Continuing to Think: the British Asian Girl: An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Culture Upon a Group of British Asian Girls With Specific Reference to the Teaching of English

Many British Asian girls are well-motivated, intelligent students who wish to continue their education to reach satisfying careers. Others, despite the specialist language instruction they have received in their early school years, remain lacking in confidence and enthusiasm for education, their contributions being characterized either by low self-esteem or by low competence in English, or by both of these. This exploratory study investigates the relationship between cultural pressures and expectations and the demands of the education system in which students are placed. Its focus is a group of British Asian adolescent girls whose views are gathered from relaxed and relatively unstructured discussions and interviews as well as from questionnaire responses. The girls express their views on their schoolwork, on family expectations, on the learning of English language and literature, on sex roles and other issues. The insights gained warn against holding any stereotyped view of "the British Asian girl" in education, whilst clearly highlighting the problems that many girls face. Implications are raised for the teaching of English, for nursery provision, community relations, for school policy and for further research enquiries. The book argues that the resources of British multicultural society and the wide range of world literature written in English should be available to all school students in Britain. British Asian girls are an important national resource whose educational underachievement is not affordable.