`You got a pass, so what more do you want?': race, class and gender intersections in the educational experiences of the Black middle class

The article discusses the findings of an ESRC funded project
(RES-062-23-1880) which used in-depth interviews to explore the educational
experiences and strategies of 62 Black Caribbean parents; the
biggest qualitative study of education and the Black middle class yet
conducted in the UK. The article focuses on the parents’ interactions
with their children’s teachers and, in particular, their experience that
teachers tend to have systematically lower academic expectations for
Black children (alongside a regime of heightened disciplinary scrutiny
and criticism) regardless of the students’ social class background. The
parents’ accounts highlight the significance of a cumulative process
where a series of low level misdemeanours sometimes build into a pattern
of seemingly incessant and unfair criticism that can have an enormously
damaging impact on their children. Although our data suggest
that these processes can involve children of both sexes and of any age,
the parents report a particular concern for Black young men, whom they
perceive to be especially at risk. Our findings demonstrate the continued
significance of race inequality and illuminate the intersectional relationship
between race and social class inequalities in education. This is particularly
important at a time when English education policy assumes that
social class is the overwhelming driver of achievement and where race
inequity has virtually disappeared from the policy agenda. Our findings
reveal that despite their material and cultural capital, many middle-class
Black Caribbean parents find their high expectations and support for
education thwarted by racist stereotyping and exclusion.