Constructions of racism by British Chinese pupils and parents

Abstract

British Chinese pupils stand out as a high achieving group within the British education system and yet very little theoretical or policy attention has been given to these pupils' identities and experiences of education. In this paper we consider British Chinese pupils' (and parents') reports of their experiences of racism/s and their views on the potential causes of—and their responses to—racism. Analysis teases out several key components within respondents' constructions of racism/s, including popular assumptions (e.g. that Chinese pupils are clever, quiet/passive, and hardworking). It is argued that pupils experienced the seemingly ‘positive’ stereotypes of British Chinese pupils as clever and hardworking as highly negative for a range of reasons and attention is drawn to respondents' negotiations between conflicting identity positions (for example ‘geek’ and ‘tag’). Particular attention is also drawn to interplays of ‘race’/ethnicity and hegemonic masculinity within the production and resistance of racism/s.