Academic profiling in Britain? Exploring Black youth’s experiences of tracking in schools

ABSTRACT

Based on 30 one-on-one in-depth interviews and 24 focus group interviews with 120 Black Caribbean pupils in one of the largest state secondary schools in South London, this article examines how Black students make sense of their concentration in lower-ranked classes as facilitated through academic tracking. While previous research documents the academic, social and psychological implications of tracking, setting and other “ability” grouping practices for various racial, ethnic and class groups, comparatively little attention has been devoted to how the persistent misrecognition of Black pupils in Britain often results in academic profiling in schools. Academic profiling is here defined as the persistent mischaracterization of Black and other racially minoritized students based on their past achievements and dominant cultural stereotypes. The results of this study suggest that Black Caribbean participants experience academic profiling as a signature feature of their educational experiences, whether in bottom, middle or top sets.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial and ethnic inequality
• institutional bias
• academic tracking
• urban schools
• Black youth
• Bourdieu

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the British Sociological Association's 2022 Annual Meeting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

This study received ethics approval at the University of Cambridge.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Gates Cambridge Trust.