Ethnic Minority Achievement: Assumptions, Realities, and Possibilities

1
Ethnic Minority Achievement Assumptions,
Realities, and Possibilities

• Tabbye Chavous
• University of Michigan
• School of Education
• Meeting of Oakland County Superintendents
  Association
• May 2, 2007

2
My Goals in Todays Talk

• To begin to complicate our thinking around race,
  diversity, and students of color in ways that can
  have positive implications for educational
  practices with students of color
• Describe current theories and perspectives on
  ethnic minority achievement from social science
• Address assumptions underlying these perspectives
  and their implications for teachers and
  educational practices
• Engage in discussion about ways that the norms of
  educational practice and professional development
  can hinder or facilitate efforts to effectively
  education ethnic minority students

3
Context of African American Achievement

• Racial group disparities in socioeconomic
  structures and opportunities contribute to racial
  differences in achievement outcomes
• Not just a social class issue, though
• Achievement gaps reported across socioeconomic
  contexts

4
(No Transcript)
5
What influences students engagement in school?
School - Teachers- Peers- Culture
Home - Parents- Siblings- Culture
Community - Role models- Opportunities- Culture
Self - interests- efficacy/beliefs-
temperament/affect
6
What influences students engagement in school?
Home - Parents- Siblings- Culture
Community - Role models- Opportunities- Culture
Self - interests- efficacy/beliefs-
temperament/affect
7
Prevalent Theories of Ethnic Minority Achievement

• Ogbu Fordham
• Acting White
• Racelessness
• Stereotype Threat
• Academic Disidentification

8
Major Assumptions of Theories

• Identification with being Black associated with
• Cultural orientation that devalues education
• More susceptibility to negative effects of
  concern about racial stereotypes on achievement
  and motivation
• Race-consciousness or awareness of racism
  detrimental to academic achievement

9
Black Identification as Risk Factor
Awareness of Group Societal Status

Racial Group Identification
-
Academic Motivation
10
Concerns with Current Theories

• Non-historical view of African American culture
• Lack of explanation for positive achievement
  outcomes
• Little attention to within-group variation in
  youths beliefs and attitudes
• Little empirical support for idea that Black
  identity related to academic risk

11
Why are These Theories the Popular Ones Then?

• Reasons for ethnic minority underachievement
  found within students (or their families,
  communities, and cultures)
• Schools and other societal institutions can feel
  good about acknowledging effects of past
  wrongs, but
• Have no current culpability or responsibility to
  change structures and practices

12
Why Educators Should Have Problems with These
Models

• Within these frameworks, teachers and schools
  have little agency or efficacy in affecting or
  improving student achievement

13
Empirical Research Related to African American
Achievement Values

• Family and parental socialization research
• African American identity research

14
Black Identification as Protective Factor
Racial Group Identification
Awareness of Group Societal Status

Group Pride

Academic Motivation
15
Family Parental Socialization Research

• African American parents report similar or higher
  levels of achievement values than other groups
• African American youth who receive messages from
  parents emphasizing group identity and pride
  report better educational outcomes

16
African American Identity

• Racial identity involves how individuals think of
  themselves in relation to their group
• Particularly relevant to developing children and
  adolescents
• A schema regarding the relations between self,
  group, and society
• Lens through which individuals perceive,
  interpret, and respond to their social and
  educational experiences

17
African American Identity

• Views of racial identity from popular theory
• all or nothing view of group identity
• existence an optimal racial identity
• assumption of particular beliefs accompanying
  racial identification
• Our research shows African Americans vary in
• definitions of self with regard to their group
• perceptions, interpretations of societal
  discrimination and group barriers
• perceptions of and feelings toward their group

18
Bad News and Good News

• Bad News
• Life becomes complicated when considering the
  vast variation that may exist within this group
• Good News
• A complex view of youth and how they think is
  actually more consistent with what we see in the
  real world

19
Importance of School for Future
Black Identity Group Pride Society View of
Blacks
Black Identity Group Pride - Society View of
Blacks
- Black Identity Group Pride - Society View of
Blacks
- Black Identity - Group Pride - Societal View of
Blacks
20
Academic Self-Efficacy
Black Identity Group Pride Society View of
Blacks
Black Identity Group Pride - Society View of
Blacks
- Black Identity Group Pride - Society View of
Blacks
- Black Identity - Group Pride - Societal View of
Blacks
21
12th Grade School Status
22
College Attainment 2 Years Later
23
Summary

• Youth vary in the ways they think about race and
  society
• Youth with strong, positive sense of racial
  identity reported more school motivation and
  showed better achievement outcomes
• Youth who de-emphasized their racial identity and
  internalized negative group views showed lower
  motivation and achievement

24
Implications

• Cultural risk or stigma perspectives not
  sufficient in understanding ethnic minority
  achievement
• Essential to consider potential assets and
  strengths associated with youths group
  identities
• Need to understand ways that youths contexts
  help shape their views, attitudes, and
  self-perceptions related to self and schooling
• Potential roles of schools and classroom systems

25
Culturally Relevant Educational Practices

• Boykins Integrity-Based Principles
• Meaningful Learning
• Strategic Instruction and Critical Engagement
•  Learning Community
•  Cultural Resources
•  Constructive Social Relationships

26
Culturally Relevant Educational Practices

• Isnt this just good teaching?
• Yes
• and No
• Consistent evidence that schools often are not
  providing these types of environments for many
  students of color
• Subtle and complex ways that diversity or
  culture is relevant can be overlooked

27
The Input-Out View of What Causes African
American Underachievement
Students Academic Beliefs and Values
Motivation And Engagement
28
Transactional Approach
Students Academic Beliefs and Values
School Structures and Practices
Motivation And Engagement
29
(No Transcript)
30
(No Transcript)
31
We Can Affect the Way Students Develop Views of
Reality with the Environments we Create for
Them!
32
Experiences in School Context Racial
Discrimination

• Little study of race-based experiences of
  children and adolescents
• Experiences of racial discrimination not uncommon
  for African American youth
• Reported experiences often school-based
• Evidence of detrimental impact on well-being and
  achievement

33
Impact of Perceiving Racial Discrimination in
School on African American Achievement
Teacher Discrimination
_
Academic Attitudes Performance
_
Peer Discrimination
Spencer, 2001 Wong, Eccles, Sameroff,
2003 Chavous, Rivas, Smalls, et al. 2007 Smalls,
White, Sellers, Chavous, 2007
34
When You Work Really Hard In School, Which of
the Following Reasons Are Most Important To You?
From Ferguson (2003)
35
Reports that My Teachers Support Me and Care
About My Success in Their Class
listed as percentages N537
From Ferguson (2003)
36
An Alternative View of the Acting White Theory

• OConnor (2006) ethnography of suburban high
  school
• Teachers primary explanation for Black
  underachievement was acting White theory
• Students segregated structurally through ability
  grouping
• Over time, some began to adopt Black
  anti-intellectual views
• Thus, schools can create self-fulfilling
  prophecies in relation to the ways they view and
  respond to students

37
Two Instructional Approaches

• Constructivist Teaching
• Phonics Instruction Embedded in Meaningful Text
• Modeling Guided Use of Explicit Comprehension
  Strategies
• Multiple Methods of Reading Instruction
• Connection to Childrens Personal Experiences
• Encouragement of Self Expression

• Didactic Teaching
• Isolated Phonics Instruction
• Rote Memorization
• Teachers Read to Students Without Engaging in
  Conversation
• Correctness Emphasis in Childrens Writing

From Stipek (2004)
38
Predictors of Didactic Teaching
Below Grade Level
Didactic Teaching
Eligible Free/Reduced Lunch
African American
Latino
From Stipek (2004)
39
Predictors of Didactic Teaching
Below Grade Level
.18
Didactic Teaching
Eligible Free/Reduced Lunch
.04
.42
African American
.06
Latino
From Stipek (2004)
40
As Teachers Arent Evil Beings (at least most of
us),What Types of Factors Could Contribute to
Such Phenomena?
41
Diversity in Educational Training Professional
Development

• Discussions of diversity, race, ethnicity often
  avoided
• If they are discussed, they are framed
• As separate from and distinct from content
  learning areas
• As separate from learning models and paradigms
  used for students in general

42
Potential Consequences

• White youth viewed as norm when trying to
  understand educational processes
• Ethnic minority youth viewed only through
  oversimplified racialized or social class lens
• Raises potential for stereotyping, erroneous
  assumptions and interpretations

43
Even With Good Intentions

• Giving students the love they dont get at home

44
Potential Consequences

• Education professionals unsatisfied or frustrated
  when they expect concrete or oversimplified
  information about youth from different
  backgrounds
• e.g., What are minority students like? and How
  should I teach minority students?
• Teachers feel less equipped and less effective in
  working with youth, affecting
• Nature of interactions with youth
• Students learning and social outcomes

45
Implications Recommendations

• An integrated approach to diversity in teacher
  professional development would require the
  definition of a good teacher to include the
  ability to teach in diverse settings with diverse
  youth
• NOT diversity as tools to supplement teachers
  skills and methodologies, but, instead
• Diversity as part of teachers skills and
  methodologies

46
Recommendations

• In taking such an approach, it would be essential
  to
• Have informed views about youth from different
  racial/ethnic groups
• Acknowledge variation within any given group
• View ethnic minority youth as whole people
• Engage in self-reflection regarding our own views
  and worldviews and assumptions and the ways they
  influence our practices

47
(No Transcript)