Ethnicity and science aspirations: British Asian and British Black students

In this chapter, we bring attention to bear on two key groups of students – British Asian students (whose families had migrated from the South Asian subcontinent), who tend to be well represented in post-16 science participation, and British Black students (those with African and/or Caribbean heritage), who tend to be under-represented in post-16 science participation. We explore the factors that combine to produce these patterns, arguing that the differences are not due to a lack of aspiration or home/family encouragement. Indeed, British Asian and Black students appear to report higher levels of interest, aspiration and family encouragement than their White peers.