Swann (1985)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part I: Setting the scene
Chapter 1 The nature of society
Chapter 2 Racism: theory and practice
Chapter 3 Achievement and underachievement
Chapter 3 continued

Part II: Education for all
Chapter 4 Ethnic minorities and education: historical perspective
Chapter 5 Multicultural education: further studies
Chapter 5 continued
Chapter 6 'Education for all': a new approach

Part III: Major areas of concern
Chapter 7 Language and language education
Chapter 8 Religion and the role of the school
Chapter 9 Teacher education; employment of ethnic minority teachers
Chapter 9 continued

Part IV: 'Other' ethnic minority groups
Introduction
Chapter 10 Chinese children
Chapter 11 Cypriot children
Chapter 12 Italian children
Chapter 13 Ukranian children
Chapter 14 Vietnamese children
Chapter 15 'Liverpool Blacks'
Chapter 16 Travellers' children
Reflections and conclusions

Part V:
Main conclusions and recommendations

Appendices

Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups

Chairman: Lord Swann

Cmnd. 9453

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1985
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Part IV 'Other' ethnic minority groups: Introduction
[pages 649 - 651]

The range of ethnic minority groups

1. It has been clear throughout our work that many people regard the term 'ethnic minority' as simply meaning people of Asian or West Indian origin. This attitude was manifested by those who, after the publication of our interim report, relating to children of West Indian origin, expected that our main report would 'complete' our task by dealing solely with the needs of Asian pupils. We have already made clear that we interpreted our task in far broader terms and did not limit our work to looking at anyone particular ethnic minority group but attempted to consider the needs of ethnic minority groups within the broader question of the education of all children for life in a pluralist society. The central focus of our work has remained the particular educational needs of pupils from ethnic minority groups and this has meant that we have devoted a considerable amount of attention to both Asian and West Indian communities. We were anxious however to also give some consideration to the situation of children from some of the numerically smaller ethnic minority communities which have tended to receive rather less attention than the Asian and West Indian minority groups but which are as much an integral part of British society today.

Communities considered

2. It was clearly not feasible to attempt to consider separately the experiences of all the many different ethnic minority groups now present in this country. We decided initially therefore to focus our attention on those ethnic minority groups which we saw either as exemplars of particular types of communities or whose needs we considered to be particularly deserving of attention in their own right. These groups were:

the Chinese Community: One of the most numerous 'other' ethnic minority groups. A community whose situation has received little attention but whose members often have particular needs because of the widely dispersed nature of their pattern of settlement;

the Cypriot Community (Both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot): Another of the larger 'other' minorities, whose concentrated pattern of settlement presents certain specific educational needs. Also an ethnic minority community where the level of academic achievement of pupils has aroused considerable concern;

the Italian Community: One of the longest established ethnic minority communities in this country and, as a 'white', European-derived group, offering a particular insight into questions of 'ethnic identity' and links with the majority community. The efforts of the Italian government to assist with activities such as 'mother tongue teaching' also offer an interesting perspective on such issues;

the Ukrainian Community: One of the Eastern European groups who settled in this country following the Second World War as 'refugees' rather than as voluntary immigrants. As one of the smaller ethnic minorities at rather greater risk than other, larger groups of being submerged by the majority community and losing their distinct identity;

the Vietnamese Community: The most recent of the refugee groups to come to this country and also one of the ethnic minority communities with perhaps the most tenuous prior ties, in both emotional and cultural terms, with Britain. Also a group whose educational needs have been exacerbated by the traumatic circumstances of their departure from their own country and whose situation has been far more directly controlled by official agencies than other groups.

In addition to these groups, we were also led - by the sheer volume of evidence which we received on their needs - to consider the situation of children from the Travelling Community, whose needs have often previously been almost entirely passed over in any consideration of ethnic minority communities. From our consideration of the plight of this community, many of us were led to believe that their needs were if anything even more deserving of attention than the other groups we had considered. In many respects indeed, their situation appears to embody very strikingly many of the issues raised by the educational experiences of other ethnic minorities. We also devoted some attention to considering the 'Liverpool Black' Community, about whom great concern has of course already been expressed on a number of occasions and whose situation also illustrates to an extreme degree many of the problems facing other ethnic minority communities.

Evidence gathering

3. In order to assist us with our investigation of these groups, we once again commissioned the NFER to prepare reviews of relevant research data. To supplement this material and the many interesting and valuable submissions of written evidence which we received, we organised a series of meetings, visits and oral evidence sessions around the country in relation to each of these communities. As with the major part of our evidence gathering, we made particular efforts to meet representatives of the communities themselves, especially parents and young people, and, without exception, the responses we received to our requests for information and to our expressions of interest were positive and enthusiastic. Above all we were struck by the extent to which members of these groups were both surprised and pleased that a Committee such as this should take the trouble to seek their views on education and on their perceptions of minority/majority group relationships in this society, rather than, as has almost always happened in the past, simply confining its attention to the 'major' ethnic minority groups.

This part of the report

4. In this part of our report we devote chapters to considering the educational needs of pupils from these groups. Since we have already put forward our main findings and conclusions relating to the needs of children from the whole range of ethnic minority groups and our broad strategy for developing 'Education for All', we have confined ourselves here to describing the background of these communities and discussing the particular educational needs which pupils from them may face. Where very special factors have influenced the experiences of certain groups, as in the case of the Vietnamese and the Travellers, we have put forward some specific recommendations on their behalf. At the end of this part of our report we summarise briefly the conclusions which we feel can be drawn from our findings in relation to these 'other' ethnic minorities to further support the conclusions we reached earlier. We must emphasise that the following chapters are not intended to provide a comprehensive picture of the situation of any of these groups. We hope however that they will not only help to inform our readers about the diversity of ethnic minority experience in Britain today, but will also serve to broaden the debate about ethnic minority needs beyond the traditional emphasis on the larger ethnic minority communities. In focusing on these particular groups, we recognise that members of other ethnic minority communities, who may have submitted evidence to us but whose needs we have not considered explicitly in this way, may feel disappointed. We must emphasise however that in preparing this report we have taken full account of the whole range of evidence we have received, and the similarities which have emerged between the experiences, needs and aspirations of all the ethnic minorities whom we have considered in our view lends further weight to the conclusions which we have reached in the interests of all ethnic minority children.