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Unveiling Perceptions: Ethnic Minorities and Geography Education

Research explores perceptions of minority ethnic groups towards geography education in the UK, uncovering underrepresentation, influences on studying decisions, and attitudes. Findings reveal disparities and influences shaping educational choices.

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Unveiling Perceptions: Ethnic Minorities and Geography Education

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  1. DOES GEOGRAPHY HAVE AN IMAGE PROBLEM?Exploring the perceptions and attitudes of minority ethnic groups towards geography education. HAFSA GARCIA MSci PGCE MA Research carried out for the MA in Geography Education at the UCL IOE 2019

  2. Rationale “…the persistent under-representation of black and Asian people in certain places, occupations and organisations that shape society (including teaching and… the Geographical Association)…illustrates a society that is failing people and… missing out on enormous untapped human potential” LAMBERT, 2002: 297 “It’s my impression that Geography… is nearly as white… as country and western music or professional golf… most of the teachers are white, most of the students are white…” DELANEY; 1998: 25

  3. RQ1. To what extent are minority ethnic students represented in geography education in the UK? RQ2. How is geography perceived by students and parents from different ethnic groups? RQ3. What influences the decisions of minority ethnic students to study or not to study geography?

  4. Research design

  5. Data collection Questionnaire responses from 133 parents and 349 students (49 and 116 from ME groups). Interviews with 7 parents of Arab, Bangladeshi, Black African, Indian and Pakistani heritage. Focus groups with 3 Bangladeshi GCSE students and 15 A level students from a several different ME groups. Secondarydatasets from DfE and HESA from 2015/16. Schools that agreed to distribute the questionnaire to students.

  6. 19

  7. Data analysis

  8. Key findings RQ1. To what extent are minority ethnic students represented in geography education in the UK?

  9. Minority ethnic representation is increasing in GCSE Geography.

  10. GCSE Geography uptake may be linked to attainment.

  11. ME groups are underrepresented at A level but this is also increasing.

  12. ME groups are underrepresented at undergraduate level and PGCE. PGCE Geography 2016 PGCE all subjects 2016 BME White Unknown 12

  13. Key findings • RQ2. How is geography perceived by students and parents from different ethnic groups?

  14. Minority ethnic participants had less positive attitudes towards geography. PARENTS Asian = 25 White British = 76

  15. Minority ethnic participants had less positive attitudes towards geography GCSE STUDENTS 61 Minority Ethnic 80 White British A LEVEL STUDENTS 28 Minority Ethnic 118 White British

  16. Minority ethnic participants had less positive attitudes towards geography. “I don't think people who are not of an English background particularly view geography as a subject. It's like general knowledge but with less knowledge.” “I do real subjects. Sciences and such.” BLACK AFRICAN A LEVEL STUDENT (STUDIED GEOGRAPHY AT GCSE) “I think that being from a Pakistani background, extended family and friends are quick to say that geography is a waste of time- to them it is an easy subject that doesn't result in high profile/high paying jobs.” PAKISTANI A LEVEL GEOGRAPHY STUDENT

  17. Participants lacked knowledge of various aspects of geography. “I would have thought geography’s not one of those subjects [facilitating], it’s the more prestigious ones, economics, maths, physics…” “…I find that astonishing that [the global governance of human rights] comes with the remit of geography, um, yeah to me that’s either politics, or sociology…” INDIAN PARENT “As it isn’t a STEM subject, people from my cultural background know little about it and I often have to describe the subject to them” AFGHAN A LEVEL GEOGRAPHY STUDENT

  18. Some participants felt other places were not always represented in an accurate and balanced way. Maria: “Oh yeah the book displayed it to be//” Puja: “A lot worse than it is.” Maria: “Like torture and worse... and like people in the class didn’t agree with it… but then all of us who were like outside the culture just kind of sat there cos we didn’t like…” Puja: “We didn’t know, which one…” Petra: “Who to trust.” A LEVEL GEOGRAPHY STUDENTS DISCUSSING REPRESENTIONS OF SHARIAH LAW IN A TEXTBOOK

  19. Some participants felt other places were not always represented in an accurate and balanced way. “…if a place has a conflict going on… or it’s vulnerable to natural disasters people think oh it’s not a good place, but then they don’t look at uh, some of the social stuff, like how you have close family structure over there and it feels welcoming, it sort of just portrays it in one light.” BANGLADESHI GCSE GEOGRAPHY STUDENT “…when I came in [from India] at the end of Year 8…they showed us more of the slum areas of India… they didn’t hardly show any of the rich areas, it was mainly like places like Mumbai, in which there are more slums, they just showed that bit… but there’s no slums where I’m from” INDIAN A LEVEL STUDENT

  20. Key findings RQ3. What influences the decisions of minority ethnic students to study or not to study geography?

  21. Parents had a strong influence on their children’s subject choices. “…myself and my wife are, um, educated in engineering and science and maths, and maybe we encouraged them to do that…you cannot help them in geography and history… you can help more in science and maths.” ARAB PARENT “…being homeschooled, we talked a lot about… trying to save the environment and we hung out with hippies, vegans… I think it just fit with our um, ethos…also my husband is someone who has been on the podium with Tony Benn…” PAKISTANI PARENT

  22. All participants felt that preferences for certain subjects and careers played a role. Sirin: “Asian people are more into science… They’ll be like oh, why don’t you pick a science or maths, not geography.” Leena: “Yeah, you’re more encouraged to be like, do medicine or law.” Neelam: “I think they just think it’s the best thing to do.” Leena: “The most prestigious.” Neelam: “I’ve been encouraged to do medicine since I was a little kid…it’s not a stereotype, it’s//” Leena: “Reality” A LEVEL GEOGRAPHY STUDENTS

  23. Geography was not thought of as leading to a good career or as being useful for careers that were valued e.g. law or medicine. “People don’t have the knowledge and understanding of what geography is, people are gonna say now what you gonna do with a geography degree? Travel and tourism, you gonnawork in a leisure centre? That’s the last thing Asian parents want their children to be involved in!” BANGLADESHI PARENT “I wanted to do law…and I was always like I wanna do history not geography…[but my geography teacher] always used to say, you can do A level Geography and still go into law at uni, I think that’s a big misconception…” INDIAN A LEVEL GEOGRAPHY STUDENT

  24. Emphasis on certain careers was linked to socioeconomic background and cultural differences. “…they have security in the West…where we come from…we’ve suffered in our lives and therefore our investment [is] in our children to have a good job…a secure job, so that he can take the burden of the family, and that is the difference, it is very important, why, the ethnic people and, the white people let’s say, differ in life, because for us, we support our family till they die…it’s a cultural thing…” ARAB PARENT

  25. Some participants were concerned about the lack of ethnic diversity in geography – mainly related to career prospects. “With this kinds of jobs there’s always that, unspoken (.) thing about you being a minority and like, well I always get people saying stuff like… you’re less likely to be hired being a minority than being white… it’s not even just geography, it could be anything, but in terms of like specialist jobs and stuff like that, you have to work twice as hard for it… yeah you can get the job but, how likely are you to get the job?” BLACK AFRICAN A LEVEL STUDENT

  26. Implications for geography educators

  27. Role of the teacher in fostering interest and giving advice may be especially important for ME pupils due to lack of knowledge/encouragement at home. Students most able to access geography (high attainers) may be least likely to choose it due to cultural influences to choose ‘stereotypical’ subjects/careers. Concerns about career prospects appears to be the main reason for ME not choosing geography, whereas enjoyment of the subject appears to be main reason for choosing it. Important to think about how other places and people are portrayed – put in context.

  28. Questions? @HafsaBobathafsa.bobat@gmail.com

  29. Plea for further research I collected a huge amount of data for this project – more than I could analyse properly or fit into my MA dissertation. If anyone would like to use this data in their own research please contact me and I would be very happy for you to use it.

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