The Ethnic Minority ‘Underachieving' Group? Investigating the Claims of ‘Underachievement' amongst Bangladeshi Pupils in British Secondary Schools

This article explores the evidence indicating low attainment amongst Bangladeshi students (in comparison to other students) in English secondary schools. It discusses some of the factors and processes that have been linked to the different performances amongst minority ethnic groups in previous research, and examines some of the conceptual and methodological assumptions in these studies. It illustrates how the evidence supporting 'Bangladeshi underachievement' is insufficient, and highlights the gap for an adequate explanation of why (some of) the Bangladeshi group may be attaining poorer examination results in relation to their Asian peers.