this contemporary
code of communication, and although accepting that I was an outsider I had an
element of understanding.
I have become distanced from the
contemporary situation yet at the same time I think that my position is not hopeless.
I believe my perception of the situation is still relevant even though I am not
now contemporary, whatever understanding of the situation I then had still is
appropriate to some extent. My experience is broader, but that is not
necessarily an obvious advantage. Communities under siege become isolated, such
as white South Africa, but black communities in the West are also isolated by
racism. Their youth and adults both appear to have a wisdom beyond their peers,
but this wisdom is sometimes lacking in breadth because of this isolation.
To the interview situation. My tacit
understanding of what is happening as black experience, which could never be
complete, has become worse because of distance; even the explicit understanding
might cause problems owing to my lacking the contemporary code of
communication. Ways in which I can overcome this are through my interview
preparation and through a pilot study.
I see much of my work with the
interviewee being exploratory, exploring their understanding of the strategies
leading to quality education, and whether these are related to their
experience. I could imagine that such questions, particularly those of quality
are not normally asked. I would expect the interviewees' understanding of these
ideas to be tacit, and that the interview must attempt to make it explicit. I
also expect to be discussing areas of experience that would be deeply personal
– areas of experience of racism. This would require an element of tact and
sensitivity, which I am not reknowned for. I must be
aware that in the time available I might not succeed.
MM put forward a concept of Indwelling
in Chapter 3, I like this approach but it cannot work totally for my research.
Let me start by examining the term indwelling. Indwelling as "naturalistic
inquiry" means "being at one with the persons under investigation,
walking a mile in the other person's shoes, or understanding the person's point
of view from an empathic rather than a sympathetic position" [MM p27].
As a white man I cannot indwell in the
shoes of a black person, no matter how sympathetic I want to be I cannot
experience the racism; they say a white man cannot play the blues. If the more
strident of black activists were to say that as a white man I should not be
conducting this research, I would tend to agree. There are however certain
mitigating circumstances. I taught in Brixton Comprehensive for 8 years, after
moving to Brighton I lived with a black Jamaican and her family for 2 and a 1/2
years. Then I moved to Botswana for 6 years where I have lived with 3 African
women. I would say this placed me part way between indwelling and outdwelling, although I still feel my understanding is
limited. "Indwelling requires the investment of sufficient time to learn
the culture, test for misinformation introduced by distortion either of self or
of respondents, and to build trust" [MM p29]. The above glimpse of my life
history gives me some insights into the culture, and I hope some ability to discern
misinformation.
But I will always recognise that as a
white man I am an outsider to black experience, so when I question a black
person concerning their experience I know I cannot make judgements - I must
listen.
Indwelling is not simply a position
taken to understand the enquiry into another person's viewpoint, I perceive it
as being my "interactive spirit, force or principle" [MM p25] acting
as a oneness with the research. What does this vague statement mean to me? The
journey I take through the research has to be step-by-step, reflecting at each
stage, and recognising that research means that I am trying to discover and not
trying to enframe the data. Although
hypothesis-testing is a sound technique there is a tendency to try to make the
data and conclusions fit the hypothesis rather than allowing the statistical
method to dictate the answer. This research means discovery for me, and by
indwelling the research I would hope my spirit is trying to discover rather
than enframe.
I want to consider how I will know or
learn during the research. "Tacit knowledge is gained by indwelling"
[MM p31], but what exactly does that mean? I would hope to "understand the
problems, the actions of persons, or the meaning of institutions or
rituals" [MM p31]. I still feel this is vague - for me. Indwelling the
research means for me a form of immersion. I hope the journey to discovery will
be authentic, a genuine attempt to conceptualise their strategies by
determining processes that have led the interviewee to quality education, a
genuine listening to a a black perspective without
judgement, attributing "chips" or any such negative stereotyping.
Essentially as researcher I must be part of the research as opposed to an
observer with a viewpoint, my viewpoints and knowledge must flow with the
research journey and not simply say "Ah this is my conclusion at the end,
I must now alter what I think and change then." This journey must be an
ongoing reflection-in-action, perceptions must change constantly but also I
must perceive that they change, not simply a tacit change, because by
perceiving an explicit change I can then reformulate and accept the new
patterns of the research.
Here I am beginning to touch on a
subtly, an indirect, way of understanding. By translating tacit knowledge into
explicit knowledge I can then reformulate the patterns of my research. But I am
being too theoretical if I think that all my processes are that good or can be
that easily defined. By attempting to understand the various stages of the
research process and by focussing on those individual stages as I go along I
must have a faith that they will become meaningful and that the research will
take shape - much akin to the process I
carried out during the research
strategies module. At the same time the individual pieces are not enough, I
must be constantly aware of the overview of the research, focus on the pieces
whilst indwelling the totality. "The pieces of the puzzle are essential to
knowing the whole, but in order to gain an understanding of the whole, we must
experience, rather than attend to, these pieces, thus allowing the whole to
emerge from the experience" [MM p32] by being constantly aware of the
totality at all times. "The knower cannot stand outside of what is to be
known" [MM p37], you cannot know the totality by only focussing on the
pieces whilst at the same time you cannot process the pieces without focussing
on them, this paradox of indwelling and overall awareness is a line, a process
I will try to follow - indwelling my research.
METHODOLOGY - THE POSTURE OF THE
INTERVIEWER
What bias do I bring to the process of
interviewing? To begin to answer that question I will put forward a brief
position now. "The UK education system, and systems modelled or similar to
it, do not make any attempt to develop quality education. Education is some
glorified process which produces the type of workforce we now have,
disillusioned and prepared to accept working practices beneath the dignity of
humans. Black people knowing that employment is an area of discrimination
realise that the education system at the higher level will not benefit them
because the power professions exclude them even more so they do not apply
themselves as much as they might".
If I am interviewing and all I do is
push the interviewee to this position then my interviews will be biased and
worthless. There are ways I feel I can improve my situation. Firstly I must
determine the level and scope of bias, and to do this I am going to analyse my
position before the interviews following the background study, and by doing
this I hope to find out exactly what my starting position is. Once I have
determined this in detail I need to consider each question and examine what is
my bias, and then I can say these are the errors, the pitfalls I can make
during the interview. Please see appendix 3D for my presentation of these
provisions of trustworthiness.
The second
position I can take is that of detachment; this is an approach used in
meditation, and in appendix 2O I describe this process. I am suggesting a similar
posture for the interview - I must remain detached. In order to remain detached
I must know exactly where I stand on the issue; when I am interviewing I must
try not to be biased therefore I need to know exactly how my bias might occur. I can observe my own responses to
their answers, recognise that I have my own reaction but recognise that I must
focus on unbiased questioning. It is this process which I shall use the term detached
interviewing for.
"Enter into the world. Observe and
wonder; experience and reflect. To understand a world you must become part of
that world while at the same time remaining separate, a part of and apart from.
Go then, and re turn to tell me what you see and
hear, what you learn, and what you come to understand" [Patton p121 quoted
MMp27]. This recommended approach is akin to what I call detached interviewing.
I want to further note attributes, for
later reference, MM describe as part of the equipment of a qualitative
researcher. "A person, that is, a human-as-instrument, is the only
instrument which is flexible enough to capture the complexity, subtlety, and
constantly changing situation which is the human experience [Lincoln & Guba
pp193-4 quoted MM p28]. "Further a human investigator has knowledge-based
experience, possesses an immediacy of the situation, and has the opportunity
for clarification and summary on the sp ot. Finally, a human investigator can explore the atypical
or idiosyncratic responses in ways that are not possible for any instrument
which is constructed in advance of the beginning of the study" [idem].
MM [pp34-35] pointed out a further
attribute to interview technique calling on a metaphor of Cezanne's painting (a
metaphor originally discussed by Merleau Ponty 1964 p12). "The qualitative inquirer explores .....
the contours of the investigations as they emerge, that is, not as a pre-set
research script to follow in detail. ..... (She) must move towards letting the
painting establish its own contours, while constantly looking for the patterns
as they emerge from the study."
Paraphrasing a quote from MM p29, quoted
above, indwelling means that the investigator needs to build trust, I think
this needs to be particularly stressed concerning my study. At the time I was
working in Brixton on the Youth Centre magazine I have no doubt I had built and
earned a strong element of trust (please see Professional Biography for
discussion of this work). But I left Brixton in 1985. Fourteen years on,
fashions change and attitudes will have changed; to be quite honest I don't know.
Even though I have been working with black people here in Francistown since Jan
1993, this is not the same as working with Afro-Caribbeans
in a hostile society in the UK. When I consider population strategies for the
plan I am aware of this problem and will make attempts to overcome distrust,
but I am also aware that it will not be by planning if my strategy is 100%
successful.
In chapter 4 [pp43 -] MM describe an
overview of 8 characteristics of qualitative research. In appendix 3F I explain
step-by-step how my research fits those 8 characteristics, as they are a
reframing of what I have already explained I have included it only as an
appendix.
In section 3.1 I have established the
theoretical basis as to why I have chosen qualitative research, and in section
3.3 I looked at the theoretical basis for the conduct of the interviews. The
Analysis of Findings in chapter 6 is going to be founded on testimony. I want
to know the reactions of interviewees to the strategies I am putting forward,
it is they who are the cutting edge, the sieves of experience, who will be
determining the validity of what I am considering. I am interested in the
practical value of such strategies so I need to confirm through testimony what
that value is. At the same time I need to explore with the interviewee the very
strategies I am discussing as I outlined in section 3.3, and the case study
interview is the most appropriate method for the material content and the need
to explore.
In section 3.2 I have outlined the data
collection procedures I am going to adopt, together with checks and balances
whilst I am "on the job" including a sample sheet (see appendix 3G)
which will guide me in choice of interviewees. At the same time I will be guided
by the emergent design. How will the interviews go, will they lead to an
analysis of the strategies as I hope? I
will keep a diary of this emerging
design, and submit it in the Implementation chapter as appendix 4A as an
integral part of the dissertation.
Let us examine the "philosophical
underpinnings" for qualitative study. "Qualitative research is based
on a phenomenological position, while quantitative research is based on a
positivist position. ..... Positivism and phenomenology are the two overarching
perspectives that shape our understanding of research." MM [p3]. MM also
refers to Comte as coining positivism, and Schon refers to the three principles
of positivism [referred to in Schon p32] whose practice was intended "to
cleanse men's minds of mysticism, superstition and other forms of
pseudo-knowledge". As Schon [pp35-37] continues, "empirical science
was not just a form of knowledge but the only source of positive knowledge of
the world" and that this knowledge was to be extended to the
"technical control of human society". Bacon also contributed to this
situation. "The whole basis of his philosophy was practical: to give
mankind mastery over the forces of nature by means of scientific discoveries
and inventions. He held that philosophy should be kept separate from theology,
not intimately blended with it as in scholasticism. ..... He was thus an
advocate of the doctrine of "double truth", that of reason and that
of revelation" Russell [p527]. Amongst others Bacon's epistemology of
dichotomy, followed by Comte's affirmation as positivism being the only source,
has led to a great area of understanding being divorced from the scientific
arena. Pirsig (throughout) examines the dichotomy of
this arena through his journey into the Church of Reason, and his way out of
the dichotomy came through embracing quality; some of his approaches I have
used as processes to quality (see derivation in Background Study). When I
discount the positivist method of quantitative methods for examining quality it
is because I feel that quality is part of that area of understanding that has
become divorced from the scientific arena. But there is a difficulty with the
phenomenological position that MM counters to positivism, and I think the root
of what I am questioning lies in the notion of paradigm. To try to explain this
I want to look at what was described as the positivist paradigm, or the
Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm described in section II and III of Capra's "Turning
Point" variously as The Newtonian World machine, The Mechanistic View of
Life, etc. As Capra and others have pointed out the problem with these
paradigms is not what they explain but what they miss out, the misfits or
anomalies as Kuhn calls them in "The Structures of Scientific
Revolution". I would contend that what is not explained is part of the
totality of the paradigm. Perhaps the evolution of the paradigm is that what
people want to explain broadens into the area of the anomalies and because of
that change of emphasis there becomes a change of paradigm.
So in terms of completeness that which
MM describe as the positivist paradigm includes not only the knowledge and
understanding which it tries to explain but also it contains the position that
there are areas of knowledge and understanding that it does not try to explain,
and those areas are dismissed under the guise that they are not
"scientific". Bacon's paradigm was the "double truth" of
reason and revelation. Yes, he was interested in reason explaining the world
but also revelation was an integral part of his paradigm. Perhaps now using the
terms of Bacon's paradigm, the existing scientific paradigm needs to try to
explain revelation more.
"Lincoln and Guba (1985) and others
(Hesse, 1980; Schwartz and Ogilvy,1989) call this traditional method the
positivist paradigm. However there is also an emerging approach to
understanding the world which we call the qualitative approach and which
Lincoln and Guba call the emerging paradigm(1985). Each of these approaches or
paradigms to research is built on a very different set of underlying
assumptions" MM [p10].
There is an attempt within MM to
describe as complementary qualitative and quantitative methodology, when they
come to talk about paradigms of research "these two paradigms are based on
two different and competing ways of understanding the world." MM [p16].
Here is what confuses me. Initially qualitative methodology is beginning to
explain the anomalies of the positivist paradigm in a complementary fashion,
and yet when they become paradigms of research, positivist and phenomenological
paradigms of research are in competition.
Am I just playing with the semantics of
paradigms here? I don't think so. I am concerned about the phenomenological
aspect of the emerging paradigm, and I want to now consider the question of
noumenon. Noumenon was introduced by Kant in "The Critique of Pure
Reason" as a contrast to phenomenon. "In Kant" noumenon is
"an object of purely intellectual intuition devoid of all phenomenal attributes"
[The Oxford English Dictionary Vol X]. Isn't an object a phenomenon even if it
is an object of intuition? In maths my intuition tells me to start the problem
with such and such an axiom, that axiom is the object of my intuition and is a
phenomenon. I intend to proceed by using the term noumenon as being that which
produces the object, that which intuits. This usage of the term is then
consistent with other dualities such as spiritmatter,
unmanifest-manifest, and is consistent with the use
of spiritual terms such as Tao, Virtue, Quality etc.
And here is why I am not playing with
semantics, the phenomenological position does not attempt to understand
noumena, spirit, quality, virtue etc(see discussion below for a possible
explanation as to why the phenomenological position might attempt to understand
these dualities). So we have the new complementary paradigm, phenomenalism,
which includes positivism but ignores noumena. Or we have the paradigms of
research which might be termed as mutually exclusive - the positivist paradigm
of research and the phenomenalist paradigm of research. Yet both of these
research positions do not recognise these important spiritual concepts. So
again we have the existing paradigm of science engrossing itself in matter but at
least expanding its ambit into the realms of phenomenalism not just accepting
the limitations of positivism.
At the same time I was postulating that
quality could not be defined, and that I then postulated processes to quality
as means of evaluating access to quality education. So why am I being critical
of these paradigms when quality cannot be defined. I am asking that science
recognise such areas as quality. If I refer back to Bacon's "double
truth" then MM's phenomenalist paradigm above is approaching the borders
of reason and revelation. Reason became limited by positivism and quantitative
method, now it is expanding into phenomenalism which pushes back the borders of
revelation. As time goes on paradigm shifts will push further into the realms
of revelation ...... to what? Pirsig throughout was
trying to push back the borders of the Church of Reason and he came to quality.
It is the recognition of quality as an
undefinable concept that I am trying to drive at, a concept that is part of the
realm of revelation in the Bacon paradigm. Science need not be afraid of these unexplainables so long as it doesn't try to conquer nature,
paradigms perhaps should put forward their "unexplainables"
as part of their completeness.
I am further assured by the
phenomenological approach taken by Husen in the
Selected Readings on Paradigms of
Research as part of the Research Strategies Module literature. "The
phenomenological, and later the hermeneutic, approach is holistic, it tries by
means of empathy ..... to understand the motives behind human reactions. By
widening the perspective and trying to understand human beings as individuals
in their entirety and in their proper context it tries also to avoid the
fragmentation caused by the positivistic and experimental approach that takes
out a small slice which it subjects to closer scrutiny" [Husen quoted on p18]. A human being in entirety can easily
encompass notions of quality if they so wish, the research model need not be
limiting in this undefined area.
From the Concise
Oxford dictionary phenomenon (philos) is "the
object of a person's perception, what the senses or the mind notices". Now
this clearly makes no attempt to encompass the realm of the spirit or quality.
However when
MM talk about phenomenalism they
describe the "phenomenological approach" as "focussing on
understanding the meaning events have for the persons being studied" MM
[p3]. Further they quote Valle and King, 1978) "In the truest sense, the
person is viewed as having no existence apart from the world, and the world as
having no existence apart from the person" quoted MM [p3]. In both these
quotes their position on phenomenalism draws no distinction around the
noumena-phenomena duality, in other words based on these quotes their
phenomenon could quite easily contain both a noumenal and phenomenal component.
The meaning depends on the person being studied, and the world and person are
seen as "co-constituted", and the questions of quality, virtue etc
are at the discretion of the individual being studied. So if questions on
quality are framed in this total perspective, this co-constituted person-world
context, then the phenomenalist paradigm of research (as put forward by MM) can
legitimately be applied to a study on quality.
I think there are further justifications
for examining these noumenal issues if we consider how MM move on to discuss
the four philosophical categories of the phenomenalist paradigm; I reproduce
here Table 1.1 MM [p4]:
Table
1.1 Framing research within philosophy
Areas of philosophy as they relate to
Research Questions (Matriellez - gave up on exact wording)
< of the FONT reality. What is the
nature of the nature about questions world?
raises Ontology ɭ>
What is real? What counts as evidence?
<
of the in FONT nature What
is the relationship knowledge.construction and
between knowing and the origins interested is knower
and the known? What Epistemology ɮ> role
do values play in
understanding?
Are causal links between bits of
information possible?
What is research for?
[BZ
Sorry formatting problem in the original]
A cursory glance at these philosophical
concepts allows undefined quality to be part of qualitative research from the position
of the phenomenalist paradigm. Is quality part of reality - an ontological
question? Can quality be known without being defined - an epistemological
question? And from a teleological point of view look at these two definitions
in the Concise Oxford Dictionary:
Philos the explanation of phenomena by the
purpose they serve rather than by postulated causes
Theol the doctrine of design and purpose in
the material world
Isn't quality part of the design of the
world? I feel justified in claiming that undefined quality could be encompassed
within this philosophical framework of the phenomenalist position. The Middle Way
I am concerned about the academic need
to compete over the positivistic and phenomenalistic paradigms of research. For
me positivism and phenomenalism should be joined, together with noumenal
considerations if necessary, into one research paradigm. Surely the issue is
not to have competing paradigms, surely the issue is what research method is
most suited to the situation. Do girls do better than boys in GCSE maths? It
would be senseless and inconclusive to use anything other than statistical
proof (with error factor) to answer this easily quantifiable question. Why do
some girls make better mathematicians than some boys? A question like this is
not asking for a statistical answer, it is looking for reasons. Maybe the
purpose is to help teachers to encourage girls to do better. Imagine this
interaction:-
BZ Chantelle, I am worried about how
well you are doing at maths.
Chant. So am I, sir. Can you tell me how
to improve?
BZ Well, 32% girls do better if they
have a woman maths teacher, 42.5% of girls do better if the teacher makes sure
that girls answer as many questions as boys, and 73.41% of girls do better if
there is strong discipline in the classroom.
Chant. Thank
you, sir. You have been very helpful.
But, of course, not much help has been
offered despite what might be accurate data. The teacher needs to be aware of
different factors that can help girls improve at maths. At the same time he
needs to understand the particular student and find out what are the particular
difficulties she experiences. And finally he needs to gain the student's trust
so that when he offers her a strategy for improvement she will follow it and
work with him to make an improvement.
How can research help in this case? It
could help the teacher see what might be the factors, it could perhaps provide
case studies where a teacher has undergone such an interaction and has examined
the outcome of the interaction and considered the success. Research should also
make this information easily available to the teacher in a palatable form so
that the teacher can put it into practice. And the education authorities should
ensure that there is sufficient valid in-service training to enable the teacher
to internalise and even practice the results of the research.
Historically I can see there is a need
for the paradigms to compete, the prevailing positivist paradigm clearly lacks
the flexibility to allow different forms of research practice. Making
unnecessary claims concerning the qualitative approach (see The Human Being in
Appendix 3C) cannot help the argument, let the tolerance of The Middle Way
prevail.
In this appendix I discuss the notion of
human being presented in support of qualitative methodology. I hope to show
that certain posturing is not positive in the discussion of paradigms. I
referred to this in The Middle Way as part of Appendix 3B.
I am concerned about the notions of the
human being presented by Hitchcock and Hughes (H&H pp22-29 Selected
Readings on Paradigms of Research). I feel there are two processes happening in
their approach. They have a perception of a stereotypical human being required
by quantitative research; those researchers are supposed to try "to make
human beings out to be "things" whose actions are unproblematic,
clearly self-evident, quantifiable, and able to be objectively
investigated." Bertrand Russell writes an essay on philosophy and gets
100%, Plato writes an essay and also gets 100%. Quantitative methods record 100
for both Russell and Plato. Does that mean that the essays, and the process of
writing those 2 essays, were unproblematic actions which were clearly self-evident?
Certainly not! Would an objective investigation legitimately say that both
essays were of the highest quality when they see the quantities -100%? Yes, and
wouldn't they be right? The point I am making is that in quantitative methods
the description of why a particular action takes place is lost information
because only the quantity is recorded.
Although the information is lost to the
analyst it does not say that the human being is passive or active, reflective
or automative, what the human being does that leads
to the recording of the observation is contained in the quantity but is lost to
the analyst. This is both the advantage and the disadvantage of the method. The
disadvantage is clearly the loss to the analyst of the understanding and the
processes of the actor which have led to the quantity that was recorded. The
advantage is that if the statistical model and techniques are applied
correctly, then the statistician and then therefore the researcher can state
with a level of accuracy that the hypothesis is going to be correct with 0.5% error.
As a method of proof in a social situation, where proof is difficult because of
the number of variables, this categoric statement is very useful.
But quite rightly it is recognised that
much information is lost, why did the teacher send the student out of the
classroom? Why were the students at Ridings ignoring the teacher and generally
behaving so badly? This cannot possibly be recorded in their GCSE results.
In my view in the above quote H&H
are not fully grasping the strength of the conclusions of statistical methods,
and are disparaging because of their obvious, and stated, bias.
They then go on to describe the
advantages of the qualitative approach. "Human beings are thinking,
feeling, conscious, language- and symbol-using creatures.
Interpretative researchers therefore
stress the principles of intentionality to grasp the active side of human
behaviour. In contrast to the often-passive view of individuals reacting to
situations or stimuli, interpretative researchers stress that human action is
for the most part deliberate. They stress that people do not simply react to
events and situations but reflect on this situation and act on this reflection,
in a reflective way" [H&H p28]. Yeah, right!! Which planet of human
beings do these people know? If that isn't fitting square pegs in round holes
to suit their own viewpoint I don't know what is.
I have just written an incident report
on some student, who refused to leave the classroom to complete the homework he
should have done. Why did I do that? Do I always do it? No. Has the student
always done the work? Do I like the student? Was his manner suitably polite
even if defiant? Did the boss tell me off 10 minutes ago? Did the car break
down on the way to work? A flu virus entered my body yesterday and it is gestating,
it is not fully blown flu yet but it is beginning to affect my mind and
judgement a bit but I don't know. My girlfriend refused sex last night and I
really wanted it and I'm still ratty inside even though I don't know it. In a
previous reincarnation this boy had slept with the wife of my previous
reincarnation. Despite years of professional objectivity can we be sure we are
being fair? Not as professionals with experience can we justify our actions but
are we being fair?
How can we possibly say that our actions
are a consequence of our intentions and deliberations? Again this is an
advantage of the quantitative method because they only quantify results but do
not make any assumptions about intentions or deliberations. What about the 1992
General Election? Every single poll, up to the Exit poll, said Labour would
win, the best scenario for the Tories was a hung parliament, yet when the
results came out it was a Tory majority by approximately 20 seats. Were the
polling methods wrong? No, they were statistically correct and carried out
properly as far as I know; they were carried out by professional market
researchers - reputable companies. No the people lied to the pollsters. Why? I
think because the people were ashamed to admit they were going to vote Tory
because of all the bad things the Tories had done, but I think they were voting
that way because it feathered their nest.
Whether that analysis is correct or not,
one thing is clear - people can lie to researchers. But also people can lie to
themselves as to their motivations, intentions and reflections. Justifications
are also an important part of a teacher's armoury. In this world of children's
rights, a teacher has a bad day and some junior barrack-room lawyer spots this
and tries to exact revenge for last week's detention. The teacher is provoked
into doing something that is close to the boundaries of professionalism; then
the teacher is likely to have to spend hours justifying their actions. Without
the ability of retrospective justification a teacher could end up in regular
trouble, wasting their time instead of teaching, because students are allowed
to take advantage of adults in the system.
To describe human beings as intentional,
deliberate and reflective to support the cause of qualitative research is
extremely academic. But it is not necessary to make such outlandish
justifications for qualitative methods. In a social situation, motivations,
rationales, intentions, deliberations and reflections must be investigated.
Even if the researcher only hears what the teacher likes to tell them that is
not important, what is important is to investigate that part of the situation,
to try to understand why things happen not simply to measure whether they have
happened or not.
Descriptive methods clearly allow you to
investigate areas of human behaviour not open to quantification, areas such as
quality education, spiritual dynamic in teacher vocation, and many many others. How can we possibly learn about education if
we ignore such factors?
As part of indwelling the research it is
essential for me to determine the level of bias I am bringing to the interview
process. To this end I am carrying out the following baseline procedures by
considering the research and interview questions myself before any
interviewing.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS – BASELINE
First response to this question is a
generalisation - no. Let me be clear, I draw a distinction between achieving
examination grades and receiving a quality education. For some black people
(many?) quality education would be defined by a school success and getting good
grades, in my terms achievement education. I have no doubts at all as to the
high motivation engendered by achievement, I would claim that that was almost 100%
amongst black people, the desire to get top grades. The breakdown comes with
two dilemmas; firstly because of racist employment practices even with
qualifications black people might not get employment. Under the various
pressures of racism, peers and academic requirements, achievement motivation
wanes and the desire for achievement can translate into apathy especially
amongst the more able - trust is a factor here. In my view, as a
generalisation, quality is not a drive except where quality is needed to raise
grades. But there is a contradiction here. You require quality, say in the form
of creativity, to achieve a top grade, and no amount of desire can create
quality. I therefore claim there needs to be a desire for quality as well as a
desire for success. I would also claim that there is a strong cultural
difference here. UK teachers have been trained into notions of
self-realisation, I would claim this is a form of searching for quality. I
would also claim that many such teachers would not see a fierce demand for
achievement as consistent with self-realisation or quality. Examine this notion
as part of the emergent design amending it as part of the interview. Real
education in my view actually contains its own motivation, in a sense it is
natural. I would claim that as part of the natural process of learning quality
is its own motivation. Consider the notion of art for art's sake. When an
artist is s/he gains energy and inspiration through the work itself (the
muse!), I claim energy & inspiration can come in all areas of work -
academic or otherwise. I like to see the promotion of this form of interest
motivation.
How
does alienation affect the motivation of black people for achieving quality
education?
One aspect of Marx's definition of
alienation is alienation from Nature. I contend that learning is a natural
process so therefore alienation can be seen as preventing education occurring.
It is quite clear that alienation affects most black people within the UK
education . What is not so clear is that what they perceive as alienation might
not be the same alienation that prevents quality education. I would contend
that it is. I therefore need to draw out from the interviewee the connection
between their view of alienation and mine. It would almost define alienation as
that process which prevents people from achieving a quality education, and as
black people clearly suffer greater alienation than groups in the system it is
less likely that they are going to be successful (to gain quality education). I
must establish in the background study the connection between alienation and
education.
The moment I feel that the dominant
approach in UK education practice is effectively to accept that black people
will not be successful. They elaborate the causes of racism, and allow black
people to use them as excuses for failure. This might take the form of
"try to overcome the negative factors of racism as the system tries to
fight racism". People however know that the system only propagates racism
so this counselling is based on a false premise, and therefore has little
chance of success. The approach has to be positive and to be geared towards
building the individual strengths of the student. This strength has to be
positive ie how can we positively achieve quality,
not negative in the sense of negatively overcoming racism. By focussing on
positive achievement, the counselling has greater chance of success,
maintaining the negative arena of wallowing in the mire of racism cannot be
constructive. In meditational terms black people should be encouraged to detach
themselves from traps of racism and focus in on academic success. Negative
images are repeatedly thrown at black people even by those who are trying help
them succeed. One image of educational success is that of schools in Africa. In
Africa black students have a much healthier attitude than most students in the
UK and other Western countries, black or white. With minimal budgets, the only
aids being board and chalk, relatively speaking African students achieve
remarkable success; it is quite clear that it is not an innate failing of black
people when you look at their success in Africa. How many Africans have
achieved qualifications and are looking for higher education in the West but
cannot afford the fees - and in Africa they cannot afford to maintain higher
education establishments. Viewed in this context black people cannot be seen as
educational failures, it is only in the context of interaction with Western
education practice that problems arise. It is this interaction that needs to be
examined, and then counselling strategies be introduced to maintain black
people on the track of their traditional success in education. Let me reiterate
that the counselling strategies process I want to encourage would be line with
the traditional success black people have had in Africa. There have been
hardships within the African education process yet black people have overcome
these hardships and have proven successful given the financial restrictions. In
the UK there is far greater money spent on education but in terms of the black
issue it is not producing results. Black people of African origin have a
history of underachievement in the UK, and suffer under the current approach of
highlighting the deficiencies of the UK system and not doing enough about it.
This verbal approach has to be improved but that needs to be considered
elsewhere, I want to consider the question of counselling strategies to help
people return to the traditional success of Africa. Using this approach then we
are looking at strengthening the power and direction of students within UK
education. It is an approach which builds on strengths and not focuses on
weakness - weakness that is not inherent but that is placed on people by the
racist system.
Let's consider the question of the white
system. It is undoubtedly true that white people hold the power professions, it
is also undoubtedly true that there is racism in employment practices. But is
there racism in exam marks - no? An exam script is an exam script so focus on
improving the exam script. Keep your mind on the work and not on the related
issues of racism, teacher expectation, and many others. Let us examine this in
an African perspective. Many countries have dictatorships, freedom of speech is
limited, there is a great difference in standard of living, many many faults – there are innumerable excuses for failure but
the dominant practice is that students do not use those excuses and focus on
the reasons for success. Undoubtedly one factor affecting this is the recognition
that it is their black system, although this factor cannot be denied at the
same time if you focus on something which cannot be changed then you are
perpetuating the problem. I cannot become a member of the power professions
because I am not from the upper class, but I can still work for academic
achievement. It is not the same but if I focussed on this inherent injustice I
would never be content. I suppose the counselling is not to focus on the
injustices but just keep your mind on the academic.
Teachers indulge in social analysis,
they try to explain racism, they become apologists for the system. Why? I
didn't create the system, many concerned teachers spent much of their life
fighting the direction the system takes them in, why must I apologise for a
system that I don't believe in? What is my job? To educate. Without here going
into a full definition of what education is, surely my advice can be concerned
with education. How do the students do the maths? With this approach I would
probably now be considered an uncaring teacher by many in the profession, but
if all the teachers were focussing on the needs of the subject in the first
place, and not on social issues that they have no control of, then my position
might not be seen as uncaring. For the teachers they should keep their minds on
the job, and help the students focus on the academic - and not on the
injustices.
BASELINE - INTERVIEW PROCEDURE
Teachers Good and bad - what reactions?
Affect her work? Could she as whole have
overcome her lack of trust. Am using the concept of trust in the system as a
day-to-day notion of non-alienation. Alienation is an issue that concerns me
because it allows for an illdisciplined attitude. The
way that you can be successful academically is to apply yourself properly in
all, whatever the personal excuse for not working. As an adult we are expected
to return to work even when we are still grieving, if we then grieve
excessively whilst at work our job could be under threat. In schools we are
training for adult working so we should train with a disciplined approach.
Although we all want to trust our teachers, perhaps that is a luxury, not all
teachers are super heroes. In my view a trusted teacher is a benefit, an
advantage, but I still have to work for all the teachers - that is the
disciplined approach. As a counselling strategy it is essential to instill the strength in students that they have the
discipline to work for all teachers of trust or other forms of preference.
Examinations
require a certain approach, students can compromise with this approach in order
to pass the exams but let's be clear this leads to a lessening of quality (see
later). There needs to be a clear counselling strategy here to avoid cultural
conflict. There needs to be an understanding of how these hidden conflicts
arise, need to be made aware of these conflicts at the appropriate time but
then need to be guided away from focussing on these issues into the academic
track. Failure to do this could be a non-quality track. Where do these hidden
conflicts come from? If a student is required to compromise themselves in order
to pass an exam work cannot be quality work because at the highest level of
intelligence they cannot be committed to the work. However much the work might
be disliked it has to be accepted by the student. I am not accepting the
situation, but whose job is it to change it? The student's? No!
It has to be changed by educationalists
at various levels but those educationalists are not making the changes. If we
involve students in these dilemmas then they cannot dedicate themselves to
their studies. The issue here is to guide the students through the system.
Given that the education system is part of UK society there must be aspects of
the education, that creates, or at least is integrated into, that system, which
is also racist. If we focus on those issues the students will become
demotivated because they will always be in conflict with the racism. Regarding
this situation however it is the teaching profession that is confused. They are
not certain as to what they should focus on. Some teachers would claim that
students focus on the racism to learn what life is really like. Others would
claim that should only focus on exam results. Others would claim the hidden
curriculum is more important. This is why I say the teaching profession is
confused, diverse rationales lead to a lack of focus for the students, and they
also become disoriented. In African schools there is no confusion. They do not
study the dynamics of racism, questions of corruption that affect their daily
lives are not raised because it is not an issue for students. The curriculum is
defined by those above, and in the schools teachers deliver the defined
curriculum. There are various forums for making changes, there is some
accountability, but in the schools the teachers deliver the curriculum. And the
students are only given the choice of focussing on the academic subjects
leading to exam passes. Whether the liberal West likes this hierarchical
approach or not, what the approach does succeed in doing is focussing the
students' minds on their work only. Their model is performance-oriented only.
MOTIVATION) Did you want to do well at
school? Top in class? Good exam results? What do these factors mean to you?
Cognitive, self-enhancement, affiliation.
Teacher, Parent, Peer pressure.
Reactions to not working in white school
Performance-oriented Model
Try Harder, Pay Attention and Listen.
I have a fear that the main form of
motivation is to get the grades to get a job. And because there are limited
jobs for black people then the grades are limited. Although culturally the germ
of motivation for success in exams is present, in practice that becomes little
in evidence because of all the other pressures, and black people show limited
success. I would suspect that most black people would subscribe in theory to
the oriented model but in practice racism demotivates.
IDENTITY AND CULTURE
Identity Employment and Achievement. How
important is her racial identity in terms of Cecil Rhodes is a good man? How
important is racial identity when it means that she could be excluded form the job market? Can she accept being detached from
race to be successful, or does she see it as racelessness? Is it working in a
white system or is it a capitalist system? We need to investigate the
relationships between identity jobs and achievement. Can black people eat crow
like the rest of us to get a job, but then we don't have all the racial
pressures they are under. So I need to investigate their reactions to
"Cecil Rhodes is a good man", and their having to write it in exams.
Detached from race and culture, difference in control but not in output, can
they embrace it? Is it white capitalist?
NEGRO-BLACK MODEL
How important is
the question of cultural assimilation through education? Pre-encounter
Encounter
Immersion-Emersion
Internalisation
Internalisation-Commitment
Pre-encounter
"During this initial stage of
identity development individuals view the world from a white frame of reference
such that they think and behave in ways that negate their Blackness" [Ford
2 p410].
Encounter
"During this second stage, Blacks
want to be viewed as just "human beings"
rather than associated with a racial
group" [idem]
Immersion-Emersion
"This stage seems to be the
antithesis of the pre-encounter stage. During this period of transition
individuals actually adopt a new frame of reference. They struggle to rid
themselves of an invisible identity and cling to all elements of Blackness.
They cherish and glorify all that is black" [idem].
Internalisation
"At this stage of development the
individual becomes more bicultural, pluralistic and non-racist (Cross, 1978). A
calm, secure demeanour replaces tension, emotionality, and defensiveness
(Cross, 1980). Internalized Blacks generally regard themselves positively"
[idem].
Internalisation-Commitment
"This final stage of racial
identity development is distinguishable from the fourth stage, because the
individual becomes more active politically to bring about change for other
Blacks" [idem].
I shall put this
model to the interviewees. I suspect it will have some reference to them.
NEGROMACHY
Negromachy is referred to as
"confusion about self-worth and dependence on the dominant culture for
self-definition. Gifted Blacks suffering from negromachy are thought to be
compliant, subservient, oversensitive to racial issues, and filled with
repressed rage" [Ford2 p412]. Such a student could also be described as
well-behaved and racially-aware - intelligent, but because that student is
black some adults in the immersion-emersion stage associate well-educated black
students with a negative image - negromachy. Of course some black students
exhibiting those characteristics might be going through a racial identity
crisis such as negromachy. Here in Botswana students described as compliant,
subservient, and sensitive to racial issues are taught to repress their anger
at injustices and conform the required social norm. It is not thought necessary
here to coin a term like negromachy to describe their normal upbringing -
respectful compliance and controlled subservience are virtues within the
Botswana education system. Yet in the US such students are suffering from
negromachy. To my mind this confusion is caused by the need of some to identify
academic success, and success in jobs, with white culture - as such the
oppressor. I would suggest that this could be part of the immersion-emersion
stage of racial identity development, and needs to be counselled against. If
someone has reached the stage of internalisation-commitment, they will be
polite and respectful as would any mature person, they would be racially aware
but they will have a controlled rage as to the position of black people in
society and that rage will be part of the driving force of their commitment.
Does that person suffer from negromachy? The counselling strategy here is to
ask the students to have a realistic perspective on the relationship between
racial identity, academic success and job opportunities.
After examining certain cultural issues
with the students Ford suggests that "counsellors should work with these
students on problems associated with academic success and upward mobility"
[Ford2 p412], "as Graves(1977) stated achieving a measure of success in
society is, by and large, a far more difficult task for Blacks than it is for
other Americans"[idem] - other British people. think this is just academic
and unreal, and a projection beyond what can be entered into. Will see if their
reactions are the same.
Discuss counselling strategies as a way
forward.
Detaching from race.
Positive Images not rockstars
Mentoring - successful older students
Counsel against Immersion-emersion trap
of only working for black teachers.
Self-differentiation vs Preoccupation
with Assimilation
Ego-transcendence vs Self-Absorption
Against Defence mechanisms eg excuses for failure
Against isolation from both cultures
General approach to counselling Yalom
(1985) recommends
Interpersonal Interaction
Establishing Universality
Instilling Hope counselling to
Imparting Information
Developing socialization
techniques" [Ford2p414]
Discuss the counselling strategies. I
expect the answers will be of the "if the cap wear it" variety.
In this part of the interview I want to
try to determine how the interviewee perceives quality.
Good school? We have talked about good
schools above. What do you really mean by good? Is it results? Is it
suitability for taking your place in society? Is that jobs? Is that being a
good member of society? Is it more personal? Looking at what makes a person
good. Summarise C1) Does she agree?) Quality? Having established a bit about
what is good, can take it further to examine quality - use background notes.)
Quality Education? Here I have interchanged good and quality but that will have
happened in discussion anyway - probably. I hope in the answer to this question
to have got the interviewee to relate answers to D1) to quality education -
difficult.
BZ make notes here to refer to later,
expect to see good equated with exam success and that there be limited
awareness the quality issue. I see this as a consequence of the qualifications
for jobs. Quality education is grade A's.) See Qualien
- basic notion that double alienaton leads to slave
mentality and Quality to fashion and consumerism, what about back to quality?
They think that they will not be alienated from quality as quality in schools
and education is on their agenda, the agenda is qualifications. And if the
qualifications are not then the agenda is image, the white man does not control
me. I have style, I look good even if I am not passing exams.
OTHER
This part is to allow the interviewee to
talk about other factors which influenced the quality of her education. BZ make
notes as you go along about other factors (see interview sheet)
FINAL
If you were advising teachers how to
help black students achieve high quality what would you tell them to do?
Appendix 3E INTERVIEW PROCEDURE
An interview is an investigation with
the interviewee, and as such the questions I ask must be much more flexible
than a questionnaire. I am going to write these questions as keywords and
purpose, and then use the situation to establish whether the purpose has been
achieved. INTO TAPE RECORDER SUBJECT#, DATE AND TIME, PURPOSE)
Age)
Sex)
Qualifications
Measure of Success in education system.
Viewpoint on success
Note I am hopefully in terms of this M
Ed interviewing intelligent failures as well.
Does she consider herself a success or
failure, how well did she do?
School) Type) Good school A brief
answer.
Was it hard to work easy to work?
Discipline?
Good results?)
How did you find the school for working
in?)
Do you think your school had a good or
bad influence on your academic progress?
BZ make notes
here& ALIENATION)
Teachers Good and bad - what reactions?
Affect her work?
Could she as whole have overcome her
lack of trust. Am using the concept of trust in system as a day-to-day notion
of non-alienation.
Begin alienation by looking at Kwame and
his attutude to colonial/liberal education.
Ask for definition. By definition was
she alienated. Use background notes to prompt a greater understanding of
alienation What about Samuel Jackson(4.1.13) MOTIVATION)
Did you want to do well at school? Top
in class? Good exam results?) What do these factors mean to you?
Cognitive, self-enhancement,
affiliation.
Teacher, Parent, Peer pressure.
Reactions to not working in white
school)
Performance-oriented Model
Try Harder, Pay Attention and Listen.
Identity
Employment and Achievement. How important is her racial identity in terms of
Cecil Rhodes is a good man? How important is racial identity when it means that
she could be excluded from the job market? Can she accept being detached from
race to be successful, or does she see it as racelessness? Is it
working in a
white system or is it a capitalist system?)
Negro- Black Model
How important is
the question of cultural assimilation through education? Pre-encounter
Encounter
Immersion-Emersion
Internalisation
Internalisation-Commitment
Pre-encounter
"During this initial stage of
identity development individuals view the world from a white frame of reference
such that they think and behave in ways that negate their Blackness" [Ford
2 p410].
Encounter
"During this second stage, Blacks
want to be viewed as just "human beings" rather than associated with
a racial group" [idem]
Immersion-Emersion
"This stage seems to be the
antithesis of the pre-encounter stage. During this period of transition
individuals actually adopt a new frame of reference. They struggle to rid
themselves of an invisible identity and cling to all elements of Blackness.
They cherish and glorify all that is black" [idem].
Internalisation
"At this stage of development the
individual becomes more bicultural, pluralistic and non-racist (Cross, 1978). A
calm, secure demeanour replaces tension, emotionality, and defensiveness
(Cross, 1980). Internalized Blacks generally regard themselves positively"
[idem].
Internalisation-Commitment
"This final stage of racial
identity development is distinguishable from the fourth stage , because the
individual becomes more active politically to bring about change for other
Blacks" [idem].)
Negromachy
Negromachy is referred to as
"confusion about self-worth and dependence on the dominant culture for
self-definition. Gifted Blacks suffering from negromachy are thought to be
compliant, subservient, oversensitive to racial issues, and filled with
repressed rage" [Ford2 p412]. Such a student could also be described as
well-behaved and racially-aware - intelligent, but because that student is
black some adults in the immersion-emersion stage associate well-educated black
students with a negative image - negromachy. Of course some black students
exhibiting those characteristics might be going through a racial identity
crisis such as negromachy. Here in Botswana students described as compliant,
subservient, and sensitive to racial issues are taught to repress their anger
at injustices and conform the required social norm. It is not thought necessary
here to coin a term like negromachy to describe their normal upbringing -
respectful compliance and controlled subservience are virtues within the
Botswana education system. Yet in the US such students are suffering from
negromachy. To my mind this confusion is caused by the need of some to identify
academic success, and success in jobs, with white culture - as such the
oppressor. I would suggest that this could be part of the immersion-emersion
stage of racial identity development, and needs to be counselled against. If
someone has reached the stage of internalisation-commitment, they will be
polite and respectful as would any mature person, they would be racially aware
but they will have a controlled rage as to the position of black people in
society and that rage will be part of the driving force of their commitment.
Does that person suffer from negromachy? The counselling strategy here is to
ask the students to have a realistic perspective on the relationship between
racial identity, academic success and job opportunities. After examining
certain cultural issues with the students Ford suggests that "Counsellors
should work with these students on problems associated with academic success
and upward mobility" [Ford2 p412], "as Graves(1977) stated achieving
a measure of success in society is, by and large, a far more difficult task for
Blacks than it is for other Americans"[idem] - other British people.
Discuss
counselling strategies as a way forward Detaching from race. positive Images
not rockstars
Mentoring - successful older students
Counsel against Immersion-emersion trap
of only working for black teachers.
Self-differentiation vs Preoccupation
with Assimilation
Ego-transcendence vs Self-Absorption
Against Defence mechanisms eg excuses for failure
Against isolation form
both cultures
General approach to counselling
"Yalom (1985) recommends group counselling to be characterised by:-
Interaction Interpersonal
Universality Establishing
Hope Instilling
Information Imparting
Developing socialization techniques. [Ford2
p414]
In this part of the interview I want to
try to determine how the interviewee perceives quality.
Good school? We have talked about good
schools above. What do you really mean by good? Is it results? Is it
suitability for taking your place in society? Is that jobs? Is that being a
good member of society? Is it more personal? Looking at what makes a person
good. Summarise. Does she agree?
Quality? Having established a bit about
what is good, can take it further to examine quality - use background notes.)
Quality Education? Here I have
interchanged good and quality but that will have happened in discussion anyway
- probably. I hope in the answer to this question to have got the interviewee
to relate answers to to quality education difficult.
(BZ make notes here to refer to later)
See Qualien -
basic notion that double alienaton leads to slave to
fashion and consumerism, what about back to quality?)
OTHER
This part is to allow the interviewee to
talk about other factors which influenced the quality of her education
BZ make notes as you go along about
other factors
(see interview
sheet) FINAL
If you were advising teachers how to
help black students achieve high quality what would you tell them to do?
In Ch 4 "Designing Qualitative
Research - An Overview" [MM pp 43 -], they list
8 characteristics of qualitative
research:-
1)
An
exploratory and descriptive focus
2)
Emergent
design
3)
A
purposive sample
4)
Data
collection in the natural setting
5)
Emphasis
on "human-as-instrument"
6)
Qualitative
methods of data collection
7)
Early
and ongoing inductive analysis
8)
A
case study approach to reporting research outcomes
An exploratory and descriptive focus -
In my research I am asking black students educated in UK schools to explore
their experience of that system and to describe factors that might have
affected their achieving a quality education.
Emergent design - Through background
study I have developed a skeleton structure of questions which I hope to have
answered. To begin with I shall interview one person (known) and send
questionnaires to several. Although I have a clear idea as to the areas of
interest I have stipulated research questions to be answered as part of the
Research Strategies process. I see my questions changing as I go along
depending on answers, and I see this as leading to the research questions also
altering. Although my main themes of quality, motivation and alienation in an
equal opportunities framework are unlikely to change, I do see the detail of
these themes emerging as a consequence of the questions and interviews. If I
knew the reasons or factors there would be no research.
A purposive sample - This is
self-evident. The purpose of the research is to question black people to
determine factors affecting their UK education to enable me to counsel black
achievement of quality education.
Data collection in the natural setting -
If the natural setting is the UK then I qualify. But seriously I am asking
interviewees to examine their personal history and to consider factors
contained therein, there is no natural setting. Emphasis on
"human-as-instrument" - Although I am using initial questionnaires the
main emphasis of the research is interview and as such I shall be "culling
meaning from people's words" [MM p 46].
Qualitative methods of data collection -
My first method of data collection will be a questionnaire. Although this is
formal I see the questions as being primarily open-ended seeking interviewee's
personal exploration to describe the factors affecting their achievement. I am
not looking for a quantified response. I will also be conducting a pilot
interview asking the interviewee to explore and describe personal factors. From
these initial qualitative approaches I shall enhance the questions to try to
hone in on the type of factors and aspects of achievement I am most interested
in. If it comes off I shall also try to hold a group workshop to allow the
group to discuss and hopefully develop the issues concerned.
Early and ongoing inductive analysis -
Immediately I get answers to questions and the pilot interview I shall
re-examine my aims. Am I getting the factors I want? If not, how can I get them? Will
the answers I am getting take me in the direction I am looking for in terms of
my themes within EOPS?
Appendix 3G SAMPLE SHEET
CATEGORY
Age 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60
Sex Female Male
Type of School Single sex Mixed Comprehensive Not Comp
State Church Private
Nationality
Generation/View of UK OTHER
Born Outside UK
First
Second
Other
I prepared an interview folder with the
interview schedule, sample characteristics summary, individual summary sheet,
and supporting evidence (credentials) including magazines and the work on
culture and anti-racism from my professional biography. Then with my tape
recorder I started. For full details of the interview process please see
appendix 4A - the Interview Diary.
In the later parts of this chapter I
shall be introducing the interviewees. In the dissertation I shall be using
false names as this was what I told them. In Appendix 4B on Personnel Profiles,
I have detailed certain information that will give greater validity to the
authority of some of the statements, without disclosing particularly who they
are. To be honest I believe that I am being academically correct rather than
being sensitive to their desires, as they required of me no expression of
confidentiality.
Let me first note that I had
surprisingly little trouble as a white man interviewing black people about
sensitive black issues. On only one occasion did the issue arise, and this was
because the person concerned had been asked on many occasions to be interviewed.
Further he had recently been a student where he had come into conflict with
liberal white middle-class males - me only younger! We however ended up on a
friendly basis and I would expect to see him again.
This is the only place in the
dissertation where I am going to admit that I have a significant amount of
spoiled data - I either messed up the taping or there was too much background
noise from the recorder or the environments. You will see an inconsistency
between the interview process here and the transcripts in presentation of
findings in chapter 5.
To begin with I interviewed a colleague,
Abbey, here in Botswana, and sent questionnaires to the UK and asked friends to
circulate them. 3 were returned. Please note that I also had a second interview
with the colleague but that data was not recoverable.
As I suggested I started by going to the
NUT and meeting an interviewee who worked in the EOPS department. I was staying
with a friend who I also interviewed. Then I went to the University of London
building, and was able to interview 2 students in their lounge.
At this stage I noticed a possible
problem. There were suggestions from all 4 that conditions in the schools were
such that if a black student wanted to achieve they could. Now this certainly
was not my experience in Inner London so I began to question whether some of
the premises of my dissertation were fully founded.
A friend of mine from Botswana was
working in an Inner City school, and I was fortunate enough to catch him on a
day-off - and he was going into school! I went with him. When I went to the
head teacher to ask permission to speak to some of his students, he gave me an
interview. It was also fortuitous that he used to work in a neighbouring school
in Hove so it was a deep and pleasant discussion. At the school I was able to
interview 2 students, and I also interviewed my friend to determine his view of
the ethos of the school.
It was Xmas, and after I was in
Manchester. I went to the Public Library with a view to finding appropriate organisations
in order to interview their staff. Also at the same time from my interviews at
the Inner City school I determined that I would like to discuss with someone
the state of race (or black) counselling. This should have been a target of my
preparation! I discovered that attached to Manchester University was someone
who worked arranging interviews with community organisations. I went to see
him, and he was involved with a mentoring programme at the university and
suggested I speak to someone from that. I did.
Over Xmas itself, as is detailed in my
diary, I had begun to question my assumptions. As I said above I began to
question whether Inner City schools had the same problems as I had experienced,
problems which had premised the dissertation. I was able to investigate this at
the Inner City school my friend taught at.
But I had also
become concerned about the issue of race in UK society. As I had been walking
around I noticed that there appeared not to be the tension that I used to
notice. 15 years ago when I moved from London to Brighton I noticed a relief in
tension down there, and initially when I returned to London I had found the
atmosphere quite oppressive in places that I used to visit regularly. I did not
notice that atmosphere when I began my interview process.
Certain areas such as the Tube had
previously been a focus of racial tension.
Black youths would gather together and
being young often behave outrageously. This would often elicit racist reactions
such as white people mumbling to themselves about the behaviour of young black
boys. I did not see any of that. Also this time I did not see any such
anti-social behaviour from white youths either. As this appeared to be a change
for me I felt I needed to investigate this in interviews.
As I said above my first interviewee was
from the mentoring service at Manchester University. He was a very good
contact. Not only was he willing to be interviewed but he also had contacts
with others. He was able to put me in touch with a woman who was willing to
help with the mentoring. He gave me the contact for a race counsellor who was
also involved in mentoring with schools. I wanted a contact with business, and
he gave me the name of someone who supported the mentoring but who also worked
in business. And finally he suggested that I contact someone from a community
organisation in Manchester. Fortunately I was able to interview all of these
people.
After interviewing Ahmed I met with
Denise who worked for a state community organisation. With Ahmed I discussed
the State of the Struggle, the phrase we used to describe how race relations
were. As well I was able to discuss mentoring with him, and this developed into
an important theme in the dissertation. With Denise I was able to get a view of
her own personal history, as well as analysing the State of the Struggle from
her own and an official perspective. Ahmed also helped me contact Esther and I
was able to discuss her own experiences at school and in jobs.
I now wanted to see how mentoring worked
in schools, and was lucky to interview Allen who worked in a mentoring project
attached to a college; this project also worked in schools.
Next I spoke to Abraham who worked in a
project to promote black business.
Abraham also discussed his own school
experience, as well as his experiences in promoting black business. I was not
satisfied with the material I had gained concerning quality and whether black
people perceived quality education any differently. I was able to interview
someone who worked with a black writers' workshop but that data also could not
be recovered.
Once I had completed that interview with
the writer I felt that I had at least done some justice to the aims of my
dissertation although I would have liked to speak to far more people.
I have prepared my interview folder with
the interview schedule, sample characteristics summary, individual summary
sheet, and supporting evidence (credentials) including magazines and the work
on culture and anti-racism from professional biography.
I have begun working on the interviews,
and have had some success. Everybody I have asked has given me some time! I
will start an interview summary dbase. I started by interviewing Gavin and then
a NUT contact. After doing this, I began to have some reservations. I wondered
whether some of my preparation was in error, and that the same conditions do
not apply as applied when I was working in the UK. I also felt that there are
social changes afoot in the UK, and, if so, wondered whether these also affected
what I was considering.
Let me examine this in detail. One of
the interviewees suggested that if the students wanted to work they could, and
this tended to point to an error on my part. She suggested that she could work
as hard or as little as she wanted, as the teachers were excellent and provided
for this. It was only later that I realised that she was union and this could
have been a political position. However I began to ask, was this true?
If it was true then some of my
dissertation propositions could have been in error. Fortunately I was able to
investigate a school. A friend was working in an Inner City school, and I
interviewed him. Following this I went to his school and got an interview with
the headmaster. Then he agreed that I could interview some students. My friend
took me to a class, and I asked this girl I thought was nice. She was special. Then
I went back in the afternoon, and spoke to a boy who appeared a little
disruptive – the teacher said he was thankful I was removing him, I think he
meant it. All the interviews helped me get an analysis of what a difficult
school is like. I actually came away heartened because compared to my day life
in this school was much more peaceful – I even feel less worried if I have to
go back and take a temporary job there.
I decided that an analysis of conditions
in this school would form part of my baseline trustworthiness procedure. I
wanted to consider the applicability of the performance-oriented model but if
the conditions are as the NUT official said then maybe the discipline was
already there.
In terms of my M Ed I came away
satisfied. There were changes I have no doubt, and I must consider these in my
dissertation but underlying it all many of the factors are the same. The main
disciplinary position was that the edge of violence had gone. I use the word
edge, because the school still has violence, but there was not what I would
call an ongoing level of tension I experienced in Brixton, a feeling that
violence would erupt any second. This is the edge but we can see from the
discussion in the Baseline School (appendix 6B) that there is still the
underlying violence.
I was also very pleased to see that both
students were much more positive in their approach. The girl was particularly
strong-minded, and the boy was also very clear but I think he did not apply
himself in the way that he described.
The main difference was that the
students were proud to stand up and say they wanted to work, the girl even said
she would tell the class off. In my day even the students that supported you
did not have the inner strength to stand up and argue with the disruptive
elements. This is therefore a positive advance. But there were still many
failures who quite clearly did not trust the school (see the baseline discussion).
Where do I go from here? I must try for
more interviews. I discovered that they employ black counsellors, I would like
to talk with them. I do not have enough interviews so I can go and try to get
some more. I would also like to talk with some failing black kids to find out
how important the different factors are to them.
Interview strategies: Interview a black
counsellor. Interview failing students. Interview more people.
When I was researching access to a black
counsellor in Manchester, and through her/him access to failing students, I
found the names of a number of organisations that could be useful. I have also
had further thoughts concerning the emerging design of the dissertation.
Let me start with those thoughts. Of
those that I have interviewed all accepted the performance- oriented model –
with occasional reservations that will be discussed in the dissertation. This
is not a complete picture in my terms there is no statistical proof in what I
have done but there is a sort of consistency. Clearly my contention needs to be
investigated quantitatively in order for any form of validation. But that is
not my ambit.
On a simplistic level, if the
performance-oriented model is the pathway through the racist system. Then I
need to discuss this with those who have a particular viewpoint. The first
group is failing students, how do they feel about performance orientation. I
would also like to talk to the counsellor who focuses on black students about
her /his perspective. I have a contact with such a counsellor I think.
I am now concerned more about
assimilation. A performance-oriented model encompasses an approach, which is
undoubtedly assimilationist. I therefore must discuss more these issues when I
raise performance-orientation.
Although I could see parallels with the
negro-to-black model for my own background in socialism and alienation, I have
found little acceptance of the model. I will discuss this with the counsellor I
would hope – this model was raised in a counselling book I read. I also discovered
a group called Identity Black Writers. The negro-to-black model is a cultural
identity model so I would like to discuss this model, their identity and
underachievement.
I also want to focus on the general
social landscape. I am satisfied with the baseline school perspective in the
sense that the educational perspectives I have considered in the background
study generally apply. But there was an edge that was missing thank goodness;
and that was the edge of violence. However, that edge could be a symptom of a
wider perspective or even social malaise. Have black people given up on the
struggle? I ask that because it seems clear to me that the left wing have
stopped struggling as much. I would claim that even though I have not been here
I would see the signs of struggle – posters etc, I have not – even though the
New labour have attacked the only truly Labour/socialist platform in their
armoury – the NHS by reducing disability pensions. And I think Blair was
proposing the introduction of euthanasia because it will reduce the high cost
of pensions! If the left wing have given up on windmill tilting, maybe black
people are also less in struggle. Maybe the missing edge of violence is a
parallel to this left-wing inaction. I f so then there would not be that edge
of violence in schools because the issues would not be on the surface – please
note I said they were not on the surface not that they did not exist.
Underachievement would be a clear symptom of such underlying dissatisfaction.
So my question is what is the state of the struggle, how are people
experiencing the struggle now? I can speak to long-term contacts about this.
There is one aspect of my dissertation
that I have not focused on – quality education. Whenever I have raised this
question there was limited response. I had hoped to find strong links between
the lack of quality education and black underachievement in a spiritual sense
that has not been the case. The only connection has been sociological, without
quality educational /equal opportunity approaches from the teachers then there
will be underachievement. But this is not an emphasis I want to consider
because teachers have already been flogged to death. There are two groups I
would like to discuss quality education with, the Identity Black Writers, and
also a group of Community Arts people whose description was to go into the
community.
So here is my itinerary:-
Go to Community Exchange. This
organisation is part of the University of Manchester and brokers with community
groups. They might direct me to willing people, it’s a start. But in general I
would rather go in and front it.
Go to the Arts group and see if I can
get interview.
Go to Identity Black writers.
Go to Equal Opportunities Commission if
I get the chance
Again timing dominates my strategy.
Schools start next Monday so I won’t be able to access the counsellor until
then.
Contact the counsellor with a view to
interview and then setup working with some failures.
I have addresses of 2 community centres
so I can try there.
I think that’s it!
Let me first talk about what I mean by
the struggle. The struggle as I found it in Brixton is the fight for equal
rights for black people in the UK. This struggle can be considered as a fight
for equal opportunities in employment, housing and other situations where
racial disadvantage causes serious economic and social deprivation of one form
or another. In the case that I am concerned about there is disadvantage caused
by education.
It should also be understood that the
struggle is for black equality, and should not be restricted to black
participants. But certainly black people should own the struggle, it is they
who should be giving the direction. However white (non-black) people should not
be excluded, but should participate under the direction of the community
concerned. Unfortunately white involvement has led to suspicion because in the
70’s white people wanted to take the lead, and appropriate the struggle.
Typical of this would be the actions of left-wing socialists who, hiding behind
misapplied Marxist theory, would put forward policies of the imperative form
"black people should do this or that". At the same time many
evangelical liberals would be pushing through strategies based on their own
perceptions of what the struggle should be – a perception that would not be
based on the personal experience of racism needed to direct the struggle into
the necessary avenues.
At the time I was involved in working in
the anti-racist arena of education I observed what might be called
manifestations of the struggle. The most obvious example of this was the
uprisings in the Inner cities of 1981. In my view these uprisings occurred at a
time when the frustrations of the adult community began to unite behind the
indiscriminate harassment of the youth on the streets. It was triggered by
Swamp, a police operation in Brixton, which focused on the black community.
Following the uprising in Brixton frustration led to copycat uprisings in many
of the Inner City black community areas. The government response was more
political than effective. A high profile figure, Lord Justice Scarman, was
brought in, and although his report was helpful, in my view the whole exercise
merely diffused the situation and did not help with the real issues. This would
be consistent with views expressed in the background study that there is no
political will to provide equal opportunities for black people.
These uprisings could be seen as a focal
point of the struggle at that period of time. It was significant at the time
that the parents were supporting the youth, this was a seachange.
Many of the Afro-Caribbean parents, who were asked to come over here post-war,
came over for the future benefit of education for their children. They suffered
the racial harassment against themselves so that their children would benefit
from a better education, but by the late 70’s the parents realised that this
was not happening. What they had suffered for all their life was not working
out. To simplify my perspective on the seachange, the
uprisings signified a change from adherence to the system of the mother country
to supporting the children in their struggles in education.
At this time education was a real
cauldron and as I have noted in the baseline school study the cauldron is not
boiling at the level that I knew it. I described this as there being a missing
edge of violence and tension in the school.
At the same time I have been observing
UK society in the natural comparative mode of a returning ex-patriate. It is 5
years since I have lived here and it is 14 years since I was teaching in
Brixton. It appears to me that the profile of black people is certainly far
lower than in the 80’s. On the streets there appears to be less aggression, nor
did there appear to be Tube aggression when I was in London. At the same time
it appears that black people are invisible on television. I can remember that
both BBC and Channel 4 had their own ethnic minorities’ programmes, but there
are no such programmes now.
Now these are only indicators but they point
to this "invisibility" perspective. This would also fit in with
general perceptions of UK society I have made. A friend in youth work described
the UK as being totally oriented to greed. He felt that there is very little
social conscience left – everyone is only interested in what’s in it for them.
This would fit in with my perspective of the political changes that have
happened since 1979, a process that was started by Thatcher’s government and
has changed little under New Labour. It would be my view that under New Labour
a problem that was not visible would be a problem solved.
Now all of these reflections are simply
contentions, they are mine. I would like to substantiate these views through
interview. I am therefore going to add some questions to my interview.
So what are the areas of questions that
I want to ask?
How has the state of the struggle
changed?
How do you feel that the state is
treating black people – police tolerance, employment practices, housing policy,
institutional racism etc?
One view of the uprisings in 1981 is
that the parents for the first time were supporting their children against the
state, do you feel that there is trust between the state and the black
community? Have these relations improved, worsened?
Did the uprisings improve the position
of the black community?
Do they consider that black people have
become more invisible?
Do they consider that this invisibility
is encouraged by Thatcher /New Labour?
Is there a change under New Labour?
Do they consider that violence in schools
has decreased?
Do you feel that society has become so
personally self-centred that they are not interested in black rights?
Do you feel that students have settled
in school more?
Had an excellent day of interviewing. I
wanted to note one or two comments that were made to me in conversation. One
person said the struggle was the same but it’s less confrontational on the
street. The public conflict just set up black people as a target, and this was
not seen as constructive. Another person was discussing his experience but
didn’t want to be recorded. He had much experience of higher education and was
complaining a great deal about arrogant white middle-class males dominating
student work in lectures and student politics. He used to organise black
students and felt that white students and establishment felt threatened by
this. At school he had got in a fight because a friend had been the butt of a
racist comment. He was up before the headmaster who accepted just cause, but he
did say that even though he was in such aspects of trouble he kept his mind on
the work and was academically successful.
Allen Transcript in Appendix 5A
Allen organises a mentoring project
attached to a college in Manchester. This project is also asked to go into
schools to help with black students who are possibly on the road to exclusion.
Denise Transcript in Appendix 5B
Denise works for a government agency in
Manchester that looks into issues of race.
Abraham Transcript in Appendix 5C
Abraham is a director of a government
organisation set up to promote black business in a black suburb of Manchester.
Esther Transcript in Appendix 5D
At the time Esther was working in
administration at the University of Manchester.
Ahmed Transcript in Appendix 5E
Ahmed helps in coordinating a mentoring
project to help black and Asian university students get a suitable job when
they leave the universities of Manchester.
Grace Transcript in Appendix 5F
At the time Grace was a year 11 student
at an Inner City school in London. She began her education in Nigeria, and came
to the UK school at 13.
Jackson Transcript in Appendix 5G
At the time Jackson was a year 11
student at the same Inner City school, he had previously been transferred from
another school.
Headteacher Transcript in Appendix 5H
This is a transcript of the interview
with the headteacher at the same Inner City school.
Friend Transcript in Appendix 5I
My friend introduced me to the school,
he used to work with me in Botswana. I interviewed him about the conditions in
the school in line with my investigation into the validity of my approach.
Pilot Summary in Appendix 5J
The pilot, Abbey, was Nigerian who had
spent all her school life in a UK school. She was a colleague of mine here in
Botswana.
Questionnaires
The completed
questionnaires are included in Appendix 5K.
Firstly please find transcripts of the interviews
included as appendices 5A-5I, 5J is the summary of the pilot interview, and 5K
are the three questionnaires
that were returned. To analyse the findings in Chapter 6 I first needed to
consider the strategies. From the literature review I determined categories for
the strategies listed in the sections below, and I cut and pasted quotations
from the interview transcripts. To help readability I have commented on the
quotes, but the main point of the sections is to present the quotes from the interviewees.
Strategies 1 to 7 were strategies I developed in sections 2.1 to
2.3, 8 to 11 were
strategies I put forward in section 2.3. I have not included Mentoring at this
stage.
Strategies 13 and 14 grew out of the
analysis of the transcripts.
Finally I did mentoring. This became an
important theme in my dissertation and I left it to last for that reason.
"There were so many undercurrents,
it's a wonder you can come out with anything." I have started with this statement
from Abbey because this is something I have always felt. Being brought up in a
grammar school in a middle-class area I never questioned, I never had
distractions - I never even went to the clubs in Manchester. I never worked
properly but because the whole milieu was mainlined to exam passes, that's what
I did. My achievement-motivation was a middle-class instinct rather than a
cognitive process or decision.
Working for academic success in Inner
City schools cannot be left to this "middle-class instinct". Working
as a black person in a "white school" cannot be left to instinct,
black people have to have strategies to cope wherever they are.
Let's look at those starting with the
Inner City schools. What about Grace's single-mindedness?
"I keep away. I just go to do my
work, I go to the computer room and type out my work.
BZ:- Basically if you are serious you
can divorce yourself from all the rubbish that can happen in the school
Yes
BZ:- And get on with it?
Yes
BZ:- And you feel you are doing that?
Yes
BZ:- What about friends who are not so
clear-minded?
I don't keep them. I sit next to one
girl. We exchange notes, she does this part and I do that part. We just do the
same thing all the time.
BZ:- You just keep with her, and that is
your way of getting away from all the trouble?
We just like to do our work."
Sadly she has to resort to violence.
When asked "What about discipline around the school, do you get bullied?"
she replied "No, because I will bully them."
Working at school is her sole purpose.
At break she goes to the computer room no trouble. In class she sits with a
friend who is also working, and she doesn't keep friends who don't work. I
certainly did not have that determination that meant that being successful at
school governed all aspects of my school life including social aspects.
Jackson's approach is similar.
"BZ:- I'm the teacher and I've just
come into the room, where would you be?
I would be sat down with my books out
ready to start lessons.
BZ:- Do you get involved with talking at
the beginning of lessons?
Yes I do sometimes.
BZ:-Is that because you choose to?
I would not be talking I would be
discussing the work. Did you do your homework etc?
BZ:-Would you be talking if I was ready
to start teaching?
“No"
"BZ:-But why aren't you easily led?
Because I've learnt how to discipline
myself. That was my problem at the other school. I had a little bit of talking
here and there, and now I've come to another school I've tried making a new
start. I just look about my work and go through what I'm going through."
It is with these students that teacher
expectation lets them down, and understandably from my point of view. At the
beginning of the lesson Grace "would talk to my friends first. If they
were in different classes I would ask them how was the lesson? If I had a book
from them I would return it and so on", and during the lesson Jackson just
looks "about my work and go through what I'm going through".
In a stricter academic environment how
much more success would these determined students get? I completely excuse the
teachers, why? Because in the same classroom as these motivated students will
be students who will disrupt even to the extent of violence to teachers as
described in appendix 6B. How can teachers be expected to be demanding of these
well-motivated students whilst coping with students who don't belong in a
school for learning? This is a system problem, and I have made it clear earlier
that I don't believe the system wishes to cope with it; so I must return to
individual strategies for achievement.
With the interviewees I spoke to
concerning their motivation for success, parental support was extremely
important. Starting with Abbey whose mother was "pushy", she
"never played at school because mother would have killed her". When Denise
was asked about her motivation she said "Parental support. My parents came
from a background where they thought education was important. Depending on what
qualifications you get it is something you have for life. They emphasised
education and qualifications for life a lot." Yet later she said she was
also working for herself because "my parents never forgot that they
intended to return to Jamaica, so as far as they were concerned we had to be
able to stand on our own two feet. My Dad unfortunately died, but my Mum is
actually there."
Grace had strong support at home:-
"BZ:- Do you think the main
difference is your family?
Background, how I was brought up?
BZ:- Yes because you've got a strong
educational influence at home.
Yes"
As did Jackson:-
"BZ:- How heavy are your parents
about work?
My Mum is dead and I live with my Dad,
and he is quite heavy about work. He is a plumber.
BZ:- So he is saying, he's worked hard
all his life and he wants you to be in a qualified job?
Yes that's what he says.
BZ:-You find that helpful?
Yes."
Jobs provide a motivation, look at
Grace's strong reaction.
"It's very hard for black people to
get jobs out there.
BZ:- So you find it positive in a sense?
Yes because you must work work. There is nothing you can do about it, you just
work."
So what do these people say about those
who lack motivation and possibly disrupt? What type of people are they? From
Grace:-
"BZ:- Why don't they think the same
way as you? They're not stupid people, are they?
No they're not. They've got the brains
but they get tired of using them. They want something ……
BZ:-Quick?
Yes, they just want to fast forward
their lives on everything. They think they can just go through life
easily."
Denise feels "they have been let
down in some way". When asked why they weren't motivated she said "I
don't know. They may have become disillusioned with the education system as a
whole. They don't see the need to go to school." Is it because they don't
see the need for qualifications? "No it's probably because they feel they've
been let down in some way. Therefore they react against that." The school
can't give them qualifications? "Yes, or perhaps the quality of teaching
they would expect isn't there."
"BZ:- You had a couple of hot
teachers but the others were not. You said to yourself there is this teacher
who isn't particularly a good teacher but I've got to do the stuff so you do
it?
Yes Yes
BZ:- So why
isn't that there with these kids?" But there was no answer.
Andy sees there clearly being two
systems. There is a formal economy which as Abraham puts it black people are
being excluded from, and as Allen describes "
"What you began to get in the late
80's and 90's is an alternative role-model. Instead of the role models being
from the formal economy, you start to get these role models from the
alternative economy, often promoted by the music etc - the bad guy image. So
the youngster is presented with two alternative paths to success, material
success by working hard and getting qualifications and if you're very lucky and
survive discrimination in 15 -20 years you might reach the level of earning
£20000 a year. On the other hand you can get several thousand pounds a week
immediately by following this other track. You may not live for very long but
for a young person this is very attractive." Is this what attracts Grace's
description of "fast-forward mentality"?
Mentoring for Allen answers the
situation because "it is basically and essentially a motivational project.
It's trying to remotivate those that were thinking
either that the goals the school were setting were unattainable because I'm too
far behind, or they're not socially desirable because I don't want to be in
that system. I can do much better in the alternative system." To conclude this
part on achievement-motivation it is clear that black youngsters need a
powerful mindset to cope with UK education whether an Inner City school or a
"white" school. Family background provides a powerful motivation yet
it is not clear why some students do not develop a powerful mindset. However it
is clear that with ghettoisation the alternative
economy provides attractions that militate against the development of this
mindset.
In the Literature Review I presented a
concern that black students were being asked to cope with adult problems as
children. All black students are aware of problems caused by being black in UK
society but I was concerned with their being exposed too much to this awareness
and it deflecting them from their educational path. As a white person I cannot
possibly know the answer to this question so I was very keen to hear what the
interviewees had to say.
Here is an interaction with Denise:-
"BZ:- A school is institutionally
racist, therefore the students are going to meet racism because it is part of
the institutional infrastructure. If those students stand up and say this place
is racist I am not going to work, an ANC position, then it won’t help the
students?
No it's not going to help the students.
At the same time the students could have an influence on the organisation if
there's enough of them.
BZ:- Do you think students should be put
in that position?
They shouldn't be put in that position
they should be learning.
BZ:- If you hadn't got your
qualifications you wouldn't be here to fight your fight. Exactly"
Again talking to Denise "It would
be perfectly easy for me, being surrounded by white people all the time, to put
across a racist attitude. If someone wants to focus on the racism I would put
across, and then say Zanetti said this I'm never going to work for him again,
it's crazy.
Yes
BZ:- But I've seen that sort of thing.
Yes, she laughed.
BZ:- And I think there is an element of
adults advising that.
I would say that's true."
Check out what my teacher friend said
about the students accusing him of being racist (see section 6.3).
Ahmed didn't see it as the place of
children to be involved in this.
"I have talked to educationalists
who have said that they need to equip the kids in terms of making them aware
that education is a struggle.
My own personal feelings are that this
is not appropriate at a young age." Look what he says about university
students. "Even when I go to talk to university students about this
mentoring I find that what I am telling them is like "bad news" to
them.
They turn round and tell me there is
something wrong with me because I am telling them this is happening out
there."
Those students had reached a level of
education without being aware. Esther bears this out in this interaction:
"BZ:- So you were very much alone?
Always, always through my schooling.
BZ:- So how did you feel about that? Did
it cause you any issues?
Not really. I just didn't think about
the racial problems really.
BZ:-Did you ever feel you had more to
offer but no-one would consider you because you were black?
Not really, I just didn't think about
it. It's unusual, eh?
BZ:- No, I'm finding a lot of that,
people who have got somewhere in school were not black conscious, do you follow
me?
Yes, I understand what you mean."
I am not in any way suggesting that
racism awareness should be hidden from students, but academically it hasn't
hurt some of those I interviewed. Unfortunately I did not interview anyone with
the opposing viewpoint. But one person did fill in my questionnaire, Q3. He
said "I was politically aware and active from age 14, and had an
understanding of the social, economic and political context of my experience
with the education system.
"The accommodations we are forced
to make with racist institutions creates an imperative to deny one's full
humanity and history, causing dissonance that if not balanced by positive
action against racism can undermine self-respect." He also saw
"practical engagement with the anti-racist struggle" as helping him
learn a quality education, and he felt that "Multi-culturalism in the
British Education system has brought more benefits to white society than to
Black Children. There needs to be a greater emphasis on anti-racist education,
and more Black self-help initiatives to address inequality" when asked if
I had missed anything in the questionnaire.
Allen also feels that students can cope
"At 12 or 13 no problem at all because they are living it." Then the
discussion went
"BZ:- I have some reservations. In
my interviews I have found a number of successful people who didn't relate to
the model at all in terms of their own experience. Please comment on the
following:- Much of their success came because they did not perceive their
blackness as an issue when they were in education. So how do you decide when to
draw the attention of the student to the issue of racial identity?
These people would not have accepted the
identity model but we would present it all the same. But we don't force it on
people. We say this is what we think is going on, it's up to you to decide or
not."
In investigating this strategy I have
not reached a firm conclusion, I cannot be positive one way or another. This is
important because it would demonstrate that a 100% approach one way or the other
is not appropriate. Students who have gone through the system without a level
of racial consciousness have achieved academic success; they even query Ahmed's
warnings about "life out there". Yet at the same time if that
awareness has developed it should be recognised and supported by using
approaches such as Allen's mentoring.
I remember a poignant comment from Abbey
personally to the effect that she knew what I meant but she would hate to
advocate a strategy of ignoring race awareness. Being tempered by her emotive
advice is where I would like to leave this part.
It is difficult to get at this issue
because if I ask anyone what students in schools should do they would quite
happily say "Try Harder, Pay Attention and Listen". But what this
actually means in practice for black students in UK schools is quite
significant. It is not a chastisement that is asking for a slight change, it is
a full-blown commitment.
Let's think about the attitude of the
two students I spoke to. I have already pointed out how Grace's attitude to
work required a 100% commitment, but let us also look at the level of mature
commitment required by Jackson in dealing with situations of adversity.
"I came into my class the other
day. I didn't have my pen. The teacher came up to me and said it was because
she was teaching me, and she was going to keep her eyes on me. She kept on my
case and then sent me out for no reason. After that she called me back in and
was watching me all the time, and kept asking me questions like "Are you a
fool?" "Are you stupid?"
BZ:- You felt offended by this, and that
it was unjustified?
Yes.
BZ:- I don't want to get involved in the
rights and wrongs of the incident. Did you work in that lesson?
Yes I did.
BZ:- So you said to yourself "this
woman's on my case, I don't care I have to work".
Yes."
Later he said
"She has done it before.
BZ:- So you say to yourself "this
teacher is going to do this to me so I'm going to be real heavy with my
work"
But it's not only me she does it to she
does it to everyone."
I feel that this is a very important
attitude that should be encouraged. I have no idea whether this teacher behaves
the way Jackson perceives it, but let us suppose she does. It is important for
students to accept that teachers can have failings and that in lessons they are
there to work. However that is a mature attitude but sadly in UK Inner City
schools that type of mature attitude is almost a prerequisite for academic
success - not simply drifting through with some level of ability as I
experienced at my grammar school.
Allen backs this up "When younger I
followed on unquestioningly. I went to a direct grammar school, I was the only
black student there and I did what they told me to do."
But this is what he said afterwards
"One of the problems with that is that I've actually had to make a real effort
to unlearn and unthink some of the attitudes that go
with that."
"School is not just a cognitive
package, in a grammar school you are also told that you are the captains of
industry and you have the right to look down on certain types of worker. Don't
speak to the cleaners.
"Unlearning can take a lifetime. I
would prefer personally to have a situation where you don't push people like
cannon fodder."
This interaction raises interesting
questions. Allen states that he has had to unlearn many parts of the hidden
curriculum, and he would prefer not to have to have been in that situation.
This was a question I considered being an ex-hippy - well a bit of a hippy
anyway! At that time we were rejecting our conditioning, including school
conditioning. I even remember the first thing I was told in my first job was
"Forget all that I had learnt", even though it was the very
qualifications that had got me the job. Fortunately in my adult life I have
been able to experience different things which have helped me to unlearn many
of those attitudes (to cleaners etc) that my school gave me, but there is one
thing I have never lost and that is my qualifications. Would Allen have foregone
his qualifications not to have been inculcated with the "cognitive
package"? I should have asked, I don't know, but that is a big question.
In my 20s the answer for me was that of rejection of my schooling but at 47 I
accept that school gave me qualifications and life has given me the rest.
School should offer more life lessons but really it is not set up that way.
But then I am not talking about black
issues. Allen clearly feels strongly about it because it is his life's work.
When Ahmed addresses his students he gets a different reaction:-
"BZ:- These students have reached a
certain level of success (being at university) because all this racism has
passed them by. And they went through it because they were single-minded about
their work.
In their work, right. And they knew that
at the end of the day the reward is proportional to the effort you put in.
They got to this position at university
without having any feedback about these problems.
BZ:- This would fit in with your
strategic view of the world. Forget all the other problems, get your weapons -
your qualifications, and then ….
You go in and fight the war in a
different way, and this is where mentoring projects come in to give them
ammunition."
Ahmed sees a single-minded approach as
being important, such as the performance-oriented model, because he wants the
students out there "fighting the war" with the "ammunition"
required. But he is dealing with university students who "got to this
position at university without having any feedback about these problems".
He is not dealing with students who, in schools, are being attracted to the
spill-off of ghettoisation - informal economy, gangs
and drugs.
Abbey is not enamoured of the
single-minded academic approach - "boffs".
She said "Even when I was a teacher I was saying about boffs
"get a life"." Yet about her own children she said "If I
had a child I would be pushing academic, academic, academic. Maybe I would also
encourage learning for your own sake but my main focus would be to get those
A's."
The person who filled in the
questionnaire, Q3, saying that we need anti-racist education in schools also
said "If you don't try you fail yourself, limit your opportunities, and
become a victim of racism." Here he clearly supports what I am saying
although I don't feel he would support my conclusions in other areas.
Grace finishes this part:-
"BZ:- If I asked you to give me
advice to say to kids what they should do to do well at school, what would you
tell me?
Work hard, life is hard. Life is not
fair, life is not fair at all so what you have to do is work hard.
BZ:- If someone says life is not fair I
am going to give up, what do you say?
Work hard
BZ:- Do you think it will be OK in the
end?
Everything will come out as the Plan
after all. You didn't plan to come. God did, He set your ways up so you just
have to struggle and work hard. BZ:- What if His way was that I don't do
anything for something that I did before?
Repent your sins !"
How can you argue with that?
I think there is evidence here to
support the Performance-Oriented model but nowhere near enough to ask for that
support unconditionally. I feel this is clearly an issue which needs much more
in-depth investigation. What are the impacts of being racially aware in the UK
education system? I want to say to community activists to tell their young
"Try Harder, Pay Attention and Listen" but I don't quite feel that I
have enough evidence to say that. It definitely needs investigating.
In the literature review I was concerned
that some people were putting forward the idea that jobs was part of the white
system, and that therefore black people could be excluded unless they took a
raceless, or even white, position. I argued the case that jobs were concerned
with capitalism and not race, and by viewing the jobs issue within a racial
paradigm was not a positive approach for developing motivation within students.
Abraham's job is the promotion of black
business, as such one would expect his views to be clear on this matter.
"I think it’s down to the individual at the end of the day, and what you
feel comfortable with. If they feel comfortable with presenting themselves in a
white way because it gets them what they are trying to achieve, I have no
problem with that." So Abraham is seeing the presentation as a "white
way".
But he expands on this viewpoint
"In business it is a business cultural thing they are used to having
things presented in a particular way.
BZ:- Such as business plans?
Exactly. You develop that culture or you
don’t network and be as effective in business as you could.
The market is predominantly white and if
you want to engage in the market you are going to have to meet them in terms
they recognise and they will buy into. Maggie has told us long enough that the
market is king, and we have seen that the market is king, In a business
situation I have no problems with people presenting themselves in a business
way.
I could have come here in African dress
but I am in a suit and tie. I’m in business dress. I tell all the staff you
have to be in business dress.
I don’t care if you’re in an Inner City
area where everyone is used to going round in jeans and jumpers. You are coming
here to present a business face, a professional business face, I don’t care if
it’s a black area or whatever. You are going to come here in business dress and
approach things in a professional business-like manner, whether you think of it
as black or white or whatever."
So he is talking about a "business
culture" where "the market is predominantly white" in the UK.
Now I find this far less confrontational than saying business is white.
Adopting a business culture is a non-racial position, so I don't think I am
being semantic when I say that I think that is far more acceptable. Here in
Botswana, sadly most of the businesses are owned or run by whites or Asians.
The Batswana describe the businesses as white or Asian but the market is
predominantly black. So is it a white system when 99% of the people are black?
For me the emphasis completely changes.
If the "market is predominantly white", then the white people have
the money. If you wish to get that money from them then you must sell goods or
perform services that they want for that money. This is a simple trading
principle, again neither black nor white. For me this phraseology totally
alters the context and removes the confrontation inherent in saying business is
white.
Before I look at the other interviewee's
attitude to jobs I would like to refer you to Appendix 6C. These are two
anecdotes from Abraham's interview that show the continued problem of racism
within the business culture.
The issue of jobs is not small even at
the school level. I asked Grace if she worried about jobs.
"All the time.
BZ:- What do you think about?
In school there is like a protected
shield. If I go to college it will be a different thing but still protected.
But I know that when I finish it is going to be hard.
BZ:- I hope I'm not putting this in your
mind but do you think about issues of racism in jobs?
Yes
BZ:- What do you think about that?
I think it's very very
bad.
BZ:- Do you come to terms with it, or do
you leave it and say let's hope it doesn't happen?
No it depends on what type of racism is
going on because you can ignore it. You can say. If I want I can send someone
to beat you up or kill you if I like. But if you really have sense he has got a
different view, you have one. You just do your own life.
If you can't get the job here you say
I'm not going to fit in here. I will go to look somewhere else, and maybe …
BZ:- Do you think you will find
somewhere?
It will be better than you expected from
the first one."
Abbey's attitude to jobs even prohibits
the type of work she or her family does at school. For herself, "I enjoyed
writing but what would I get a degree in English. My education was to get a
job." And in her family:-
"Take my cousin, his mother's white
his father's black. He is very artistic, he loves it. His father is in the
merchant navy, mother brought him up. Father will not accept he's an artist.
BZ Macho?
Not really. Not academic, cannot get a
job. Money. At the end of the day that's why I say you can't afford it."
But to support Grace's notion of a
protected environment and how the "real world" affects attitudes to
jobs, Abbey also said
"When you go for a job it is very
evident, and at the end of the day you go to school to get a job I knew this at
school and it affected me. My mother would say you've got to be better because
you're not white. But in the school environment you believe you're all equal
even though you know it's not. Youth is all about innocence and mum's not right
because you don't want to believe it. You know you're as good as someone else
why should it be true. It's only when it hits you in the face when you go for a
job. It's denial." Allen also presented an interesting perspective
concerning the informal economy, what one might call the containment industry:-
"BZ:- So you don't hold out a great
deal of hope for crossing over from the informal to the formal?
No I do. In a way our mentors have
crossed over, and that's why they are so good mentors. Our part-time mentors
are getting £15 an hour, and because of the success of the service they are on
the threshold of getting full-time jobs. That is a special case.
There is a potential here. Through a
process of developing projects that can embrace the target group those projects
can start to develop a base for employment, upskilling, training opportunities,
work experience etc.
We are looking at developing a project
for working with a community group to get a pool of people (18-25) initially as
volunteers but once they have been trained given counselling skills they will
then be able to get part-time work. So the transition from informal to formal
is possible, and if it were not possible then we would be in a very difficult
situation."
I am sure that Abraham and his business
community would not be happy if it was the practice that the only jobs that
black people could get would be in the "containment" industry. But
this is an interesting development, I suppose it is a follow-on from the
so-called "Race Relations" industry.
Getting a job is very important as can
be seen by Grace's and Abbey's commitment in schools. But from the point of
view of academic bias I must point out that both were Nigerian, so I must be
careful about drawing wider conclusion because of that. However I was most
interested in the way Abraham described his participation in the "business
culture" with a "predominantly white" market. I feel this is a
strategy to overcome the confrontational "white" business.
I have included this here because I
developed this cultural attitude as a possible separate mini-strategy in
chapter 2. However it might only be an extension to ideas I developed in
appendix 5M. I shall keep the separation and combine the conclusions in chapter
7.
The issue of consciousness was important
to a number of the interviewees, as Denise put it:-
"It comes down to the self-esteem
within individuals. If you are constantly being told that black people never
played a role in British history apart from being slaves, then it says little
about black people. It presents a negative view, and it doesn't do much for the
consciousness of a child who is learning that."
She was positive about "things that
schools tend to do. My son is in primary school, when they learn about history
they learn about the Caribbean. If one of the pupils goes away on holiday then
they talk about it when they come back - simple things like that. It is quite
nice if your son comes back and says this has happened to be able to contribute
to that."
When I asked how she would feel if her
boy in 5 years time comes back from a black history
lesson talking about Malcolm X and is feeling aggressive, she said "I
would feel fairly positive because he had actually received that information.
At the same time I would try to present another view because there are other
things he needs to consider rather than just being aggressive. I would hope I
could give another perspective on what he has learnt at school." But there
is clearly a place for consciousness-raising. Allen describes a typical
scenario.
"There is a dip starting at the age
of 9 in the performance and achievement of African Caribbean children. Teachers
will tell you that black pupils are doing just as well in some cases better,
then there is this horrible dip when they stop functioning."
How did this dip affect him?
"I remember it well. That's the age
I became aware of myself as a social being, and there is an awful realisation
that you are not valued in the same way. There are different social valuations
of your being, having a different skin colour, having a different religion or
cultural background means you are valued differently.
This realisation produces a number of
reactions ranging from paralysis, turmoil, anger etc, and the psychological
energy has to be dealt with." How did Allen get through it?
"Because of my father. He was
Jamaican and a doctor. It was '68, black power, he read me poems, told me about
Malcolm X, he said "we're proud to be black, don't let them get you down,
I've managed to get where I am"."
Jackson also had a positive response
from a consciousness-raising counseling:The
counsellor "would bring in books on black history, and talk about it. He
would bring in a Malcolm X book and talk. Loads of different books, Martin
Luther King …
BZ:- The fact that he was developing a
black consciousness in you helped you with your studies?
Yes it did.
BZ:- You were saying "this is for
me, and I must have the qualifications to be more about me".
Yes.
BZ:- And you were able to do that?
Yes
BZ:- Would you recommend it for other
people?
Definitely
BZ:- What about the other guys in the
class who are giving you lip?
I have been thinking of calling him to
the school but it has to be the school that requests it."
But who should provide this counselling?
Denise says "But in terms of the education that is provided I think that
education can only go so far, I think it is quite important to have black
history or black insight reinforced as well, I think it is very important. I
don't think you can expect a school to provide everything.
In terms of consciousness raising you
can only do it to a certain level with school children, and if the interest is
stimulated then they need to go to other sources to get what they need from
family or friends or through supplementary schools."
Allen's mentoring service offers this to
black youngsters but for a different reason - to help prevent exclusions. His
service is based on the nigrescence model which is concerned with
consciousness-raising.
What about black rights? Denise says
that students "need to be aware of their rights as a black school pupil,
they shouldn't be racially harassed in any way whether by a teacher or by
another pupil. It is quite important for them to have that information, it is
therefore important for them to have access to the head if necessary to
challenge what is happening to them." But ….
"I think it is important to assess
what you can have an impact on and what you can't, and you have to accept
that."
To conclude this part
consciousness-raising has its place but to a limited extent. There seems to be
a developing clarity on this issue for me, the place for consciousness is very
much different for each individual. If an individual does become aware, and
that awareness is not fostered within the system then that individual can
become antagonistic. But if that individual does not become aware, pushing such
consciousness-raising might just cause confusion. Black students have rights
but let's temper that with the purpose of their being in school to learn, as
Abraham says "Where I would draw the line is if there is a regulation
which seemed to exclude people because they didn’t think in a particular
way."
Ahmed told me of "a beautiful verse
from the Holy Koran":-
"And we have created you from a
single source and its mate, and made you into tribes and nations that you may
recognise one another and not despise one another."
Then he went on
to explain "That word "despise" is racism. How do we recognise
each other?
It is not just black people recognising
the system, it is more importantly that the system recognises black people,
valuing people, bringing out their potential." Schools must develop such
valuing.
The issue of assimilation must cause
concern if we are discussing the performance-oriented model, and then
discussing how much emphasis should be placed on racism awareness and
consciousness raising. Let's see how the interviewees viewed assimilation.
At school Denise "actually felt I
was living 2 different lives. On the one hand I was like any other pupil,
that's how I viewed myself to be, and when I got home I had my parents talking
about Jamaica and what their life was like. Although I accepted the position I
was in I also knew I had another lifestyle, but there was no sort of friction
between the two. I could easily handle the two without any problems."
Abraham is even more adamant. " I
think it is inevitable that there is going to be a certain amount of
assimilation. It’s hard to conceive of a situation where 95% of people are of a
different view and you are not influenced by that. People, who put forward the
view that we live in a coral and that we don’t engage and adapt to the
situation around us, are living in cloud-cuckoo land. I don’t think that is a
realistic way."
He feels that "it’s not a realistic
way to face the 21st century. You go to America, Jamaica, you go
anywhere and you are into the customs of the people around you. St Paul, do as
the Romans do.
It’s been going on since St Paul’s time.
Trying to buck that is like trying to make water flow uphill, as far as I’m concerned."
Esther's position is not so strong, yet
clear:-
"BZ:- What about assimilation? You
have a business studies degree. I would call that assimilating into the
capitalist position. Do you feel that it is assimilation when someone says that
you have to get down and do it?
Probably, yes.
BZ:- Do you feel that you are negating
yourself by taking that position?
NO
BZ:- So if a black person came to you
and said that you are a traitor to your race what would you think?
I wouldn't agree. Some black people feel
that you have to do things in a certain way and if you go against that you are
a traitor.
But I do believe that if you've got to
do something, you've got to do it regardless of race.
BZ:- How would you confront the
situation where the boss is a racist?
Oh I would deal with it, I would. I
wouldn't push it under the carpet.
BZ:- What if it cost you your job?
Then I would lose the job, I would deal
with it. No job would be worth it.
BZ:- There is a certain amount of
assimilation you would put up with but if it went beyond .. would you agree?
Yes, you meet racism all the time but
you can accept it under normal circumstances.
BZ:- I could put your position as
assimilation within reason?
Within reason, yes."
In all these cases the position is a
position of strength, Ahmed summed it up as follows:- "By assimilation you
mean putting on the shoes of the white man. I think that is what is happening.
Even for women, if they want to get into certain positions they have to cut
their hair like a man.
Because the system works like this
assimilation does take place, but the most important aspect of that
assimilation is the intention of that person, that is something that is only
known to them."
To clarify I asked:-
"BZ:- You would accept assimilation
in an outer sense so long as in an inner sense your intentions and your
strength is there for what you want.
That's right, that's all part of the
war. Assimilation is like camouflage; once you get in, which is very difficult,
you can open up doors."
To begin with Allen says that "my
position is that of a liberal." He said
"Mrs. Thatcher was a very
successful woman. I don't think that she was in any sense interested in women's
issues and never has been. I think she was successful by being more male than
men. And I think it is possible to be successful by minimising your blackness,
your racial identity. That is the other strategy, and it is encouraged in
certain quarters.
"Don't emphasise you cultural
differences. Dress and speak - everything except your skin colour - conforms to
the normative culture."
When asked if this was assimilation he
said
"Yes it is assimilation, and this
nigrescence model is a strategy of non-assimilation, it is a strategy of
holding out against assimilation." I asked which of those strategies was
appropriate to his work?
He said "It is not for us to
decide, all we do is put out a range of strategies that are possible. I know of
people who would get very angry with people putting forward a strategy of
assimilation. I would say that you have lost something but you gain elsewhere
in terms of survival."
He explains further "But you often
see that this person (adopting an assimilation strategy) has an uneasy
relationship with the black community because the community is not sure whether
they are still one of us. Often these assimilated individuals will marry into
the white community. You have to develop the maximum number of attributes of
non-blackness."
Denise seemed comfortable living two
lives so I asked " Do you think someone can take an assimilation position
in work and outside work be as black as you like - if I can phrase it that
way?"
He replied "It's possible but I
think it would be a great strain. If you are living a life in two worlds that
cannot be brought together without difficulties I think you are always going to
have psychological strain.
It's a bit like a man and a mistress.
It's possible to have a wife and a mistress but I think it would be a strain.
You can live this life but don't all of us wish for some sort of consistency.
You speak to people who are doing this
and you will often find them discussing the strain. They are not
comfortable."
I pushed this further. "Given that
the kind of working compromise that all people have to make, is assimilation at
work and racial identity at home a strategy you would want to discourage?"
He answered "You are asking me
essentially a political question. Take an analogy If you accept it's a man's
world then a woman entering into that world can decide to act as mannishly as
possible in that world and to leave her femininity for their private life.
That's what I said of Mrs. Thatcher.
What that does mean is that the
mannishness of the world never gets challenged, and therefore there is no
progression culturally within that sense.
Yes assimilationism is a personal
survival strategy but the politics of our stance is not to reduce the challenge
to the racist culture but to take on the challenge. Assimilation effectively
avoids the issue of challenge to a racist culture." Although he presents a
liberal position it is clear what he believes. To summarise on assimilation
there appears to be a contradiction in this evidence. You might initially say
that each individual decides on the degree of assimilation for themselves as
with Ahmed's intention. But I want to look at the work environment of these
people. Denise, Abraham, Esther and Ahmed are working in the mainstream whereas
Andy is working with students who have one foot in the informal economy. I
think it is the environment that characterises the assimilation. If it is a
"camouflage" then is it assimilation? If you are comfortable with two
worlds, is it assimilation? If you have defined limits as in Esther's case, is
it assimilation? If you are to compete in business, is it assimilation? Andy
calls this a "personal survival strategy", is it? Allen has to take
on a challenge because in his environment, disruptive students, I don't believe
assimilation is an option. They have already chosen the informal economy, if
not practically then psychologically. The assimilation is the environment.
When I read about this model (see
Chapter 2 and Ford pp104-106 for details), I thought it might be appropriate,
but I needed to investigate it. I did not discuss it with all the interviewees,
but with those that I did I found it a real struggle as it seemed to hold no
relevance. Here are the full interactions. Esther:-
"BZ:- Negro-to-black model. I could
see these as possibly being appropriate because I could see comparative
positions as a socialist. So I wanted to investigate it to see how it works
with people I have interviewed. And it hasn’t, but I still want to see.
What about pre-encounter?
She’s probably right, but they probably
do it without thinking. I probably did but I didn’t think about it, because of
the environment you are in.
BZ:- Why would that happen?
Because you would be in a predominantly
white environment.
BZ:- Why would that negate your
blackness?
No it wouldn’t negate my blackness, I
was just behaving like everyone else.
BZ:- Was it a conscious process?
No, not conscious - definitely not.
BZ:- Could you say that you were viewing
the world from a white frame of reference because that was who you were with?
Exactly, yes.
BZ:- Encounter stage.
I never really saw myself as a black
person so this never arose because everything was OK about that.
BZ:- Next stage
No
BZ:- What do you feel about clinging to
blackness in your employment position as a black person?
I don’t know about that one.
BZ:- Do you feel you have experienced
racism in an employment context?
It’s difficult to prove, isn’t it?
BZ:- No I didn’t ask for proof.
OK yes. You come across things but you
don’t know. I feel it. I’ve had nothing direct.
BZ:- You have spent a long time getting
qualifications but you have still not moved on, how do you feel about that? Do
you want to go into business?
No, I don’t now.
I used to think I wanted to own my own business but that’s changed. I am more
interested in teaching adults now as TEFL.
BZ:- Let’s go back to the model, does it
really apply to you?
No, no.
BZ:- Have you
gone through any stage of internalising black consciousness? Probably.
BZ:- When?
Now, because of the job.
BZ:- How is that showing?
Just resentment, I think."
Jackson:-
"BZ:- (I talked about the nigresecence model). "Black people when they are
younger adopt a white frame of reference", in other words they try to do
things that are very white. Did you ever feel you went through that?
No
BZ:- Even when you were younger?
No
BZ:- According to the model they don't
want to be seen as black or white they want to be seen as human beings.
I can agree with that, I'd rather be
seen as a human being.
BZ:- How do you then value your
blackness?
I value my blackness, but I wouldn't
mind everyone being the same because there would be less things for me to worry
about as in trying to get a job, and things like that.
BZ:- What about black pride, do you feel
that?
Yes
BZ:- Is it something you study or look
into?
Not really it's just things that your
parents tell you.
BZ:- They talk about people like Martin
Luther King, and stuff like that?
Yes
BZ:- You know about those people and
look up to them?
Not look up to them, but I see them as
leaders of black influence and of status.
BZ:- Are there people you look up to?
Nelson Mandela
BZ:- Have you read about him?
Yes.
BZ:- And what do you think is important
about what he did?
He helped black people by showing them
how to hold their aggression and be more calm.
BZ:- Do you think that's important?
Yes
BZ:- Is that something you would like to
tell people?
Yes
BZ:- If you are saying they should hold
their aggression, are you saying they should ignore what's wrong?
Not ignore what's wrong, but not to get
angry and lash out."
Although not discussing the nigrescence
model Q3 said "The accommodations we are forced to make with racist
institutions creates an imperative to deny one's full humanity and history,
causing dissonance that if not balanced by positive action against racism can
undermine self-respect." He wants to see positive action such as the
nigrescence model.
But what was most significant was
Allen's complete adherence. Let's see why.
"The heart of the work we use is
the model developed by Cross - the nigrescence model."
"Previously there has not been an
effective mechanism for relating issues of race and racism to people's personal
and psychological development. There have been many books about the economics
of racism, politics of racism, its history. And there has been literature on
psychology of the racists, of prejudice, its dynamics, but we haven't had how a
child begins to form a sense of itself within this social context. And that is
where the racial identity model completes an important part of the jigsaw.
"The nigrescence model is based on
the assumption of being brought up in a white society. The model is also
affected by your own family experience, you can be brought up in a very black
environment within the overriding white environment.
"You are taught the fantastic
achievements of white people in Europe but you are also taught the fantastic
achievements relative to the not-so-fantastic achievements of other cultures.
There is a psychological demotivation of black children through this process.
"This is where the racial identity
model comes in. A black person can resist these messages by refusing to accept
them by blanking them out.
" The model is basically a defence
system. Your defence can systematically blank out, or says I am not really
black I am the exception. This is the pre-encounter stage of the model.
"Following this you get the turmoil
which can lead to all sorts of reactions ranging from violence and
misbehaviour. We meet this in the secondary schools where this turmoil leads to
violent confrontational activity.
When asked whether adolescent problems
are an example of the immersion-emersion stage Allen said "This is exactly
what is happening at a local school. And they don't even realise what they are
dealing with. The kids don't and the staff don't. All they see is bad
behaviour, and ask why are they behaving like this?
"We teach them that they have to
distinguish between the system and the people, and to understand who are the
architects of the system and who are the pawns. We try to tell them that some
white people can be your friends and support you in various ways. This is what
within the model is reaching a more balanced and integrated approach."
But he does have a word of warning:-
"As with all psychology and all theories there are some problems. Consider
the stages. You are separating out something which is a continuum, and which
doesn't necessarily go in a straight line." So again we have apparently
conflicting views but the key to discerning this conflict is to recognise that
Allen is dealing with adolescents having problems, I am suggesting that the model
is most appropriate in a situation where the black person is in conflict with
the prevailing system.
To summarise Allen uses the nigrescence
model with adolescents who are having problems with the system yet the other
interviewees I asked about this did not find it applied to them. This points to
the model having the greatest application to those youngsters who are being
attracted to the informal economy. But I have no wish to be definitive
here.
I gained no evidence to support or
negate this strategy.
But I did have further thoughts. One of
the important cultural strengths that I have noticed here in Botswana is their
respect for age, sadly this is breaking down with encroaching westernisation,
both imposed and invited. I see this respect as creating an order in society
based on age. Children are expected to do as elders tell them without
protracted justification.
This carries through to schools where
teachers are held with respect due to age, and this respect also translates to
white teachers here in Botswana, especially those who make an attempt to fit
in. Therefore because I am a teacher in a Botswana school and because I agree
to fit in with Batswana practices I am given a certain amount of respect by the
students. This is a cultural strength because they give immediate respect to
teachers and begin working.
Outside the school environment they
don't necessarily give respect to older whites, and a friend advised me that
some Batswana don't give that respect when they travel to Northern college,
Aberdeen. As a result Batswana students who are expected to be polite by their
own customs are judged by at least one person as impolite in Aberdeen.
If these students were to hold to their
cultural strengths of respect for age and extend that respect to white people,
then there would be greater cross-cultural smoothness. And they could then
teach white people the importance of respect for age. But instead people who
have practices of politeness within their own society are recognised as being
rude by those outside.
Black students in the UK are not, in
general, Batswana, but it is my understanding that within black families,
whether originally from the Caribbean or from Africa, there continues to be
this practice of respect for age. But black people differentiate the way they
treat black people and white people, and this differentiation is accepted by
adults. But what if instead of accepting this prejudice it was extended, how
much greater would the cooperation be?
Race is an important issue but like with
many important issues people often get emotive about it. One method of control
of emotive issues is to use a process that is called detachment (see appendix
2O). This process asks of people to recognise their emotions but not allow them
to dominate or take over. You will often get students referring to race when
they get angry even when race is not the issue.
My teacher friend said "I have been
accused of being racist many times by kids who have been dissatisfied with the
way they have been treated. Black boys usually." And this causes problems
as in his defensive position when talking to me "There have been occasions
where there's been a dispute you'll be accused of racism if you are giving too
much attention to one group - which maybe Turkish or white children. It's not
because of anything I'd done."
And Jackson described an attitude he
would like to see developed, inspired by Nelson Mandela.
"BZ:- Are there people you look up
to?
Nelson Mandela
BZ:- Have you read about him?
Yes
BZ:- And what do you think is important
about what he did?
He helped black people by showing them
how to hold their aggression and be more calm.
BZ:- Do you think that's important?
Yes
BZ:- Is that
something you would like to tell people? Yes
BZ:- If you are saying they should hold
their aggression, are you saying they should ignore what's wrong?
Not ignore what's wrong, but not to get
angry and lash out.
BZ:- Kick a table?
Yes. By making racist comments but try
to find a suitable way around the problem."
Detachment is needed by both students
and teachers, by the students so as not to cause offence and by the teachers to
recognise that the students are being emotive and that they, as teachers, are
not the cause.
I did not put the questions directly
concerning detachment, but I did ask about racelessness. Although racelessness
is not a position concerning the control of emotions, it is a position where
people are asked not to forget their race in a particular context. Denise said
"It didn't bother me whether I took a raceless position because I just did
it. I think at the end of the day whether you are working at school or at
college you are actually doing it for yourself." At the same time she said
"By qualifying you can then start to act as a role model for other black
individuals." Is this raceless?
You have to be conscious to take a
raceless position, when asked Esther said "No that didn't really apply to
me. You have got to think about those things in the first place before you can
actually take a raceless position." This points to detachment only applying
to a certain group of black people, those who are racially aware, or in
particular circumstances only when racial issues they are conscious of arise.
This strategy of racelessness can open
the door to misuse if, for example, the system continually put across messages
that were racist. I know in the late 70s there was much revision going on of
materials that presented racist messages. Of that time Allen said
"Traditionally we hear of the history of European males all over the
world, their heroism, their fantastic achievement, their sensitivity, their
genius. There is a whole school curriculum which supports this validation.
"Of course for black people it
works in exactly the opposite way. Not only do you have the sense that you are
not valued in the social structure.
"You are taught the fantastic
achievements of white people in Europe but you are also taught the fantastic
achievements relative to the not-so-fantastic achievements of other cultures.
There is a psychological demotivation of black children through this
process."
He conceded "It is slightly better
than it was in the 60's, that was definitely my experience."
But there are examples. Abbey always
used the phrase "Cecil Rhodes is a good man", and a personal friend
would often talk of Francis Drake who was presented as a hero. As Allen said
"In capitalism a bunch of thieves went out, called pirates, and looted eg Francis Drake. In eastern Europe it is now the same.
This criminality becomes respectable and rewrites the history claiming they ere respectable all the time. In fact they were murderers,
extorted etc, but through the lens of eurocentric
history they are now the heroes of early capitalism."
These are all cases that might not
present a true picture. Both Allen and my friend are old like me ie in school in the 60s, and Edosa
went to a "white" school in Portsmouth, hopefully there has been a
change in these practices. As an aside and I present this without evidence,
Inner City schools spent a great deal of time trying to remove these blots from
the curriculum, I don't know now but I hope it will have improved since the
70s. From working in Hove I think the curriculum still has a problem because
the attitude in "white" schools, as exampled in Abbey's school in
Portsmouth, is predominantly that there is no race problem here.
I asked Grace "Do you ever find
yourself in the position that you as a Nigerian person believes something and
you have a difference of opinion with your teacher
All the time.
BZ:- Give me an example.
The teacher says about what she knows
and what she is brought up to do and what she believes in. I believe in the
same thing, we are both Christian. There are ways she says it I don't agree
with, and when I tell her my views she says they are good points. I tell her her point is a good point but they just don't go together.
Everyone who has a good point, says it out, and if we agree it's OK. You're not
exactly wrong, there is no wrong or right.
Everyone's point is right, you just
argue down to the basics, it is what you believe in.
BZ:- Do you ever find yourself in
conflict with the teacher? Are you ever asked to say something you disagree
with to pass an exam for example?
No
BZ:- If you were writing about
traditional healing you feel your views would be accepted if you were writing
it in a proper academic way?
Yes"
So although she gave me an example as a
Christian, this interaction, I believe, illustrates the point that teachers can
be tolerant of differing viewpoints. I think this is especially true of Inner
City schools, as the headteacher says "I always think that education is
one of those spheres, taking it out of that old society, where there is a
better chance for black children to succeed, because at the end of the day we
are very liberal-minded accepting profession in general".
Racelessness was discussed but
detachment never arose, except through Jackson's hero, Nelson Mandela, who
advised "holding aggression and being more calm" another way of
describing detachment. Cultural conflicts through the use of materials can
arise but much work has been done to eradicate that within the liberal-minded
Inner City profession.
In this part I was looking at the
importance of positive role models being concerned that many youngsters hold to
images of pop stars etc, an image which is cultivated by the market for its
negative image of black people.
I was surprised when Denise told me she
was doing a secretarial course, I asked "With all those bits of paper?
Didn't you have careers guidance?"
She told me "I didn't have any
careers guidance. My teacher asked me what exams was I going to take, and then
said what job are you going to do, and I said secretarial.
There weren't any role models, there
weren't black people around so that I could say that looks good."
Esther felt something similar. When
asked if she felt she couldn't achieve she said "No, not that I couldn’t
but I didn’t have the confidence at that stage. No role models at Crewe. I
think it is good to have role models, black teachers."
Abbey discussed a friend in a similar
light "An Arab girl from Oman and we became good friends, and she said
don't you ever wish you were white. She was stunningly attractive, and I was
shocked. Why would someone wish to be something they are not?" But Abbey
had the answer at home, if there are no role models. "Then I thought she
hasn't got that push at home - she hadn't. She felt she had to change. It's
important to have that push at home. Maybe I was the wrong child for my mother.
You have to have the driving force telling you that you can do it, otherwise
you believe what everyone else is telling you."
From our interviewees we can see that
the lack of role models, unless you have a Nigerian mother!, can lead to
problems.
The headteacher also sees role models as
being important. "We are very lucky, and it is luck because the way we
employ staff within the school is not to say that we must go out and get 6
black teachers. But we are lucky because within the school we have a high
percentage of professional high calibre teachers.
"They are basically teachers who
have achieved, and the African-Caribbean students could look up to them as
having achieved in the British education system. So in an inadvertent way and a
direct way you are saying to the kids, these people are there.
"It's crucial. At the end of the
day when we were at school the black African-Caribbean community would reflect
back and say where are our role models? Where are our bank managers? Where are
our teachers and doctors?
"With society becoming more
accepting of other cultures, because we have become a multi-cultural society
now, I think these role models are very important.
"We have been very lucky, and it is
luck. We never said we must go out we definitely need to increase the number of
black teachers."
He also sees these black teachers as
having an important role in overcoming some of the negative conditioning:-
"If I refer back to what I was
saying earlier "black kids fail don't they?" It is quite obvious that
no they don't because you can look at the teachers, and in many cases are the
best teachers in the school. They can't use this excuse and the psychology is
blasted out of the window."
For Allen role models are the
"key" but in a different sense
"The key is role models. We try to
find people who are the next step further on of the life path the young person
is on. The key to it was to find role models, mentors, in their early 20's, and
the ones we found most successful were the ones who had failed at school, and
become involved in street culture. In two cases they had quite substantial
criminal records, and had come through the criminal justice system. They
realised that the street culture was a complete waste of time, had gone back to
the school, and said to the students "I am now 5 years on from you and I
think it was a waste of time".
"The key to it was that they had
extraordinary credibility. They weren't saying "Don't do it, I've now
become a respectable suit-and-tie person". They were dressed in the
fashion of the street culture. They knew the kids' parents, they knew their
brothers, one of them even had a reputation that the kids knew. These are the
people who have maximum credibility of the target group."
Role models are seen as integral, both
for their lack and in the case of key figures with Allen. There are role models
the world over as in Jackson's case with Nelson Mandela. Schools forget that
throughout the world there are many great leaders as well as awful ones. But
for the students in the UK it is essential to make them aware of these people,
as well as providing the lessons of the "black teacher" and
"mentor".
In this part I was interested in
examining whether the interviewees only worked for black teachers. My strategy
was aimed at taking a blanket attitude that students should work for all
teachers.
Allen described this scenario "The
training the teachers receive is often about the economics and politics of
racism but teachers are dealing with the personal behaviour outcomes of the
turmoil of the students. At the moment there is no linking of the behaviour and
the turmoil so how can they make sense of the behaviour. All they see is some
angry and defiant youngster and, if they try to help, will often get an angry
response."
He then described a possible students'
reaction ""You can't help me you're white" We try to tell them
this is not a positive response. All people are to be valued but we must accept
that anger exists." And Allen then later on tries to teach the students to
control this anger.
Let me note here that rather than
working for black teachers we are discussing an adverse reaction to white
teachers. Jackson discussed a difficult situation with one teacher. He
described a strategy of toleration for apparent excesses but when I said
"That is interesting because if you thought it was racial you'd be up the
wall?"
He said "Yes. I don't like the way
she is, but I can get down to it because she treats everyone the same."
However connected to this is how
interviewees worked for different teachers, teachers they trusted or not.
(Please note that it had been my intention to include trust in Appendix X but
it is so closely connected to this issue that I have included it in this
appendix).
Let us start with the positive reactions.
When Denise was asked whether she worked better for some teachers she said
"I think I did actually. I was hopeless at maths and this woman motivated
me."
But there was an interesting interaction
concerning this teacher.
"The ones I said I trusted were
ones I felt were particularly good teachers because of the techniques they had
for dealing with difficulties pupils had. For example the maths teacher saw
that a student had a problem with maths and she made a real effort to deal with
that problem.
"Other teachers would see the
problem but would forget it.
"I have respect for those teachers
because they enjoyed their job and did it to their best ability as well."
So I asked her "So the notion of
trust that you had concerned the way they delivered the work and also that they
had time for the pupils." And she said "Exactly".
But this doesn't quite tally with the
rest of the interaction. When I asked her "Did you have any notions of
racial consciousness at that time? Did you trust the teacher because s/he
treated you well as a black person?"
She replied "This particular
teacher didn't treat me any differently as a black pupil as some teachers
did."
Being treated well as a black person, by
not being treated differently, gained Donna's trust and she worked better.
Abbey, out of a Nigerian respect for
education, "trusted school to educate her as that was what it was there
for."
But the interviewees had more negative
reactions, there were more examples where not trusting a teacher led to a less
positive attitude.
Firstly from Esther, when she was asked
if she trusted her teachers.
"Not really, no.
BZ:- Were there teachers you worked
better for?
Probably there were, but there was
nothing that stood out.
BZ:- Were there teachers you wouldn't
work for because they were racist?
No, nothing like that at all."
So she probably worked more for those
she trusted.
But from the first questionnaire, Q1
"There were some teachers I did not trust. I was less likely to complete
the classwork set. I felt that they "favoured" others in the class so
I became less cooperative. I did not think they were interested in my
progress." She is now a teacher.
And from the third questionnaire, Q3 was
"more cooperative, receptive to being challenged or extended, and less
aggressive to them". His "attitude was more belligerent and
uncooperative, had a low attention level, and tended to be turned off the
subject" for teachers he did not trust.
From the second questionnaire, Q2
described how he "was caned once by the deputy head for something I don't
remember, and once by a maths teacher for missing homework - the deputy head
did not teach me. I detested both after that. Perhaps my maths was affected.
(BZ note:- He didn't pass maths, took it later in life and passed.)
Q2 also felt strongly about a particular
aspect of trust, "Trust is two-way. There is a failure on the part of the
system to trust individuals and to respect their innate capabilities."
From my interviewees there appeared to
be no attitudes of only "working for black teachers" but trusting a
teacher was important and lacking trust often led to bad reactions. Importantly
for those students that Andy meets, there is a feeling not of distrust but a
feeling that white teachers cannot understand. If the students create a barrier
in this way, they might create a barrier to learning in a similar way.
The question really is "Isn't it in
your own interest to work for all teachers? " Overall Denise thinks that
"the child has a certain amount of responsibility because at the end of
the day what they learn in school will lead on to what they become in life -
careers and so forth." She felt that she "never had to have anyone
tell me to try harder because I was always doing my best anyway", but she
got a broad set of qualifications so she must have worked for others who did
not motivate her. "I did because I wanted the qualifications. It's got to
be both but I was prepared to put more effort into the work the maths teacher
set." When she says "both", she is saying that the teacher
should provide some of the motivation.
When Grace was
asked "Are there teachers you work for better than others?" She said
"No.
BZ:- Because you are working for
yourself?
Yes. If you don't understand the topic
you can go and ask the teacher to help you, if you feel you can't talk to the
teacher you can talk with someone else." Jackson demonstrated this
approach, even though he did not express it directly, when he discussed working
for the teacher even though he didn't like her attitude.
In this part I have reported that working
for black teachers only did not arise with my group of interviewees. However
Allen reported that some students in conflict with the system felt that white
teachers couldn't understand them. However the connected issue of trust was
very important as many interviewees said that they worked better for teachers
they trusted.
In this part I wanted to examine whether
there was a connection between what was seen as quality education, the issue of
culture, and whether there was anything distinctive that black people saw as
quality education. I had been wondering whether the content of the material (as
suggested by Pirsig) as considered by the UK
curriculum had a negative impact on black people. In their replies concerning
quality education none of the interviewees referred to the contents of the
material. This was notable both for myself in terms of quality education, but
must also be an issue for all those who pressure teachers to spend hours on
suitable materials.
Let us look now
at the issues raised by the interviewees. For me quality is a matter of Inner
Development, Esther said "I think it’s a bit much at school.
It takes years to get to stage of
personal development, and I haven’t stopped. As a school child I think it’s too
early.
BZ:- Is it irrelevant?
No I don’t think it’s irrelevant, it
takes quite a lot of effort at that stage.
BZ:- What kind of things are you
thinking about?
Maturity, coping with life.
BZ:- Do you think that has a place in
school?
Oh yes. Even though they don’t have to
cope with life at school they need to be aware of it because they are going to
have to cope at some point. But it has to be appropriate to that level."
But Personal and Social Education "was a waste of time. Little kids they
get bored with things because they think it’s not relevant."
Abbey enjoyed writing and she
"worked at MOD Portham Down on a genetic
project, reading DNA. It was very interesting but too personally dangerous -
scientists doing it for the good of man!!" But when I asked why she didn't
try this at school, she ultimately asked "Do you think school is
structured in that way to learn for your own?" What can you say to that?
In the questionnaire Q2 felt that
"quality education is really too big a subject but more focus on personal
and interpersonal skills and a study of practical ethics would help."
Whereas Q3 said that quality education could be improved with "greater
emphasis on the ability to analyse and evaluate and deconstruct information,
less emphasis on learning prescribed "facts"" ie more concerned with inner factors rather than the
contents of the curriculum.
Mostly the interviewees referred to what
I might call outer factors. Talking to Denise she felt that "having a
teacher who is constant enough to provide me with the relevant information
about what subject s/he was teaching." This is not concerned with
educating the Inner Self but strictly concerned with the contents of the
subject. I see this consistent with something that Abbey said. Abbey's motivations
were based on what her mother wanted. When I asked her about quality education
saying her mother was only achievement-orientated. She disagreed saying her
mother was very achievement-orientated saying if she got a B the mother wanted
an A. When I said this was achievement she said "quality was giving of
your best, and was to get an A". An A and quality were both the same,
that's how she saw it. Esther saw quality education in achievement terms as
well.
"One person might need more help
than another and if they don’t get that. I know that happened to me in maths at
school. She didn’t help anyone, so I hated maths. But I got maths O level
later, I had 1-1 tuition. Because of the way it was delivered, I didn’t get any
help with anything.
BZ:- So the 1-1 tuition was quality
because the teacher answered your questions?
Yes."
Looking further into Denise's approach I
asked her about the hidden curriculum, she said "maybe it should be
connected to the overall ethos of the school whether it cares for its
pupils." But when I asked her about self-realisation, something more
closely connected to the quality education I was searching for, she said
"that is not something I would necessarily see as coming from school, I
wouldn't like to put that responsibility on a school. I think those that expect
a school to provide that have too high expectations."
Allen had even clearer outer perceptions
"It is education that fits its goals and perceives those goals. If you
want an education system that really does develop the potential of each
individual pupil, stimulates the economic cultural and social growth etc, then
you need to design a system that does that.
"Situations where some pupils'
behaviour, history and outlook are valued and others are not would not be a
feature of quality education. This practice would be systematically challenged
and replaced where all pupils would genuinely feel that their culture religion
and background is being properly respected and valued.
"That would then release the
potential of these students in terms of cognitive skills etc That is what I
call quality education, education where you are genuinely valuing the beingness of each pupil, where people are genuinely able to
self-actualise themselves."
When I spoke to Esther about quality
education, she began talking about the quality of the teachers "Then there
was the quality of the lecturers, I didn’t think the standards were that good.
At school as well some teachers were not
as good as others.
BZ:- How did you react to that?
I talked with my friends about them.
BZ:- Did you work for them?
Yes, there was no difference there. It
was OK when they were trying to teach you something but then they would start
off on something else. It was not their ability, it was whether they would stick
to the point. It was a slackness on the part of the teacher."
When I said quality education is about
how you were as person, she said " No I wouldn’t agree with that because
there are two sides to it. It can’t just be about the student. If they are not
delivering properly then you don’t get anything out of it anyway, it can’t just
be about you. If you’re not getting any information or help at all that’s
it." She felt spirituality was "a bit much" and reflection
"would be some form of quality education. Yes there would be a place but
it would take a long time."
There are many different approaches
being offered as to what is quality education, but although these are diverse
they are notable because they do not look into the more inner aspects of what
could be seen as quality as I developed in the literature review. With a system
that disadvantages the interviewees one would have thought there would have
been a radical questioning of the curriculum that created that society. But
this is not the case. The measures that are being asked for are deep and
sweeping by implication, but revolve around measures of human respect rather
than curriculum content. I think this is significant although not in the
context of a strategy for quality education.
Section 5.13 Trust
The issue of trust has been covered in
section 5.11, see explanation there.
During the interviews I discovered that
a number of people discussed various aspects of coping with peers. In my early
sections I had been focussing more on how racism affected the attitude to work
but clearly if students are unsettled because of poor behaviour by their peers,
then this also will have an adverse effect on their studies. In this section I
shall relate these strategies and draw upon them in the conclusion.
How important is this issue? Denise said
"For the first two years in school it did. I'm surprised I didn't have a
breakdown because the first two years of secondary school were the worst two
years of my life. I thinks it's because you have to go through so much rather
than focussing on what you're there for which is to learn. It's the constant
teasing and taunting."
In 3 cases where peer pressure was
discussed, it was because the interviewees had attended white schools and had been
subject to severe attempts at bullying and intimidation by their peers. How did
they respond? They were all forced to turn to violence because the system
failed to protect them.
In Abraham's case "As a black kid
at that time you could face a lot of stick just for being black. But going to a
grammar school you got an extra dose on top. How I managed to come through it
all is amazing.
"I knew people were put down
because of colour. You would see films and see that was happening. You would
say to yourself, if that happened to me this was what I would do. You made a
vow within yourself to deal with it.
"This was how I decided to deal
with it. If someone was bothering me with racist taunts no matter what the odds
I would put up a fight. Right up until 18-19 that was the way I responded,
whether it was 3 guys/four guys I was going to go over and challenge. There was
never a time that I would let them see that because there was more of them that
I would appear to be frightened.
"They must always feel that you will
do enough damage to one of them the rest won’t bother, I got this idea from my
brother."
Denise was being victimised by a
ringleader "In my class there was one particular person who was a constant
problem. What you tend to find in classes is that a person dominates, and in
this class it was this dominant person who was the problem. She felt she could
call me names, get other members of the class to gang up against me, not all
did this but there were a core who did.
"I didn't do anything about it and it
got to the stage where I decided I couldn't do this any more.
In the morning before school I would get a panic attack, or would try to think
of ways that I could get out of going to school.
"Then one day it came to the boil,
and I smacked her head in. We had a fight in the corridor. I won the fight, I'm
happy to say. The school did nothing. We had the fight coming out of the
classroom. The teacher separated us and didn't take it any further. He didn't
realise what was at the root of it so told us to stop and that was it." It
stopped because the situation didn't occur again. Abbey had problems from the
first day. For family reasons she returned a week late to her secondary school,
and her grandmother had given a hairstyle for a present, a hairstyle she wasn't
comfortable with. This boy started saying "Who do you think you are Queen
of the wogs?" She thought what to do so she ignored him. Went to a teacher
who said if you will have such strange hairstyles. The boy said it again so she
punched him. This established a pattern, and gave her a reputation for a
fighter even though she was timid when young. - she would cry rather than
fight.
So 3 people, all who are in established
professions now, were forced into fighting in their school years due to racism.
But the violence that students have to
face in schools today is not the same as this. It is not usually a single black
person being victimised by white peers, it is more a question of ghettoisation, and it is that ghetto violence spilling into
schools. Grace has had to adopt a school survival strategy that is at the
centre of all that she does in order to achieve her qualifications. In terms of
her peers she avoids trouble.
"BZ:- Do you get bullied?
"No, because I will bully
them." In the playground "I keep away. I just go to do my work, I go
to the computer room and type out my work."
"BZ:- When these people come into
the lesson and mess around, you don't talk to them, try to persuade them.
I tell them to shut up.
BZ:- And what happens then?
If they are really surprised at you they
just stop it. But if they know you are going to say it they just carry on but
you just have to keep going.
My way is that if I don't get my way you
are not getting your way back. I have to be stubborn to get my way. If they
don't do it my way they just get bitten."
The question of dealing with peers and
violence is also central to Jackson's strategy for coping with school. When we
discussed a number a leading black world figures he mentioned that he looked up
to Nelson Mandela, when I asked him why he said Nelson Mandela "helped
black people by showing them how to hold their aggression and be more
calm." This is not solely Jason's strategy for dealing with peers.
Coping with peers is an integral part of
school life that I did not deal with in my literature review, and this is why
it is an extra part h ere. In the early days of black isolation and minority
interviewees turned to violence as the only means of coping. The issue of
racism at that time was not necessarily part of teacher education so teachers
were not an option for coping with the problems. Hopefully that is not a
problem now although I worked in a white school in which they told me
"racism is not a problem here" so perhaps there are isolated black
students still experiencing such problems.
But the real issue of coping with peers
are the ways that students have to cope with disruptive students, and here they
need to show a level of determination and maturity far beyond their years. That
is however the purpose of this dissertation, to develop strategies for these
students to cope and rely on their maturity.
Section 5.15 MENTORING
The issue of mentoring came up with a
number of interviewees. I spoke to two people whose jobs were running mentoring
projects, and both take different views on their mentoring projects. Ahmed runs
a project designed to help university students find jobs - formal economy, and
Allen is concerned with mentoring students who are finding it difficult at
school and are finding that they are attracted to drugs and gangs of ghettoisation - informal economy.
Esther sees it as a good idea "I
think mentoring is a good idea. I think it is good for adults but I think it
should definitely be started at school. People going in and talking to the
kids.", and feels that "in retrospect I missed that because there was
no-one to talk to in Crewe, and mentoring makes up for that and is very
important."
Ahmed describes how the mentoring works
at the university level. "Mentoring is a process of supportive learning.
Somebody who has got certain experiences of certain things in the system, and
is willing to share that experience and knowledge with those that don't have
it, thereby increasing their awareness of certain issues.
"The way this particular project
works is that students are just starting their job search process, we are
working from the career services of the universities. They are in their final
year looking for companies who could employ them eg
IT students.
"We make a link with employers and
we get a professional person who would act as a mentor for these students, who
would in turn create these partnerships between the students and the employer.
The student can then go to the employer, sit with them, talk with them, learn
things from them, share their experiences.
"It would break the ice for job
interviews, it is a valuable source of networking.
BZ:- This is why employers would like it
because it avoids the hit and miss aspects of job interviews. Absolutely , it
is two-sided.
"If I quote from the pamphlet
"Benefits to you and your organisation. This is the information pack that
we would give to the employer. In helping our students to interface you will
also benefit you and your employers, interface will help your personal
development by giving you experience of coaching and advising students,
providing you skills that will benefit you in your management role."
A mentor coming say from a solicitor's
firm will gain an ability to talk to these students, increase their coaching
skills, counselling, community awareness and communication.
"Considering problems facing ethnic
minorities mentoring can be an excellent form of racial awareness training, and
there is also a certificate that they can get from it.
"Organisations will benefit firstly
because they will be able to demonstrate their commitment to equal
opportunities".
Allen also sees this as a positive
strategy - "vocational mentoring". He sees it as "looking at the
interface of education and the world of work. With this scheme you are dealing
with relatively successful well-motivated pupils who, because of the nature of
society - unemployment for ethnic minorities etc, do not have contacts with the
world of work that you would expect for such employable students. Therefore you
provide them with contacts through mentors in jobs etc."
But Allen also says "I think the
major advantage for this service is that we started from an American model. In
this country mentoring started at North London college after a member of staff
visited the US and came back with this idea of linking students with achieving
adults, but this was very much defined by mentors having material success. So you
got the suit-and-tie type successful people mentoring.
"Fair enough. I have nothing
against that, all I'm saying is that it limits the definition of success, and
only those children who were already relatively successful in the school system
would actually relate to somebody who says you've got to struggle on and get
your A levels, then you can become a doctor.
"For a number of students the key
issue was not getting A levels, the key issue was stopping getting involved in
no education - zero education. And in some cases, an unhealthy street culture.
And actually getting them to think positively about themselves, and about doing
something!"
So how do you get them to focus on
education and think positively about themselves?
"The key is role models. We try to
find people who are the next step further on of the life path the young person
is on. The key to it was to find role models, mentors, in their early 20's, and
the ones we found most successful were the ones who had failed at school, and
become involved in street culture. In two cases they had quite substantial
criminal records, and had come through the criminal justice system. They
realised that the street culture was a complete waste of time, had gone back to
the school, and said to the students "I am now 5 years on from you and I
think it was a waste of time".
"The key to it was that they had
extraordinary credibility. They weren't saying "Don't do it, I've now
become a respectable suit-and-tie person". They were dressed in the
fashion of the street culture. They knew the kids' parents, they knew their
brothers, one of them even had a reputation that the kids knew. These are the
people who have maximum credibility of the target group.
"The key to the mentoring is to
define the target group, and what is credible from the young person's point of
view, not from our point of view. I may feel a finance director is successful,
but to a young person involved in this sort of sub-culture they are just an old
fart.
"They are sell-outs, Uncle Toms.
They say "My Dad was like that and it never got me anywhere."
"What you need is someone who can
speak the same language, who listens to the same music and who the kids can
relate to.
"What we found very rapidly is that
these people saying "Think about what you're doing, I was involved in this
and it didn't make me feel good. All it's done is bring me the nightmare of
being in prison where you have to face yourself. All it's done for me is put me
back. You don't have to go through this, we understand why you're doing it, we're
not here to judge - no morality. If you follow this path these are the
consequences. You're going to have a short life, you're not going to feel
secure, and you're not going to feel good about yourself."
"These two said you can have a big
car, flashy clothes, but you don't feel good."
Once these role models have spoken to
the students, how does it affect them?
"It is basically and essentially a
motivational project. It's trying to remotivate those
that were thinking either that the goals the school were setting were
unattainable because I'm too far behind, or that they're not socially desirable
because I don't want to be in that system. I can do much better in the
alternative system.
"Remotivating
means getting pupils to think again about their goals in life, and what
personal resources they need to achieve those goals."
But this is not just thinking
academically. " There are a range of things. In that school we had a
number of behavioural goals, you will attend, you will be punctual, coming
equipped with the right equipment for lessons. They may not be academically
achieving but this is the start.
"They are beginning not to get into
the sorts of trouble that brought them to our attention. We spend a lot of time
role-playing a situation where a teacher/adult has said something that makes
you annoyed, and ways that you can respond without getting into trouble.
"But we don't stress academic
improvement initially. Although these students may have attended school for ten
years, maybe they had switched off, and effectively are ten years behind.
"What we look at is what we call
value-added. Someone who may be achieving level zero and then starts to do
something, putting sentences on paper, getting homework in, this is an
achievement.
"It is still useful and important
to have certain social and academic skills life skills, even if they don’t'
follow a qualifications route."
They "very rapidly" put a lid
on discipline problems. Getting these students to behave in schools is a good
start, but are they going to be able to earn a living, bring up children etc ie fulfil what is normally considered an adult life.
About this Allen's answers were not so
clear. One career path was open to his mentors. "In a way our mentors have
crossed over, and that's why they are so good mentors. Our part-time mentors
are getting £15 an hour, and because of the success of the service they are on
the threshold of getting full-time jobs. That is a special case."
However this is not a small area of
employment "This informal economy is beginning to creep, and that's why
you have a government who are seriously beginning to get anxious about whether
it can be contained. In some ways I think it is worse on white working-class
estates, now non-working estates, such as Wythenshawe. With the collapse of the
Labour movement they have no heroes it's depressing." If the government is
worried about the problem extending to white working-class (or non-working)
estates, they might provide funds to help maintain the fabric of mainstream
society. Andy sees this as a possibility with the European Social Fund.
"Through a process of developing projects that can embrace the target
group those projects can start to develop a base for employment, upskilling,
training opportunities, work experience etc. We are looking at developing a
project for working with a community group to get a pool of people (18-25)
initially as volunteers but once they have been trained given counseling skills they will then be able to get part-time
work. We are lucky, we found a good source of funding, the European Social
Fund. The basis of the funding is insertion into the labour market. We are paid
to give advice guidance and direction to enable them to enter into the formal
economy."
But with regards to the students
"you are actually getting people to the stage of being motivated, even to
look towards the world of work. We try to show them that the world of work
provides them with status, self-actualising, worth as a person." In line
with the last point, if there is government money or the European Social Fund
available, as market-driven philosophies do not provide jobs, and if these
students begin to see self-actualising and status in the world of work they
might be able to follow a "normal adult life".
Allen also carries out mentoring at the college
his service is based at, and because he can see both types of mentoring he has
developed a strategy. "We want a continuum, a transmission belt so that
you can lead people along. Some of the pupils we meet in school we hope will be
picked up by the college mentoring service which will then offer much more
vocational advice. What you want is a seamless belt of support!!"
To conclude I think the issue of
mentoring clearly demonstrates a recognition of a two-tiered society. Through a
government containment policy since the uprisings of the early 80's, we have a
township strategy of ghettoisation, dichotomising
into the formal and informal economy. If society is two-tiered then this must
impact on schools and education. This recognition is fundamental to this
dissertation as I hope to demonstrate in the next chapter, and I believe that
strategies such as a dual approach to mentoring need to be integrated into UK
education. If not, the institutionalised containment process, which leads to ghettoisation, will also lead to ghetto schools. This would
be a radical sadness for me because I know there are many people attending
schools in Inner City areas for whom their main purpose in life is just to get
a job - to become part of the formal economy.
This is the final section on the
presentation of findings, and the analysis of these sections will be completed
in chapter 6. Please check the appendices for the full transcripts of the
interviews.
From chapter 2 I developed the following
strategies as a means of black students achieving quality education:
Racism
Awareness Strategy –
To summarise this strategy concerning
racism awareness, it is a movement away from a strong anti-racist approach with
students. Is it essential to continually provide young people with the
continuing burden of the racist reality? Allow these students to learn about
the racism for themselves in private, and then in their adult life. Each
student is different and at different stages in their lives they become aware
of the issue and then need counselling to cope with this. This will come mainly
from the family, but it can also come from educational counsellors. But
teachers have an important role in this. Teachers, in my view, should never
deny the existence of racism, Rampton’s cycle of
disadvantage continues to exist. But is it necessary in a maths lesson to have
a lecture on racism awareness? A sound byte – do not
deny, do not burden but counsel to achieve.
Performance-Oriented
Strategy –
To summarise I propound a strategy of
working harder, paying attention and listening – the performance-oriented
model. At the same time I am asking that the social focus of education be
placed on this approach rather than opening the Pandora’s box of the adult
reality of the experience of racism.
Cultural
Pragmatic Strategy –
To summarise this strategy is a little
difficult, as a sound byte it might be don’t be
cultural be pragmatic. Cultural issues take on an ill-defined form and young
minds cannot always clarify the difference between cultural factors and others.
Work at school to get a job and detach oneself from the cultural aspects and
recognise that working for a capitalist system places compromises on us all.
Examining the implications of assimilation in this context will be a part of
the interview process as well as seeing how much education and its content has
affected the interviewees from a cultural perspective.
Nigrescence
Strategy –
To summarise strategy 4 would be to
encourage counselling using the nigrescence model to help black students
achieve. I will be asking interviewees about its applicability to them.
I am looking for strategies that will
help students achieve quality education. I have suggested that adopting the nigrescence
model together with the performance-oriented model will help achieve quality.
Yet at the same time if black students are alienated by culture or by content
from achieving quality education then they would find it difficult to achieve.
To help with the development of strategy I need to know how people perceive
quality education, whether what is offered at school causes offence or
alienation, and therefore whether they can achieve quality education.
In chapter 3 I
considered what was the best methodology for investigating these strategies,
and from a philosophical point of view the research paradigm that I chose was
qualitative because I was investigating the achievement of quality education. I
then considered how best I should carry out the research in line with this
paradigm and determined that a case study approach would be most appropriate.
In that same section 3.3 I determined how best I could fit in with the emerging
design as an interviewer; to determine the bias I was entering the process with,
I carried out a number of baseline procedures in appendix 3D.
How was I to decide on the interview
process and would it work? I carried out a pilot study and 3 questionnaires,
and then I determined a heuristic plan for the interview process. These are the
findings.
Let me begin by stating categorically
that this was a qualitative study, an investigation through case study
interviews into strategies for overcoming underachievement amongst black
students in UK schools. Because it is an investigation I am not in any way
offering an attempt at proof, although as part of future research such proof
would, I hope, be forthcoming
Connected with the position of
justifying my saying that factors leading to black underachievement continue to
exist (see appendix 1B), there was an interesting dilemma during the interview
process. I began to question whether unwritten premises, based on my work
experience in Brixton and afterwards, that were the background to my literature
review, were actually still applicable. Therefore I introduced a line of
questions to help me establish a framework. Based on these interviews, in
appendix 6A I include a detailed discussion as to how factors leading to racism
in society continue to exist; similarly in appendix 6B I discuss how factors
leading to black underachievement in schools continue to exist. Please refer to
these appendices in detail as they contain excellent testimony, I would have
liked to include them in this chapter but space would not allow.
With regards to what I referred to as
The State of the Struggle I would conclude that conditions of racism in UK
society have changed yet underlying their outward form is an attitude
consistent with that of the early 80s. Significantly there is a change towards ghettoisation, and this is very relevant to my dissertation
as the catchment areas for the schools that have the largest number of black
students will be these ghettoes.
The situation can be summarised with a
quote from Abraham "You’re always going to have racism. There’s always going
to be different people in the world, racism exists in all cultures." When
I said "Not as stark in the UK", he said the following "Probably
a lot starker, they do a lot worse than call names in other places. I was
amazed at what happened in Yugoslavia when these were white people against
white people who happened to have a different religion. And then look at what
happened in Rwanda. "Throughout the ages there has always been pogroms and
God knows what else. It is good to work towards an ideal to eliminate this
racism, and people’s behaviour in certain circumstances will change."
How had the situation changed in
schools? Based on conclusions in appendix 6B I would say that there have been
some significant changes since the early 80s. The school climate appears less
confrontational although there are still aspects of violence. Students have
developed survival strategies, and these developments need to be encouraged, I
will be referring to these strategies later in this chapter. Through the
efforts of many concerned people, there have been improvements with the
employment of more black teachers, less confrontation with students, and more
support from the non-disruptive students. But there is still a culture of
failure. The parents are saying what happened to them will happen to their
kids, senior employers are still not hiring educated black people in the power
professions, there are jobs in the caring professions but very few black people
in big business and in the senior civil service. And the students know this.
But there is a negative change that schools have to cope with, the impacts of ghettoisation, with gang-related issues coming into
schools.
From the point
of view of the dissertation I don't feel that my examination of the school
situation has invalidated my work, except maybe Grace should be writing this
dissertation as she is actually living through the sorts of strategies I am
proposing. Although I had found changes based on the interviews, specifically
an increase in the process of ghettoisation which I
consider significant, these changes did not belie any of the work that I had
done in the Literature Review.
As I was considering underachievement,
in section 2.1 I looked at achievement and motivation, and suggested that
learning was a natural process. Further the lack of motivation, experienced by
many black students, leads to the underachievement and was, in my view, at the
root of it. This lack of motivation came about for many reasons (factors) but
it was not the purpose of this dissertation to analyse those factors, simply to
say that these factors move black students away from the natural process of
learning that some young people slot into. When I discussed
achievement-motivation with my interviewees I found that those who had been
successful had had powerful mindsets that enabled them to cope. For a number
these mindsets had developed from a strong family background, but as I
previously concluded in appendix 5L "it is clear that with ghettoisation the alternative economy provides attractions
that militate against the development of this mindset".
Then in my review I began to examine
different strategies that would hopefully build up to this mindset. I began by
considering racism awareness, was this of benefit to those students who had
achieved? As I stated in section 5.1 "I have not reached a firm
conclusion, I cannot be positive one way or another". This is important
because it would demonstrate that a 100% approach one way or the other is not
appropriate. Students who have gone through the system without a level of
racial consciousness have achieved academic success. Yet at the same time if
that awareness has developed, it should be recognised and supported by using
approaches such as mentoring. One of the early lessons I personally learnt when
overcoming the racism that was part of my upbringing was that black people are
not all the same. I know this is blatantly obvious but in a society that
presents black people as stereotypes this lack of differentiation is a common
failing. I think investigation of this strategy bears this out. For some people
being aware of racism is part of their blood and can only be ignored at the
peril of those that come into contact with them eg
the education system, whereas with others their experience of racism does not
impact very strongly. Imposing awareness on those whose experience is not
strong would be as negative as ignoring those for whom racial consciousness is
a central part of their existence. I would claim that teachers need to be aware
that black people are different and that their consciousness of racism is also
different. I would also claim that my investigation counters the suggestion
that all black people need racism awareness, in my view some of the
interviewees had achieved and were reasonably comfortable with that success
despite not having any form of formal racism awareness education.
Next I looked at what I pompously called
the Performance-Oriented model - try harder, pay attention and listen. I was
concerned about what I call "excuses for failure". Because of racism
and all its consequences there are many excuses that a black person could give
for failing in the UK system, and all would be legitimate. But what use is that
in education, in schools? Educationalists should not want to encourage these
negative excuses but should be promoting positive attitudes. In Section 2.2 I
discussed work by Donna Ford who inadvertently gave me the words for my model -
"try harder, pay attention and listen". She argued that some people
said that all black students had to do was "try harder, pay attention and
listen", and she claimed that that was unfair. Mostly I agree that to
dismiss the problems caused by racism as a lack of attentiveness is unfair, but
I would argue that rather than giving the students the "excuses for
failure" they should in fact be pressed into following the Performance-Oriented
model. As I said in concluding section 5.3 "there is evidence here to
support the Performance-Oriented model", but "nowhere near enough to
ask for that support unconditionally". As I also said in that conclusion,
"I want to say to community activists to tell their young "Try
Harder, Pay Attention and Listen", but I don't quite feel that I have
enough evidence to say that". I think there is sufficient evidence to
doubt the efficacy of the promotion of racism awareness, to promote in the
young the awareness of how the effects of racism will damage their future. But
these are issues that black students might have to come to terms with as they
grow up, and schools with a black population need to have counselling
strategies in place, such as mentoring, for dealing with a growing awareness.
But is it appropriate for all black youngsters to be made aware of all the race
issues at school when they need to concentrate on their studies, ie follow the Performance-Oriented model to try harder, pay
attention and listen?
Next I examined certain cultural
attitudes to consider appropriate strategies for improving motivation. I
considered the attitude that black students are being asked to get jobs in a
white society. For some of the interviewees getting a job was the purpose of education,
and although I don't like this as an educationalist I recognise the pragmatism
involved. And here I can offer no help. As adults we have a duty here to try to
ensure that the job market presents equal opportunities to all. In fact for
those whose school focus is completely on jobs there is a clear anomaly that
can lead to a lack of motivation, and again I have no ideas for this one. If I
go to school to get a job and as a black person I cannot get the job, then why
should I work at school?
However there are parts of this issue
that can be addressed. Why are jobs "white"? Personally I see jobs as
part of the capitalist system, in a black country capitalism is still
capitalism. Those people who label jobs as white are creating a confrontation
with that label, and this cannot help the motivation of black youngsters in
schools. One interviewee worked in black business initiatives. His approach was
to say that there is a business culture (not white jobs - BZ) in the UK, and
that the market is predominantly white as in the UK the white people have most
of the money. If you want to earn money through trading this is a reality that
has to be accepted, mainly white people are going to pay you for your goods or
services. But this is much less confrontational than saying jobs are white, and
I feel it is a strategy that could be encouraged.
With regards to the issues of black
rights and consciousness, as I concluded in section 5.5, "there seems to
be a developing clarity on this issue for me, the place for consciousness is
very much different for each individual. If an individual does become aware,
and that awareness is not fostered within the system then that individual can
become antagonistic. But if that individual does not become aware, pushing such
consciousness-raising might just cause confusion." I remember a poignant
comment from Abbey to the effect that she knew what I meant but she would hate
to advocate a strategy of ignoring race awareness. Being tempered by her
emotive advice is very important as the issue is so sensitive. The whole
question of race awareness in schools needs to be investigated much more
thoroughly than at present. It is my view that the education system takes its
guidance from activists. But are activists the only people to take advice from?
An activist is possibly a person who became racially conscious at school, and
was treated badly because of the school's inability to cope. But does that then
mean that all black students should be given the sort of education that the
activist would have wanted? (I would have liked a socialist education!) At the
same time it was a serious failing on the part of the education system if that
intelligence in the activist was not fostered. The system needs to properly
evaluate how consciousness might grow in a black person using, for example, the
nigrescence model, and not make blanket assumptions about all black people.
Next I looked at assimilation. If I am
presenting strategies that do not focus on race awareness, such as suggesting
students follow the Performance-Oriented model despite the racism in the
system, or suggesting that people accept a business culture with a
predominantly white market - as opposed to seeing that the jobs are white, then
I suspect I will be accused of promoting assimilation. In appendix 5Q I found
that "there appears to be a contradiction in this evidence". Ahmed
suggested that the approach of assimilation is camouflage, and that it was the
intention that counted. Allen felt that anyone who adopted a strategy of assimilation
could never be comfortable with themselves. In the end I felt that the
environment decided the degree of assimilation and the attitude to it,
ultimately it is a personal decision. For some that decision is always open to
question because of their consciousness, for others an assimilationist position
is not recognised because it suits their lifestyle. For our students I would suggest that it
is an issue that again must suit the individual, and is not an issue that all
students need to be aware about.
Asking school students to be conscious of assimilation when they
are not might create conflict, but ignoring a student who is having doubts
about assimilation is equally at fault. Again the school needs to have a
strategy to cope with these eventualities, not ignore the issue nor simply
accepting the activists' blanket consciousness-raising because they don’t have
sufficient knowledge.
In the literature review I looked at the
nigrescence model (section 2.2), and I thought it might well apply to black
students in UK schools. This model turned out to symbolise the dividing line of
the dichotomy that became evident especially when talking of mentoring. Many of
the interviewees did not recognise any aspect of the model as having relevance,
and yet a successful mentoring project for students about to be excluded was
based on the model. With my interviewees I found that the nigrescence model had
an application for those who are developing a race consciousness, who are
becoming aware of the issues they are going to have to face being in a racist
society. Applying mentoring, or some such strategy, using this model as a base,
could be the way of addressing the issues I raised in the conclusion to section
5.7. The importance of the model is that it attempts to recognise the development
of a black child in a white society. I would suggest that it is not a model for
all students, but only those for whom awareness brings them into conflict with
the white system. Race awareness need not be an issue for all black students,
but for those that it is an issue mentoring guided by such a model (as opposed
to vocational mentoring) could be a strategy for schools.
Ford suggested that this nigrescence
model could help gifted black students I found no evidence for or against this
contention, but I feel strongly that there are gifted black students who turn
away from the qualifications-jobs system route of life. For these students
counselling using this model might help them return to the system route,
because this model recognises a developmental path for black people in conflict
with white society, and that conflict need not always turn to the informal
economy and crime. Also I must ask the question as to whether all the students
who turn to the informal economy are doing so as a result of disillusion
because of racism in UK society. As there are white crooks so there are black
crooks! I think the difference here is that some black people turn to crime in
frustration and disillusion at the obstacles placed in front of them by the
racist society.
How you decide on which students to
apply it to is another matter! Somehow the teacher/school needs to recognise
the developing consciousness within their students, and then find a method of
guiding them onto an appropriate mentoring programme. But this needs to happen
at the same time as allowing those who have little interest to dedicate
themselves to their studies.
The next strategies I investigated were
also cultural strategies that Ford thought would help the "gifted black in
identity development". The first one was one that I introduced myself, and
even though I gained no evidence concerning this strategy I still wish to
include it as a possibility. That is the strategy of holding to cultural
strengths. Typical of these strengths is the question of respect for age. In
Western culture there is a dominant youth culture founded upon the
commercialism and consumerism targeted towards the young. Personally I see this
unnatural preoccupation with youth culture as responsible for many of the
problems faced in UK schools. In African and AfroCaribbean
culture within the community there has historically been a respect for age, a
respect demonstrated by politeness to, and compliance with, those who are
older. Unfortunately for many reasons this respect for age does not always
apply outside their own culture ie respect for older
white people. But imagine if it did. Imagine if black people came to school
showing their respect for age ie teachers. At the
same time within these cultures there is a deep respect for education, imagine
if this was also applied in schools. These are cultural values that we should
encourage to resurface despite the cultural conflict with white culture (which
for the majority lacks respect for age and education) that they might bring.
As a possible strategy I raised the
question of racelessness. In this Ford and others were suggesting that black
students needed to negate their race in order to be able to succeed in a white
system. I then suggested that a less confrontational strategy would be to
detach from race ie hold to your identity racial or
otherwise whilst doing what is required to pass the exams and get the
qualifications. The position of racelessness was discussed with some
interviewees, and it was not an issue for them, the need for detachment never
arose. The issue of cultural conflict arose. Older people experienced problems
where in the school curriculum people like Cecil Rhodes and Francis Drake were
presented as heroes, but with the revision of materials that has occurred in
the last 20 years there appears to be a growing tolerance amongst the teachers
especially in the Inner City schools. Unfortunately in the "white"
schools there has not been this transformation as, I have heard some claim,
there is no race problem there. Although in these schools this will not affect
many black students, white students leave school with certain racist values,
and therefore they propagate the racism in society as these students are more
likely to hold positions of power. But one student saw Nelson Mandela as his
hero because the Madiba proposed detachment in the form of "holding
aggression and being more calm"!
The question of role models was
considered important. Even though there are more black leaders than white in
the world, the images presented to black students are pop stars. Not only that
but the material that some of these stars sing about can be very negative
towards academic success in the system, and can also be a problem with lyrics
that encourage sexist exploitation of women. This I see as related to the
general problem of UK isolation and insularity. Rather than focussing on the UK
in education there ought to be a world perspective where the qualities of world
leaders such as Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, and many others are
considered. Instead if the UK looks to finding black role models they look at
the US, in other words black people in conflict, like Martin Luther King,
Angela Davis, Alice Walker or Malcolm X great people but people in conflict.
Teachers as role models were seen as
important by interviewees who attended schools with no black teachers as well
as by the head I interviewed. Here schools could make an effort to educate
students to see the great work done by many black people, but not marginalised
as part of black studies, in the mainstream for all to recognise the
contributions of black people to the world. In section 5.11 I was concerned
about whether students would only work for particular teachers, black teachers.
If this was the case then it was self-defeating because there is no way that
they can achieve success in all subjects by working in one or two. I felt this
was a problem because of academic reference to what I call a superteacher, again it is self-defeating if students expect
that every lesson the teacher will inspire them, that the same teacher will be
a paragon of virtue and that all their teachers will be practising
anti-racists. In this vein Ford referred to a culturally competent educator
(see Ford pp149-150). In my interviews I didn't find any negative reactions ie that the students only worked for black teachers.
However I did find that many said that they worked for teachers that they
trusted. Mostly this idea of trust did not have any characteristics, one person
suggested that the teacher was concerned that the students did well and
understood the work. But there was an intimation in one case that this trust
was based on the teacher not treating her differently because she was the only
black person in the class. I would suggest that that person needed the
confidence to know that the teacher was not a racist in order to work better
for them.
I feel that for black people trust in
their teachers has been undermined in two ways. Firstly for 15 years there has
been a politically-inspired media campaign that has cast doubt on the
professionalism of teachers to the extent that some students even question
teachers' academic ability unnecessarily. But in addition to this community
activists cast doubts about the competence of white teachers to deal with black
students intimating forms of racism. I have no doubts at all that there are
teachers who, being brought up in a racist society, have been unable to remove
all the products of that upbringing but I would maintain that teachers are a
"liberal-minded profession" as the headteacher interviewed put it. If
people the students trust, such as activists in their family, refer to white
teachers as racists then students cannot then trust their teachers and it might
well affect their work.
But students should not be concerned
about the issue of trust, it need only be a bonus. Victorian teachers - the
good old days? - taught and students learned, there was no doubt placed in the
minds of the students. When the students have doubts they cannot concentrate on
their studies. To help black students follow the Performance-Oriented model we
should all work together not to put those doubts in their way. This of course
is not helped by the appalling situation for black students in the 60s and 70s,
and these students are now the parents of the current students.
The last strategy I proposed concerned
what was considered quality education, I was wondering whether what the system
saw as quality education demotivated black students. Surprisingly enough when
you consider how much the education system disadvantages black people, no-one
actually questioned the syllabus content. As I said in concluding section 5.12,
"the measures that are being asked for are deep and sweeping by
implication, but revolve around measures of human respect rather than
curriculum content". I interpret that in terms of the desire for
qualifications, I see this desire combined with the desire for jobs as the
primary motivation. It therefore follows that what is contained in the syllabus
for the qualifications is of little import, and this I see as demotivating.
Abbey used the phrase "cleaning the house" to describe how she saw
school, it was a chore. If there is no intrinsic interest in the subjects
concerned then there can be no motivation for knowledge itself, I see this as a
disadvantage. As an educationalist I do not like seeing a significant minority
of students working on materials they have no interest in. But in this case
there was a firm conclusion, my interviewees were not particularly interested
in quality or quality education but in getting qualifications at all cost.
When I carried out my interviews I
discovered that many interviewees had had to develop strategies for coping with
their peers, an essential strategy if they were going to keep out of trouble.
It was significant that 2 of my interviewees educated in all-white schools had
to resort to violence to cope, a further interviewee also had to resort to
violence simply to be allowed to work. Would you or I have done that? This is
an indication of the power of the mindset needed by black students to cope in
the schools.
But the most significant aspect that
came out from my interviews was mentoring which I barely touched on in the
literature review process. In section 5.15 I examined what the interviewees
discussed concerning the two attitudes I found prevailing on mentoring. In
concluding section 5.15 I said that "through a government containment
policy since the uprisings of the early 80's we have a township strategy of ghettoisation, dichotomising into the formal and informal
economy. If society is two-tiered then this must impact on schools and
education." Throughout this analysis so far I have stressed the need to
recognise the differing needs of different black students, this economic dichotomy
crystallises that difference and could guide us towards a strategy for helping
underachievers.
Mentoring could help those that are
looking for a position in the professions by linking with employers. This has a
two-fold value. Firstly this would help the student who would meet with older
black people who had been successful in society. Secondly employers would get
the opportunity to meet with the black students, and find that they are not the
stereotypes they were brought up to believe. (Please see list of additional
materials in bibliography).
The other issue of mentoring concerns
the mentoring run by Allen attached to the college in Manchester. This is very
important because it considers the nigrescence model. The vocational model at
the university does not address questions of racial identity, it is focussing
on how to find jobs. But many students face issues of racial identity, and the
school system has not really begun to deal with it. I discovered two categories
of students who might be facing issues of racial identity. Firstly there are
students who are being attracted to the informal economy, and Allen felt the
nigrescence model had great application to them. The second category was not
really addressed in the interviews but I feel that there could be gifted
children, as suggested by Ford, who are not focussing on their work because of
a racial identity crisis. I feel the nigrescence model can help by identifying
the stages of this crisis, and show light at the end of the tunnel. (Please check
out list of additional materials in bibliography).
Appendix 6A Baseline Procedure
During the interview process I became
concerned as to whether the problems faced by black people in UK society, which
I have termed the State of the Struggle, had changed since I was in UK schools.
I therefore questioned a number of interviewees concerning this.
I can start with
the paradoxical "they are the same but different". To be realistic
one cannot expect an area as important as race relations to have remained
static through a period spanning 20 years. I started teaching in Brixton in
September 77 and I carried out my interviews in January 98.
Undoubtedly there have been advances,
how can there not have been when so many intelligent people have been active in
the promotion of good relations. Yet at the same from a period spanning 1979 -
1992 there was a government in the UK whose attitude to race relations could at
best be described as ambivalent whilst they fought within their own ranks to
control the extreme right wing, and therefore racist element, in their party.
So despite the clear messages sent out by the uprisings and reports such as Rampton and Swann, they were not necessarily being
supported by the prevailing government will.
But of course on the ground the
pressures of racism were continuing, and on a day-to-day basis individual
people, and students, had to deal with these even if the government were
ambivalent.
"Since the disturbances, and all
respect to those people who made a stand, and with individuals who have kept up
the pressure to do something about black issues, I think society in general has
come to accept that it is multi-racial. And as long as there is no invading
spaces then it is fine. They are prepared to stand next to a black person on
the Tube." This was how Ahmed described the State of the Struggle, but
then he went on to describe how he viewed the black person's progress in
society as Jihad. A Jihad is a holy war but "it's a more conscious war
now. Those individuals who have set themselves goals know that it's a war. They
know that whatever they want to achieve it is going to be a difficult climb and
there will be setbacks. What I perceive is that there are people going on
ahead, to get where they want to get to, and then opening doors for other
people. And that is the kind of Jihad I am talking about." He sees working
in the system as "more manipulative, more tactful. At the end of the day
you have to be cunning these days, it is not of benefit for us to confront, but
kind of move through."
So we have a clear difference here, an
acceptance that there are racial issues to deal with, but that the method of
dealing with it is not confrontation as it was in the early 80s. Using Ahmed's
terms there is a manipulative and cunning Jihad in progress.
But there are positive signs as Ahmed
says "Society has been given incentives and goals to achieve, and in the
main black people are progressing too, but you have to work twice as hard, be
twice as cunning, be twice as manipulative to get ahead."
But how are these changes affecting the
communities? Ahmed says "I don't know whether you saw this in the 80's but
communities are starting to close up. Communities are becoming more protective,
more closed, more individualistic." Allen sees this process of communities
closing-up in a slightly different light:-
"Following the uprisings in the
beginning of the 80's a social strategy of containment was hit upon. Prior to
that in those areas there were all sorts of problems but to some extent the
uprisings were general social frustration. Unemployment was very high. Still
that is the case but the policy of containment means that you police
intensively, and the extra factor is that there has developed a tolerance, an
acceptance, and some people say an encouragement of, an alternative economic
system based on crime and drugs. The main effort of the authorities is to
contain this alternative economic system in certain areas, not to stop it or
eliminate it; you could call it a township strategy.
Within those areas quite openly on the
streets drug-dealing takes place. "I have just had to console a father
whose daughter was shot in the head because she was in the wrong place at the
wrong time in Manchester. The police know the people they know what's going on
but they will claim they don't have the evidence that there is witness
intimidation etc. But basically they accept the ghettoisation
situation developing."
This change to ghettoisation
has important consequences for this dissertation. Although gangs were starting
in the early 80s they had limited impact in the schools. The fact as Allen says
that the students have new role models is very important:-
"What you began to get in the late
80's and 90's is an alternative role-model. Instead of the role models being
from the formal economy, you start to get these role models from the
alternative economy, often promoted by the music etc - the bad guy image. So
the youngster is presented with two alternative paths to success, material
success by working hard and getting qualifications and if you're very lucky and
survive discrimination in 15 -20 years you might reach the level of earning
£20000 a year. On the other hand you can get several thousand pounds a week
immediately by following this other track. You may not live for very long but
for a young person this is very attractive."
In line with this principle of ghettoisation issues of race have become more invisible. In
the media as Denise says " Programmes such as "Black on Black",
"Ebony" have disappeared." Yet she feels that the media can
still be racist "Recently there have been refugees in Kent, and there has
been an awful lot of racist coverage as a result of that. These sorts of things
are they are coming to take our jobs, get benefits, they are lazy. Shopkeepers
have not allowed them in because of theft. It is still there." There has
been focus in the media because of the work done by the CRE, but she feels that
the CRE "spent time publicising some of these issues. And without this
there would be no coverage."
"Hostility was on the streets in
1981" says Ahmed, now "that hostility is there but it is turning to
apathy towards getting into the mainstream, jobs and education." So as far
as mainstream society is concerned the problem has become invisible. Instead of
uprisings on the street and regular racial violence, the problem is now
ghettoised and concerned with gangs and money from drugs. As Allen called it
"a township strategy".
But the violence is still there. Denise
told me "I certainly think that's actually changed. It's there but it's
not on the surface. To come to work I would take the train. You used to get odd
looks, or someone would make reference to being black or they don't like
chocolate. Things like that certainly stopped."
But she said
"If you go into the Arndale centre in Manchester and see groups of young
black people you can still tell from their body language that they want their
own space." However aspects of society are changing towards violence.
Abraham amongst others coped with racism by fighting back but he feels that
"Society is changing, and the impression that I get is that it is not acceptable
now to go out and deal with it with your brothers." He never supported
that violence but found it necessary as did others, but now society has taken
away that recourse!
But what about the social issues?
Employment, housing and the police.
Concerning employment Denise says
"I think employment is better. 10-15 years ago there was a problem getting
black people in certain organisations, local authorities for example, and
various private sector organisations. Now you find that the problem is now promotion
or having equal access to training. So you can see a shift there." When
asked whether she thought Equal Opportunities policies had anything to do with
this she said she thought they did. "When ads have this authority is an
equal opportunity employer it has encouraged people to apply, and that is why
they are now within those organisations. But I am not sure what the problem is
about getting people in higher positions.
"There are very few black
individuals in the civil service, and even fewer at the higher executive levels
- very very few if any." It is, of course,
significant that there are not black people in positions of power - an
exclusion.
With regards to housing she says
"There has been change because of European and other funding, and they
have been able to use a lot of that money to improve the housing in Inner City
areas. But it doesn't mean that the composition of those areas has necessarily
changed." When asked whether the quality has changed but they are still
black ghettoes she said "Yes to a certain extent".
For many people police action such as
Swamp in Brixton was seen as one of the main causes of the uprisings in 1981.
Had the police changed? Denise said "There has been an improvement. The
improvement in the police has been significant over the last 10 years. It's the
fact that they have accepted there is a problem and they have attempted to do
something about it. It may not be the right thing in the eyes of the community
but they have attempted to do something. Racial awareness courses, recruiting
more black people, looking at procedures, looking at ways they interact with
communities. Some positive things have come out on that. But there is still a
lot of work to be done." What about business? In Appendix 6C on Business
Interactions I have detailed two interactions from my interview with Abraham
which show how difficult it still is for black business to compete. Firstly
there is the clear reticence on the part of the Manchester Council to support a
proposal for the African-Caribbean centre in Hulme and Moss Side. They claimed
it was a costing problem, clearly Antony feels that it was because the plan was
for the centre to be black-run - after all the costing was done by professional
and reputed mainstream accountants. Secondly he highlights efforts at getting
bank support for black business that failed.
In the early 80s business finance was
clearly a problem, that appears not to have changed. But even the funding
agencies place impossible constraints on the success of the business plans.
Quoting Abraham, "The racism now is not coming out in forms such as
calling you a nigger it’s coming out in forms of exclusion. When you go for
funding you might need £30,000; they will let you have £5-10,000 so you can
never do it properly. And there are so many situations where this
happens."
Abraham sees this as a wider problem
where black people are being excluded. As he says "I remember in the
apartheid years there used to be a law banning more than two black people
meeting at a time. But getting into this kind of work I have noticed that when
I go to meetings about the African-Caribbean community say with the City
Council, most of the officers will be white. Yet they are trying to address the
African-Caribbean area. You would expect these committees would have a high
proportion of African-Caribbean people to deal with their issues. But it is
usually just one of two. It then came to mind that the reason in apartheid that
they were banned is that once they started getting together you become a group
you have a bit of power, and be more effective.
"Nowadays
they don’t say it’s apartheid or that we deliberately restrict your number to
two, but it just happens that way. It then just happens that you don’t really
advance as a group, it just happens."
This exclusion is a subtle form of
apartheid, he recalled "I look at Lord Tebbitt,
Bernard Manning, they come form a particular period,
and when you look at younger people they don’t have the same approach. I can
see that there are younger people with a similar kind of mindset, a bulldog
mindset, but I think that is phasing out. But you still get the situation in
society where there is so much deprivation and you wonder who is in control -
Tony Blair, William Haig, and yet you still have that deprivation. Something is
going on but it seems to be going on in a more subtle way."
To wind up this appendix I would
conclude that conditions of racism in UK society have changed yet underlying
their outward form is an attitude consistent with that of the early 80s.
Significantly there is a change towards ghettoisation,
and this is very relevant to my dissertation as the catchment areas for the
schools that have the largest number of black students will be these ghettoes.
I will finish with a quote from Abraham
"You’re always going to have racism. There’s always going to be different
people in the world, racism exists in all cultures." When I said "Not
as stark in the UK", he said the following "Probably a lot starker,
they do a lot worse than call names in other places. I was amazed at what
happened in Yugoslavia when these were white people against white people who
happened to have a different religion. And then look at what happened in
Rwanda.
Throughout the ages there has always
been pogroms and God knows what else. It is good to work towards an ideal to
eliminate this racism, and people’s behaviour in certain circumstances will
change."
I want now to consider whether
conditions in schools have changed. To do this I visited what my teacher friend
confirmed could be described as an Inner City school in South London. I spoke
to the headteacher, my friend - a teacher there, and two students Grace and
Jackson.
Basically I consider that where I taught
in Brixton it was impossible to teach, and teaching in Hove later was little
better. In order to be able to teach effectively the students have to come to
lessons to learn, and for the majority of cases this was not true. Because
their standards had been withered down by time in the system the teachers' expectations
were low in both schools.
However in Brixton there was the added
dimensions of racial interaction, and therefore the lowering of standards and
expectations.
With the prevailing standards it is my
view that students needed to be personally equipped to cope, by being able to
be single-minded enough to succeed. This was easier in Hove where the top class
maintained the standards required to pass GCSE's, but it was not so easy in
Brixton as even the top classes had discipline problems.
My first impression of this Inner City
school was that the conflict was much less than when I taught in Brixton, as
with society in general it was there but not so visible.
Let me begin by examining the discipline
within this school. My friend talks about the beginning of a typical lesson:-
"Children would line up outside the classroom, being quite difficult to
settle, not allowing any child into the lesson until they are absolutely
settled and quiet, standing in line, knowing full well the consequences of
letting them in if they are not settled.
Often having to
take 5-10 minutes before a lesson begins, just to get it absolutely as you want
it before you are ready to speak. Often you would have to send one child out of
a group of 20 to get the rest of the students motivated.
Occasionally I would have a
confrontation, maybe 1 in 10 lessons where a child refuses outright to do as I
say and they have to be removed.
Generally speaking the children are
challenging but they are interesting to teach once you get them thinking on your
terms.
In the classroom if I want to avoid
incidents of pushing shoving cussing violence and sometimes punching I have to
make sure they don't get out of their seats at any time without asking. I have
to monitor them that strictly. "
How does this fit in with the way the
students see it? I asked Grace if she would come into the lesson, sit down, get
her books out and wait for me to start?
She told me "No. I would talk to my
friends first. If they were in different classes I would ask them how was the lesson?
If I had a book from them I would return it and so on." Remember I
consider Grace to be a well-motivated student.
Our discussion concerning this continued
as follows:-
"BZ I have heard that Nigerian
families are very keen on education
Grace:- Very
BZ:-They would
not be happy about what you just said, would they?
Grace:- It's not
like I'm talking a long time, it would be quick.
BZ:- Do you think if you did do what I
said?
Grace:-It would be boring.
BZ:-Yes it would be boring, but would
you be able to do it in terms of classroom discipline?
Grace:-Yes I would. That's what I was
brought up to do.
BZ:-But would the influences around you
allow you to do this?
Grace:-They would stop me. They would
ask questions and you can't just ignore them. They would ask how you are
feeling. Are you happy, OK? If you are really happy you just have to explain to
them, or you have to tell them you don't need to know about that. And you can
ask to be left alone? BZ:-They will leave you alone?
Grace:-Yes"
When I spoke to Jackson this is how our
interaction went about the same issue.
"BZ:-I'm the teacher and I've just
come into the room, where would you be?
Jackson:-I would be sat down with my
books out ready to start lessons.
BZ:-Do you get involved with talking at
the beginning of lessons?
Jackson:-Yes I do sometimes.
BZ:-Is that because you choose to?
Jackson:-I would not be talking I would
be discussing the work. Did you do your homework etc?
BZ:-Would you be talking if I was ready
to start teaching? Jackson:-No
BZ:-Do you think your friends are like
that?
Jackson-I have a few different friends.
Sometimes they will start talking and they will start talking to me and I will
be doing my work at the same time.
BZ:-Can you tell them to get lost?
Jackson:-I am used to talking and
working at the same time.
BZ:-Do you think you are concentrating
as well as you could do?
Jackson:-Not
really but I think I concentrate well enough to get through. BZ:-But you are
not using a 100% of your mind ?
Jackson:-No
BZ:-If these guys are talking at you,
then you throw in a bit here and there to keep them off your back. Do they
disrupt the lessons do you think?
Jackson:-Not disrupt. When they are
talking they are not loudly talking but talking amongst themselves."
Although this is not totally apparent
from these interactions I see a picture coming out. This is a picture of a
lesson where the teacher is wasting time at the beginning of the lesson
disciplining the class. Even the good students participate in this form of
minor disruption. Throughout the lesson there is a level of talking and working
but how much of each cannot be clear but it is quite clear from what Jackson
said that they were not talking about work.
Personally I consider this a halfway
attitude to education, there is not the level of commitment to study required
for proper academic success. But what has been described so far would not have
been different for Hove or Brixton; in other words I have not yet begun to
consider Inner City factors.
The biggest problem that I faced in
Brixton was that in every class there was at least one student and usually 3 or
4 students who came to that classroom with the particular attitude of
disruption - serious confrontational disruption. As Andy said when the schools
were coming to his service "Schools are interested because even half a
dozen students with behavioural problems can have a dramatic impact on the
school."
This, of course, leads to expulsions. As
Denise says "Exactly, that's why I can understand why so many black males
get expelled from school. Things have actually got worse and there are more
things that young people have to deal with." I will look later at why she
thinks they have got worse.
My views on expulsions are very clear. I
know statistically the expulsions appear racist ie a
higher proportion of black expulsions than black students, and I also know that
it is with difficult black students that teachers' racism surfaces. But how do
you teach with these people in the classroom? How can you expect homework
standards from students whose life in the classroom is an extension of street
life? How can you expect students to learn if when you teach they do not listen
and then you are expected to explain what you have just explained to half the
class who were talking about the street when you were explaining.
This occurred for me in Hove and Brixton
but in Inner City schools there is the level of disruption to consider. As my
friend said "I have been accused of being racist many times by kids who
have been dissatisfied with the way they have been treated. Black boys usually.
I can't, I can't remember. There have been occasions where there's been a
dispute you'll be accused of racism if you are giving too much attention to one
group - which maybe Turkish or white children. It's not because of anything I'd
done." My friend got defensive here but I know it wasn't anything he'd
done.
In other words in a legitimate teaching
situation in which my friend was trying to get people to work, race became an
excuse on the part of the students. Let me be clear about this statement.
Although there are occasions where teachers are racist, the level of racism
exhibited by teachers is minimal compared to other groups in society. As the
headteacher said "That again comes down to teachers being a group of
liberal-minded people in general terms, and will accept people for their value
as people, as academics regardless of the colour of the skin or where they come
from. That's something about academia."
But let me also be clear, I am not condemning
the students as "having chips on their shoulders" either, because the
system continues to be racist. Look at what the headteacher says about Ofsted,
the organisation that is supposed to evaluate the quality of the teaching
service:- "The greatest quote that has ever been made in education in the
last 12 years is that all Ofsted has done is show where the white middle-class
boys live. It' so true. If you are in a predominantly white area then Ofsted
walks in, you've got your 50-60% A to C, and you're doing reasonably well.
But if you start getting complicated
issues like Inner City schools where you've got a mix of cultures, a mix of
society, things aren't going to be happening right because you're only getting
20% A to C.
The whole attitude from Ofsted is that
Inner City schools in general terms don't get good reports, it's an awful shame
because the schools do an awful lot of good work.
You can't excuse bad schools, you can't
excuse bad teaching, but someone has got to turn round at some stage and say
look this is a different proposition to Hove.
A classic example is that we have 13
kids coming into Year 11 now who can't speak a word of English, not a single
word of English, refugees coming from old Yugoslavia .
They will count against GCSE results.
No-one will say we've done a really good job getting them into society, of
bringing them on. It is not an issue that they are not intelligent, it is the
fact they have to learn this English. But they are coming to a school that is
being slammed because it is not achieving the same results as schools with all
the benefits.
There are bad schools. There are bad
schools getting 70-80% A to C, and there are good schools getting 20%. Unfortunately
the system we've got doesn't account for that. You're really good if you are
getting 70-80% and you must be doing something wrong if you are getting
20%."
Although teaching is a liberal-minded
profession, it is a profession within a society that is racist, sadly the
students and those liberal-minded profession is at the front end of the racist
division.
So how does this racial tension show in
terms of disruption of lessons? My friend told me " It's on the decrease
fortunately in our school but we do have a lot of violence. Much more than
people actually know, I think. An awful lot of intimidation.
BZ:- Would you say it was violence in
the playground?
Violence in the playground, violence in
the corridors, sometimes violence in the classroom, occasionally in assembly.
Towards teachers, towards students it goes on everywhere in our school.
BZ:- Are there fights in the playground?
Regularly. Once a day.
BZ:-The corridor?
"I witnessed something 9 months
ago, I haven't seen anything quite like it since. A year 9 student was just
outside the computer room, it was an unmanned corridor. I'd just arrived at the
top of the stairs looking for a teacher, and about 7 or 8 children attacked him
like fun. It's called rushing. I don't know whether it's something that's
always gone on.
"Rushing means a group of friends
decide someone is out of order, and they will all physically rush them punch
them and kick them. It might be over in two or three seconds but that child
really hurts.
"I have witnessed it twice in
school, once in a classroom, but in more of a play situation with older students
and it really did concern me because of the size of the children. Fortunately
that one was between friends.
"But the first time was more
serious, and the child was in a lot of pain afterwards. I did my best to
discipline the children concerned but I didn't know all the faces involved, and
there is very much a secrecy between the children - they have loyalties to each
other."
How do the students view the violence?
This is part of the interview with Grace.
"BZ:- Is there trouble around the
school at times?
Grace:- I don't
see it personally but I hear about it from the headmaster.
BZ:- It's not
too visible.
Grace:-Yes
BZ:- And in the playground?
Grace:-I keep away. I just go to do my
work, I go to the computer room and type out my work.
BZ:-Basically if you are serious you can
divorce yourself from all the rubbish that can happen in the school
Grace:- Yes"
I see this as supporting my friend's
contention that there is violence, but I also see it very positively for the
way that Grace single-mindedly copes.
But also check this from my friend:-
"The discipline has changed
recently. A previous headteacher had let things go, and there was a
well-recognised gang problem in the school. The gangs tended to be groups of
black males in the older year groups terrorising and extorting money out of
some of the younger children. That has pretty much been disbanded since the new
headmaster came along.
Certain things have improved - graffiti
is hard to find now. Graffiti on desks will go on in any school, but the
graffiti that was all over windows, teachers' desks, teachers' work, the type
of stuff that used to go on is very rare now." Here I wanted to highlight
two points. Firstly that ghettoisation has an impact
on gangs in the schools, and secondly how important it is for the headmaster or
administration to confront or try to deal with the problems.
Let me highlight this by comparing two
incidents that my friend recounted. "A member of staff had their nose
broken 7 weeks ago. They were hospitalised for an afternoon and they were off
school about two weeks after that. "She's now back in school, and the
child was expelled immediately.
"I also
know of an incident that happened a couple of years ago that happened to a
friend of mine. He always refers back to it because he received very poor
support from the administration at the time. He was kicked in the balls by a
student who was very young, while he was trying to discipline the student.
Literally the student walked up to him
and kneed him in the bollocks, and the administration didn't expel or even
suspend the child. It was just a detention and that was forgotten about."
My friend said that you can see that the teacher feels angry about it. Which
part of the PGCE course teaches you to defend yourself from being kneed in the
bollocks?
This is the sort of school violence that
I associate with teaching in Brixton in the early 80s. When the students there
are disruptive it is the extremes they will go to. In Hove some of the students
could be rude and arrogant but this level of violence was not something the
teachers there had to contend with.
But there have been positive changes,
the majority of students are reported as being much more positive than in my
time in Brixton. My friend described this as follows:"BZ:-
Do they come to school to work?
They come to school to fulfil that
teacher's expectation at that school, and that is work for 99% of the teachers
there. That is work, yes.
In a typical class if there were not other factors prevailing on them 60% of that class
would actually come in and do what the teacher tells them.
BZ:- 60%?
Absolutely,
maybe more. We've got good children in our school, quite a lot." How do
the students see this? Read this interaction with Grace.
"Grace:- My way is that if I don't
get my way you are not getting your way back. I have to be stubborn to get my
way. If they don't do it my way they just get bitten.
BZ:- Is your attitude in the majority?
Yes I would say that.
BZ:- Why do these people have an impact,
if the majority like you tell them to shut up?
They get scared of you and when you tell
them shut up they shut up.
BZ:-But they still disrupt?
Yes they do but they only ….
BZ:- Only a bit?
When you tell them shut up they kick you
down. They tell you another puppy can't rule, and they just start doing the
same thing. But if you get tired of it you tell the teacher that they are
disrupting the lesson, send them out.
And the teacher can send them to the
head."
BZ:- You find there are a number of
students who are cooperating with the teacher to make it better.
Yes"
Grace is saying that the majority are
asking for good discipline, and this supports what my friend said. But it also
shows a major shift from my time teaching in Brixton. At that time teachers
were Babylon, Babylon was also the term used for the police. Both teachers and
police were seen as the enemy of black people. Now Grace is saying that the
majority of students want to help the teachers control the disruption. This
points to some of the students having learned "strategies for achieving
quality education", and that the climate is perhaps better for that. But I
remember there were some students who could work through anything in Brixton,
they had their own strategies, but the sadness is that even with some better
attitudes the disruptive element can still bring a school down. That is not an
individual problem, hence my support for expulsions despite the fact that
expulsions amount to an institutionally racist practice as there are a
relatively higher proportion of black students expelled. The headteacher also
discusses some interesting changes. In Appendix 6D entitled Back to Jamaica the
headteacher describes how he deals with parents who want to send their
disruptive children back to Jamaica. He rejects it as a strategy as he
considers these students as South London kids. Although this could be a
strategy to help in terms of my dissertation, I accept his arguments and do not
include it.
He sees the attitude of the parents as a
problem. "What we are also getting now from a sociological perspective is
that the African-Caribbean are second-third generation. Their parents didn't
have a fair crack of the whip. When they arrived from Africa or the Caribbean
they were going through the system in the late 60s and early 70s, and that was
a time when they were having a very rough time from the education system. So
the parents' perceptions is that they don't expect their children to be treated
any differently."
"We've gone a long way, I believe,
in society in general to being far more accepting. I was in secondary school
back in the late 60s early 70s, I can remember racism was a very big issue. It
was definitely something that affected children's education in general. Those
issues haven't gone away but they are certainly more manageable and society is
far more accepting of groupings now."
He certainly perceives the situation as
being a lot better. There is one factor that he sees is particularly
important:-
"We are getting those good quality
teachers coming through, and the problem is that you can't deliberately employ
x black teachers, and say that every teacher we employ will be black. The
primary objective in any school is to provide the best quality education, and
if that is provided by a white teacher or a black teacher is in a way academic.
This is why I say that we have been very lucky, because we have been able to
say that every teacher, black or white, that we have appointed has been the
best person for the job. The luck aspect is that the people who have come in
head and shoulders above the others have also been from the African-Caribbean
community, and are providing a tremendous boost to the school.
If I refer back to what I was saying
earlier "black kids fail don't they?" It is quite obvious that no
they don't because you can look at the teachers, and in many cases are the best
teachers in the school. They can't use this excuse and the psychology is
blasted out of the window."
He sees the issue as a sociological and
psychological problem. Although the parents are bringing the negativity of
their own educational experience and although black students expect to fail, he
sees the importance of black teacher role models as a very positive step.
But one factor that was always important
when I was in Brixton and that was the job situation. The headteacher says
"They simply don't succeed when they come out. And that, to my mind, is
where the crux is. Getting them through university is one issue but getting
them into the professions is completely different." So that hasn't
changed.
So what about the ghettoisation
impact? The headteacher says "They become involved in the street culture
that perceives education as a very low priority." And what is more
frightening is something Denise said to me "You hear horror stories about
young blacks taking guns into schools, and that is because they have got
involved in gangs and got access to firearms. They think it is macho to take
the gun and show it to their friends. I know parents whose kids have
experienced friends taking guns into schools without the teachers actually
knowing. I'm not saying it's rife but it has happened."
To wind up this appendix I would say
that there have been some significant changes since the early 80s. The school
climate appears less confrontational although there are still aspects of
violence. Students have developed survival strategies, and these developments
need to be encouraged, I referred to these strategies in chapter 6 Analysis of
Findings. Through the efforts of many concerned people, there have been
improvements with positive black teachers, less confrontation, and more support
from the no-disruptive students. But there is still a culture of failure. The
parents are saying what happened to them will happen to their kids, the
employers are still not hiring educated black people in the power professions,
there are jobs in the caring professions but very few black people in big
business and in the senior civil service. And the students know this. But there
is a negative change that schools have to cope with, the impacts of ghettoisation, with gang-related issues coming into
schools.
From the point of view of the
dissertation I don't feel that my examination of the school situation has
invalidated my work, except maybe Grace should be writing this dissertation as
she is actually living through the sorts of strategies I am proposing. She will
be back!
During my interview with Abraham, he gave
me two examples of how difficult it still is to promote black business. The
first example is the interaction concerning the African-Caribbean centre:-
"This regeneration programme on the
map behind you. It shows how they plan to redevelop the new Hulme. They are
replacing the old district centre which used to have an African-Caribbean
business section, and lots of African-Caribbean people used to come from around
the region to do their shopping. Within that development the City Council
decided that because the area was populated by a large number of
African-Caribbean people they would replace the old business section with a new
High Street which reflected this.
We wanted to promote something that
could be upmarket that people could take pride in, some way in which we could
celebrate our presence in Manchester, show that we contribute economically and
socially.
So we came up with this innovative
proposal for this African-Caribbean centre. We had been working on this for
five years, and we have just had the most amazing setback with the proposal. We
feel that it is purely because it is African-Caribbean led, and that they don’t
want us to have that amount of economic power.
We were proposing a black management
team, a lot of the businesses would be black, so there would be a concentration
of black power. To use that phrase probably sends chills down their spines even
though they were probably in nappies at that time.
Our perception is that they don’t want
them to congregate and concentrate in that way.
We had the meeting yesterday, and they
will now come forward with a number of options but the original vision that we
portrayed was rejected.
And this was a vision that they asked
you to look into?
This was a vision that they asked us to
present. It’s a story in itself. We proposed an £8 ½ million shopping
development, there’s leisure facilities, retail facilities, managed workspace,
carnival centre - we’ve had a carnival here for 27 years. We saw what happened
in Notting Hill so why can’t our carnival grow, and be an asset and help change
perceptions that people have of the area. We really pulled a professional team
together, and I think it frightened them because they are not used to seeing
such organisation in the African-Caribbean community.
We got the biggest managers of shopping
developers in the UK, Donaldson’s, to work with us in developing the package
with a team of architects, surveyors and the rest of it - who we persuaded to
donate their time. We put this massive report together on what we wanted to do.
BZ Was it the cost?
They say they don’t think it’s
financially sustainable.
BZ Do they mean that there isn’t the
money in the community?
No. They mean that the financial plan
isn’t viable.
BZ Are they saying it’s not costed
properly?
Yes that’s the kind of argument that
they are putting forward, but we were well aware that in this situation when
they ask you to put forward your vision you can’t expect that everything will
be perfect at this stage.
What you do is you put forward your
proposal of £8 ½ million, and you get some feedback on the financial
propositions you have made. In these situations it’s normal to expect that if
they are going to put in a report for a grant to redevelop the area, and that
they have been working with you on a project for such a length of time they
will include an estimate in their grant applications to central government.
But lo and behold it doesn’t materialise
in these proposals.
Then we get the European Redevelopment
Fund coming along saying let us have your action plan as to how you are going
to develop the area. We have had this 5 year discussion about consultancy
reports and feasibility studies and God knows what, the action plan goes in but
……"
Secondly he tells me about interaction
with the Bank of England to help make black businesses creditworthy:-
"BZ In the early 80’s there was a
proposal for an African-Caribbean bank.
African-Caribbean people put their money
in this bank so that they can lend to African-Caribbean people. Are the banks
amenable to lending money to black business ideas?"
It’s still very bad, we have a report
that will show that. One of the things we did within the Federation was in ’95.
There’s a regional agent for the Bank of England, and we invited him down to
the Federation. We told him about the problems that businesses were
experiencing. They have this guarantee scheme for small businesses so that
although they might have a good business plan they might not have the security
to back it up. Often the banks ask for a house, some capital and all the rest
of it. The government says that where there is a plan but they don’t have the
backup we will guarantee the proposition up to 75%. Banks usually look for
guarantees for 75% of the finance to be secured, so with the government
security it makes the proposition a potential goer. Given that a lot of
African-Caribbean people won’t have the necessary capital or the houses, this
was an ideal way in, but there are no applications coming through or being
successful.
So we spoke to
the regional agent of the Bank of England about this, and he was very
supportive of the things we were saying. He communicated with the government.
This is a major regeneration area with 100s of millions of pounds being spent,
and being a flagship scheme that Michael Heseltine commissioned. Hulme was
benefiting from a lot of attention so they wanted to see if they could create
the economic circumstances to allow it to regenerate.
The regional agent called together
people from other banks, Lloyd’s, Barclays, Royal Bank. We brought them all down
and they met with local businesses and enterprises, and told them of our
experience and problem we faced with finance. Businesses all reported that they
were still having problems even though they had well-documented business plans.
We knew of a study being conducted by
the university of Central England so that they wouldn’t be arguing with us but
with university professors. You know they are going to be dismissive of what
black people are going to be saying anyway, let alone those with a low economic
base.
We thought we would use the academics,
and we will sit there as spectators. The academics were examining black
businesses, we had helped them identify a number in our area. Their studies
showed the problems we were having.
Barclays came with a £100,000 under our
control but they said that was conditional on other banks coming in and putting
up the same money. Only Barclays came forward.
But they went ahead anyway, and the
businesses are still running, and have got the finance and we’ve had some
success come out of that but it would have been nice if all five had come up
with the money."
In my interview with the headmaster we
spent a good deal of time discussing the question of sending students back to
the more disciplined environment of Jamaican education. Let me present that
interaction for you:-
"If you do a comparison between the
English education system and Jamaica, corporal punishment is an integral part
of their education system. One of the big threats that families here use is to
send the students back to do a spell in a Jamaican school.
That is of course a doubl
e-edged sword. The family like it but the kid then comes back and rebels
completely against them. It just doesn't work because the society they are
working in does not go round beating children. They then go and spend a spell
in a society where they do, and they come back not reformed but simply more
rebellious than when they went out. It is seen as more of a sentence than
something that is useful.
I try to counsel a lot of parents
against doing that but a lot of parents are very keen. It is something a lot of
our parents do, they send the kids back for something like 6 months.
I've been here two years and I've had
6-8 families who have done that. And it's been a disaster.
BZ:- Because they come back and they are
worse?
Usually the scenario is that the
students are pushing an exclusion, a permanent exclusion, and the parents will
have been in constant contact with us. They will come into meetings to discuss their
child's progress, what their child has done wrong, what the school is going to
do to try and help the situation, and how close they are to permanent
exclusion.
And out of desperation that is one of
the options they do use, they will send them back to Jamaica into a much
stricter system and they will be fine. But they don't, they come back more
rebellious than when they went out. It is seen as a punishment rather than a
cure.
A lot of parents think sending them back
to Jamaica will help.
Basically what you are doing is taking a
South London kid. Whatever you say about these kids, their background is
Jamaican, their family roots are
Jamaican, their grandparents maybe
Jamaican but these kids in their psyche are South London kids. The fact that
they are black is academic, what they are is South London kids. If you uproot a
South London kid with all the things they've done, the primary school, all
their friends, and the way they perceive society, and you go and uproot them
thousands of miles back to a totally different way of looking at education it
is just trouble.
BZ:- They are desperate, aren't they?
They are desperate but I think they
don't quite realise in a lot of ways how anglophiled
the kids become. Any family that makes the choice to move to another country
have got definite roots whether you're Irish, Polish, West Indian, Jamaican,
whatever. But if you have then gone through two generations who have primarily
only known South London, and then pluck this kid out of South London and all
that means, and put them back into another system, I would have thought it was
quite obvious what would happen.
BZ:- Especially if it is such a short
period of time, if it was longer?
But it's the object. The object is to
bring them back into our society, it doesn't work; it's got to work in the
system they're in. They are black South London kids but I would suggest there
are more problem uprooting a South London kid and putting them in Kingston,
Jamaica.
If you say for 5 years then they become
Jamaican. That does not necessarily mean that you are going to be able to
uproot them from Jamaica and put them back in South London, and you are back
where you started."
I am of the mind that many of the black
youngsters who gave problems at the
Brixton school were lacking a disciplined
approach in the school environment. But the main issue for me at the time was
not simply that those students needed stricter discipline but that they didn't
trust the school or the teachers. These teachers were Babylon, they were white,
they were the students' enemies. I use the stick on occasions here in Botswana
where the stick is accepted. If the students object to the use of the stick I
simply ask them if they are refusing. If they say yes they know that they are
likely to be beaten more severely by the administration that I report them to.
But there is a trust and acceptance of corporal punishment, it is part of their
upbringing.
In Brixton the use of the stick would
have been absolutely impossible, those students would not have accepted a white
person carrying out the punishment. So although discipline was the answer,
corporal punishment was not. And now it is banned.
Apart from emotive desperation what
could they hope to achieve by sending them back to Jamaica. It was always my
understanding that students were well-behaved at home even in the early 80s.
The problem was that they knew they had to behave at home so they saved the bad
behaviour for the streets and the school. There were a number of times I met
parents who would tell me they behaved well at home.
How would this change in Jamaica? In
Jamaica I understand that the teacher is given greater standing in the
community beyond the school gates. It was my understanding that the teacher
could chastise students on the street, and the students would be respectful. In
Brixton the students were often respectful on the street but I never felt in a
position to chastise them. The society is completely different. Therefore I
would expect a student to behave in school, on the streets and at home. But if they
ran away? Parts of Kingston, I believe, are quite notorious.
How would they behave on return? The
school and the streets would still lack the discipline so the situation would
be no different, except the student would be resentful and unable to take it
out on her/his parents would take it out on the school.
In this cursory analysis I would support
the headmaster and have not included this as a strategy for achieving quality
education.
I put this issue to Jackson "BZ:-
If you mess about and your parents said that they are going to send you back to
the Caribbean you would say what are you doing that for?
Yes, right."
Chapter
7 CONCLUSION
of FINDINGS
What was reinforced so strongly for me
by the interview process was the incredible power of the mindset required by
black students to cope with UK schools. In line with this, I have attempted
throughout the dissertation to develop strategies to build this mindset.
What further became clear to me is that
the system fails to differentiate sufficiently between different types of black
students. Do all students require or desire race awareness or black
consciousness? Is it desirable that all students be educated into "black
consciousness"? My answer to this is an emphatic NO at school, but
equally emphatically the system needs to make more provision for those students that do
require it. I would suggest a new skill for the superteacher
and that is the ability to recognise students whose personal development has led them into
black consciousness. If those aware students are not given adequate
counselling, through mentoring possibly, then they might well drop into the
informal economy.
This question of the informal economy
has become a serious issue for UK education. Through government containment
strategies a process of UK ghettoisation has made an
earnest start, and this must have an impact on black students in Inner City
schools. Compare the attractions. Informal economy personal power, a fast car
and money while young; formal economy - work hard at school, get your
qualifications, try to get a job in the world of work and fail because you are
black. In the US the nigrescence model was developed as an attempt to chart the
development of a black student in a white society. Applications of this model
can help guide the student away from the informal economy. At the same time, as
Ford suggests, the nigrescence model can help gifted black students come to
terms with a developing black awareness. They can accept being immersed in a
white education system and yet still maintain their racial identity; combining
these they can obtain qualifications that will possibly give them passports to
a job.
In this dissertation I was attempting to
develop strategies to help students build the required powerful mindset.
Firstly let us as teachers recognise just how powerful a mindset is needed to
cope with Inner City schools. Please excuse me for saying this as you will know
but it is worth reiterating - that mindset has to be far stronger than anything
I, and many others, had as a child. I would suggest that counselling to build
that mindset is an important skill that teachers of black students should be
equipped with. But how is a difficult issue involving finance.
But what should
those counselling skills consist of? Race awareness and black consciousness - I
would say no. Why? Because not all students require knowledge of these issues
and perhaps they are better equipped to deal with school if they focus on
studies; this tended to support the racism awareness strategy I put forward. To
this extent I proposed an attitude which I termed the Performance-Oriented model - try harder,
pay attention and listen; to my mind this is the essential counselling that
students require. If some students become aware of all the problems of being in
a racist society they can become demotivated and then not get the
qualifications. If they get qualifications they will at least have some
weaponry to cope with the problems. Through the interview process I found
support for the performance-oriented model.
As part of this
performance-oriented model students need also to be counselled about the
single-minded attitude of focussing on work required to cope with peers and the
trouble in school. School has to be a place of work, and students cannot be ambivalent
about this or they will fail. They require determination, and teachers cannot
be sympathetic to a lack of determination or ultimately those students will
leave the track.
But suppose a teacher, through their
counselling, encounters a developing race awareness, then there needs to be
recourse to proper race counselling. This race counselling could take the form
of mentoring using the nigrescence model. I would suggest however that this
type of counselling is not the brief of the teacher, I would see that the
family, community, and trained race counsellors would be much more appropriate
to deal with these students. I propose that it is the skill to recognise the
developing consciousness rather than the actual counselling itself that
teachers become involved in - especially white teachers. For appropriate
students I found that the nigrescence strategy had application, but not for
all.
I have examined certain issues such as
assimilation and racelessness and found that they are not necessarily appropriate
for all black students. Again they are important issues if they arise and the
system needs to cope with them through race counselling. The issue of role
models is important. Sadly through the glorification of aspects of the informal
economy the role models that many black students hear of are singers and pop
stars. In school the mainstream, and
not marginalised in black studies, needs to consider its curriculum with a view
to promoting the work of black people. In general I found support for the
cultural pragmatic strategy, recognising that in school you focus on your
studies and look to family, community or a trained race counsellor for guidance
on racial identity and cultural awareness (helped by the superteacher's
recognition referred to above).
I also considered a quality education
strategy asking whether what the education system considered was quality
education was important to the people I interviewed. Apart from older
interviewees who accepted that much had improved in materials used since they were
at school, surprisingly enough I found that the content was not considered
important. This has significance for those who are focussing on multi-cultural
or anti-racist materials. Although the direction of the materials is important
in my view, it is not the production of such materials that is of central
importance to resolving the problem of black underachievement.
Finally I would ask that all black
students be counselled to develop a powerful single-minded mindset as the most
important means of survival and gaining qualifications in Inner City schools.
As a central part of the mindset would be the dictum to follow the
Performance-Oriented model. However teachers need also to be aware that
students will also have a developing race awareness to differing degrees, and
they need to recognise that this awareness can lead to conflict with the system
and weaken the required mindset. They further need to recognise that some
students will require special race counselling at a certain stage either
through family, community or a trained race counsellor, and schools should
develop links to implement such recognition. Failure to deal with this
developing awareness will only lead to conflict in school, and even worse
consequences such as dropping out into the informal economy. To this end I have
prepared a staff development workshop in appendix 7A, I hope it is of use.
Appendix 7A TEACHER'S WORKSHOP
It is important that I attempt to make
practical the findings of this study. What I am considering is how to develop
strategies for individuals to overcome the disadvantages, and sadly I am asking
to place an additional burden on teachers. It is my intention to develop an
outline scheme for running a workshop to make teachers aware of the strategies
but first I want to consider the position of teachers in this scenario.
TEACHERS EFFECT ON BLACK
UNDERACHIEVEMENT
Let me state categorically that I am not
here teacher-bashing. I also want to state categorically that I think UK
teachers do an excellent job in difficult conditions where everyone uses them
as a scapegoat especially the media and authorities. Teachers are not
responsible for the problems of black underachievement, it is a racist society
that has created a climate where blacks underachieve.
But colleagues we should not be
complacent, let us realise that a significant proportion of our students are
suffering through underachievement. Mostly I have taken the view in this
dissertation that given that racism occurs in UK society, black students need
to alter their attitudes to help themselves. I have proposed counselling
strategies that could help this happen. But who is going to counsel these
students?
Basically I am saying this. A teacher's
job should be the delivery of the subject material that they are trained in.
There are other duties in the school that they are required to be involved in
but these duties should not be endless arguments about initiatives imposed on
them. Sadly for many, equal opportunities comes under this category because it
has been around for years and nothing really substantive seems to be happening.
I would maintain that this is because society is not serious about removing
racism. Society can attack teachers because they are an easy target. It's easy
to blame teachers for racism, so they see an easy solution to society's racism
by demanding equal opportunities from teachers.
But colleagues let's also be aware that
a significant proportion of our students are underachieving, and although it is
not our fault let us try to help them. It is also in our interest as well. If
we can begin to realign the problem of underachievement away from a focus on
the teachers, that can only be to our benefit. It is clear that many people
blame the teachers because they know that some of our colleagues are racist, and
that some teachers do have low expectation of black students. But if we can
change the focus so that the students do not expect every teacher to be a
paragon of racial awareness, a Martin Luther King of equal opportunities
practice, then perhaps progress can be made. The problem I feel is a problem of
teacher expectation but it is the problem of what students and EOPS experts
expect from the teachers and not, in many cases, what teachers expect from
black students.
If, as a teacher in an Inner City
school, I see an intelligent black boy in year 8 and I see his beginning to
disrupt lessons, am I wrong to expect him to take the downward slope of
underachievement? Yes and no. Yes, because I should give him the chance to
succeed, I should try and help him, counsel him etc. But will I be wrong in the
end? Do I invest, in this boy, vast amounts of time that I haven't got because
of all the unreasonable impositions placed on my time in an underpaid,
overworked job? No because it is not realistically possible.
But having said that I am going to ask
teachers to invest time for the simple reason that in their care are students
who are suffering because of the colour of their skin. I am asking teachers to
deliver the counselling strategies I am suggesting. And if we were Martin
Luther Kings, black students would respect us more and would listen to us more
especially those in the immersion-emersion stage of racial identity
development. [I worked in a Supplementary Education Scheme when I was working
in an Inner City school. Some of the students actually attended this centre in
the evenings, I am absolutely certain that because I made a commitment, even
though I was paid, to work in the evening with black students this brought me
some respect in the school.]
But we can't all
do this so I ask you "Is there anything we can do to help to realign the
focus of what students should expect from their teachers and how they can best
succeed?" If the strategy remains that all teachers must become Martin
Luther Kings then there is definitely no hope in
education (please see Ford pp149-150 for characteristics of a culturally competent
teacher – Martin Luther Kings). But I'll be perfectly honest this is another
one of these superteacher models. Every teacher
should be a superteacher and should be paid a minimum
wage because they are devoted. Yes, of course, in an ideal world we would all
be culturally aware, we would all have knowledge of other cultures. Will the
teacher authorities pay for teachers to visit other cultures so they can gain
that knowledge? Will they even invest in paying someone to work at the school
with a remit for working with a particular culture? No. But a teacher is
expected to work as a superteacher, now as a
culturally competent educator, a reflective practitioner, a change agent, and
whatever other angel with a panacea they next want teachers to be. Don't get me wrong. These
characteristics of cultural competence are characteristics that would help
teachers working with students from other cultures but when can we possibly
learn about all of this.
As a prelude to my teachers' workshop I
am saying to teachers, a significant proportion of your students are failing
because we come from a racist society. I am not blaming the teachers but
perhaps we can try to help a bit more. Once the teachers are not expected to be
the reincarnation of Martin Luther King, but simply that they are people who
can deliver knowledge in a particular area, and once students come to school
only expecting that teachers will be the providers of that knowledge, then
there is a greater chance of equal opportunities in education. Many teachers
care about equal opportunities but they become compromised by the racist system
and cannot measure up to the culturally liberated model that is required of them.
Some teachers are racist, some teachers are child abusers, some teachers do not
know their subject, some teachers are resistant to change, some teachers do not
reflect on their practice, but most (99.99%) teachers are hard-working caring
teachers who are underpaid and overstressed. Let us be realistic about where we
can introduce change and not blame the teachers who are an easy target.
In the workshop I am asking that
students change their attitudes, that they build a mindset that is not
dependent on a "superteacher", but that
mindset should equip students with approaches and motivation to cope with
education in, and withstand the pressures of, Inner City schools.
As with the problem in any form of
change teachers need to invest time into that change, and it is only when those
changes run hand-in-hand with political initiatives that they are given any
time. So the next part of my dissertation is going to be an additional burden.
I have run a number of workshops for teachers. Obviously when you run a workshop
it is personalised, it suits your style as an individual. Therefore a workshop
plan cannot be a plan for everyone. But if I don't give the plan then I am not
demonstrating that I want this dissertation to have some practical
implications. So here is an attempt to develop a workshop plan. Title of workshop:-
Building the
Mindset to help black students overcome underachievement
TARGET GROUP:-
12 teachers - voluntary.
TIME:- 1 Baker
day, either school-based or area-based EQUIPMENT - manila sheets and felt pens.
ROOM PREPARATION:- Avoid a didactic
situation, put furniture in a circle if possible. Try to get 4 separate group
areas.
INTRODUCTION NOTES Thanks for coming,
and welcome. Personal intro.
ACTIVITY 1
ICEBREAKER - Break up the 12 people into
groups of 2. Ask each pair to discuss, in turn, why they came to the workshop and how they
will be able to implement what they learn in the workshop in their schools.
Then ask for a quick 30 second introduction of each participant by the other.
[FACILITATOR NOTE:- The issue of
facilitation is integral to the workshop, this is not an academic discussion
and lecture. The teachers themselves must develop the understanding, and
provide the strategies for the mindset. Note down how these teachers fit into
the power structures in their schools so that you can develop later how they
will be able to implement any conclusions. Also consider how you can put
teachers in similar positions together for activity 11.]
ACTIVITY 2
BRAINSTORM - Causes of Underachievement
Workshop discussion - 12 teachers led by
facilitator. On a manila sheet do a spider diagram on Causes of
Underachievement. Get a teacher to scribe.
[FAC THEME:-
What I would expect to happen is that the teachers would have noted many social
factors that contribute to racism in society, what I have termed in the dissertation as
"Excuses for failure".]
ACTIVITY 3 Issues of Underachievement
GROUP EXERCISE:- Consider the manila
sheet on "Causes of Underachievement".
Question - Can teachers do anything
about this?
Divide 12 teachers into 4 groups of 3
with 1 scribe and 1 report back.
[FAC NOTE:- A quick note on group
dynamics - an issue that any facilitator needs to be conscious of. The purpose
of the workshop is for 12 people to have come to their own conclusions concerning
the issues being raised. It is a workshop and not a lecture so as facilitator
it is your job to provide the environment for 12 to learn. You need to start to
discern those who "like the sound of their own voice" and those who
are less willing to contribute. Appoint people "who are less willing"
to positions scribe, reporters etc. Avoid conflict but try not to place the
"own voices" in different groups. When choosing groups, rotate their
membership to avoid any individual domination. Groups should be mixed gender as
a general rule, but this might lead to domination by men. If there are women
who prefer to be together don't discourage this but be aware that these women
have value to offer to all and encourage them to share.]
On a new manila sheet, each group makes
two lists:-
Things
that teachers can do Things
that teachers cannot
something about do
anything about
[FAC THEME:- The purpose of this
discussion is to try to get the teachers to know their limitations - a
difficult point with teachers. Teachers have no control over many of the causes
of underachievement as they are societal factors. Basically in this activity
you are trying to get the teachers to turn their attention away from these
societal factors towards personal factors that will help students develop the
mindset. These personal factors hopefully will lead to the Performance-Oriented
Model.]
[FAC ADVICE:- You may need to draw the
distinction between short term and long term impact. There may be teachers who
think that education can affect racism in society but this can only happen
long-term ie generations rather than how you can help
the students now. You want to focus on the short-term.]
FAC LECTURE - Hopefully you will now be
in a position to present the Performance-Oriented Model:-
· Try Harder
· Pay Attention
· Listen
[FAC:- Prepare a OHP or manila sheet with
the Performance-Oriented model].
ACTIVITY 4 Advantages and Disadvantages
of the Model
GROUP EXERCISE - Divide the 12 into 4
groups of 3. Manila paper, and draw a table:-
Advantages
Disadvantages
In the group exercise one person to
scribe and someone else to report back.
In the report back we want two manila
sheets, one for advantages and one for disadvantages. Get one advantages scribe
and one disadvantages scribe.
[FAC THEME:- At this stage I would hope
that you are able to get all the advantages we need like focus on work,
motivate attitude to study, seeing teachers as providers of knowledge and
qualifications, and avoidance of trouble in school because they are working,
and all these types of "boff" things. If
these issues are missing you must raise them as a facilitator.
But what should also appear on the
disadvantages sheet are serious issues such as failure to address issues of
racial identity and consciousness, the racism in UK society, assimilation, etc.
The next step is to begin to analyse how
best to cope with these issues, but if they don't arise from the discussion
then you have a problem. Would this group of teachers be appropriate for
counselling black students if these issues did not arise? As a facilitator you
must introduce these questions if they were not brought up.]
[FAC PROGRESS SO FAR - At this stage you
would hope that the workshop will be partially accepting the
performance-oriented model as a means of overcoming underachievement but
thinking about the issues of racial consciousness.]
ACTIVITY 5 Conflict in Adult Life
[FAC THEME:- In this activity I am
attempting to get across the idea that there are some things children are
better not to be aware of until they are old enough to cope. To do this I want
people to think about problems they have had as adults such as career and
promotion issues etc. Would it have helped them at school if they learnt that
strong-minded people who have a caring attitude are unlikely to be successful
in a capitalist system?]
GROUP EXERCISE:- Split into 4 groups of
3, and ask the teachers to describe situations of conflict in adult life
concerning profession, career, housing etc. Ask one teacher to scribe and
another to report back in each group. Get someone to scribe on manilla sheets all the report backs.
Then full workshop discussion led by
facilitator:- Look at "Conflicts in Adult Life" manilla
sheet. The purpose of the discussion is to point out that many of these
conflicts could not be addressed at school - maybe at home, maybe within your
community, and perhaps with a specially-trained counsellor. But lessons? Not
realistic in the way schools are run at the moment.
Further points to try to bring out in
this discussion -
There is little that can be done in
school education about "career stabbing in the back", "no
promotion for union reps", "personal conflicts with a headmaster who
is a plonker", etc.
How
would being aware of this have helped? Would it have helped motivation in
school?
[FAC THEME:- If it arises stress the
level of maturity required by students if they are to cope with knowing about
these adult conflicts as a child. If it doesn't arise see if you can introduce
the word "maturity" into discussions.]
[FAC NOTE:- I think this activity is
important but it is a potential minefield. I am suggesting that there are
concepts that are best left for adult life, this is not a concept I see
supported by liberal white middle-class families - the socio-economic group of
teachers! If this issue is a clear conflict, quickly veer away from it by
saying something like "Different people have different viewpoints on this,
and as teachers we could try and look at it from all sides".]
ACTIVITY 6 Stereotypes about Racial
Identity
GROUP EXERCISE:- Again divide into 4
groups of 3 with a scribe and a report-back person. Write the stereotypes below
on cards, and give one to each group to discuss.
Stereotypes:-
All black students need to be aware of
black history to overcome underachievement.
If a black student does not have a
strong sense of racial identity they will not overcome underachievement.
Schools have a responsibility to provide
black awareness to all their black students.
All black students who have overcome
underachievement have done so because they had a strong sense of black
consciousness.
[FAC NOTE:- Allow the teachers to
discuss this issue for a short while and then listen. It is essential that they
recognise that each one of these stereotypes contains the concept
"all". If not, try to guide them to recognise that there is truth in
all these stereotypes but not for all black students.] Then as full workshop
there are report backs. Hopefully you will be able to ascertain from the groups
that for some students black consciousness helped but for other students
overcoming underachievement arose out of not being brought into conflict as a
young person, often as a result of their black consciousness not having
developed.
ACTIVITY 7 MATURITY & BLACK
CONSCIOUSNESS
WORKSHOP ACTIVITY:- Following on from
activity 6, begin a discussion as to when black consciousness arises, how
important it is, and who should cope with it. Once the facilitator sees that
the discussion is going somewhere in the right direction, stop it and move to a
GROUP EXERCISE - 4 groups of 3, 1 scribe and 1 report back.
[FAC THEME:- You want the teachers to
see that:-
Black consciousness at a young age is
not appropriate for all black youngsters. Teaching black awareness is not
appropriate for all teachers esp white teachers.
Coping with black consciousness requires
maturity.
If black awareness is something that is
recognised in young people, it needs to be fostered.
The best people to foster this awareness
are family, community or race counsellors]
Give them a long time for this
discussion as it is essential to the point of the workshop. Then report back,
and draw on their discussion to highlight the FAC THEMES I have just mentioned.
ACTIVITY 8 Marginalisation and Black
Studies/History
Workshop Discussion:- Discuss the issue
of where black consciousness should arise in the school academic curriculum.
[FAC THEME:- All
people need to be aware of the contribution of black people of note. Knowledge
of this should be a requirement of mainstream education ie
all white people, even in "white" schools, need to be aware of this.
Exam syllabii should include this awareness, and I
mean exam syllabii in years 10 and 11. Black studies should be an
option - see next activity.]
ACTIVITY 9 Coping with a Mature Black
Consciousness
[FAC PROGRESS SO FAR:- Hopefully so far
the workshop has recognised the need for the performance-oriented model.
Further they recognise that black consciousness is not an issue for all black
students but that for some students black awareness develops at a young age.
Now the workshop need to decide how to cope with this awareness.]
GROUP EXERCISE:- 4 groups of 3 with 1
scribe and 1 report back.
Type on cards the following case
studies. Ask the groups to discuss how to deal with these students - stress
that the groups can ask outside agencies to help if they wish.
Leroy
is in the top class. His work is excellent, clearly a well-motivated student.
Then recently his work has had slight problems, nothing important. One teacher
notices the situation and raises the problem. Leroy tries not to talk about the
situation but when the teacher presses him, he apologises and says that it is a
personal matter. As he walks away the class troublemaker says "white
do-gooders", and surprisingly to the teacher Leroy nodded.
Charles
is middle-stream and his work has always been middle standard, but many teachers
say that he is capable of doing very well. But he never really tries with his
work. His pastoral teacher has had small problems recently. He has been
involved in fights in school, and the pastoral teacher has received a report
from the police that he was picked up at the scene of a crime where
drug-dealing had taken place. When the pastoral teacher tried to discuss this,
he said that he would try to stop the fighting in school but mumbled something
about the teacher being white and not understanding.
[FAC NOTE:- You can choose your own case
studies. I note here that I have not included a case study of a woman student,
but school exclusions are primarily black males.]
[FAC ADVICE:- Allow the groups time to
get involved in the issue. Then go around and listen. Are they trying to
resolve the issues in the school? If so, ask them if there are not other people more appropriate. In the end you will hope
that the most appropriate people are family, community and if necessary a race
counsellor.]
[FAC THEME:- In the report back focus on
useful strategies and avoid schoolbased and
teacher-based strategies, unless they add to the student's mindset. Veer away
from teacher-based approaches, does a teacher have the time and knowledge to
cope with these race issues? Stress that this is a growing-up issue for a black
person and as such it is not an academic issue, therefore it might be more
appropriately dealt with in the family especially in the case of Leroy who has
the good motivation. Mention mentoring - not just vocational mentoring but also
"informal-to-formal" mentoring. Black studies at school as an option
should be available, but this is a limited solution.]
Prepare a OHP or manila sheet with the nigresecence model on it to show the workshop. Present this
model as a model for black students who are in conflict in white society - not
ALL black students.
ACTIVITY 10 Facilitator Summary
Key themes:-
· Stress the need for a powerful mindset
to overcome adversity.
· Performance-Oriented Model.
· All black students are different from
each other.
· Black consciousness is not an issue for
all black students.
· Teachers look out for growing black
consciousness.
· If it is there then it cannot be ignored
but must be fostered and developed as a mature outlook through family,
community or a race counsellor.
· Stress the need for teachers and
students to be focussing on the education and passing exams - developing a
strong mindset in students that focuses around the performance-oriented model.
ACTIVITY 11 Implementation in Schools
GROUP EXERCISE:- How to implement in
schools?
[FAC ADVICE :- From activity 1, you
found groups for this exercise.]
[FAC THEME:- Focus on:-
Recognition of students with a growing
awareness,
How to structure getting teachers to
recognise these students.
Once these students have been recognised
how will the school involve family, community and race counsellors?]
ACTIVITY 12 Rounding Off
Evaluation sheets, and networking to
maintain contact and build on this type of work. Promote future action if
suggested, facilitate the starting only and then withdraw from any form of
leadership.
The dissertation
"emerged" too big, hence the difficulty in presentation. To start
with from the literature review I was investigating 5 strategies:- Racism
Awareness Strategy, Performance-Oriented Strategy, Cultural Pragmatic Strategy,
Nigrescence Strategy and the Quality Education Strategy; this was ambitious.
However through the interview process
two very important aspects emerged. Firstly the recognition of ghettoisation and its implication in terms of the formal
and informal economy affected the way I needed to consider these strategies,
and aligned with this was the two mentoring processes - vocational and
informal-oriented. So the dissertation "emerged" too big.
However, apart from the presentation
issue, this was not a problem because the emerging interview aspects gave a
strength to the conclusions of the dissertation. Overall this gave the study a
cohesion as can be exhibited in the teacher's workshop of 7A where I was able
to present a consistent practical approach.
Let me evaluate strategy-by-strategy
whilst making the important reservation that I was investigating and not trying
any form of statistical proof. I found evidence to support the 3 strategies of
Racism Awareness, Performance Orientation and Cultural Pragmatism. Although the
investigation could not be conclusive I feel the evidence is strong enough to
be able to question the activists who are asking for consciousness-raising for
all black students.
But what was equally as strong was that
the system needed to develop strategies for coping with this developing
consciousness such as linking with family or community, or developing race
counselling. What I value so much is that this approach is clear and
consistent. It overcomes the doubts one has about a blanket programme of
awareness for all, and equally the problem faced by the system if that
developing consciousness is not fostered.
Equally by finding a place for the
nigrescence model within the informal-oriented mentoring service also added a
consistency. Being a substantive model that tried to explain black student
identity development within a white society, it was obviously important but
initially I found that the interviewees did not relate to the model. That was
why I was so fortuitous in meeting with someone who used the model in an
informal-oriented approach.
Conclusive also was the issue of
quality. What might be considered the type of quality education did not affect
the way my interviewees worked, quality was seen more as an issue of
presentation and delivery. I feel the study clearly evidenced this.
I believe that this whole area of
research has relevance because it helps clarify positions that can cause white
teachers problems. On occasions it sometimes appears that concerned white
teachers compete as to how much racial awareness they have, whilst others are
frightened to touch the subject for fear of causing offence or being called a racist.
This research directs teachers and the curriculum away from this type of
insecure involvement. It tries to show that the family and community, or race
counsellors are the most appropriate people to educate concerning this issue,
whilst the role of the teacher is to recognise developing black consciousness
and point the students in the right direction. I have recommended through the
workshop and elsewhere that procedures be developed in schools to that effect.
At the same time options such as
black studies should be continued, or implemented, to provide the educational
content of the developing awareness, whilst at the same time introducing the
importance of certain key figures within the exam syllabus for all students to
recognise the contribution of black people. I feel this applies a structure to
a maelstrom of consciousness angst, and would allow all black students to
develop along their different paths. And I believe this structure has value.
However none of these approaches have
been substantiated. As this was only an investigation it does not inherently
contain evidence that would itself mitigate the need to alter teaching
practice, even if the political will were there, for the simple reason that I
cannot claim proof for any of my contentions. Look at the sample size, look at
the demographics of that sample, it cannot possibly be considered random,
unbiased or applicable to a whole population. In my investigation I mainly
spoke to people who had reached positions. How valid is my research for those
who didn't? How many of the people I interviewed actually came from Inner City
schools with a high proportion of black students? Now although I feel that my
conclusions would apply to these people and in these schools, my sample
certainly cannot be used as verification of that. I would like to put forward
the following suggestions for future research:-
A quantitative study of the Racism
Awareness strategy where the researcher would begin to question a large number
of randomly distributed black people as to the appropriateness of the strategy.
A quantitative study of the
Performance-Oriented model where the researcher would begin to question a large
number of randomly distributed black people as to the appropriateness of the
strategy.
A quantitative study of the Cultural
Pragmatic strategy where the researcher would begin to question a large number
of randomly distributed black people as to the appropriateness of the strategy.
A qualitative study of the applications
of the nigrescence model in informal-oriented mentoring and other counselling
techniques with a view to looking at the issue of black school exclusions.
A qualitative study of the nigrescence
model in terms of its application to gifted black students who are beginning to
show black consciousness.
Please note that in the use of the terms
qualitative and quantitative as a description of the study, I am trying to
delineate between the types of studies. Where proof is of the essence in order
to encourage implementation in schools I have suggested a quantitative study,
and where investigation is needed as there is not information available to
formulate sufficient conclusions I have suggested a qualitative study.
The relevance of research such as this
is not in academia but in the institutions. This is why the workshop is of
great import to me. I would like to see a pilot project between a research
institution and an Inner City school where a series of workshops for the
teachers could be developed. At the same time the programme would have no
validity without the involvement of family and community through an active
parents' support group (the PTA?). Perhaps this pilot project could be
conducted by a race counsellor who is sympathetic to the strategies contained
in this research.
Surprisingly all of the separate threads
of this research came together in one cohesive strategy. The overall strategy
guides teachers into counselling black students towards a mindset of
performance-orientation without which those students will be unable to cope with
Inner City schools. However it also is able to advise concerning the confusing
area for white teachers of black consciousness by placing the role of these
teachers as those who recognise, and by recognising that the expertise needs to
lie with the family and community or a race counsellor. The value for me is the
clarity of such a conclusion in an issue that is so clouded with emotion
understandably.
I would evaluate my own learning within
two categories, firstly that concerning the issues themselves and secondly in
terms of the dissertation process itself. Through the research on the issues I
have been able to cystallise ideas that I have worked
with for years, and apply a consistent perspective. In Brixton I used to try to
promote racial awareness in schools, please see my professional biography.
Without ever forcing this on any of the students I knew that I met with varying
degrees of success. Yet activists would suggest that I continue to try this,
and I now feel in a position to say to them is it appropriate? Also through the
reading I learned of the nigrescence model, and some more extreme
interpretations concerning race, through my investigation I was able to apply a
perspective to these issues that I am comfortable with. Overall I came away
with the confidence that my approach of applying a performance-oriented model
and counselling for a mindset that incorporates this has been validated (but as
I was doing the research that's not surprising!).
Through the Research Strategies process
and then the dissertation itself, I feel that I have learnt how to approach
an area of research with some level of certainty that I would achieve an
acceptable result. This is not a small learning process as I have previously rejected
academia as not necessarily being an arena for the development of knowledge,
preferring the wisdom contained in books by people like Pirsig
or Doris Lessing. However I am still confused by what is considered academic
knowledge. In the case of this study lessons I have learnt and presented in
anecdotes have far greater meaning for me than other forms of presentation.
Even more importantly the greatest wisdom that I have presented in this
dissertation lies in the testimony of my interviewees, and this testimony is
relegated to appendices. Perhaps I should do further study to learn more about
the academic process?
BZ Note:- This part of the bibliography contains materials
directly referenced in the dissertation.
CAPRA F "Turning Point" London:Flamingo
1982 ISBN 0-00-654017-1
CHILD D
"Psychology and the Teacher" Cassell
1986 ISBN 0-304-31446-3
CHRISMAN Laura "Journeying to Death: Gilroy’s Black Atlantic" in Vol 39#2 1997 Race and
Class. ISSN 0306-3968
DOMINELLI
Lisa "Anti-Racist Social Work" Macmillan(1997) 2nd Edition
FORD Donna Y "Reversing Black Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students" Teachers’
College
Press 1996 ISBN 0-8077-3535-3
[FORD2] "Racial Identity Development Among
FORD Donna Y Gifted black Students:Counselling
HARRIS J John Issues and Concerns"
Journal of SCHUERGER James M Counselling and Development v71 n4 pp409-417
Mar-Apr 1993
[Ford 3] "Meeting the Psychological Needs Of
FORD Donna Y Gifted Black Students: A Cultural
SCHUERGER James M Perspective" v69
Journal of Counselling HARRIS J John & Development July/August 1991
pp577580.
Sorry
– references are confused
KRISHNAMURTI J Brockwood Park Tapes
available from the
Krishnamurti Foundation, recorded Summer 1984. Order
is a theme throughout his talks.
KUHN T "The Structures of
Scientific Revolution" Chicago 1962.
LINCOLN Y S & GUBA E G - "Naturalistic Inquiry"
Sage 1985 : Beverley Hills
[MM] - MAYKUT P & MOREHOUSE R "Beginning Qualitative
Research: A
Philosophic & Practical Guide" Falmer(1994) ISBN 0-7507-0273-7
MESZAROS I "Marx’s theory of Alienation" Merlin Press 1982
OFSTED "Recent Research on the Achievements of
Ethnic Minority Pupils" HMSO 1996 ISBN
0-11-250084-X
OXFORD Oxford English Dictionary
Clarendon
Press 1989
PATTON M Q "Qualitative Evaluative
Methods" Sage 1980 : Beverley Hills.
PIRSIG R "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
Vintage 1974. ISBN 0-09-978640-0
POTTER B "The Way of the Ronin" Ronin(1988) ISBN 0-
914171- 26-7
RAMPTON A "West Indian Children in our Schools"
HMSO 1981 Cmnd 8273 ISBN 0-10-182730-X
RUSSELL B "History of Western
Philosophy" George Allen & Unwin 1961.
SCHON D "The Reflective Practitioner" Basic 1983.
ISBN 0-465-06878-2
SWANN REPORT "Education
for All" HMSO:London 1985
Cmnd 9453
BZ Note:- This part of the bibliography contains references that
have been formative in the whole M Ed process ie it
includes references from my professional biography and my Independent Study.
Capra F
"The Turning Point" Flamingo 1982 ISBN
0 00 65401
Castaneda
C
Series
of books on Yaqui knowledge based on meetings with a Yaqui Indian Don Juan??
Doherty G "Developing
Quality Systems in
Education" Routledge 1994 ISBN
0-415-
09829-7
Eraut M "Developing
Professional Knowledge and
Competence" Falmer 1994. ISBN
0-75070331-8.
Fullan M "Change
Forces" Falmer 1993. ISBN 1
85000 825 6.
Fullan M "The
Meaning of Educational Change"
OISE Press 1982. ISBN 0-7744-0249-0
Fullan M &
"What's Worth Fighting for in Schools?"
Hargreaves A Open
University Press 1992. ISBN 0-335-15755-6.
Katz Judy H "White
Awareness; A Handbook for Anti-
Racism Training" University of
Oklahoma Press 1980. ISBN 0-8061-1466-5.
Klein G "Education
Towards Race Equality"
Cassell 1993. ISBN 0-304-32387-X.
Lao Tzu "Tao
Te Ching" Penguin 1963. ISBN 0 14 04.131 X
Malik K Paper
"Universalism and Difference: race and the Postmodernists" in Race
and Class Vol 37 #3 1996 Institute of Race Relations. ISSN 0306 3968.
Moon, Murphy and "Policies for
the Curriculum" Hodder &
Raynor. Stoughton
1989. ISBN 0-340-51436-1
Oakeshott M "Rationality
in Politics and Other Essays" Methuen 1962.
Plato "The
Works of Plato" Vol III.
Translated by G Burges. George Bell
& Sons (1901)
Polanyi M "The
Tacit Dimension" Routledge 1967
Rodney W "How
Europe Underdeveloped Africa?"
Bogle L'Ouverture 1983 ISBN 09501546 4
4
Senge P "The
Fifth Discipline" New York
Doubleday (1990)
Sivanandan A "Heresies
and Prophecies: the social and political fall-out of the technological
revolution" Article in
Race & Class Vol37 #4 1996
International Race Relations ISSN
03063968
Sorokin P "Social
& Cultural Dynamics" American Book Company 1937-41
Tomlinson M Paper
"Can Britain leave Ireland? The
Political Economy of War and Peace"
in Race and Class Vol 37 # 1 1995 Institute of Race Relations. ISSN 0306 3968.
Toynbee A "A
Study of History" Oxford University
Press[1960]
TUC The
Quality Challenge - A TUC report on
the trade union response to Quality in
Public Services. Twentieth Century
Press 1992 ISBN 1 85006 233 1
TWITCHIN J "The
Black and White Media book"
Trentham 1988. ISBN 0 948080 09 4
Wilhelm R "I
Ching" Routledge & Kegan Paul 1968
ISBN 0 7100 1581 X
Zukav G "The
Dancing Wu LI Masters" Fontana
1979 ISBN 0-00-636058-0
BZ Note:- This section of the
bibliography contains a list of materials that were given to me by
interviewees. They gave me a background understanding of the services these
interviewees offered. For reasons of academic integrity I was unable to include
the actual documents but they have been passed onto the Northern College
Library.
Interface Pamphlet
The Interface Monitoring Programme Paper
School Mentoring Project Guide Pamphlet
Mentoring Guide Pamphlet
The Experiences of Four Organisations in Paper Piloting Mentoring Schemes
Pathways to Integration Paper
Bid for Funding to Progress Trust Paper
Mentoring Guide Paper
What is the Commission for Racial Pamphlet
Equality?
From Cradle to School Pamphlet
Exclusion from School Pamphlet
A Second Chance Pamphlet
Boys sidelined
by "apartheid in Newspaper
education" Article
Black Pupils claim classroom racism Newspaper
Article
CRE publications catalogue
Moss Side and
Hulme Business Directory Directory Moss Side and Hulme Business News Newspaper
Chapter 10 CONCLUSION
Let me begin by stating categorically that
this was a qualitative study, an investigation through case study interviews
into strategies for overcoming underachievement amongst black students in UK
schools.
In section 2 I began by justifying the
position that factors leading to black underachievement continue to exist.
Connected with this position there was an interesting dilemma during the
interview process. I began to question whether unwritten premises, based on my
work experience in Brixton and afterwards, that were the background to my
literature review, were actually still applicable. Therefore I introduced a
line of questions to help me establish a framework and these are discussed in
sections 6.2 and 6.3. Although I had found changes specifically an increase in
the process of ghettoisation, which I consider
significant, these changes did not bely any of the work that I had done in the
Literature Review.
As I was considering underachievement, in
section 3.1 I looked at achievement and motivation, and suggested that learning
was a natural process. Further the lack of motivation, experienced by many
black students, leads to the underachievement and was, in my view, at the root
of it. This lack of motivation came about for many reasons (factors) but it was
not the purpose of this dissertation to analyse those factors, simply to say
that these factors move black students away from the natural process of learning
that many young people slot into. When I discussed achievement-motivation with
my interviewees I found that those who had been successful had had powerful
mindsets that enabled them to cope. For a number these mindsets had developed
from a strong family background, but as I previously concluded in section 8.1
"it is clear that with ghettoisation the
alternative economy provides attractions that militate against the development
of this mindset".
Then in my review I began to examine different
strategies that would hopefully build up to this mindset. I began by
considering racism awareness, was this of benefit to those students who had
achieved? As I stated in section 8.2 " I have not reached a firm
conclusion, I cannot be positive one way or another". This is important
because it would demonstrate that a 100% approach one way or the other is not
appropriate. Students who have gone through the system without a level of
racial consciousness have achieved academic success. Yet at the same time if
that awareness has developed it should be recognised and supported by using
approaches such as mentoring. One of the early lessons I personally learnt when
overcoming the racism that was part of my upbringing was that black people are
not all the same. I know this is blatantly obvious but in a society that
presents black people as stereotypes this is a common failing. I think
investigation of this strategy bears this out. For some people being aware of
racism is part of their blood and can only be ignored at the peril of those
that come into contact with them eg the education
system, whereas others their experience of racism does not impact very
strongly. Imposing awareness on those whose experience is not strong would be
as negative as ignoring those for whom racial consciousness is a central part
of their existence. I would claim that teachers need to be aware that black
people are different and that their consciousness of racism is also different.
I would also claim that my investigation counters the suggestion that all black
people need racism awareness, in my view some of the interviewees had achieved
and were reasonably comfortable with that success despite not having any form
of formal racism awareness education.
Next I looked at what I pompously called the
Performance-Oriented model - try harder, pay attention and listen. I was
concerned about what I call "excuses for failure". Because of racism
and all its consequences there are many excuses that a black person could give
for failing in the UK system, and all would likely to be legitimate. But what
use is that in education, in schools? Educationalists should not want to
encourage these negative excuses but should be promoting positive attitudes. In
Section 3.2 I discussed work by Donna Ford who gave me the words for my model -
"try harder, pay attention and listen". She argued that some people
said that all black students had to do was "try harder, pay attention and
listen", and she claimed that that was unfair. Mostly I agree that to
dismiss the problems caused my racism as a lack of attentiveness, but I would
argue that rather than giving the students the "excuses for failure"
they should in fact be pressed into following the Performance-Oriented model.
As I said in concluding section 8.3 "there is evidence here to support the
Performance-Oriented model", but "nowhere near enough to ask for that
support unconditionally". As I also said in that conclusion, "I want
to say to community activists to tell their young "Try Harder, Pay
Attention and Listen" but I don't quite feel that I have enough evidence
to say that". I think there is sufficient evidence to doubt the efficacy
of the promotion of racism awareness, to promote in the young the awareness of
how the affects of racism will damage their future.
But these are issues that black students might have to come to terms with as
they grow up, and schools with a black population need to have counselling
strategies in place, such as mentoring, for dealing with a growing awareness.
But is it appropriate for all black youngsters to be made aware of all the race
issues at school when they need to concentrate on their studies, ie follow the PerformanceOriented
model to try harder, pay attention and listen.
Next I examined certain cultural attitudes to
consider appropriate strategies for improving motivation. I considered the
attitude that black students are being asked to get jobs in a white society.
For some of the interviewees getting a job was the purpose of education, and
although I don't like this as an educationalist I recognise the pragmatism
involved. And here I can offer no help. As adults we have a duty here to try to
ensure that the job market presents equal opportunities to all. In fact for
those whose school focus is completely on jobs there is a clear anomaly that
can lead to a lack of motivation, and again I have no ideas for this one. If I
go to school to get a job and as a black person I cannot get the job, then why
should I work at school?
However there are parts of this issue that can
be addressed. Why are jobs "white"? Personally I see jobs as part of
the capitalist system, in a black country capitalism is still capitalism. Those
people who label jobs as white are creating a confrontation with that label and
this cannot help the motivation of black youngsters in schools. One interviewee
worked in black business initiatives. His approach was to say that there is a
business culture (not white jobs - BZ) in the UK, and that the market is
predominantly white as in the UK the white people have most of the money. If you
want to earn money through trading this is a reality that has to be accepted,
mainly white people are going to pay you for your goods or services. But this
is much less confrontational than saying jobs are white, and I feel it is a
strategy that could be encouraged.
In section 8.5 I looked at the question of
black rights and consciousness, this is clearly a small development from the
strategy on race awareness, and the issues I discussed on that section in the
conclusion above. As I said in the conclusion to 8.5, "there seems to be a
developing clarity on this issue for me, the place for consciousness is very
much different for each individual. If an individual does become aware, and
that awareness is not fostered within the system then that individual can
become antagonistic. But if that individual does not become aware, pushing such
consciousness-raising might just cause confusion." I remember a poignant
comment from one interviewee to the effect that she knew what I meant but she
would hate to advocate a strategy of ignoring race awareness. Being tempered by
her emotive advice is very important as the issue is so sensitive. The whole
question of race awareness in schools needs to be investigated much more
thoroughly than at present. It is my view that the education system takes its
guidance from activists. But are activists the only people to take advice from?
An activist is possibly a person who became racially conscious at school and
was treated badly because of the school's inability to cope. But does that then
mean that all black students should be given the sort of education that the
activist would have wanted? At the same time it was a serious failing on the
part of the education system if that intelligence in the activist was not
fostered. The system needs to properly evaluate how consciousness might grow in
a black person using, for example, the nigrescence model, and not make blanket
assumptions about all black people.
Next I looked at assimilation. If I am
presenting strategies that do not focus on race awareness, that suggest
students follow the Performance-Oriented model despite the racism in the
system, that suggest that people accept a business culture with a predominantly
white market as opposed to seeing that the jobs are white, then I suspect I
will be accused of promoting assimilation. In section 8.6 I found that
"there appears to be a contradiction in this evidence". One person
suggested that the approach of assimilation is camouflage, and that it was the
intention that counted. I suggested in the end that the environment decided the
degree of assimilation and the attitude to it. Ultimately it is a personal
decision. For some that decision is always open to question because of their
consciousness, for others an assimilationist position is not recognised because
it suits their lifestyle. For our students I would suggest that it is an issue
that again must suit the individual and is not an issue that all students need
to be aware about. Asking school students to be conscious of assimilation when
they are not might create conflict, but ignoring a student who is having doubts
about assimilation is equally at fault. Again the school needs to have a
strategy to cope with these eventualities, and not simply accept the activists'
blanket consciousness-raising.
In the literature review I looked at the
nigrescence model (section 3.2), and I thought it might well apply to black
students in UK schools. This model turned out to symbolise the dividing line of
the dichotomy that became evident especially when talking of mentoring. Many of
the interviewees did not recognise any aspect of the model as having relevance,
and yet a successful mentoring project for students about to be excluded was
based on the model. With my interviewees I found a model whose application is
for those who are developing a race consciousness, who are becoming aware of
the issues they are going to have to face being in a racist society. Applying
mentoring, or some such strategy, using this model as a base, could be the way
of addressing the issues I raised in this conclusion. The importance of the
model is that it attempts to recognise the development of a black child in a
white society. I would suggest that it is not a model for all students but only
those for whom awareness brings them into conflict with the white system. Race
awareness need not be an issue for all black students, but for those that it is
an issue mentoring guided by such a model (as opposed to vocational mentoring)
could be a strategy for schools.
Ford suggested that this nigrescence model
could help gifted black students I found no evidence for or against this
contention but I feel strongly that there are gifted black students who turn
away from the qualifications-jobs system route of life. For these students
counselling using this model might help them return to the system route because
this model recognises a developmental path for black people in conflict with
white society, and that conflict need not always turn to the informal economy
and crime. Also I must ask the question as to whether all the students who turn
to the informal economy are doing so as a result of disillusion because of
racism in UK society. As there are white crooks so there are black crooks! I
think the difference here is that some black people turn to crime in
frustration and disillusion at the obstacles placed in front of them by the
racist society.
How you decide on which students to apply it
to is another matter! Somehow the teacher/school needs to recognise the
developing consciousness within their students, and then find a method of
guiding them onto an appropriate mentoring programme. But this needs to happen
at the same time as allowing those who have little interest can dedicate
themselves to their studies.
The next strategies I investigated were also
cultural strategies that Ford thought would help the "gifted black in
identity development". The first one was one that I introduced myself, and
even though I gained no evidence concerning this strategy I still wish to
include it as a possibility. That is the strategy of holding to cultural
strengths. Typical of these strengths is the question of respect for age. In
Western culture there is a dominant youth culture founded upon the
commercialism and consumerism directed towards the young. Personally I see this
unnatural preoccupation with youth-directed culture as responsible for many of
the problems faced in UK schools. In African and Afro-Caribbean culture within
the community there has been a respect for age, a respect demonstrated by politeness
and compliance with those who are elder. Unfortunately for many reasons this
respect for age does not always apply outside their own culture ie respect for older white people. But imagine if it did.
Imagine if black people came to school showing their respect for age ie teachers. At the same time within these cultures there
is a deep respect for education, imagine if this was also applied in schools.
These are cultural values that we should encourage to resurface despite the
cultural conflict with white culture (which for the majority lacks respect for
age and education) that they might bring.
As a possible strategy I raised the question
of racelessness. In this Ford and others were suggesting that black students
needed to negate their race in order to be able to succeed in a white system. I
then suggested that a less confrontational strategy would be to detach from
race ie hold to your identity racial or otherwise
whilst doing what is required to pass the exams and get the qualifications. The
position of racelessness was discussed with some interviewees, and it was not
an issue for them, the need for detachment never arose. The issue of cultural
conflict arose. Older people experienced problems where people like Cecil
Rhodes and Francis Drake were presented as heroes, but with the revision of
materials that has occurred there appears to be a growing tolerance amongst the
teachers especially in the Inner City schools. Unfortunately in the
"white" schools there has not been this transformation as there is no
race problem there. Although this will not affect many black students white
students leave school with certain racist values, and therefore propagates the
racism in society as these students are more likely to hold positions of power.
But one student saw Nelson Mandela as his hero because the Madiba proposed
detachment in the form of "holding aggression and being more calm".
The question of role models was considered
important. Even though there are more black leaders than white in the world,
the images presented to black students are pop stars. Not only that but the
material that some of these stars sing about can be very negative towards
academic success in the system and also with their sexist exploitation of
women. This I see as related to the problem of UK insularity. Rather than
focussing on the UK in education there ought to be a world perspective where
the qualities of world leaders such as Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Kofi
Annan, and many others. Instead if the UK looks to finding black role models
they look at the US, in other words black people in conflict, like Martin
Luther King or Malcolm X - great people but people in conflict.
Teachers as role models were seen as important
by interviewees who attended schools with no black teachers as well as by the
head I interviewed. Here schools could make an effort to educate students to
see the great work done by many black people, but not marginalised as part of
black studies, in the mainstream for all to recognise the contributions of
black people to the world.
In this next part I was concerned about
whether students would only work for particular teachers, black teachers. If
this was the case then it was self-defeating because there is no way that they
can achieve success in all subjects by working in one or two. I felt this was a
problem because of academic reference to what I call a superteacher,
again it is self-defeating if students expect that every lesson the teacher
will inspire them, that the same teacher will be a paragon of virtue and that
all their teachers will be practising anti-racists. In the case of Ford she
referred to a culturally-conscious teacher. In my interviews I didn't find any
negative reactions ie that the students only worked
for black teachers. However I did find that many said that they worked for
teachers that they trusted. Mostly this idea of trust did not have any
characteristics, one person suggested that the teacher was concerned that the
students did well and understood the work. But there was an intimation in one
case that this trust was based on not being treated differently by the teacher
as being the only black person. I would suggest that that person needed the
confidence to know that the teacher was not a racist in order to work better
for them.
I feel that for black people trust in their
teachers has been undermined in two ways. Firstly for 15 years there has been a
politically-inspired media campaign that has cast doubt on the professionalism
of teachers to the extent that some students even question teachers' academic
ability unnecessarily. But in addition to this community activists cast doubts
about the competence of teachers to deal with black students intimating forms
of racism. I have no doubts at all that there are teachers who, being brought
up in a racist society, have been unable to remove all the products of that
upbringing but I would maintain that teachers are a "liberal-minded
profession" as one interviewee put it. If people the students trust, such
as activists in their family, refer to white teachers as racists then students
cannot then trust their teachers and it might well affect their work.
But students should not be concerned about the
issue of trust it needs only to be a bonus. Victorian teachers - the good old
days? - taught and students learned, there was no doubt placed in the minds of
the students. When the students have doubts they cannot concentrate on their
studies. To help black students follow the Performance-Oriented model we should
all work together not to put those doubts in the way. This of course is not
helped by the appalling situation for black students in the 60s and 70s, and
these students are now the parents of the current students.
The last strategy I proposed concerned what
was considered quality education, I was wondering whether what the system saw
as quality education demotivated black students. Surprisingly enough when you
consider how much the education system disadvantages black people, no-one
actually questioned the syllabus content. As I said in concluding section 8.12
"the measures that are being asked for are deep and sweeping by
implication, but revolve around measures of human respect rather than
curriculum content". I interpret that in terms of the desire for
qualifications, I see this desire combined with the desire for jobs as the
primary motivation. It therefore follows that what is contained in the syllabus
for the qualifications is of little import, and this I see as demotivating. One
person used the phrase "cleaning the house" to describe how she saw
school, it was a chore. If there is no intrinsic interest in the subjects
concerned then there can be no motivation for knowledge itself, I see this as a
disadvantage. As an educationalist I do not like seeing a significant minority
of students working on materials they have no interest in. But in this case
there was a firm conclusion, my interviewees were not particularly interested
in quality or quality education but in getting qualifications at all cost.
The next two parts of this conclusion did not
come from my literature review. Firstly I did not address the issue of dealing
with peers, how to keep out of trouble. It was significant that 2 of my
interviewees educated in all-white schools had to resort to violence to cope, a
further interviewee also had to resort to violence simply to be allowed to
work. Would you or I have done that? This is an indication of the power of the
mindset needed by black students to cope in the schools.
But the most significant aspect that came from
my interviews was mentoring which I barely touched on in the literature review
process. I devoted a whole section to the two attitudes that I found prevailing
concerning mentoring. In concluding section 9 I said that "through a
government containment policy since the uprisings of the early 80's we have a
township strategy of ghettoisation, dichotomising
into the formal and informal economy. If society is two-tiered then this must
impact on schools and education." Throughout the conclusion so far I have
stressed the need to recognise the differing needs of different black students,
this economic dichotomy crystallises that difference and could guide us towards
a strategy for helping underachievers.
What is immediately obvious to me is the
incredible power of the mindset required by black students to cope with UK
schools. In line with this, this dissertation has attempted to develop
strategies to build this mindset.
What further became clear to me is that the
system fails to differentiate sufficiently between different types of black
students. Do all students require or desire race awareness or black
consciousness? Is it desirable that all students be educated into "black
consciousness "? My answer to this is an emphatic NO at school, but
equally emphatically the system needs to make more provision for those students
that do require it. I would suggest a new skill for the superteacher, and that is the ability to recognise students whose personal
development has led them into black consciousness. If those aware students are
not given adequate counselling, through mentoring possibly, then they might
well drop into the informal economy.
This question of the informal economy has
become a serious issue for UK education. Through government containment
strategies a process of UK ghettoisation has made an
earnest start, and this must have an impact on black students in Inner City
schools. Compare the attractions. Informal economy - personal power, a fast car
and money while young; formal economy - work hard at school, get your
qualifications, try to get a job in the world of work and fail because you are
black. In the US the nigrescence model was developed as an attempt to chart the
development of a black student in a white society. Applications of this model
can help guide the student away from the informal economy. At the same time, as
Ford suggests, the nigrescence model can help gifted black students come to
terms with a developing black awareness. They can accept being immersed in a
white education system and yet still maintain their racial identity; combining
these they can obtain qualifications that will possibly give them passports to
a job.
In this dissertation I was attempting to
develop strategies to help students build the required powerful mindset.
Firstly let us as teachers recognise just how powerful a mindset is needed to
cope with Inner City schools. Please excuse me for saying this as you will know
but it is worth reiterating - that mindset has to be far stronger than anything
I, and many others, had as a child. I would suggest that counselling to build
that mindset is an important skill that teachers of black students should be equipped
with. But how is a difficult issue involving finance.
But what should those counselling skills
consist of? Race awareness and black consciousness - I would say no. Why?
Because not all students require knowledge of these issues and perhaps they are
better equipped to deal with school if they focus on studies. To this extent I
proposed an attitude which I termed the Performance-Oriented model - try
harder, pay attention and listen; to my mind this is the essential counselling
that students require. If some students become aware of all the problems of
being in a racist society they can become demotivated and then not get the
qualifications. If they get qualifications they will at least have some
weaponry to cope with the problems.
Students need also to be counselled about the
single-minded attitude required to cope with peers and the trouble in school.
School has to be a place of work, and students cannot be ambivalent about this
or they will fail. They require determination, and teachers cannot be sympathetic
to a lack of determination or ultimately those students will lose track.
But suppose a teacher, through their
counselling, encounters a developing race awareness, then there needs to be
recourse to proper race counselling. This race counselling could take the form
of mentoring using the nigrescence model. I would suggest however that this
type of counselling is not the brief of the teacher, I would see that the
family, community, and trained race counsellors would be much more appropriate
to deal with these students. I propose that it is the skill to recognise the
developing consciousness rather than the actual counselling itself that
teachers become involved in - especially white teachers.
I have examined certain issues such as
assimilation and racelessness and found that they are not necessarily
appropriate for all black students. Again they are important issues if they
arise and the system needs to cope with them through race counselling, but I
feel that such guidance should be given by family, community or a trained race
counsellor.
The issue of role models is important. Sadly
through the glorification of aspects of the informal economy the role models
that many black students hear of are singers and pop stars. In school the mainstream, and not marginalised in
black studies, needs to consider its curriculum with a view to promoting the
work of black people. But sadly most such promotions occur with those black
people who have gained notoriety through struggle eg
Angela Davies, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. But what about the many great
African leaders? Julius Nyerere, Jerry Rawlings, Nelson Mandela, and Kofi
Annan. And Afro-Caribbean leaders - Michael Manley, Walter Rodney? These people
should be part of mainstream education but unfortunately many teachers don't
have the confidence to teach about them, and the exam syllabus might restrict
such teaching. Remember many students see what is on the exam syllabus as what
is real education - if it is not exam syllabus it could be considered to be
marginalised.
Finally I would ask that all black students be
counselled to develop a powerful single-minded mindset as the most important
means of survival and gaining qualifications in Inner City schools. As a
central part of the mindset would be the dictum to follow the
Performance-Oriented model. However teachers need also to be aware that
students will also have a developing race awareness to differing degrees.
Teachers need to recognise that this awareness can lead to conflict with the
system and weaken the required mindset. They further need to recognise that
some students will require special race counselling at a certain stage either
through family, community or a trained race counsellor. Failure to deal with
this developing awareness will only lead to conflict in school, and even worse
consequences such as dropping out into the informal economy.