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Teachers 'expect less' from black, middle-class pupils.

Teachers expect black middle-class pupils and their parents to be far less interested in education than their white middle-class counterparts, a study has found.

Researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London, spoke to 62 black Caribbean parents about whether their race and social class made a difference to their children's school experience.

Teachers expect black middle-class pupils and their parents to be far less interested in education than their white middle-class counterparts, a study has found.

Researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London, spoke to 62 black Caribbean parents about whether their race and social class made a difference to their children's school experience.

The Office for National Statistics uses an eight-point scale to measure social class, known as the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification. All the parents in the study had jobs which fell into the top two categories of the scale.

The parents told the academics that, despite having similar academic qualifications to white middle-class parents, teachers treated them as if they knew less about their children's education.

To counter this, some of the parents said they dressed particularly smartly when meeting teachers, while others said they ensured they knew more than other parents about education issues. One said she modified the way she spoke when she was at school governor meetings.

The parents said they felt teachers expected their children to perform less well than white middle-class pupils.

The parents responded to this by carefully monitoring whether their children were making sufficient progress. One parent said that before her son had started school, she had written to the headteacher to ensure he knew that she had very high expectations of her child. Another said a teacher had appeared surprised to find she had thoroughly researched her daughter's learning difficulties.

One of the parents, Eleanor, a social worker, told the academics: "You find it helpful sometimes to use your status, what job you do … People treat you differently."

Jean, a college lecturer, said that at school governors' meetings "we're all sort of speaking the language, I call it the language of Whiteness … It's like you've got to be part of that in order to communicate in certain situations. So the governing body communicates in a very white, middle-class language … They forget themselves and start making these derogatory remarks about parents and … [I] sort of [sit] there thinking 'oh, so this is it'. [You] see very much what their core beliefs are."

Dr Nicola Rollock, of the Institute of Education, one of the study's authors, said racism was a reality for many black middle-class families. "Parents recognise it as less overt than when they were children, but nonetheless [it is] pervasive in more subtle and coded forms," she said.

"White middle-class parents often presume an entitlement to a good education for their children and [an entitlement] to educational success. Black middle-class parents are there to protect their children and insist on high standards," she said.

Read more about this story at the Guardian website.