White working class boys will continue to be left behind because 'white privilege' suggests they are the problem
White working class boys will continue to be left behind because notions of "toxic masculinity" and "white privilege" suggest they are the problem, MPs have been told.
Prof Matthew Goodwin said that the national conversation has become "preoccupied" with issues around gender, race and ethnicity and is generally focussed around "historic grievances" between black and minority ethnic communities.
He told the education select committee that white working class boys suffer from a "status deficit", adding that as a result of this change in the national conversation "we have inadvertently legitimised a view within some communities that they are not treated with the same status, respect and recognition as others".
Prof Goodwin, a political scientist at Kent University, went on: "My fear now with the onset of new terms – toxic masculinity, white privilege - this will become even more of a problem as we send a signal to these communities that they are the problem, it is not the system more generally that has let them down, they are the problem and they should make amends for simply being who they are".
He was addressing MPs at their first hearing of an inquiry into why white working class boys underachieve in every aspect of education compared to their peers.
Robert Halfon, the chair of the education select committee, launched the inquiry to examine which factors contribute to the underachievement of white working class students, such as the availability of places at good nurseries, the impact of role models and home life.
It is the first in a series of inquiries that the education select committee plan to launch into “left behind” groups which will also include children from Roma communities, those with special needs and those who have grown up in care homes.
White pupils are typically the least likely to achieve their potential between primary and secondary school, according to official progress measures used by the Department for Education.
White pupils are also the least likely to enter for traditional GCSE subjects that count towards the English Baccalaureate award.
Just 37.5 per cent of white teenagers enter for the award, the lowest proportion of all ethnic groups. In order to obtain the award, students must obtain five A*-C or numeric grades 9-4 in maths, English, science, history or geography, and a modern language.
Asked why white pupils in poorer communities perform worse on average at school then peers from different ethnic backgrounds, Prof Goodwin, professor of politics and international relations at the University of Kent, said a number of "cultural" factors are likely to play a part.
He said that over the past decade, other groups in society have been paid far more attention, adding that it remains "taboo" to discuss the underachievement of white working class boys.
Prof Diane Reay, emeritus professor of education at Cambridge University, said: "I think there's growing levels of social resentment and a sense of being left behind among white working classes.
"Research shows us very high levels of polarisation particularly between highly credentialed groups, those of us with degrees, and those people who leave school with very few qualifications.
"There's a lack of understanding and empathy for the class 'other' among all class groups, but I think that it has the most power to injure and to have a detrimental effect on those with the least power in society, those who see themselves as educational failures and losers."
