School failure and cultural mismatch: Another view

Abstract

Recently, the school failure of minority students has been explained in terms of incompatibilities in the ways that language is used at home and in school. This theory has stimulated numerous studies. The research shows in detail how teachers and minority students often misinterpret each other due to different assumptions about the appropriate ways of using language in the classroom. This paper reviews the literature dealing with home-school disjunctures in language use, and examines the theory critically. It argues that the approach to school failure prevalent throughout the research in this area is seriously flawed. By narrowing the focus of analysis to home-school connections, this line of investigation diverts attention away from existing social inequalities that sustain the widespread academic failure of minority students. Attention is given to the relationship between school and society—a missing link in much of the sociolinguistic literature. The paper further argues that culturally sensitive solutions to the school problems of minority students that ignore the political link between school and society are doomed to failure.