In
April 2003, the young black musician Ms Dynamite signed a £1m
deal with Pepsi to encourage kids from tough backgrounds to break into
the music business and become stars of the future.
Last year, during an interview with The Observer, the Mercury Music
Award prize-winner was asked about role models, and replied:' I would
have liked to have chosen someone who was important as a scientist.
I think that's very important. You don't get to see many black scientists,
especially in this day and age.'
Despite
turning down the chance to study a BSc in social anthropology, Ms Dynamite
stressed the importance of encouraging black kids. 'When I was at school
we did only one week of black history', she said.' I was never told
black people contributed anything important to Earth. This gives you
a sense of inferiority. I think lots of black kids would want to be
scientists but they never get examples of someone who has done it before.'
According
to a report from the UK Commons Science & Technology Committee,
all children (irrespective of their ethnic origin) have switched off
from science. But this is particularly evident with African-Caribbean
pupils. Science has a 'black hole' which we urgently need to fill.
Few
black SET students
The African-Caribbean Network for Science & Technology (ACNST)1
is a UK educational charity set up to advance the educational achievements
and career aspirations of black youth in science, engineering and technology
(SET). Work conducted by its director, Dr Liz Rasekoala, found that,
of all African-Caribbean students studying at UK universities, only
3 percent are doing SET. This compares with 98 percent of Chinese students
and 75 per cent of students of South Asian origin. Coupled with the
highest level of graduate unemployment (with Chinese students exhibiting
the lowest), it is apparent that there is a direct correlation with
having a scientific background and being employable.' They are coming
out in droves with qualifications in the arts and humanities for which
there are no jobs', exclaims Rasekola. 'With science and numeric skills,
the City of London wants you, Proctor & Gamble wants you and Hewlett
Packard wants you. They have got degrees that the market doesn't want!'
School
failures
So why are black pupils not achieving in science and engineering? A
1996 Ofsted report2 found that the achievement gap between 16 year-old
white pupils and their African-Caribbean classmates had doubled since
the late 1980s. It argued that teachers underrate the abilities of black
youngsters. The issue was recently explored in a Channel Four documentary
series entitled 'Second Chance'. According to series creator Trevor
Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), black
boys especially are being failed by schools.' They would come into school
at five with reading scores perhaps 20 per cent above average and leave
at 16-21 points below average', says Phillips in an interview excerpted
from the forthcoming book 'Black Success Stories'.' So school is doing
something with these children.'
Cultural
factors
Dr Rasekoala thinks there are three factors which explain why black
children achieve less than other ethnic minority groups. Asian children,
she finds, have a strong sense of cultural cohesion, which provides
a positive alternative and empowering reference point. Indeed Phillips,
who studied biochemistry at Imperial College, believes he was saved
from an almost bleak future simply by being sent to the Caribbean as
a teenager. This provided him with an alternative reference point where
he had no sense of inferiority because he was black, and allowed him
to challenge the limited images of what a black person can be in mainstream
society.' Mainstream seems to want it both ways', explains Rasekoala.
'They criticise the Asians for not integrating and assimilating,
and yet the black community who have done all those things have no benefits.'
The second factor is what Rasekoala terms a loss of cultural integrity,
which means that the meaning of success has different cultural implications.
A successful Asian is still regarded as a member of the community; a
successful black person is seen as being outside the community or a
'sell-out'. This mindset has developed particularly amongst black boys,
and means the price of success is too high. The third factor relates
to questioning one's place in society. 'Asian kids have a strong sense
of, "I'm here, and I can build myself up and be successful and
move on to India or Pakistan",' explains Rasekoala, 'but black
kids don't think they can move on and so given the present situation
ask themselves:" Is that it? Why bother?".' 'Racism impacts
on all children equally', says Dr Rasekoala, 'just as on a rainy day
the rain falls on all of us equally. But it makes a difference if I
have those great big golf umbrellas, a raincoat and a pair of Wellington
boots and you don't. So Asian children have that golf brolly, they've
got that raincoat and Wellington boots, but most of our kids don't.
Of course Asians experience the same extent of racism as black people,
but they have the cultural cohesion, cultural integrity and the sense
of what success buys in society as a stepping stone to moving on.'
Parents
According to Tony Sewell, an educational consultant, peer group pressure
and the fact that 'black parents do not value education enough' are
bigger threats. This Rasekoala feels is completely wrong because it
blames the victim:' I don't think there is any African-Caribbean parent
who wants any less for their child,' she says.' You can never aspire
to what you have never seen and you can never take someone to where
you have never been!'
This she feels explains why the success of middleclass children seems
automatic because those two imperatives are in place.' For black and
working class children there is no automaticity to success,' she says.'
What we should be talking about is how we provide those tools to enable
those parents to take their children to where they have never been.'
Gender
model
In May 2003, nine women out of 42 scientists became Fellows of the Royal
Society. This new record underscored a government initiative to reflect
the number of female scientists in senior academic posts. Today, more
girls than ever before are opting to continue studying science at higher
levels as a direct result of strategic policies set up 10-15 years ago
to address the low numbers of women entering the science and engineering
fields.
Parallels have always existed between gender and race, given the issues
of under-representation, the lack of role models, public expectations
and negative stereotyping are pertinent to both.' As a black woman engineer
I don't know when I am suffering racism or when I am suffering sexism!'
exclaims Rasekoala. 'If they have done all these things on gender then
why not on race, as the patterns are the same?'
One
of the first ways of addressing the gender issue was to make gender
monitoring mandatory. This enabled educationalists to quantify the extent
of the problem and devise serious policies and strategies to address
it. After much struggle and campaigning by the CRE, this year the government
finally agreed to make ethnic monitoring of exam results compulsory.
Other
initiatives
DISC,
an initiative of the ACNST in partnership with the British Association
for the Advancement of Science aims to create an effective national
framework to facilitate empowering networks and sustainable partnerships
between ethnic minority communities, (including women's groups) and
the science communication community, by engaging both groups in consultation
and dialogue.
There is also ETHNIC which is a European project that aims to raise
the public awareness of science & technology among ethnic minorities,
with a special emphasis on sectors including Biotechnology, Information
Technologies and Engineering Sciences within a European context. These
sectors were chosen on account of their importance to EU research and
innovation. The project ETHNIC is unique in being the first of its kind
to be carried out at European level.These initiatives hope to appeal
to more young people and lay the foundations for a new generation of
prominent black scientists.
Links
1 African Caribbean Network for Science & Technology -
http://www.ishangohouse.com
2 Ofsted 1996 Reports: Educational Inequality:
Mapping Race, Class and Gender -
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/docs/447.pdf
3 Festival of Science & Culture 2003 -
http://www.festivalofscienceandculture.co.uk/
Ken
Okona-Mensah is a Scientific Writer for Imperial
College, Department of health and Toxicology Unit
k.okonamensah@imperial.ac.uk
At
a glance...
- Very few African-Caribbean university students, compared with other
ethnic minority students, study science, engineering and technology
- Some argue that teachers underrate the abilities of black youngsters
- African-Caribbean students may be discouraged because, relative to
Asian students, they lack cultural cohesion, cultural integrity and
the sense of what success buys in society as a stepping stone to moving
on
- It is hard for African-Caribbean parents to enable their children
to aspire to what they themselves have not seen
- Measures taken to help women in science should be applied to African-Caribbean
children
- In November, a high-profile national campaign will begin to raise
awareness of these issues
This
article first appeared in Science and Public Affairs Magazine in September
2003
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