Failure by Any Other Name? – Educational Policy and the Continuing Struggle for Black Academic Success

This paper draws on the findings of in-depth qualitative research into the experiences of academically successful Black pupils. It takes the standpoint that thinking about and exploring the experiences of Black pupils in relation to success will lend a new angle to current educa- tional debates on their achievements, and help challenge their existing prevalent pathology.
The research considers how staff at one particular inner-city secondary school construct academic success; how these views shape their practice and the subsequent implications for Black pupils being able to achieve academically. It is argued that one of the fundamental flaws of government policy is its failure to understand the ways in which cumulative pressures to reach targets can combine with teachers’ (albeit often unintentional) subjective positioning of particular groups of pupils as a threat and anti-school, and thereby undermine any overarching commitment to raise Black pupils’ educational attainment.