| Summary: | The purpose of this thesis is to examine the claims of low attainments amongst Bangladeshi pupils in British secondary schools. It is primarily concerned with ascertaining how Bangladeshi girls and boys perform in relation to other pupils in different parts of Britain, attempting to understand the experiences for Bangladeshi pupils in British schools and explaining why variations in attainments might exist amongst them, as well as between them and other ethnic minority groups. The research employed both quantitative and qualitative methods, and data consisted of questionnaires administered to nearly 3500 Year 11 pupils in twenty schools, individual GCSE results, interviews with several groups of Bangladeshi students in three of the twenty schools and further case studies of twelve Bangladeshi students from these groups. The findings presented a complex picture of a community who shared similar socio-economic disadvantage, poor educational backgrounds and relatively recent immigration patterns, yet were considerably varied in terms of pupils' attainments. Explanations for the variations in attainments amongst the Bangladeshi population were not necessarily the same as explanations for variations between them and other minority groups, although clearly some of the same factors were having an impact across all groups. A message that comes across strongly is a community who are determined to succeed and circumvent their disadvantages, but equally what is stark is how these disadvantages are not recognised as such, let alone dealt with, by British schools.
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