The Elephant in the Room: How Racial
Beliefs Affect Classroom Practices of
Preservice Teachers
National Association of
Multi-Cultural Education Conference
Scott Imig, Donyell Roseboro, Robert Smith,
& Michele Parker, University of North
Carolina Wilmington
For a copy of this presentation, visit:
http://people.uncw.edu/imigs/
Overview
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Impetus for Our Work
An Initial Survey and Results
Current Project
Findings and Implications
Discussion
Impetus for Our Work
“I still feel uneasy about blacks and Mexicans. I
treat them with respect and no differently than I
would with anyone else; but there is still that
hatred or dislike feeling that I have towards them.”
– white female
“My family and my experiences in school taught
me to dislike and mistrust most black people.
However, I always felt guilt and never hate.”
– white female
“Although I would not consider myself a racist, I
am a bit prejudiced. I consider the majority of
blacks to be loud, obnoxious and rude.”
– white male
“I had been taught growing up that we are different
and it is best to be friends with those who are like
you.” – white female
“Though I’m not racist, I believe it is wrong to date
someone of another race.” – white female
Our Context
• University of North Carolina Wilmington
– Southern comprehensive, regional university
– 11,800 students
•
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•
•
•
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10,700 undergraduate
58% female
85% Caucasian
5% African-American
3% Hispanic
2006 SAT Scores: 1150
Third most rigorous admissions standards in NC (public)
Highest SES of any UNC Campus
– Watson School of Education
• 87% female & 88% Caucasian
Teaching for Social Justice
• Ana-Maria Villegas (2007) states, the “overriding
goal of the social justice agenda in teacher
education is to prepare teachers who can teach
all students well, not just those traditionally well
served by schools, so that as adults, all are able
to participate in the economic and political life of
the country.”
• “teachers...have a moral and ethical
responsibility to teach all their pupils, fairly and
equitably.”
Teaching for Social Justice
“Challenging deficit perspectives and
promoting affirming views of diverse
students is a precursor to building teacher
candidates’ disposition to teach all
students equitably” (Villegas, 2007).
We Know Teacher Dispositions
Affect Student Learning and
Classroom Teaching
• Taylor and Wasicsko (2000) claimed that “there
is a significant body of research indicating that
teachers’ attitudes, values and beliefs about
students…strongly influence the impact they will
have on student learning and development”
• “Dispositions are in the long run, more important
than knowledge and skills” (Wilkerson, 2006).
We Believe Teaching for Social
Justice is the Right Thing to Do
The Watson School of Education strives to ensure that
all teacher candidates are prepared to teach a diverse
student population from a multicultural and global
perspective. We also strive to foster a culture of
awareness and acceptance among our faculty and
students that enables our students to understand the
role of diversity and equity in the teaching and learning
process.*
Does this occur?
*Watson School of Education Diversity Plan (2005)
Initial Survey (Jan/Feb 2007) – An
Attempt to Gauge Beliefs on Campus
• 173 Incoming & Exiting UNCW students
– 84% female, 90% white (Respondents)
– 107 Teacher Education Students
– 66 A&S Students
• Ludlow, Enterline & Cochran-Smith (2008)
Learning to Teach for Social Justice-Beliefs
Scale
• Attitudinal and behavior items generated from
student work and current educational issues
Highlights
• Thinking about your
current views on race,
would you describe
yourself as “not racist”
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
81.8
63.8
A&S
Education
"Not Racist"
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
73
65
A&S
Education
Appropriate
• It is appropriate for
individuals to date outside of
their race “Agree” or
“Strongly Agree”
Highlights
• Some racial/ethnic groups work harder than
other racial/ethnic groups “Agree” or
“Strongly Agree”
– Ed. Students: 25.9%
– A & S Students: 42.1%
• Some racial/ethnic groups are naturally
stronger students than other racial/ethnic
groups “Agree” or “Strongly Agree”
– Ed. Students: 30.6%
– A & S Students: 34.5%
• Issues related to racism and inequity should be
openly discussed in the public school classroom
– 57% of Ed. Students Agree/Strongly Agree
• Part of the responsibilities of the teacher is to
challenge school arrangements that maintain
societal inequities.
– 70% of Ed. Students Agree/Strongly Agree
• Realistically, the job of a teacher is to prepare
students for the lives they are likely to lead.
– 62% of Ed. Students Agree/Strongly Agree
What if Students Hold Certain Attitudes? Do
they manifest themselves in classrooms?
Our Pilot Study
Social Justice
Beliefs of Middle
Grades Teacher
Candidates
Participants & Data
20 Middle Grades Interns
Social Justice Inventory
Core Developed by
Ludlow and CochranSmith (2006)
Interviews
Classroom
Practices of
Teacher
Candidates
Participants & Data
5 Supervisors
- 3 observations/student
Cooperating Teacher
- Summative Evaluation
North Carolina Teacher
Observation Rubric –
Diversity Standard
Academic Growth
of Pupils Taught
by Teacher
Candidates
Participants & Data
400 pupils in 20 Middle
Grade classrooms
Teacher Work Sample
Methodology Schalock
(1997)
Instrumentation: Our 15-Item Survey
• Boston College Social Justice Inventory
– Sample Items:
• An important part of learning to be a teacher is examining one's own
attitudes and beliefs about race, class, gender, disabilities, and sexual
orientation.
• Issues related to racism and inequity should be openly discussed in the
classroom.
• Good teaching incorporates diverse cultures and experiences into classroom
lessons and discussions.
• It's reasonable for teachers to have lower classroom expectations for
students who don't speak English as their first language.
• Additional Items:
• Some racial/ethnic groups work harder than other racial/ethnic groups
• I would date someone of another race
• Some racial/ethnic groups are naturally stronger students than other
racial/ethnic groups
• Scoring:
• 1-5 response range per item
• Minimum Score = 15
Maximum Score = 75
Instrumentation:
North Carolina Observation Rubric*
Standard 2: Teachers establish a respectful
environment for a diverse population of
students.
– Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a
positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults.
– Teachers embrace diversity in the school community and in the
world.
– Teachers treat students as individuals.
– Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with
special needs.
– Teachers work collaboratively with the families and significant
adults in the lives of their students.
*McCrel (2008)
Sample Construct
Teachers embrace diversity in the school community and in the world. Teachers demonstrate
their knowledge of the history of diverse cultures and their role in shaping global issues. They
actively select materials and develop lessons that counteract stereotypes and incorporate
histories and contributions of all cultures. Teachers recognize the influence of race, ethnicity,
gender, religion, and other aspects of culture on a student’s development and personality.
Teachers strive to understand how a student’s culture and background may influence his or her
school performance. Teachers consider and incorporate different points of view in their
instruction.
Very Weak (1)
Weak (2)
Fair (3)
Demonstrates a lack of
knowledge of diverse
cultures, their histories, and
their roles in shaping global
issues
Frequently displays
knowledge of diverse
cultures, their histories,
and their roles in shaping
global issues.
Does not understand the
influence of race, ethnicity,
gender, religion, socioeconomics, and culture on
students’ development and
attitudes.
Acknowledges the
influence of race,
ethnicity, gender, religion,
socio-economics, and
culture on a students’
development and
attitudes.
Good
(4)
Excellent
(5)
Promotes a deep
understanding of
cultures through
the integration of
culturally sensitive
materials and ideas
throughout the
curriculum.
Capitalizes on
diversity as an
asset in the
classroom.
Instrumentation:
Teacher Work Sample Methodology
• Interns complete an assessment assignment
(TWS) – pre and post test of content knowledge
with results reported by subgroup
• Interns have to analyze the results identifying
factors that may have affected student or
student subgroup performance
Participants
• Demographics (n=20):
– Gender:
• 60% female
40% male
– Race:
• 80% Caucasian
• 10% Hispanic
15% African-American
– Age:
• 60% (18-25)
• 10% (36-45)
20% (26-35)
10% (46+)
– Concentration:
• 40% Math
• 10% Science
40% Social Studies
10% English
Findings
• Social Justice Scores
– Range: 45 – 64
– Mean: 55
– SD: 5.47
Findings
• There was a statistically significant (r=.67, p=.009)
relationship between teacher candidate social justice
score and classroom behaviors
Embracing Diversity
5
Classroom Behavior Score
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
4
Embracing Diversity
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3
45
50
55
Social Justice Score
60
65
Interview Guide
Sample Questions
• How do you define diversity?
• How do you define race?
• How do you define yourself racially? (White,
Black, Multiracial, etc.)
• How have you come to an understanding of
race?—discuss the ways in which you have
come to personally define yourself with regard
to race and the ways in which others have
defined or talked about race with you.
Qualitative Data Coding
Process
• Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin,
1990)
• Four Step Process
– Open Coding
– Axial Coding
– Selective Coding
– Memoing
Chunking Codes
• Open Codes: 59 initial codes identified
• Axial Coding: 4 primary codes identified
– Knowing
– Processing/Learning
– Teaching/Creating
– Being
P rep arat ion
Evo lving
Judging
Hat re d
Com mun it y
Bigot ry
Op in ion s
St ra t egies
Lov e
Fear
Civic
Obligat io n
T ea chin g/Creat ing
T ea mwork
Com fort able
Emo t io na l
Role
swit chin g
Un der t he
radar
Colo rblin d
Acc ept in g
Con scien ce
Being
Back gro und
An cest ry
Et hics
T ea che r c an didat e be lie fs
P roc essing/
Learn ing
Forgiv in g
Con sciousne ss
Values
T rav eling
M orals
Hist ory
Cult ure
Forge t t in g
T alk in g
St ruggling
Reme mberin g
T h in kin g
Kn owing
Exp erien ces
Collect iv e
Family
Differen ce
Frie nds
In dividua l
Dive rgen t f rom
t h e no rm
Ot h er t han
ma in st ream
Un ique
Selective Coding
From analysis of the interviews, one selective code was
identified which describes teacher candidates’
understanding of the relationship between race and
education.
Teaching as a matter of consciousness and
conscience.
Consciousness: How do we come
to “know” race?
Awareness of institutional racism (e.g., One intern
questioned the standards of behavior in schools and
whether they are “white” standards. A second criticized
why the school they were placed at for internship would
not teach African American history).
– Bubble sheets categorize people into races; these
questions matter: “I have filled out enough sheets to tell
me that I am Caucasian.”
– “Then I came into the education program and…I was
made aware of it…and you have to be conscious of it.”
Conscience: How do we teach for social
justice?
• Relevant concepts:
– Emotions: hatred, bigotry, respect, love
– Civic obligation, morals, values, ethics
• “I guess, my morals. I’ve been taught to accept
all people…and again, taking classes here at
UNCW, they’ve taught us not to discriminate”
• “You think that if you love them enough, it won’t
matter”
• “I need to help them be good citizens”
Interview Data: How do teacher candidates’
consciousness and conscience relate to
their pupils’ academic achievement?
“I saw a lot with my minority students
especially in this one class and they were like,
“Oh well, it doesn’t matter I’m going to make a
bad grade anyway.” …But because of that they
didn’t take advantage of it and a lot of it just
has to do with that they don’t care and I tried to
help them and guide them through this…I
mean I can’t make them want to do it.”
Interview Data: Pupil achievement (cont’d)
“There was a huge achievement gap between
whites, blacks and Hispanics. The only
explanation that I could come up with is that
maybe with Hispanic students it was an ESL
thing, but when I divided them, ESL and
Hispanic, it was still the same, still low in both
categories. I really, I don’t know the difference.
It’s challenging.”
What does this mean?
• What does this tell us about the Middle Grades
program at the Watson School of Education in
relation to diversity?
• Are we preparing teachers who can effectively
teach students of color?
Limitations of Pilot Study
• Sample size
• Low number of students of color in some middle school
classrooms
• Variation related to differences in subjects taught by
intern
• Lack of control of the assessments conducted by interns
• Lack of common training for university supervisor and
partnership teachers in the use of NC diversity standard
to evaluate interns
Next Steps
We plan to expand this study to the
Elementary Education program at WSE
–
200-230 student teachers/year
Use Structural Equation Modeling
–
–
test the causal relationships between
teacher attitudes, behavior, and student
achievement
students as the unit of analysis (N = 400)
What is your reaction?
Questions?
References:
Ludlow, L. H., Enterline, S., & Cochran-Smith, M. (2008). Learning to Teach for Social Justice-Beliefs scale:
An application of Rasch measurement principles. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and
Development, 20, 194-214.
McCrel (2008). North Carolina Teacher Evaluation Process. Denver, CO.
Millman, J. (Ed.). (1997). Grading teachers, grading schools. Is student achievement a valid evaluation
measure? Thousand Oaks, CA Corwin Press, Inc.
Schalock, M.. D. (1998). Accountability, student learning, and the preparation and licensure of teachers:
Oregon's teacher work sample methodology. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 12(3), 269285.
Taylor, R., & Wasicsko, M. (2000). The dispositions to teach. Retrieved November, 10th2008, from
www.education.eku.edu-Dean-The http://www.education.eku.edu-Dean-The Dispositions to Teach.pdf.
Villegas, A. M. (2007). Dispositions in Teacher Education: A Look At Social Justice
<http://jte.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/58/5/370> . Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 58, No. 5,
370-380
Wilkerson, J. R. (2006). Measuring teacher dispositions: Standards based or morality based? Teachers
College Record. Retrieved October 10, 2008 from http://www.tcrecord.org
WSE Diversity Plan (2005). Retrieved October 12, 2008 from
http://www.uncwil.edu/ed/pdfs/WSEDiversityPlan.pdf
Thank You
• Scott Imig, Donyell Roseboro, Robert Smith, &
Michele Parker, University of North Carolina
Wilmington
• For a copy of this presentation, visit:
http://people.uncw.edu/imigs/