Book on Racism in Education wins Prestigious Research Award

04 November 2009

A controversial book which argues that racism in the English education system is still restricting the academic achievements of countless minority ethnic children has won the UK's most prestigious education research award.

Racism and Education: Co-incidence or Conspiracy?, by Professor David Gillborn of the Institute of Education, University of London, has been named as the outstanding education book of the year by the Society for Educational Studies. Professor Gillborn will receive the £2,000 prize at a ceremony in London tomorrow (Thursday, November 5).

In his book, published by Routledge, he dissects the effects of racism across the education system – from national policies to school-level decisions about exclusions and ability grouping. The principal victims, he contends, are black pupils. They are more likely to be placed in lower-ability groups, more likely to be entered for lower-tier GCSEs that prevent them achieving the top grades and, as is well documented, far more likely to be excluded.

"There is compelling evidence that the over-representation of black Caribbean students in exclusions is the result of harsher treatment by schools, rather than simple differences in behaviour," says Professor Gillborn, who also won the Society's book prize nine years ago.

He acknowledges that pupils in all the major ethnic groups in England are much more likely to achieve five or more higher-grade GCSEs than they were 20 years ago. However, he points out that black pupils and children of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage have not caught up with other ethnic groups.

"The history of education in this country suggests that the 'assessment game' is rigged to such an extent that if black children succeed as a group, despite the odds being stacked against them, it is likely that the rules will be changed to re-engineer failure," Professor Gillborn says.

He realises this claim will sound literally incredible to many people but cites the example of baseline assessments, which used to be set on entry to primary school. In 2000, Professor Gillborn and Professor Heidi Mirza discovered that black children in one very large authority were achieving the highest grades in these tests.
That form of assessment has, however, been replaced by the Foundation Stage Profile, which is dependent on teachers' assessments at the end of the reception year. Following the change of assessment method, young black children are now said to be underachieving.

 "I have no evidence that the changes in England were manufactured deliberately," he says. "However, the changes are clearly racist in their outcome. A new assessment system for five-year-olds appears to have erased, virtually overnight, the only part of the system where black children were relatively successful."

Professor Gillborn says that he is often told that the academic success of "model minorities", namely Indian and Chinese pupils, demonstrates that the English education system is not racist. He rejects this argument.

"Although Indian and Chinese students undoubtedly face racism, sometimes of the most vicious kind, it is not the case that they are just as likely to come from poor backgrounds as black students or other lower-achieving ethnic groups," he says. "Indian students are the most likely to be educated privately: at twice the white rate and five times the rate for black students."

Race inequality in education persists because social and education policy has never seriously prioritised its eradication, Professor Gillborn concludes. "Rather, policymakers have paid more attention to social control, assimilation, and pandering to the feelings and fears of white people," he adds. "Most shocking of all, in key respects the contemporary situation is as bad, and in some cases worse, than anything that has gone before."

The joint runners-up, each of whom will receive a prize of £750, are: Professor Michael Young, also of the Institute of Education (Bringing Knowledge Back In: From Social Constructivism to Social Realism in the Sociology of Education, Routledge) and Dr Dina Kiwan, Birkbeck College, University of London (Education for Inclusive Citizenship, Routledge).

Further information

David Budge

(off) 0207 911 5349
(mob) 07881 415362

Notes for editors

1. The prizes will be presented at the annual seminar of the Society for Educational Studies (SES) in the Courthouse Hotel, London W1, at lunchtime today (November 5).
2. The award of book prizes by the SES does not imply support for any particular views espoused by authors.
3. The SES (http://www.soc-for-ed-studies.org.uk/) publishes the British Journal of Educational Studies, and awards grants to encourage research and scholarship.
4. The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London, specialising in teaching, research and consultancy in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. Last year's Research Assessment Exercise judged almost two-thirds of the work submitted by the IOE as internationally significant, and 35 per cent as "world leading".