The Bull and the Red Van: Pakistani-heritage young people in a small city explore the influences upon their educational progress

Davies, Alison (2014). The Bull and the Red Van: Pakistani-heritage young people in a small city explore the influences upon their educational progress. EdD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000d5c3

Abstract

This study is about the influences underlying the inequalities in educational progress experienced by Pakistani-heritage pupils in the small city of 'Newminster'. The literature offers a wealth of explanations for the persistent inequalities in attainment among different minority-ethnic groups, from which the voices of the pupils themselves are almost entirely absent. In this study, young people offer their own, often competing, explanations of distinctive aspects within the GCSE attainment data, including their rapid progress over the previous decade and the small gap in attainment between those eligible for free school meals and their peers. The principal sources of data are extended discussions with groups of Pakistani-heritage young people supplemented by interviews with parents, and a formal survey conducted by the young people among their black and minority ethnic peers. In analysing the variety of data generated by this mixed approach, the study draws up,.on the analytical framework of Bourdieu, in particular, the concept of 'habitus'. The study engages with the methodological dilemmas of a white researcher conducting research with a community to which she is an 'invited outsider', and the broader challenges of attempting 'participatory' research. The findings indicate that the Pakistani-heritage young people in the study have a strong sense of habitus that they contend has a positive influence on their educational progress. At the same time, they are actively engaged in habitus transformation. This process drives their educational aspirations but involves personal cost, dilemmas and encounters with barriers constructed by the wider education system. Their insights support a call for further consultation with marginalized young people over issues relating to their own educational progress.

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