Assess Sociological explanations for the Educational Underachievement of Ethnic Minorities

To assess the sociological explanations for the educational achievement of ethnic minorities, the term ‘ethnic minorities’ first has to be defined. Ethnic groups are wide and varied and not all ethnic groups are underachieving. The ethnic group of ‘Asians’ is very wide and varied. ‘Asians’ includes Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Punjabi and Gujarati communities. They all come from different regions, have different languages and have different religions. Punjabi and Gujarati communities came via East Africa whereas the others came direct from the Indian sub-continent. All of the groups have different backgrounds and no two groups are alike. All are not underachieving in education. All of the groups are achieving higher than White working class children with the exception of Bangladeshi children who are not. Modood and Shiner found that Indian and Pakistani student were over represented in higher education applications whereas applications by Bangladeshi students were lower ...