1st Edition
British Indian Model Minority Pupils’ Schooling Experiences Attitudes, Attainment, and Strategies
Exploring the British Indian model minority discourse, this book is the first empirical and theoretical examination of high achieving British Indian students’ lived experiences of schooling, education, teaching, and learning.
Drawing from narratively styled qualitative interviews with Indian students, the chapters explore Bourdieu’s theory of practice and the concepts of capital, symbolic violence, and habitus to analyse what the contextual and empirical data reveals about the role of class background in the production or reproduction of social class. Providing thought-provoking insights into the role the English secondary education system plays in exacerbating the label of the Indian model student, the book critically examines how this label seems to at once praise, patronise, and homogenise a heterogeneous group of people who share a particular heritage. Ultimately, the book contextualises Western education and the ways in which minority ethnic students and various groups defined as ‘Other’ relate to, and connect with, education.
The book will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of the sociology of race and ethnicity in education, the sociology of higher education, and the marketisation of education.
1. Questioning the model minority brand 2. Bourdieu’s theory of practice and Indians 3. Hidden disadvantage and Indian high achievement 4. The role of the school teacher: expectations 5. Assessment and exam feedback experiences 6. Private tutors and reassurance 7. Managing agency
Biography
Jatinder Kang has a doctorate in Sociology of Education, University of Southampton, UK.
‘Kang’s book critically unpacks the notion of model minority for British Indian pupils, with an informed and insightful study that discusses the different factors shaping students’ educational experiences, attitudes and outcomes. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and capital, Kang highlights the complexities and nuances of academic success, including the cost of success, providing us with a rich and important contribution to our understandings of the educational journeys of British Indian young people. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to better understand and support the educational experiences of minority ethnic students.’
Billy Wong, University of Reading, UK
‘Jatinder Kang's excellent book successfully challenges the dominant framing of British Indians as "model minority" pupils. Applying a Bourdieusian lens to rich interview data, Kang's analysis shines a light on the disadvantage and marginalisation faced by British Indian pupils but concealed by the "model minority" label. As Kang shows, the academic success of many British Indian pupils owes more to the strategies used to navigate these obstacles than to any natural affinity with the White middle-class habitus so favoured by schools. Centring the voices of British Indian pupils, this is must-read book for scholars, policy makers, educators and parents alike.’
Vikki Boliver, Professor of Sociology, Durham University, UK
‘British Indian Model Minority Pupils: attitudes, experiences and attainment explores the stereotypes that exist which present British Indians as a "model minority" in the eyes of other minority groups. Interrogating why a perception of success across social spheres of life exists, Jatinder Kaur Kang focuses on the role this plays within the education system in Britain and the expectations of achievement from family and educators.
With other studies often overlooking British Indian pupils in a quest to understand educational inequality, due to the typical academic success this group achieve, this book seeks to understand the complexities and perceptions of British Indian pupils. In particular, highlighting the need for better connections between ethnic minority children, the school curriculum and the arts and media.’
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, MP for Slough since 2017 and appointed Shadow Minister for Railways in 2020.
