The Accuracy of Negro and White Children's Predictions of Teachers' Attitudes Toward Negro Students

Abstract

In the main, the writer is concerned with the differences between the judgments of Negro and white pupils of their teachers' attitudes toward Negro pupils; general differences shown between the Negro and white pupils; and differences between Negro and white pupils in the same socio-economic class. Throughout this study, the writer has focused his attention on three related situations: (1) how the Negro pupils are perceived by their peers, (2) by their teachers and (3) by themselves. The investigator's concern is the study of the Negro and white pupils and their teachers in the integrated schools of Flint, Michigan. The broader implications of this problem, however, and the methods employed are applicable wherever there are problems arising from the integration of minority groups within a school situation. The writer conceived the present problem while working as a visiting teacher in schools composed of mixedracial groups in Flint, Michigan. In most of the immediate school problems referred to the writer, the crux of the case was a conflict in teacher-pupil relationships. Yet, in most of the cases, there were at least a few teachers to whom the pupils responded in a wholesome manner. The factor which focused the writer's attention upon the Negro in teacher-pupil relationships was the power of control of the teacher and the implications which it seemed to hold for the Negro. In the case of the white pupil, this factor was taken as part of the routine of a rigid teacher, but in the case of the Negro this control was more likely perceived as an attempt to subordinate him on a racial basis.