Multiracial School Research Articles

The implementation of learner integration and its challenges in a selected former Model C school: Learners’ perspectives

The purpose of the study reported on here was to explore the implementation of learner integration and its challenges in a selected former Model C school. This is an expansion of the findings of a larger study, “Understanding and enhancing of learner integration in a selected ex-model C school” by Theresia Joakim Kanyopa. Based on South Africa’s history, the term “former Model C” (also ex Model C) is still commonly used to describe those schools that were formerly Whites-only but are now multiracial schools. Learner integration is a major issue in global contemporary education practice. Contemporary literature on learner integration in former Model C schools reveals complex impediments. Some of the impediments are essentially beyond the capabilities and competencies of learners, teachers and principals. In this article we argue that the lack of an effectively designed practice is central to the impediments to learner integration. This was a qualitative case study grounded within the critical research paradigm, hence the critical emancipatory research (CER) theoretical framework was adopted. We used purposive and convenience sampling to select the research site and participants. Four Grade 11 learners (2 boys and 2 girls) were purposively selected because of their availability and willingness to participate in the study. Their ages were between 16 and 19 years. Data were generated through interviews and reflective writing. Importantly, to achieve successful learner integration in former Model C schools, we affirm that these schools must revise their practices, programmes and policies to create an integrative learning environment that ensures learner safety and an environment that supports, develops end enhances their academic goals. The findings from the study indicate that learner integration in former Model C schools can be successfully done by valuing the learners’ diversities regardless of their backgrounds, ethnic groups, status or races.

Rich and sparse figurative information in children's memory for colorful places.

The relation between perceptual and conceptual knowledge is a longstanding research question in developmental psychology. Here we tested children's dependence on figurative information with a reaction time/accuracy task. A sample of 151 children from 5 to 10 years were assessed from two multicultural and multiracial schools in the London (UK) boroughs City of London and Harrow. A quarter of children in both schools were eligible for free school meals (national average 18.5%). The same 3 × 3 grid with nine individually colored places and a uniform black star as placeholder was tested in three different retrieval conditions: (a) same array as during presentation, (b) one place at a time with placeholder, and (c) one place at a time without placeholder. In a (d) control condition, individual shapes were of the same color as the colorful places. Bayes Factor analyses showed a more unified response toward figurative placeholders in 5- to 6-year-olds. Independently of age, colorful places without a placeholder were hardest to remember. Places were better remembered when a placeholder was added and still better when the spatial context of the entire array was available. Yet unique shapes with distinctive contours and colors as placeholders optimized place memory the most. While place memory accuracy increased with age, reaction times did not become faster. Instead, latencies were longer, the more visual information was available in the retrieval array. A larger perceptual effect was caused by the dynamic where-delay interference task, the sparser the amount of visual information in the retrieval array. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Us and Them: Using Social Identity Theory to Explain and Re-envision Teacher–Student Relationships in Urban Schools

Within a framework of social identity theory (SIT), this paper utilizes social cognitive psychological theories to explain how and why White urban teachers often struggle to create loving spaces in urban classrooms, particularly when their students are from social groups different from their own. Social categorization theory is useful for describing how the sociocultural context of urban schools and schooling created and sustains the archetypal teacher savior identity. Social identity theories of intergroup behavior and organizational role theory are employed to explicate how the group norms of teacher saviors describe and prescribe pedagogical practices that create a hierarchy between teachers and students, leaving little room for warmth and caring. Finally, guided by Howard’s (We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers, multiracial schools, 2nd edn. Teachers College Press, New York, 2016) concept of a transformationist teacher identity, I offer suggestions for how teacher educators can help preservice teachers cultivate positive teacher–student relationships in their future classrooms by knowing themselves, knowing their students, and knowing their practice. Ultimately, SIT suggests that urban teachers must be metacognitive about the ways in which their identities are constructed and enacted in schools if they are to care about and for their diverse students.

“Diversity Is Important to Me”: White Parents and Exposure-to-Diversity Parenting Practices

Drawing upon interviews with 40 parents in Cincinnati, Ohio, the author explores how “exposure to diversity,” an implicit racial socialization practice, has become a defining feature of how some middle-class white parents teach their children about race and reflect on what it means to be a good white parent. Exposure to diversity involves white parents’ active efforts to expose their children to people of color via trips to multiracial parks, enrollment in multiracial schools, or residence in multiracial neighborhoods. The author argues that white parents’ efforts are informed by their adherence to both a “diversity ideology” wherein racial diversity is frequently, but not always, framed as a positive social dynamic that enriches their family’s white life, and a middle-class desire to craft a high-status white child via distinction-oriented parenting practices. Taken together, white middle-class parents pursue an exposure-to-diversity strategy because they believe, whether consciously or not, that diversity provides them and their children with the means to facilitate small-scale social change and to craft a comfortable, open-minded white child who possesses racial and class distinction.

Controlling Images of Space: Latina Teachers and Racial Positioning in Multiracial Schools

Controlling images, which are hegemonic racial ideologies that permeate social institutions, have been applied to racial/ethnic minority groups and individuals, but much less to space. In this article, I show how controlling images of school district space affect Latina teachers’ perceptions of immigrant Latinas/os racial positioning in U.S. racial hierarchies. Drawing on ethnographic data collected from two Southern California multiracial school districts, I find that Latina teachers working in Compton—a city comprising primarily Latino immigrants—are initially encouraged to leave for districts that are not associated with the “Black underclass.” Latina teachers in Rosemead, an ethnoburb comprising primarily Latinos and Asians, on the other hand, enroll their children there, and are able to access resources the more class heterogeneous Asian population provides. Ultimately, Latina teachers perceive undocumented Latina/o immigrants to be below African Americans and Asian Americans in local racial hierarchies due to political ostracism and relative valorization, respectively.

A perception test for the deracialisation of middle class South African English

Recent sociophonetic research has demonstrated how the effects of post-apartheid desegregation at schools upon the social networks of young middle-class South Africans have fostered major changes in South African English. In particular, middle-class speakers of Black, Coloured and Indian groups show different degrees of accommodation to the norms of erstwhile White South African English. Moreover, some speakers appear to have completely crossed over— linguistically speaking—into what used to be the space of young, middle-class ‘General’ speakers of White South African English. This article tests the extent of the crossover by a sociophonetic perception test. University students from a range of backgrounds were asked to judge from brief clips excerpted from interviews the ethnic background of a selection of Black and White university students with a multiracial school background. As hypothesised, the results show that (a) respondents are in many instances unable to differentiate between Black and White speakers by voice alone and (b) they are able to differentiate ethnic background more easily for male speakers than females.

Discovering a hidden privilege: Ethnography in multiracial organizations as an outsider within

In this article I use an ‘outsider within’ epistemology to conduct a reflexive analysis of the impact of researcher characteristics on gathering data in multiracial organizations. The reported research elucidates that the intersection of race, gender, class background, age and occupational prestige influenced the ethnographer's social interactions with respondents in the teaching profession. With examples selected principally from two years of ethnographic fieldwork in two predominantly racial/ethnic minority multiracial schools in Southern California, I identify a hidden privilege for Latina professionals. I contend that unlike white or male privilege, which are granted consciously and unconsciously, the hidden privilege is fleeting, and works only when verbally revealed in occupations held in lower prestige.

Raising the achievement of white working class pupils: good practice in schools

This research identifies strategies that schools have used to raise achievement among white working class pupils in multiracial schools. The methodological approach comprises case studies of schools and focus group interviews to ascertain the views of teachers, parents and children about strategies that worked to raise achievement. The study identifies a number of successful strategies for promoting the achievement of white working class pupils including strong leadership; an inclusive curriculum that meets the needs of white working class pupils; engaging parents and breaking the cycle of low aspiration; supporting pupils through extensive use of teaching assistants and learning mentors and specific support for language development. The transition between primary and secondary school was also managed carefully so that support for white working class pupils continued in a similar vein. This study also highlights that where achievement for white working class pupils was best, headteachers either had white working class roots themselves or a deep commitment to the issues of white working class communities. There were also many people from the local community working at the case study schools who were role models to children. Implications for policy and practice are given in the final section.

Racial Diversity, Student Religiosity, and School Choice: An Empirical Case Study of Multi-Racial Religious Education

This article comprises an empirical case study of student religiosity in the context of urban school choice. The purpose of this study was to compare student religiosity in a racially diverse religious private school to determine whether religious faith is a unifying factor across racial categories. Insofar as school choice has been called “the civil rights issue of the 21st century,” religious private schools may provide opportunities for creating intentional multi-racial school environments in the face of rapidly re-segregating public school districts. This study was conducted in 2012 at an urban religious private PreK–12 school with a 57% poverty rate, 58% minority students, and 58% of its students utilizing state-funded tuition vouchers (N = 127). Student religiosity was not found to be significantly different across racial categories. Implications are discussed in relation to public policy and the future of school choice initiatives in relation to religious private schools. The study suggests that student religiosity establishes “holy ground” upon which racial understanding, appreciation, and reconciliation can occur in a multi-racial school environment. Recommendations for reform are made for both public policy and religious education.

The influence of researcher identity on ethnographies in multiracial schools

This article explores how researchers’ social identities influence data gathered through ethnographic research in multiracial K-12 educational settings. We examine how the processes of conducting, interpreting, and analyzing ethnographic fieldwork are impacted when researchers belong to marginalized social groups. The racial and ethnic diversity among the participants at the research settings further complicated how researcher identity influenced these processes. We want to reimagine the role of the researcher of color when conducting research about and with communities of color. We suggest that researchers can act as critical participants to create opportunities for dialog about racism, sexism, and other inequities in educational settings. By doing so, we might not only improve the quality of data collected but also develop concrete ways to challenge inequities in the moment at our research sites.

Listening to WhitenessWhite Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth Identity. By Mary Bucholtz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Since the late 1990s, Mary Bucholtz has been a leading analyst of linguistic styling, gender, and race and their place in American youth identity construction. She has a terrific ear for the telling details of young people’s talk. Bucholtz has now brought together the many threads of her influential work in a much-anticipated monograph based on her ethnographic research in a multiracial Northern California high school, pseudonymously dubbed Bay City High School (BCHS), in the mid-1990s. White Kids examines how European American youth used the tools of language to construct a range of identities in a school that was experiencing racial turmoil. Bucholtz argues that these multiple styles of whiteness are all founded on calibrations of alignment with black and white youth cultures. She examines three emblematic local white styles: preppy mainstream, white hip-hop fans, and nerds. The analysis relies centrally on recorded interviews of 26 white students, along with maps of the schoolyard that she asked them to draw, a rewarding technique. Contextualizing the interviews in ethnographic observation, Bucholtz analyzes extracts from the transcripts in fine-grained interactional detail to unpack the identities and social worlds that these students negotiate. Limited quantitative analysis of a set of sociolinguistic variables rounds out the study. A central goal of the book is to demonstrate that the conceptual and methodological tools of sociocultural linguistics can enrich the study of identity across all the disciplines, showing in detail how language serves ongoing identity projects and is implicated in larger sociopolitical structures (p. 3). The book is intended to reach readers well beyond linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics, and the presentation is well geared for such a broad audience. Bucholtz focuses on different features of linguistic display for each of the three white styles. The preppy, or “popular,” group appears to arbitrate white students’ exclusive social

“I want to do the right thing but what is it?”: White Teachers' Experiences with African American Students

This qualitative study examines 26 White middle school teachers' perceptions of their experiences in a predominantly White middle school with a growing African American student population. Utilizing in-depth focus group interviews, teachers elaborated on their experiences with navigating racial, ethnic and cultural boundaries as they attempted to promote academic success for all students. The constant comparative methodological approach was utilized to analyze the data. Through this process, three overarching themes were generated: (a) awareness of diversity, (b) reactions to diversity and (c) systemic issues and barriers to forging relationships. Finally, suggestions for teachers and other educators experiencing similar circumstances in their schools are provided. Keywords: White, Black, tea1cher, middle school, culturally relevant pedagogy, color-blindness In 2012, Keaton (2012) reported that during the 2010-2011 academic year, 45.1 percent of all students in American public K-12 schools were identified as minority students (e.g. Hispanic; Black; Asian and Pacific Islander; American Indian and Alaska Native). Conversely, an examination of the teacher workforce during the 2007-2008 academic year revealed that 82.9 percent of all teachers in this country are categorized as White (Aud et al., 2011). Additionally, although there has been a slight increase in the representation of racial and ethnic minority teachers (National Center for Education Information, 2005), this increase may be short-lived given the overrepresentation of White females in teacher education programs across the country (Gay & Kirkland, 2003). Given this reality, the question of whether a predominantly White teacher workforce can effectively educate culturally and racially different students, including African American students, has been posed (Milner, 2006; Thompson, 2004). While the answer to this question appears to be yes in certain circumstances (Ladson-Billings, 2006), it is, nevertheless, important to examine White teachers' perceptions of their experiences with students of color (Picower, 2009). To explore the issue scientifically, this qualitative study examines White teachers' perceptions of their experiences teaching in a predominantly White midwestern middle school with a growing African American student population. LITERATURE REVIEW Perhaps the greatest concern is that many of White teachers have limited personal and professional encounters with individuals who are racially, ethnically, linguistically and culturally different from themselves (Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 2005; Tatum, 1997). Literature suggests several teachers are inadequately prepared to work within multiracial classrooms (Ladson-Billings, 1994, 2006), while pre-service teachers have expressed dissatisfaction with their preparation for teaching diverse students (Gay, 2002). This unfamiliarity with diverse students can leave teachers ill-prepared to function effectively in multiracial schools (Gay & Kirkland, 2003). It would be erroneous to presume these differences prevent White teachers from successfully educating African American students. Studies have found some African American students (Dickar, 2008) and parents (Ladson-Billings, 1995) are satisfied with White teachers. Similarly, it would be naive to suggest these differences are irrelevant disparities in the lived experiences of many White and Black people in this country (Mcintosh, 1989; Wise, 2008). Therefore, teachers must be cognizant of their racial and cultural backgrounds, how these factors impact their beliefs about education, and employ strategies that support rather than alienate minority students (Dickar, 2008). Much literature has been generated on White teachers' interactions with African American students. Overwhelmingly, these explanations explore pedagogical strategies for instructing African American students or provided variables impinging on the educational experiences of this group (Howard, 2006; Milner, 2006). …

Pupil Responses to a Saviour Pedagogy: An Ethnographic Study

This article is based on research in an ongoing ethnographic investigation of schooling in a multiethnic, multiracial school on the outskirts of a major Swedish conurbation in an area of multidimensional poverty. First, it analyses the use of an individuating, visible pedagogy, which contains a large number of routines that are designed and intended to improve the performances and behaviour of pupils in the school. Secondly, it analyses the subjective responses of the pupils to this pedagogy. Hidden forms of resistance to the main intentions of the pedagogy are presented and discussed.

Bearing the burden of whiteness: the implications of racial self-identification for multiracial adolescents' school belonging and academic achievement

Previous literature on racial self-identification among multiracials demonstrates that self-identification differs by context. Moreover, among multiracial adolescents, identity, usually measured in school, is correlated with achievement. In addition, a few studies have indicated that for half-white, half-minority adolescents, school achievement falls in between the achievements of their monoracial counterparts. Using the in-school and in-home components of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examine the relationship between racial self-identification and school belonging and achievement. We find that among black/white and Asian/white adolescents, adolescents who self-identify as white are particularly disadvantaged in school, reporting lower grade point averages (GPA) than their multiracial counterparts. Our conclusions suggest that multiple contextual measures of self-identification better capture the relationship between racial identification and academic achievement among multiracial adolescents.

STAND AT EASE/GARY GREEN

Books by ex-conscripts detailing their experiences were few and far betweenin the era of the Border War while more than 500 000 white males were called upfor what was described as “national service”. While books like these are not exactlyflooding the shelves of bookstores, they roll of the presses more regularly now.These works mostly deal with ex-conscript's that actively experienced the war inNamibia and Angola.Stand at ease is different: there is no "cordite and conflict".Green describes himself as a reluctant conscript (one wonders how many ofthe erstwhile national servicemen were of the same view). He was a product of oneof the country's first multi-racial schools - in this case a school that did not subscribeto the former government's apartheid policies.Hence, his period of national service was seen as a necessary evil, somethingthat had to be done - to get it behind one. But he and a few friends were determinedto have as easy a time as possible. Their most important aim was to avoid the"dreaded" call-up to the Border. Green was helped in this endeavour when he wasmedically classified as G3K3. He was called up to 5 South African InfantryBattalion in Ladysmith where he spent a few days before going to Kimberley. Hedid guard duty at 93 Ammunition Depot in Jan Kempdorp in the Northern Capebefore being deployed to the Army Battle School in Lohatla where he spent the restof his days as a national serviceman.He says his time in the military "could hardly be described as constructive orenjoyable", but it was also "a period of unprecedented personal growth and selfdiscovery”.“There is little doubt that during the two years of my conscription, Istopped being a boy and at some point became a man." Green unfortunately does notelaborate too much on this rite of passage.

The multiracial urban high school: fearing peers and trusting friends

The multiracial urban high school: fearing peers and trusting friends

Race and Cultural Flexibility among Students in Different Multiracial Schools

Background/ContextOne of the most critical functions of a well-integrated school is the development of “culturally flexible” students who, over the course of their social development, effectively navigate diverse social environs such as the workplace, communities, and neighborhoods. Most studies, albeit with some exceptions, have investigated the impact of desegregation on short- and long-term gains in achievement and attainment, as opposed to its impact on intergroup relations. Mixed-race schools are vital not only for bolstering achievement outcomes of previously disadvantaged students but also for promoting social cohesion in a diverse society.Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of StudySpecifically, this article examines the difference in cultural flexibility between black and white students enrolled in schools with different racial and ethnic compositions. Cultural flexibility is defined as the propensity to value and move across different cultural and social peer groups and environments. Furthermore, this article provides some insight into how students in different mixed-race and desegregated educational contexts experience their school's social organization and cultural environments, which influence their interactions and academic behaviors.SettingThe study was conducted over a 6-month period in four high schools: a majority-minority school and a majority-white school located in a northeastern city, and a majority-minority school and a majority-white school located in a southern city.Research DesignSurvey data were gathered from a randomly stratified sample of 471 Black and White students attending. In addition, ethnographic notes from weeks of school observations and transcribed interview data from 57 group interviews conducted in the four schools with students in Grades 9–12 complemented the survey research.Data Collection and AnalysisFindings reveal significant associations among self-esteem, academic and extracurricular placement, and cultural flexibility for black students. Also, black students in majority-minority schools scored significantly higher on the cultural flexibility scale than those in majority-white schools. Among white students, regional location and academic placement showed statistically significant associations with cultural flexibility. The ethnographic and interview data further explicate why these patterns occurred and illuminate how certain school contextual factors are likely linked to students’ cultural flexibility. Overall, this study's findings highlight some connections between student and school behaviors as they pertain to both students’ and educators’ willingness and ability to realize the visions of racial and ethnic integration wholly.

Racial Diversity, Representative Bureaucracy, and Equity in Multiracial School Districts*

Objective.This study examines the conditions under which minorities will face policy inequity within the educational system. It turns to the theory of representative bureaucracy as one possible explanation, and extends the literature by considering whether African‐American students benefit from the presence of Latinos on teaching faculties and vice versa. This study also tests competing theories of how racial context influences minority educational policy outcomes.Methods.This study combines original survey data with data gathered by the U.S. Census to predict levels of academic grouping in U.S. school districts as reported by the Office of Civil Rights.Results.Minority teachers lower levels of discrimination among all minority students, not just co‐ethnics. Moreover, minority teachers do so consistently and with a substantive impact that occasionally rivals that of co‐ethnic teachers. The findings also suggest that greater levels of racial/ethnic diversity within a district are associated with lower levels of discrimination.Conclusion.Theories of race relations must move beyond black‐Anglo or Latino‐Anglo relations to consider how multiple racial/ethnic groups interact, and how such interactions affect the lives of minority groups differently.

Blood Pressure Screening of School Children in a Multiracial School District: The Healthy Kids Project

There are few studies of the prevalence of elevated blood pressure (BP) that include American Indian school children. Therefore, the intent of this study was to examine the relationships between BP and risk factors in a multiracial, predominantly American Indian, school district. A total of 1,829 American Indian, white, Hispanic, and African American students, 5-17 years old, were included in this study. The mean of two BP measurements, taken at the initial screening with an electronic BP monitor, were categorized as normal, prehypertensive, or hypertensive using the 2004 Fourth Report BP screening recommendations. Prevalence of prehypertensive and hypertensive BP measurements by race, gender, age, and body mass index (BMI) were determined, and their associations analyzed with logistic regression. The prevalence of prehypertensive measurements was 16.7% and prevalence of hypertensive measurements was 13.8% at first screen. Obesity was a risk factor for elevated BP for females and males (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 4.01 and 4.33, respectively). Older age was also significantly associated with prehypertensive and hypertensive BP measurements, especially among males (adjusted OR = 6.91). Among females, American Indian race was protective against elevated BP (adjusted OR = 0.61). Obesity was consistently associated with an increased risk for elevated BP. American Indian race was associated with decreased risk of elevated BP measurements in females. The high prevalence of obesity-related hypertensive measurements in this population that includes American Indian children was similar to levels found in other multiracial populations of school children when using BP measurements from a single assessment.

‘Mina 'ngumZulu phaqa’1 Language and identity among multilingual Grade 9 learners at a private desegregated high school in South Africa

This article presents data from a study that focuses on how multilingual Grade 9 learners at a formerly white, private school use language to position themselves and others, and thus use it as an identity-building resource. Data was collected using ethnographic and participatory research methods. The article engages with the concern that African learners attending English medium, multiracial schools are losing their proficiency in African languages. In contrast, the analysis demonstrates that some learners in fact retain African languages and use these as a primary marker of ethnic identities and ideas of ethnic purity. This purity is, in turn, not constructed in a staidly ‘traditional’ manner, but is negotiated through joking and satire. Notions of ethnic purity are also often discursively constructed through the use of English, illustrating the contradictory nature of identities.