Cy Wright

Race relations in the primary school

This work is a coordination of the contributions to the first European conference on bullying held in Norway in 1987. Delegates agreed to go away and undertake further work and share information. This book is in part an outcome of that process.

Masculinised Discourses within Education and the Construction of Black Male Identities amongst African Caribbean Youth

Abstract Boys in general, and Black boys in particular, are being excluded from school in ever increasing and disproportionate numbers, drawing attention to the need for a closer examination of the interrelationship between ‘race’ and gender. Clearly, young Black masculinities are not expressed in isolation, but are, amongst other influences, informed and shaped by school processes. Within schools, the ways in which masculinities are portrayed plays a major part in the relationships that exist between Black males and their peers and teachers. Thus, the experiences of Black pupils in school are mediated through their gendered identities. This paper discusses such experiences through the findings of a recently completed study of school exclusions and educational performance, in which young excludees have been interviewed and ethnographic school research conducted. The study explores the nature of ‘excluded’ identities by looking at how processes of exclusion act to position young Black males within discours...

Out of Place: Black women academics in British universities

This article examines the experience of Black women academics in British universities. 1 The background to this is the under‐representation of Black people at all levels of academia, particularly in senior posts. Black women in academia can be seen to be occupying a space that has historically been the preserve of the white middle‐class male. Within this space Black women are ‘space invaders’. The article explores this concept by reporting the findings from a study of Black women academics. The marginalization, tenuous position, lack of a sense of belonging and survivalist strategies are issues explored. Feelings of being excessively scrutinized and marginalized are common amongst the women. Issues of lack of progression, workload management, lack of opportunities, lack of support and access to resources are identified by the women and discussed. The article describes how Black women negotiate their experiences of work in academia and how they feel damaged by their experiences. The article concludes by making the case for institutional change in British universities.

Othering difference: framing identities and representation in black children's schooling in the British context

This paper, based on research in five British schools, focuses on the experience of black young people in the British education system. It is set within the contexts of both persistent underperformance and overrepresentation in school exclusion of these children. The concept of intersectionality informs the study in terms of disaggregating the children primarily by divisions of race, class and gender. Issues of whiteness further informs the context of the interactions between children and teachers. The interactions between and the views of teachers and black children are seen as deeply implicated in the unequal learning outcomes still prevailing in British schools.

RETRACTED: Visual Research Methods: Using Cameras to Empower Socially Excluded Black Youth:

RETRACTED

Gender-blind racism in the experience of schooling and identity formation

Much of the research dealing with education and race has concentrated on the experiences of black males. Research now needs to address the issue of how schools affect the production of black femininities. The aim is to explore how both black males and females adapt to schooling, and school exclusion in particular. Previous theoretical models often situate black women within the stereotype of the ‘superwoman’ and negate the experiences of black females in families that are not female-headed. Previous research also suggests that much of the black male pupil response to schooling is based on the way in which teachers equate disaffection with black masculinity. The study draws on research in schools with pupils aged from 13 to 15 years when observed and interviewed. Many pupils responded to schooling in a way that cut across race and gender. Pupils often attempted to subvert the traditional relationship of teacher as powerful and pupil as powerless, reacting to this relationship through their own racial and g...

Postindustrial Capitalism, Social Class Language Games, and Black Underachievement in the United States and United Kingdom

Against Ogbus oppositional culture hypothesis, this article offers a class or structural/relational framework to contextualizing and understanding why it is that Blacks have more limited skills in processing information from articles, books, tables, charts, and graphs compared with their White counterparts in the United States and United Kingdom. We synthesize Marxian conceptions of identity construction within capitalist relations of production with the Wittgensteinian notion of “language games” to offer a more appropriate relational framework within which scholars ought to understand this Black–White academic achievement gap in America and the United Kingdom.

Karl Marx, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Black Underachievement in the United States and United Kingdom

This article synthesizes Marxian conceptions of identity construction within capitalist relations of production with the Wittgensteinian notion of “language games” to offer a more appropriate relational framework within which scholars ought to understand the Black–White academic achievement gap in America, the United Kingdom, and globally.

Researching identities, difference, subjectivities and social relations in childhood within multi-ethnic infant and primary school settings

This chapter offers an account of the role schools play in shaping young children’s racial identities. It uses critical white studies as a conceptual base, and draws upon data from an in-depth study of multi-ethnic infant and primary school. Utilising detailed observation of 3–11-year-old children in schools, it provides an important account of the ethnocentrism of some of the young white children, and how they draw upon discourses of ‘race’ in the development of their identities.