An investigation into some aspects of teacher socialisation and how teachers form attitudes toward indigenous minority children

Abstract

Through a review of general occupational socialisation theories and a comparison with teacher socialisation theories, this thesis identifies and focuses on aspects of the teacher socialisation process that contribute to the formation of strategies by teachers. A detailed examination of teaching strategy development and subsequent student counter-strategies in classrooms where the students are members of a minority culture and the teacher is a member of the dominant culture, reveals that teachers' expectations of appropriate student counterstrategies are culture bound. The explanations offered by teachers for inexplicable student behaviour are based on the experiences teachers gain through an extended anticipatory socialisation period, their personal experiences and strategy development in cross-cultural classrooms and in shared beliefs, in the form of school based myths and traditions, maintained and influenced by the school staff as significant others. The attitudes that form can be understood as 'home truths' derived from teachers' experiences in cross-cultural classrooms, and from cliches that embody the school staff's preferred ways of behaving towards the students, and stereotypes that develop by teachers focusing on single characteristics. By linking one characteristic with a supposed physical or cultural attribute of the minority culture, teachers develop stereotypes. The home truths and stereotypes developed inform the teachers' actions towards subordinate-culture students.