This narrative inquiry took place in Bristol between 2003 and 2011 and is a follow-up, of seven African Caribbean and Somali boys who participated in a social skills group whilst in their final year of primary school. Five years later, I met with the boys and families at home and, using a performance narrative methodology, engaged in conversations regarding the boys' secondary school experience including their perception of factors that had supported as well as impeded their progress at school. A national and local review of the educational attainment of pupil by ethnicity was undertaken, highlighting a discourse of BME underachievement, as well as a critical discourse of institutional racism. At this time a demographic change as a result of a rise in international migration was impacting on their schools. The first interviews were undertaken when the boys were in Year 10. Poems were created from the transcripts and during the second interviews, in Year 11, they were read aloud as a means of returning the stories to the families. The boys' narratives were crafted into layered texts which included the poems, transcript extracts, field notes and reflections. The boys' messages to their schools included a desire for all students to receive an equal amount of their teachers' time. The research found that school initiatives to support attainment crosscut with personality so that the socially outgoing boys were well served but the shy, reserved boys were left wanting, and ultimately desperate to leave school. Performance narrative allowed for stories to be cued and supported by family members, for migration stories to be eo-constructed and for contested stories to be deconstructed in disagreement. I considered my positioning in regard to my White ethnicity, my class, gender and age and reflected on the effect this may have had on my relationships with the participants.

Class analysis suggests a strong positive link between parental social position and adolescent educational expectations. Yet, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean pupils with disadvantaged parents maintain much higher expectations for university study compared to their white peers from more advantaged families. Ethnicity is key to understanding this paradox. Yet, quantitative research has not explained how ethnicity impacts on adolescent expectations or whose expectations it impacts most. This thesis investigates whether the longitudinal association between parental social position at age 14 and pupils expectations at age 16 is mediated by parent-child conflict, pupils’ homework engagement, feelings about school and pupils’ assessments of teacher effectiveness at pupils’ age 15, net of all prior influences at age 14. It then explores whether these mediational routes are moderated by maternal ethnicity. Ecological systems theory informs a longitudinal latent variable mediation model estimated on panel data from waves 1-3 of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. Parental social position at age 14 does not affect pupils’ expectations at age 16 via the hypothesised home and school factors at age 15. Its longitudinal influence is weak on white, modest on Black Caribbean and Pakistani and insignificant on Indian and Bangladeshi pupils’ expectations at age 16 casting doubt on classical sociological models. Moderation by maternal ethnicity strengthens the positive longitudinal influence of home-related factors on expectations and tones down the negative effect of family disadvantage or other negative influences particularly on South Asian pupils’ expectations at age 16. Pupils’ expectations at age 14 significantly impact on home and school factors and expectations at age 15 and are the primary indirect route of influence on expectations at age 16. Moderated by maternal ethnicity, this mediational mechanism allows South Asian pupils to develop and maintain higher expectations than white pupils despite family disadvantage.

The attainment of ethnic minority students in their host countries has been occupying a significant part of the international literature for many years. However, results suggest that no generalisations can be made on whether an ethnic minority group underachieves in a particular country and the reasons behind their attainment levels, unless that specific group has been investigated in the country in question. Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 and since then the demographic composition in the island changed dramatically; a change reflected in schools. The literature on ethnic minority group attainment in secondary schools in Cyprus is virtually non-existent and, as such, in this PhD programme the aim was to examine the attainment of ethnic minorities compared to native students and the reasons behind the observed patterns. In order to answer the research questions a series of studies were carried out. Initially, two quantitative studies were conducted. These studies used trimester grades as a proxy of attainment and Rasch analysis to turn these ordinal student grades into a linear scale. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were then run to check for trends and significant associations. Two qualitative studies then followed. Firstly, a focus group study was conducted utilising the help of six young female teachers, all teaching classics to create a homogeneous group. Then followed an interview study utilising semi-structured interviews on sixteen teachers. For both studies a thematic analysis was undertaken on the transcribed discussions. Another quantitative study then followed which employed an enhanced methodology to the first two studies and richer data. The final study was a mixed methods study and concentrated on school absences. Results demonstrate the reality in lower secondary schools in Cyprus for the first time. The minority group Georgians, the first time that this group is met in the literature, and a combination of other smaller groups put together in a group called ‘Others’, are shown to achieve significantly lower than natives. Ethnic background, gender, generation status, absences, the socio-economic status of the family and the character of the local educational system were shown to be related to student attainment. The widely held belief that ethnic minority students do even worse in those subjects that are more language-dependent is disproven; rather it is the content of the subject that is felt to be more influential on attainment. Also, the recently emerging consensus that unexcused absences are more strongly associated with attainment than excused absences is not upheld in this study; a more detailed classification of unexcused absences might be responsible for this. Finally, it is interesting to note the differential influence of different absence variables on different school subjects. Findings highlight the need for change and improvement in the educational practice in Cyprus and add to both the local and international literature. The specific factors identified can form the basis on which to base suggestions for improvements and further research.