Race, Gender and Educational Desire

Why black women succeed and fail

Heidi Safia Mirza

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781134060511
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Didattica
• Thema: Didattica generale

'This book is a great genealogy of black women's unrecognised contributions within both education and the wide social context. I think it constitutes an important piece of work that is totally missing from the existing literature'

- Diane Reay, Professor of Education, Cambridge University

Race, Gender and Educational Desire reveals the emotional and social consequences of gendered difference and racial division as experienced by black and ethnicised women teachers and students in schools and universities. It explores the intersectionality of race and gender in education, taking the topic in new, challenging directions and asking

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• How does race and gender structure the experiences of black and ethnicised women in our places of learning and teaching?

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• Why, in the context of endemic race and gender inequality, is there a persistent expression of educational desire among black and ethnicised women?

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• Why is black and ethnicised female empowerment important in understanding the dynamics of wider social change?

Social commentators, academics, policy makers and political activists have debated the causes of endemic gender and race inequalities in education for several decades. This important and timely book demonstrates the alternative power of a black feminist framework in illuminating the interconnections between race and gender and processes of educational inequality. Heidi Safia Mirza, a leading scholar in the field, takes us on a personal and political journey through the debates on black British feminism, genetics and the new racism, citizenship and black female cultures of resistance. Mirza addresses some of the most controversial issues that shape the black and ethnic female experience in school and higher education, such as multiculturalism, Islamophobia, diversity, race equality and equal opportunities

Race, Gender and Educational Desire makes a plea for hope and optimism, arguing that black women's educational desire for themselves and their children embodies a feminised prospectus for a successful multicultural future. This book will be of particular interest to students, academics and researchers in the field of education, sociology of education, multicultural education and social policy.

Heidi Safia Mirza is Professor of Equalities Studies in Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, and Director of the Centre for Rights, Equalities and Social Justice (CRESJ). She is also author of Young, Female and Black (Routledge).

Part 1
Understanding race, class and gender inequalities

Chapter 1
Young female and black¹

It is now established that significant numbers of young black women do relatively well at school.² However, understanding relative black female success is an aspect of social enquiry that has vexed educational researchers and policy-makers for many years. An examination of the contemporary educational discourse over the past three decades reveals an interesting paradox of exclusion and inclusion with regard to young black women in educational research. The former, the exclusion of young black women in race and education studies, appears to be fuelled by political undercurrents which, since the 1960s have sought to maintain the myth of black underachievement (Mirza 1992). On the other hand, when young black women were included in educational research in the 1980s and early 1990s,³ their relative success was explained within the problematic context of ‘the strong black female’ (Mirza 1993). With its reification of motherhood and marginalisation of the black male, this popular theoretical construction appears to be the outcome of an attempt to explain achievement within a discourse whose underlying premise maintains the ‘idea’ of underachievement.

If the contemporary discourse on race and education renders black female success invisible and the myth of the ‘strong black mother’ appears to be the outcome of inappropriate, ethnocentric theories of female oppression that dominate educational research, then how do we attempt to theorise the black female positive orientation to education? In a critical evaluation of these existing explanations I argue that young black women engage in a dynamic rationalisation of the education system. My findings show that young black women, who identify with the notion of credentialism, meritocracy and female autonomy, strategically employ every means at their disposal in the educational system and classroom to achieve a modicum of mobility in a world of limited opportunities, an aspect of enquiry that is often either ignored or misunderstood by policy-makers and educational researchers for whom black women still remain invisible.

The study⁴

For the purpose of rethinking black female academic achievement I examine the experiences of second-generation African Caribbean women living in Britain. These young women are the British-born daughters of migrants who came to Britain in the 1950s. Encouraged by the British government’s recruitment drive for cheap skilled and semi-skilled labour these West Indians came from their newly emerging postcolonial countries to work mainly in the hotel and catering, transport and hospital services. The recipients of crude anti-immigrant hostility, and later, the more subtle workings of institutional racism, these black migrants and their descendants have experienced many obstacles to their social economic and political advancement.⁵

The overall aim of the project was to investigate the complex influences that affect the career aspirations and expectations of young black women. The 62 young black women in this study, who were aged between 15 and 19 years, attended two average-sized secondary schools in two of the most disadvantaged inner city boroughs of South London. Comparative data were collected on the aspirations and expectations of young white working-class women and men as well as young black men. These data, which acted as a ‘control’, are not reported here in detail, as the findings discussed relate to only one aspect of this research project; that is, the educational orientation of young women of African Caribbean descent.

In each school a random sample was drawn from pupils in the fifth and the sixth year of their secondary schooling. All pupils and schools were given fictional names. From St Hilda’s, a co-educational Catholic school, 128 (65 per cent) black and white male and female pupils were taken whereas 70 (35 per cent) were taken from St Theresa’s, a single-sex Church of England school. The study combined a longitudinal survey approach with a school-based ethnographic study. The young black women and their black and white male and female peers, who numbered 198 in all, and who could be objectively identified as coming from working-class homes, answered questionnaires, and were interviewed and observed in their homes and classrooms over a period of 18 months. Of these, 62 (31 per cent) were African Caribbean young women; 13 (7 per cent) were African Caribbean young men; 77 (39 per cent) were young women from other (mainly white) backgrounds; 46 (23 per cent) were young men from other (mainly white) backgrounds.⁶ Several parents and teachers of these pupils also participated in the study.

The data reported here highlighted three influences on black female educational motivation. First, the cultural orientation of working-class migrants towards meritocracy and credentialism. Second, the strategic rationalisation of post-16 education and careers. And third, the expectation of economic independence and the prevalence of relative autonomy between the sexes. Each of these three factors is explored below.

Migration and meritocracy: the origins of a new social movement?

Gilroy (1987) argues that the struggle for educational opportunities among Britain’s black communities merits recognition as a new social movement. Such ‘fragile collectivities’, he explains, are characterised by their mobilisation around the collective consumption of services, develop a distinct cultural identity and operate by means of a self-managed political autonomy. Indeed, among the West Indians’ collective but autonomous political struggle for better educational conditions, a distinct community identity did evolve (Pearson 1981). Gilroy suggests that while these collectivities or movements are not necessarily agents for social change they are nevertheless symptoms of ‘resistance to domination’. It could be argued, as indeed I wish to suggest here, that the extent, direction and intensity of the black female positive orientation to education is significant enough to qualify their collective action as an educational movement. An investigation into the rationale and internal dynamics of such a movement offers a new direction in the investigation of black female achievement.

My research findings show that the first-generation African Caribbean migrant identification with the ideology of meritocracy is important in shaping the characteristics of a second-generation black females’ educational movement. Positive attitudes to education and the lack of restrictions on female labour market participation within African Caribbean families were major factors in accounting for the high educational aspirations of the young women in the study. A detailed consideration of African–Caribbean, working-class, migrant cultural characteristics, which I undertake here, revealed that in fact, young black women were strongly influenced by their parents. The explanation for young black women’s positive orientation seemed to lie within an understanding of the transmission of the African Caribbean migrant working-class ethos, the values of which had filtered down to the girls from their parents, and had subsequently been modified.

It is often the case that people migrate for ‘a better life’. This is as true of the West Indians who came to the UK as of any other group of people. West Indians came to Britain in the 1950s in what may be argued as both a male-and female-headed migration, in search of better opportunities for themselves and for their children. While objectively occupational opportunities for migrants are restricted by specific constraints with regard to their disadvantaged labour market position there is another dimension to migrant life: that of their own subjective occupational orientation. This internal cultural dynamic of migrants, what I call the ‘migrant effect’, refers to the degree to which migrants themselves pursue the goal of upward occupational mobility, particularly for the next generation, by striving for educational achievement and qualifications. The influence of this ‘migrant effect’ on educational outcomes may vary according to the culture of the migrant group, the country of settlement, and economic and social conditions (especially significant is the extent of racial exclusion and discrimination), but it nevertheless remains a characteristic feature among many migrant groups (Alba 1985).

Glazer and Moynihan (1963), in their study of American migrant society Beyond the Melting Pot, discuss the drive for educational credentials among the many migrant groups in the USA. They describe the Jews’ ‘passion’ for education; the Italian concept of (family) social status through the professional occupations of their children; the Puerto Rican capacity for hard work and the value they place on schooling. Of the Caribbean migrants who came to the USA in 1920 to 1925, Glazer and Moynihan write, ‘The ethos of the West Indians … emphasised saving, hard work, investment and education … buying homes and in general advancing themselves’ (p. 35).

They remark that West Indians, such as Marcus Garvey, ‘furious’ at the prejudice they encountered in America (which they felt was far greater than that among the whites in their home islands), turned to radical politics. Leggett (in Bettelheim and Janowitz 1977) supports this thesis of political involvement, claiming that blacks, having the lowest ethnic status, have therefore the highest level of class consciousness.

Indeed, a degree of political consciousness among early black migrants to the UK has been demonstrated by the ‘Black Education Movement’ set up by this generation of migrants (Chevannes 1979; Pearson 1981; Tomlinson 1985). The struggle for basic educational rights has been a political focal point for the ‘black community’ since the 1960s. However, as Tomlinson observes, it is not so much a radical movement as one that seeks to ensure equality of opportunity for migrant children within the education system. Confirming that migrant parents have strong educational aspirations for their children, Tomlinson (1982) writes, ‘The parents very much aware of the discrimination their children could face in seeking employment after school placed great faith in the acquisition of educational qualifications to help overcome this’ (p. 34).

Parental recognition that the British education system discriminates against the black child has resulted in the establishment of black supplementary schools, spearheaded by the action, in particular, of black women. These separate black schools embody the belief that education will ultimately help black children to succeed in an ‘English’ system by providing them with the credentials necessary for employment, or further education and training in the majority society. It was found in the study that black parents wanted improved educational standards for their children, and despite the general feeling of disillusionment and mistrust towards the schools their daughters attended, still retained their faith in the meritocratic ideal. Among the parents interviewed it was clear that securing educational opportunities for their children was of central importance, as one father explained:

We work to give our children opportunity. We earn to pay rent, buy a little food. Man, there was no time for bettering ourself. Our children, they now have the benefits to better theyself, education and so on. We didn’t have these opportunities our childrens now have these opportunities and we’s work hard for them [sic].

(Mr Burgess, London Transport maintenance)

Clark (1983) puts forward a thesis on why poor black families succeed in education. He argues that too often studies emphasise family composition (i.e. single-parent families) and not family disposition (i.e. beliefs and values). This is an important point; black girls in the study did seem to derive much of their determination for ‘getting on’ from their parental orientation and both the passive and active support this engendered. It was apparent that African Caribbean parents did encourage their daughters and were proud of their successes in many different ways. Many of the young women in the study described how their parents had an important role to play in influencing not only their cultural identity, but also in shaping their specific educational outlooks, both of which combined to make them what they were today:

Both my parents brought me up in the West Indian way. They brought me and are still bringing me up in the way their parents brought them up. I would like to pass this West Indian tradition down to my children so that this tradition lives on and never dies.

(Karen, mother: nurse; father: London Transport maintenance)

Nancy Foner (1979, p. 217) makes the following observation about the orientation of African Caribbean migrants’ children towards education in the years to come. She writes,

The struggle to get a good education may, however, become a central focus in their lives; the second generation set their goals higher than their parents have and measure their achievements and prospects by English rather than Jamaican standards.

Indeed, as Foner predicted, the second-generation African Caribbean girls in the study did show a strong commitment to education and in particular identified with the meritocratic ideal as a means of ‘getting on’. This was clearly illustrated in the girls’ optimistic statements:

Black people work hard and want to really make something of themselves. I want to get on in my life.

(Maureen: aspiration social work; mother: office worker; father: carpenter)

I believe you can really change things for yourself, it is up to you but you really can.

(Laurie: aspiration sports woman; mother: secretary; father: BT engineer)

A fundamental belief these young black women share is that, no matter who you are, if you work hard and do well at school you will be rewarded in the world of work. The goal of ‘equality of opportunity’ it encompasses suggests that the occupational outcomes of pupils should be a reflection of their educational achievements regardless of class, race or gender. It is ironic that such an outwardly individualistic ideology which centres around the notion of credentialism and meritocracy, expressed in the desire for personal academic qualifications, should engender a collective social movement. It is equally ironic that this ‘meritocratic ideal, while a fundamental pillar of liberal democratic society, and hence enshrined in the British educational system, should also be a central ideology of the black female educational movement: a movement whose motivation appears to be the strategic rationalisation of the very system that oppresses them. Whatever the ideological orientation of such a movement, it nevertheless enables young black women to ‘resist domination’ and achieve social change in a world of limited opportunities.

‘Strategic rationalisation’: the challenge to subcultural theory

In the 1980s the notion of ‘subcultures of resistance’ became the perceived wisdom for not only explaining the persistence of working-class inequality, but also sexual and racial inequality. This notion of subcultures of resistance was developed from the influential work of the cultural reproductionists who, in the late 1970s, dominated the analysis of social inequality in Britain.⁷ This theory, which suggests that through their own activity and ideological development young working-class men and women reproduce themselves as a working class, appeared to offer the ideal framework for developing an understanding of positive black female orientation to education.

The preoccupation with subculture, which dominates the small but distinct body of scholarship on young black women in Britain, has had far-reaching consequences for our understanding of black female academic motivation. Today, romantic, celebratory notions of black female ‘subcultures of resistance’ prevail in both our commonsense and academic discussions. The notion of subculture appears to have been employed because it first offers an imaginative and interpretive account of the girls’ ‘lived-out experiences’ of racism in the classroom. Second, it offers an understanding of creativity, activity and resistance, while leaving intact the pervasive myth of black underachievement. Emphasising the subcultural features of youth remains descriptive, diverting our attention away from the structural issues which determine the quality of the experience of those being studied; issues such as unemployment, compulsory miseducation, the prospect of low pay an...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: The intersectionality of race and gender in education
• PART 1 Understanding race, class and gender inequalities
• PART 2 Theorising race and gender differences
• PART 3 Transcending race and gender expectations
• PART 4 Reflections on race and gender
• Notes
• Bibliography