An ethnocentric curriculum is when the school emphasizes the values of only their own culture therefore emphasis is put on white-western music, literature, language, history, religion, etc An ethnocentric curriculum does not value black, Asian or any other cultures except their own and therefore a pupil of a different ethnicity will not have the same knowledge and understanding of white-British culture as much as they may have of their own culture, however this is not recognized, hence the pupil is doomed to fail as they may not know or understand the ˜basic' English/British culture and cannot use it to their advantage
For example, there are 10 questions that are thought to be general knowledge for anyone who is considered a British citizen, however many people do not know some of these things, and they will therefore get judged by the white-British society. A simple way to redeem this would be to introduce different cultures and languages into the curriculum instead of just basing it on white-British/American history, language and music. This can lead to pupils taking more of an interest in some lessons as they may be more familiar with things and will understand their topics better. .
On the other hand, many sociologists argue that ethnic differences in achievement can be best explained by factors outside the school (external factors). One of these factors is family life which is how family attitudes, values and expectations in terms of culture affect their child's education. It could be that traditions are keeping children home instead of being in school, or traditions which mean that diet is inadequate which can also lead to health problems and hence missing out on school time. Also cultural deprivation theorists argue that lack of motivation is the cause of failure for many black children as they are socialised into a subculture that instils fatalistic views, and present-time orientation that does not value education and leaves them unequipped for success.