Let me begin by stating categorically that this was a qualitative study, an investigation through case study interviews into strategies for overcoming underachievement amongst black students in UK schools.

In section 2 I began by justifying the position that factors leading to black underachievement continue to exist. Connected with this position there was an interesting dilemma during the interview process. I began to question whether unwritten premises, based on my work experience in Brixton and afterwards, that were the background to my literature review, were actually still applicable. Therefore I introduced a line of questions to help me establish a framework and these are discussed in sections 6.2 and 6.3. Although I had found changes specifically an increase in the process of ghettoisation, which I consider significant, these changes did not bely any of the work that I had done in the Literature Review.

As I was considering underachievement, in section 3.1 I looked at achievement and motivation, and suggested that learning was a natural process. Further the lack of motivation, experienced by many black students, leads to the underachievement and was, in my view, at the root of it. This lack of motivation came about for many reasons (factors) but it was not the purpose of this dissertation to analyse those factors, simply to say that these factors move black students away from the natural process of learning that many young people slot into. When I discussed achievement-motivation with my interviewees I found that those who had been successful had had powerful mindsets that enabled them to cope. For a number these mindsets had developed from a strong family background, but as I previously concluded in section 8.1 "it is clear that with ghettoisation the alternative economy provides attractions that militate against the development of this mindset".

Then in my review I began to examine different strategies that would hopefully build up to this mindset. I began by considering racism awareness, was this of benefit to those students who had achieved? As I stated in section 8.2 " I have not reached a firm conclusion, I cannot be positive one way or another". This is important because it would demonstrate that a 100% approach one way or the other is not appropriate. Students who have gone through the system without a level of racial consciousness have achieved academic success. Yet at the same time if that awareness has developed it should be recognised and supported by using approaches such as mentoring. One of the early lessons I personally learnt when overcoming the racism that was part of my upbringing was that black people are not all the same. I know this is blatantly obvious but in a society that presents black people as stereotypes this is a common failing. I think investigation of this strategy bears this out. For some people being aware of racism is part of their blood and can only be ignored at the peril of those that come into contact with them eg the education system, whereas others their experience of racism does not impact very strongly. Imposing awareness on those whose experience is not strong would be as negative as ignoring those for whom racial consciousness is a central part of their existence. I would claim that teachers need to be aware that black people are different and that their consciousness of racism is also different. I would also claim that my investigation counters the suggestion that all black people need racism awareness, in my view some of the interviewees had achieved and were reasonably comfortable with that success despite not having any form of formal racism awareness education.

Next I looked at what I pompously called the Performance-Oriented model - try harder, pay attention and listen. I was concerned about what I call "excuses for failure". Because of racism and all its consequences there are many excuses that a black person could give for failing in the UK system, and all would likely to be legitimate. But what use is that in education, in schools? Educationalists should not want to encourage these negative excuses but should be promoting positive attitudes. In Section 3.2 I discussed work by Donna Ford who gave me the words for my model - "try harder, pay attention and listen". She argued that some people said that all black students had to do was "try harder, pay attention and listen", and she claimed that that was unfair. Mostly I agree that to dismiss the problems caused my racism as a lack of attentiveness, but I would argue that rather than giving the students the "excuses for failure" they should in fact be pressed into following the Performance-Oriented model. As I said in concluding section 8.3 "there is evidence here to support the Performance-Oriented model", but "nowhere near enough to ask for that support unconditionally". As I also said in that conclusion, "I want to say to community activists to tell their young "Try Harder, Pay Attention and Listen" but I don't quite feel that I have enough evidence to say that". I think there is sufficient evidence to doubt the efficacy of the promotion of racism awareness, to promote in the young the awareness of how the affects of racism will damage their future. But these are issues that black students might have to come to terms with as they grow up, and schools with a black population need to have counselling strategies in place, such as mentoring, for dealing with a growing awareness. But is it appropriate for all black youngsters to be made aware of all the race issues at school when they need to concentrate on their studies, ie follow the Performance-Oriented model to try harder, pay attention and listen.

Next I examined certain cultural attitudes to consider appropriate strategies for improving motivation. I considered the attitude that black students are being asked to get jobs in a white society. For some of the interviewees getting a job was the purpose of education, and although I don't like this as an educationalist I recognise the pragmatism involved. And here I can offer no help. As adults we have a duty here to try to ensure that the job market presents equal opportunities to all. In fact for those whose school focus is completely on jobs there is a clear anomaly that can lead to a lack of motivation, and again I have no ideas for this one. If I go to school to get a job and as a black person I cannot get the job, then why should I work at school?

However there are parts of this issue that can be addressed. Why are jobs "white"? Personally I see jobs as part of the capitalist system, in a black country capitalism is still capitalism. Those people who label jobs as white are creating a confrontation with that label and this cannot help the motivation of black youngsters in schools. One interviewee worked in black business initiatives. His approach was to say that there is a business culture (not white jobs - BZ) in the UK, and that the market is predominantly white as in the UK the white people have most of the money. If you want to earn money through trading this is a reality that has to be accepted, mainly white people are going to pay you for your goods or services. But this is much less confrontational than saying jobs are white, and I feel it is a strategy that could be encouraged.

In section 8.5 I looked at the question of black rights and consciousness, this is clearly a small development from the strategy on race awareness, and the issues I discussed on that section in the conclusion above. As I said in the conclusion to 8.5, "there seems to be a developing clarity on this issue for me, the place for consciousness is very much different for each individual. If an individual does become aware, and that awareness is not fostered within the system then that individual can become antagonistic. But if that individual does not become aware, pushing such consciousness-raising might just cause confusion." I remember a poignant comment from one interviewee to the effect that she knew what I meant but she would hate to advocate a strategy of ignoring race awareness. Being tempered by her emotive advice is very important as the issue is so sensitive. The whole question of race awareness in schools needs to be investigated much more thoroughly than at present. It is my view that the education system takes its guidance from activists. But are activists the only people to take advice from? An activist is possibly a person who became racially conscious at school and was treated badly because of the school's inability to cope. But does that then mean that all black students should be given the sort of education that the activist would have wanted? At the same time it was a serious failing on the part of the education system if that intelligence in the activist was not fostered. The system needs to properly evaluate how consciousness might grow in a black person using, for example, the nigrescence model, and not make blanket assumptions about all black people.

Next I looked at assimilation. If I am presenting strategies that do not focus on race awareness, that suggest students follow the Performance-Oriented model despite the racism in the system, that suggest that people accept a business culture with a predominantly white market as opposed to seeing that the jobs are white, then I suspect I will be accused of promoting assimilation. In section 8.6 I found that "there appears to be a contradiction in this evidence". One person suggested that the approach of assimilation is camouflage, and that it was the intention that counted. I suggested in the end that the environment decided the degree of assimilation and the attitude to it. Ultimately it is a personal decision. For some that decision is always open to question because of their consciousness, for others an assimilationist position is not recognised because it suits their lifestyle. For our students I would suggest that it is an issue that again must suit the individual and is not an issue that all students need to be aware about. Asking school students to be conscious of assimilation when they are not might create conflict, but ignoring a student who is having doubts about assimilation is equally at fault. Again the school needs to have a strategy to cope with these eventualities, and not simply accept the activists' blanket consciousness-raising.

In the literature review I looked at the nigrescence model (section 3.2), and I thought it might well apply to black students in UK schools. This model turned out to symbolise the dividing line of the dichotomy that became evident especially when talking of mentoring. Many of the interviewees did not recognise any aspect of the model as having relevance, and yet a successful mentoring project for students about to be excluded was based on the model. With my interviewees I found a model whose application is for those who are developing a race consciousness, who are becoming aware of the issues they are going to have to face being in a racist society. Applying mentoring, or some such strategy, using this model as a base, could be the way of addressing the issues I raised in this conclusion. The importance of the model is that it attempts to recognise the development of a black child in a white society. I would suggest that it is not a model for all students but only those for whom awareness brings them into conflict with the white system. Race awareness need not be an issue for all black students, but for those that it is an issue mentoring guided by such a model (as opposed to vocational mentoring) could be a strategy for schools.

Ford suggested that this nigrescence model could help gifted black students I found no evidence for or against this contention but I feel strongly that there are gifted black students who turn away from the qualifications-jobs system route of life. For these students counselling using this model might help them return to the system route because this model recognises a developmental path for black people in conflict with white society, and that conflict need not always turn to the informal economy and crime. Also I must ask the question as to whether all the students who turn to the informal economy are doing so as a result of disillusion because of racism in UK society. As there are white crooks so there are black crooks! I think the difference here is that some black people turn to crime in frustration and disillusion at the obstacles placed in front of them by the racist society.

How you decide on which students to apply it to is another matter! Somehow the teacher/school needs to recognise the developing consciousness within their students, and then find a method of guiding them onto an appropriate mentoring programme. But this needs to happen at the same time as allowing those who have little interest can dedicate themselves to their studies.

The next strategies I investigated were also cultural strategies that Ford thought would help the "gifted black in identity development". The first one was one that I introduced myself, and even though I gained no evidence concerning this strategy I still wish to include it as a possibility. That is the strategy of holding to cultural strengths. Typical of these strengths is the question of respect for age. In Western culture there is a dominant youth culture founded upon the commercialism and consumerism directed towards the young. Personally I see this unnatural preoccupation with youth-directed culture as responsible for many of the problems faced in UK schools. In African and Afro-Caribbean culture within the community there has been a respect for age, a respect demonstrated by politeness and compliance with those who are elder. Unfortunately for many reasons this respect for age does not always apply outside their own culture ie respect for older white people. But imagine if it did. Imagine if black people came to school showing their respect for age ie teachers. At the same time within these cultures there is a deep respect for education, imagine if this was also applied in schools. These are cultural values that we should encourage to resurface despite the cultural conflict with white culture (which for the majority lacks respect for age and education) that they might bring.

As a possible strategy I raised the question of racelessness. In this Ford and others were suggesting that black students needed to negate their race in order to be able to succeed in a white system. I then suggested that a less confrontational strategy would be to detach from race ie hold to your identity racial or otherwise whilst doing what is required to pass the exams and get the qualifications. The position of racelessness was discussed with some interviewees, and it was not an issue for them, the need for detachment never arose. The issue of cultural conflict arose. Older people experienced problems where people like Cecil Rhodes and Francis Drake were presented as heroes, but with the revision of materials that has occurred there appears to be a growing tolerance amongst the teachers especially in the Inner City schools. Unfortunately in the "white" schools there has not been this transformation as there is no race problem there. Although this will not affect many black students white students leave school with certain racist values, and therefore propagates the racism in society as these students are more likely to hold positions of power. But one student saw Nelson Mandela as his hero because the Madiba proposed detachment in the form of "holding aggression and being more calm".

The question of role models was considered important. Even though there are more black leaders than white in the world, the images presented to black students are pop stars. Not only that but the material that some of these stars sing about can be very negative towards academic success in the system and also with their sexist exploitation of women. This I see as related to the problem of UK insularity. Rather than focussing on the UK in education there ought to be a world perspective where the qualities of world leaders such as Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, and many others. Instead if the UK looks to finding black role models they look at the US, in other words black people in conflict, like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X - great people but people in conflict.

Teachers as role models were seen as important by interviewees who attended schools with no black teachers as well as by the head I interviewed. Here schools could make an effort to educate students to see the great work done by many black people, but not marginalised as part of black studies, in the mainstream for all to recognise the contributions of black people to the world.

In this next part I was concerned about whether students would only work for particular teachers, black teachers. If this was the case then it was self-defeating because there is no way that they can achieve success in all subjects by working in one or two. I felt this was a problem because of academic reference to what I call a superteacher, again it is self-defeating if students expect that every lesson the teacher will inspire them, that the same teacher will be a paragon of virtue and that all their teachers will be practising anti-racists. In the case of Ford she referred to a culturally-conscious teacher. In my interviews I didn't find any negative reactions ie that the students only worked for black teachers. However I did find that many said that they worked for teachers that they trusted. Mostly this idea of trust did not have any characteristics, one person suggested that the teacher was concerned that the students did well and understood the work. But there was an intimation in one case that this trust was based on not being treated differently by the teacher as being the only black person. I would suggest that that person needed the confidence to know that the teacher was not a racist in order to work better for them.

I feel that for black people trust in their teachers has been undermined in two ways. Firstly for 15 years there has been a politically-inspired media campaign that has cast doubt on the professionalism of teachers to the extent that some students even question teachers' academic ability unnecessarily. But in addition to this community activists cast doubts about the competence of teachers to deal with black students intimating forms of racism. I have no doubts at all that there are teachers who, being brought up in a racist society, have been unable to remove all the products of that upbringing but I would maintain that teachers are a "liberal-minded profession" as one interviewee put it. If people the students trust, such as activists in their family, refer to white teachers as racists then students cannot then trust their teachers and it might well affect their work.

But students should not be concerned about the issue of trust it needs only to be a bonus. Victorian teachers - the good old days? - taught and students learned, there was no doubt placed in the minds of the students. When the students have doubts they cannot concentrate on their studies. To help black students follow the Performance-Oriented model we should all work together not to put those doubts in the way. This of course is not helped by the appalling situation for black students in the 60s and 70s, and these students are now the parents of the current students.

The last strategy I proposed concerned what was considered quality education, I was wondering whether what the system saw as quality education demotivated black students. Surprisingly enough when you consider how much the education system disadvantages black people, no-one actually questioned the syllabus content. As I said in concluding section 8.12 "the measures that are being asked for are deep and sweeping by implication, but revolve around measures of human respect rather than curriculum content". I interpret that in terms of the desire for qualifications, I see this desire combined with the desire for jobs as the primary motivation. It therefore follows that what is contained in the syllabus for the qualifications is of little import, and this I see as demotivating. One person used the phrase "cleaning the house" to describe how she saw school, it was a chore. If there is no intrinsic interest in the subjects concerned then there can be no motivation for knowledge itself, I see this as a disadvantage. As an educationalist I do not like seeing a significant minority of students working on materials they have no interest in. But in thisn case there was a firm conclusion, my interviewees were not particularly interested in quality or quality education but in getting qualifications at all cost.

The next two parts of this conclusion did not come from my literature review. Firstly I did not address the issue of dealing with peers, how to keep out of trouble. It was significant that 2 of my interviewees educated in all-white schools had to resort to violence to cope, a further interviewee also had to resort to violence simply to be allowed to work. Would you or I have done that? This is an indication of the power of the mindset needed by black students to cope in the schools.

But the most significant aspect that came from my interviews was mentoring which I barely touched on in the literature review process. I devoted a whole section to the two attitudes that I found prevailing concerning mentoring. In concluding section 9 I said that "through a government containment policy since the uprisings of the early 80's we have a township strategy of ghettoisation, dichotomising into the formal and informal economy. If society is two-tiered then this must impact on schools and education." Throughout the conclusion so far I have stressed the need to recognise the differing needs of different black students, this economic dichotomy crystallises that difference and could guide us towards a strategy for helping underachievers.

What is immediately obvious to me is the incredible power of the mindset required by black students to cope with UK schools. In line with this, this dissertation has attempted to develop strategies to build this mindset.

What further became clear to me is that the system fails to differentiate sufficiently between different types of black students. Do all students require or desire race awareness or black consciousness? Is it desirable that all students be educated into "black consciousness "? My answer to this is an emphatic NO at school, but equally emphatically the system needs to make more provision for those students that do require it. I would suggest a new skill for the superteacher, and that is the ability to recognise students whose personal development has led them into black consciousness. If those aware students are not given adequate counselling, through mentoring possibly, then they might well drop into the informal economy.

This question of the informal economy has become a serious issue for UK education. Through government containment strategies a process of UK ghettoisation has made an earnest start, and this must have an impact on black students in Inner City schools. Compare the attractions. Informal economy - personal power, a fast car and money while young; formal economy - work hard at school, get your qualifications, try to get a job in the world of work and fail because you are black. In the US the nigrescence model was developed as an attempt to chart the development of a black student in a white society. Applications of this model can help guide the student away from the informal economy. At the same time, as Ford suggests, the nigrescence model can help gifted black students come to terms with a developing black awareness. They can accept being immersed in a white education system and yet still maintain their racial identity; combining these they can obtain qualifications that will possibly give them passports to a job.

In this dissertation I was attempting to develop strategies to help students build the required powerful mindset. Firstly let us as teachers recognise just how powerful a mindset is needed to cope with Inner City schools. Please excuse me for saying this as you will know but it is worth reiterating - that mindset has to be far stronger than anything I, and many others, had as a child. I would suggest that counselling to build that mindset is an important skill that teachers of black students should be equipped with. But how is a difficult issue involving finance.

But what should those counselling skills consist of? Race awareness and black consciousness - I would say no. Why? Because not all students require knowledge of these issues and perhaps they are better equipped to deal with school if they focus on studies. To this extent I proposed an attitude which I termed the Performance-Oriented model - try harder, pay attention and listen; to my mind this is the essential counselling that students require. If some students become aware of all the problems of being in a racist society they can become demotivated and then not get the qualifications. If they get qualifications they will at least have some weaponry to cope with the problems.

Students need also to be counselled about the single-minded attitude required to cope with peers and the trouble in school. School has to be a place of work, and students cannot be ambivalent about this or they will fail. They require determination, and teachers cannot be sympathetic to a lack of determination or ultimately those students will lose track.

But suppose a teacher, through their counselling, encounters a developing race awareness, then there needs to be recourse to proper race counselling. This race counselling could take the form of mentoring using the nigrescence model. I would suggest however that this type of counselling is not the brief of the teacher, I would see that the family, community, and trained race counsellors would be much more appropriate to deal with these students. I propose that it is the skill to recognise the developing consciousness rather than the actual counselling itself that teachers become involved in - especially white teachers.

I have examined certain issues such as assimilation and racelessness and found that they are not necessarily appropriate for all black students. Again they are important issues if they arise and the system needs to cope with them through race counselling, but I feel that such guidance should be given by family, community or a trained race counsellor.

The issue of role models is important. Sadly through the glorification of aspects of the informal economy the role models that many black students hear of are singers and pop stars. In school the mainstream, and not marginalised in black studies, needs to consider its curriculum with a view to promoting the work of black people. But sadly most such promotions occur with those black people who have gained notoriety through struggle eg Angela Davies, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. But what about the many great African leaders? Julius Nyerere, Jerry Rawlings, Nelson Mandela, and Kofi Annan. And Afro-Caribbean leaders - Michael Manley, Walter Rodney? These people should be part of mainstream education but unfortunately many teachers don't have the confidence to teach about them, and the exam syllabus might restrict such teaching. Remember many students see what is on the exam syllabus as what is real education - if it is not exam syllabus it could be considered to be marginalised.

Finally I would ask that all black students be counselled to develop a powerful single-minded mindset as the most important means of survival and gaining qualifications in Inner City schools. As a central part of the mindset would be the dictum to follow the Performance-Oriented model. However teachers need also to be aware that students will also have a developing race awareness to differing degrees. Teachers need to recognise that this awareness can lead to conflict with the system and weaken the required mindset. They further need to recognise that some students will require special race counselling at a certain stage either through family, community or a trained race counsellor. Failure to deal with this developing awareness will only lead to conflict in school, and even worse consequences such as dropping out into the informal economy.