“Stop acting white!”: Changing minority students’ perceptions of the school setting

Source: Call Me Mister, Clemson University School of Education website

It is no secret that student motivation is a strong predictor of academic performance and graduation from high school. What is also not a secret is that although the high school drop out rate has steadily declined in recent years, the number of Black and Hispanic students who never earn a high school diploma is staggering (7 and 12 percent drop out rates for Black and Hispanic students, respectively, according to the Pew Research Center.

In my research, I have come across many studies that point to the importance of students’ sense of belonging, or feeling that the school setting is both relevant to and welcoming of their identities. Simply put, students who feel that they belong in a school are more likely to stay in it. Here are two things to know about fostering students’ sense of belonging in a school setting:

1. They don’t care what you know until they know that you care.

The adage is true. We are all inclined to learn more from people we care about, or who we perceive as caring about us. From my husband, who switched from a pre-med track to a major in philosophy due to a professor and the compelling way she conducted her class to my own experiences of trying harder in physics class (and I hate physics!) because I absolutely loved my teacher, a sense of pedagogical caring is closely linked to student achievement. A study published in Journal of Educational Psychology supports this claim. Conducted by K. R. Wentzel, the study titled “Student motivation in middle school: the role of pedagogical caring” followed students for three years and at different points assessed them for levels of psychological distress, pursuit of social goals, feelings of control over their achievements and failures, academic effort, academic achievement and other success markers. Students were also asked to rate their teachers on how caring they were. To no one's surprise, student’s motivation to succeed was greatly affected by having teachers who showed that they cared about them. This was even true for students whose levels of achievement had been lower in the past.

2. It helps to have teachers you share similarities with.

In recent years, educational research studies have indicated that when Black students are taught by Black teachers, improved learning outcomes can be seen. In efforts to increase opportunities for mentorship of Black students by Black teachers, specifically male teachers, efforts such as South Carolina’s Call Me MISTER (Men

Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models), Maryland’s African American Males Into Teaching Program and New York City’s recently launched NYC Men Teach, an initiative to recruit 1,000 male teachers of color, have been implemented. This obviously does not mean teachers cannot effectively teach and mentor students of different identities, however, it is important for students, specially minority and underrepresented students, to have role models within the school setting. As the title of this blog post alludes to, we often hear of minority students who are teased by their peers for doing well at school, which is seen as “acting white”. In order to combat these perceptions, school needs to be seen as an environment where all belong, not just as something “white people” are supposed to value.

So where do we go from here?

The bottom line seems to be that in order to help minority students to succeed academically, schools need to be mindful of providing role models that share similar identities as their students. On the part of teachers, it is vital to attempt to create connections with students that allow them to feel cared for. Finally, it is essential to create school environments where all groups are cherished and valued.

Gabriela Peixoto Twaalfhoven is a high school teacher in Lawrence, Massachusetts and a graduate student at Boston University’s Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program. As a former ESL student and the first in her family to attend college, she is interested in advocacy and mentorship for students from immigrant families.

Sources:

Byrd, C., & Chavous, T. (2011). Racial identity, school racial climate, and school intrinsic motivation among African American youth: The importance of person–context congruence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21 (4), 849-860.

Wentzel, K. R. (1997). Student motivation in middle school: The role of perceived pedagogical caring. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(3), 411-419.