Since I gave evidence to the Education Select Committee’s enquiry on ‘left behind’ white pupils in 2020, and in the wake of the report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, I’ve given a number of radio and TV interviews on ‘white underachievement’. I’ve tried to use each appearance to move the debate on from the culture wars, and onto more constructive territory based on what the evidence base tells us about why some groups of young people fall behind at different stages of their education.
It’s been a good opportunity to have a nuanced debate about class, white privilege, and how inequalities shift around as young people get older. I’ve also been able to discuss my area-based research, which shows that neighbourhood context is an important factor in explaining why some groups of young people do worse than others at school.
Here are my appearances on Radio 4’s World Tonight, 5 Live, Asian Network, LBC and GB News:
I was also contacted by Zoe Beaty over the summer, who wrote an excellent feature in The Times on the Select Committee’s report and her own experiences of educational inequality: