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Teacher practices and student connection: high school students' perceptions of the influences of teacher pedagogy and care on their sense of connection
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Teacher practices and student connection: high school students' perceptions of the influences of teacher pedagogy and care on their sense of connection
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Content
TEACHER PRACTICES AND STUDENT CONNECTION:
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE INFLUENCES OF TEACHER
PEDAGOGY AND CARE ON THEIR SENSE OF CONNECTION
By:
Valery Pierre Codio
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2022
Copyright 2022 Valery Pierre Codio
ii
Dedication
I dedicate my dissertation work to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Your Grace was
more than sufficient for me. Thank you to my amazing wife, Shavon, and my two children, Sarai
and Samuel Carter, who never left my side and championed me to finish strong. A special feeling
of gratitude to my loving parents, Valentin and Martha Codio, whose prayers and words of
encouragement fueled me to finish. My brother Samyr and the rest of my fantastic family for
their continued to support me in every way possible. I love you all. Thank you (in no particular
order), Nelia Pierre, Cerdier Codio, Marie Louise Charles, Helene Sanon, Carmenie Xavier, Jean
Gerard Pierre, Harry Pierre, Rodrigue Batravil, and the trailblazers in my family, both living and
dead. They immigrated from Haiti to lead the way as role models for me.
I also dedicate this dissertation to my close friends and church family, who have
supported me throughout the process. I will always appreciate all you have done. Lastly,
Professor Hasan and Professor Foulk, thank you for getting me over the finish line. I will forever
be indebted to you.
iii
Table of Contents
Dedication .……………………………………………………………………………………………….. ii
List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………………………….. v
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. vi
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................. 1
Background of the Problem ....................................................................................................................... 3
Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................................................... 9
Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................................................ 11
Significance of the Study ......................................................................................................................... 11
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................... 12
School Connectedness ............................................................................................................................. 12
School Connectedness: A Review of Terms ........................................................................................... 13
Interpersonal and Institutional Connectedness ........................................................................................ 14
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ................................................................................................................. 18
Experiencing Academic Success ............................................................................................................. 20
Cultural Competence ............................................................................................................................... 21
Critical Consciousness ............................................................................................................................. 24
CRP in Practice and Scope ...................................................................................................................... 26
Culturally Responsive Teaching .............................................................................................................. 38
Restructuring Attitudes and Beliefs ......................................................................................................... 41
Centering Culture and Difference ............................................................................................................ 42
Establishing Pedagogical Connections .................................................................................................... 43
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy .............................................................................................................. 45
Teacher Care ............................................................................................................................................ 51
Noddings’ Ethic of Care .......................................................................................................................... 52
Valenzuela’s Authentic Care ................................................................................................................... 57
Culturally Relevant Care (CRC) .............................................................................................................. 63
Mutual Trust ........................................................................................................................................ 64
Student Identity and School Connection ................................................................................................. 68
“Acting White” .................................................................................................................................... 68
Navigating the Process of Schooling ................................................................................................... 71
Cultural Responses to Achievement .................................................................................................... 73
Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................................................ 79
Carter and Self-Identity ....................................................................................................................... 80
Carter and Cultural Navigators ............................................................................................................ 81
iv
Valenzuela, Noddings, and Authentic Care ......................................................................................... 82
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS ..................................................................................................... 84
Sample ..................................................................................................................................................... 85
Selecting a School Site ........................................................................................................................ 85
Participants .............................................................................................................................................. 87
Data Collection and Instrumentation Procedures .................................................................................... 87
Interviews ................................................................................................................................................ 87
Data Analysis Procedures ........................................................................................................................ 88
Credibility and Trustworthiness .............................................................................................................. 89
Ethics ....................................................................................................................................................... 90
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 90
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................... 91
Case Study Vignettes ............................................................................................................................... 92
Research Findings .................................................................................................................................... 94
Demonstrations of Care ....................................................................................................................... 95
Thematic Claim 1: Students’ Perceptions of Their Teachers’ Authentic Demonstrations of Care ..... 95
Thematic Claim 2: Students’ Perceptions of the Influence of Pedagogical Practice on Connection to
School is Evidenced in Both Supportive and Unsupportive Navigation. .......................................... 103
Conclusions............................................................................................................................................ 112
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 113
Discussion of Findings .......................................................................................................................... 114
Implications ........................................................................................................................................... 116
Recommendations for Future Research ................................................................................................. 117
Recommendation 1: Improving Hiring Practices .................................................................................. 117
Recommendation 2: Helping Parents/Families to Connect/Reconnect ................................................. 117
Recommendation 3: Professional Development on Ethics and Care and Cultural Navigation ............. 118
Limitations and Delimitations ............................................................................................................... 118
Implications for Equity/Connection to the Rossier Mission .................................................................. 119
Conclusions............................................................................................................................................ 119
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 121
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................................... 124
Letter and Parental Consent Form ............................................................................................................. 124
v
List of Figures
Figure 1: The Four Quadrants of School Connectedness used by Nasir et al. (2011)………….. 16
Figure 2: Chart used by Howard (2001) to judge teacher competency for his study…………… 33
Figure 3. Conceptual Framework……………………………………………………………….. 80
vi
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to research how students respond to the teachers' use of
asset pedagogies, along with the ethics of authentic care and cultural navigation, to see what role
it played in student connection to the school. Nine 11th and 12th grade African American and
Latino students were chosen and interviewed to gain their insight based on the topic of this
study. Using a semi-structured interview format, questions posed to the participants centered on
student identity, persistence in school. The students also discussed their teachers' use of
culturally relevant responsive pedagogical practices and how authentic teacher care influenced
their sense of connectedness during two 45-minute interview sessions. The study found that
students were more connected to school when they believed their teachers authentically cared for
them. The study also found that implementing culturally responsive pedagogical moves
supported the academic journeys of the participants. Alternatively, unsupportive and accusatory
cultural navigational pedagogical actions were met with participants' resistance.
Keywords: Cultural navigation, asset pedagogies, authentic care, student identity, student
connectedness.
1
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
For as long as compulsory education has been in place in the United States, students of
color have been marginalized (Nasir et al., 2011). From the days of the Freedman’s Bureau after
the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 to the Mendez vs. Westminster legal case of 1947 to today,
African American and Latino students have had to struggle to have school conditions on par with
their white peers. Much of the inequity has been due to the lack of acceptance of these students as
learners (Nasir et al., 2011). They are subject to injustices, and are required to use
damaged/antiquated books and study in subpar classrooms (Nasir et al., 2011). Currently, it
appears as if schools are still having marked difficulties with how to properly serve students of
color (Gay, 2013; Nasir et al., 2011; Valenzuela, 1999).
The fact that schools have not historically provided well for some students has had
implications for the students themselves. Consequently, many students consider the process of
acquiring an education to be something that diminishes who they are culturally (Valenzuela,
1999). These and other factors, such as derogatory racist stereotypes, lack of care, and
marginalization, have driven many students of color to drop out of school due to a lack of
connection (Valenzuela, 1999). While many studies have explored what types of strategies help
students connect to the process of schooling, as discussed by Libbey’s (2004) analysis of research
studying connection, there is a dearth of information as to how impoverished students of color
connect to the process of schooling, resulting in many of these students having difficulties
achieving in school (Nasir et al., 2011).
Much like the marketing arm of any company needs to know exactly how to target the
client base it seeks to attract, the same consideration should be made for students as it relates to
their academic journeys. A largely middle class, white, female profession has asserted its views,
2
norms, and social mores globally on all students, expecting them all to respond favorably (Gay,
2013; Howard, 2001; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris & Alim, 2014). This approach has not worked
well with students of color. As opposed to being receptive to the overtures of their teachers, many
students of color reject the advances of an educational system that they feel both dismisses them
and detracts from what they are able to offer on a daily basis (Nasir et al., 2011; Valenzuela, 1999;
Watson et al., 2014).
There are many factors that explain why this has occurred. Aside from feeling slighted by
their teachers, students are affected in many ways by the thoughts and suppositions of their peers,
regardless of academic prowess, achievement, or aptitude (Carter, 2003, 2006; Ogbu & Fordham,
1986). Research has shown that all students appear to respond well to pedagogical practices geared
to their needs (Libbey, 2004). They also respond well to caring teachers who support them,
promote academic progress, and show an interest in their nonacademic needs regardless of who
they are (Libbey, 2004). This is also true for students of color. Culturally relevant and responsive
teaching strategies have been found to be highly effective with these students (Gay, 2013; Ladson-
Billings, 1995). However, many teachers still use pedagogical practices with students of color who
are not successful (Gay, 2013; Howard, 2001; Ladson-Billings, 1995).
It is also important to note that students themselves play an important role in their own
educational journeys. As social agents in their own right, the roles that students assume largely
dictate how they interact with the school (Nasir et al., 2011). In other words, there are interactions
between the school and the student that shape students’ perceptions of their academic identity,
ultimately influencing their desire, or lack thereof, to connect to school. Carter (2006) explained
the different roles students could assume, enabling some students of color to adjust positively and
persist through school despite their specific challenges. As such, it is important to look at what
3
both students and educators do that shape students’ connection to school. Thus, the purpose of this
study is to explore what factors students of color believe have enabled them to connect to the
process of schooling, enabling them to persist in the 11
th
and 12
th
grades.
Background of the Problem
To have an accurate understanding of why many students of color have struggled to
connect to the process of schooling, one must have an understanding of the systemic barriers faced
by students of color (Ogbu & Fordham, 1986). African Americans and Latinos have been
marginalized by American society since the inception of the United States. Presumptions of the
intellectual inadequacy of students of color have been at the core of White American dominant
cultural thinking for a long time. It began with the Constitution, where the Founding Fathers of
American culture and society laid the groundwork for the establishment of a racial hierarchy by
deeming that black slaves were three-fifths of a human. This classification had educational
implications because any slave who was taught how to read or compute was dealt with harshly.
While things have certainly improved since those days, the sense that the American educational
system was created for Whites has meant that many students of color believe that connecting to
the process of schooling is akin to acting white. As such, many reject schooling, arguing that many
of the racial ideologies of inferiority that were active back then are still in existence (Ogbu &
Fordham, 1986).
In discussing America’s historical problems with the positive progression of people of
color, Wright (2007) described how Africans were involuntarily brought to the United States in
terrible conditions during the Middle Passage. Upon their arrival, Blacks were enslaved, and
anyone caught trying to teach a slave anything that resembled academics was imprisoned, fined,
or whipped. This period lasted until the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed,
4
and new laws created the Freedman’s Bureau Act of 1865 (Wright, 2007). This act, purporting
itself to assist newly released slaves in the areas of housing, food, oversight, and education, did
not have the lasting impression on Black students that it was thought to have assured (Wright,
2007). During this period, known as Black Reconstruction, schools were built to accommodate
once captive slaves and their offspring. Wright (2007) noted that Jim Crow laws were crafted and
instituted to produce separate and unequal treatment of Black students in the educational system.
Places like South Carolina used these laws to issue different textbooks to blacks and whites. There
was also an 82% spending difference between African American and Caucasian students (Wright,
2007).
As a result of the discrimination that Blacks faced during the late 1800s, cases against
segregation have been a staple in the fabric of the American legal system. In the landmark case
Plessy vs. Ferguson of 1896 (Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896), the plaintiff fought for his rights against
segregation, using the 14
th
Amendment argument of equal protection under the law (Berry, 1996).
Plessy eventually lost the case, ultimately allowing the Supreme Court to sanction a separate but
equal doctrine in which Whites could legally remain separate as long as there was something
comparable available for other races. With this ideology governing the way the United States
operated, the Plessy case was unsuccessful in ending the disparities between Blacks and Whites.
These disparities permeated all of American society, including the educational system (Berry,
1996).
Because schools were segregated for a long time, American history is also riddled with
segregation tactics that have affected Latino students as well. It took two landmark cases in the
mid-1900s to provide more advantageous avenues for students of color to have better access to
schooling. The Mendez vs. Westminster case of 1946 (Mendez v. Westminster, 1946) was the first
5
successful attempt to challenge the constitutionality of school segregation in the United States
(Valencia, 2005). Over 5,000 Mexican American students lobbied against the unfair practices of
an Orange County California school district under the 14
th
Amendment clause of equal protection.
After his daughter was barred from attending a “Whites only” school, Gonzalo Mendez, Sylvia
Mendez’s father, sought legal action to end these unfair practices through a class action lawsuit.
The parents of these children would have had to travel long distances to have their children
educated in a school with a full Latino population (Valencia, 2005). Winning this case paved the
way for Brown vs. Board of Education (Brown v. Board of Education, 1953).
Prior to this case, Mexican Americans were treated unfairly by the White dominant culture.
Dating back to 1848 (Valencia, 2005). In the time following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
which led to the US annexation of Mexican territory, White racism made it difficult for Mexicans
to thrive in America (Valencia, 2005). This allowed for school segregation to be the normative
situation in the southwestern region of the United States. Valencia (2005) reported that local
officials in these areas established separate schools for Mexicans that were poorly funded and few
in number. Although the population of Mexicans continued to increase, schools were not created
to accommodate the influx. These circumstances led to many Chicano students dropping out of
school after the third grade.
The Mendez case was unique because it included the involvement of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization known
for fighting for the rights of African Americans at that time. Valencia (2005) recounted that the
NAACP had been working on using the 14
th
Amendment of the Equal Protection argument in
relation to the school system. The legal team argued that a separate school system was not equal
and that segregation would have damaging effects on young Latinos. The use of the 14
th
6
Amendment is what makes this case extremely important. While the gains were only connected
to California schools, they laid the framework for what was to happen in Topeka, Kansas, a few
years later (Valencia, 2005).
As Brown vs. Board of Education looms as the paramount case of segregation; it would
not have been possible without the two aforementioned cases. The Brown case was a conglomerate
of cases stemming from several different states, arguing that Black students were denied access to
schools attended by White students. The Supreme Court ultimately concluded that separate but
equal governing was unconstitutional according to the 14
th
Amendment because the schools were
not equal in curricula, facilities, teacher education, and transportation (Wright, 2007).
Although the courts decided that segregating children could potentially damage the psyche
of students of color, the effects were not strong enough to make a lasting change to the scholastic
landscape for those students. While some gains were being made, discontent began to arise about
the entire process (Wright, 2007). White flight, tracking, and labeling became ways that the
dominant culture chose to resist having to completely integrate schools in predominately
Caucasian neighborhoods, thus neutralizing the advances made by students of color to truly close
the achievement gap and improve student connectedness (Wright, 2007). These factors, coupled
with racism in their new schools, caused people of color to become somewhat disenchanted with
the idea of desegregation in public schools. By the end of the 20
th
century, the NAACP shared the
sentiment that parents of students of color, while appreciating the opportunity to attend what were
perceived to be better schools, would rather their children receive a proper education in a school
in their local neighborhood (Wright, 2007).
Currently, while most students of color may not be able to give a historical account of
occurrences of hostility, they certainly feel their effects. Sadly, issues with inadequate facilities
7
were introduced legally as recently as 2000 with the Williams case against the State of California.
The plaintiffs in this case argued that schools were not providing adequate materials or facilities,
which affected low-income students of color more than any other group in the state. The case was
settled in 2004, with almost a trillion dollars allocated to ensure the rights of all students to a fair,
decent, and adequate education.
Given all this, it is no wonder that many students of color have rejected the process of
schooling. They feel that racism and a lack of care exist in the dominant culture’s system of
administering education (Valenzuela, 1999). With students of color suspended, expelled, and
disciplined for what many would term minor offenses, the system of oppression remains alive and
well, despite what is considered to be a postracial society. With many students of color attending
schools with zero-tolerance discipline policies, they experience issues with expressing themselves
through their nondominant cultural lens without being disciplined for it (Valenzuela, 1999).
It is largely for these reasons that African American and Latino students have reported not
feeling as if their schools care about them. This has resulted in many rejecting the process of
schooling and thus not feeling a sense of connectedness to the institution (Nasir et al., 2011).
Teachers themselves admit that they have difficulty understanding how to implement strategies
that have been proven to assist students of color, such as culturally relevant and responsive
pedagogical practices (Gay, 2013). By claiming incompetence and student disobedience, many
teachers have avoided the work involved in serving students of color. This has allowed them to
dismiss the effectiveness of culturally relevant and responsive pedagogical practices as
insignificant, inconclusive, and ineffective (Gay, 2013). Some teachers claim that these teaching
practices are actually divisive and racist in both application and practice (Gay, 2013). With
approximately 82% of the educational workforce being from the dominant culture (Goldring et
8
al., 2013), this leaves students of color without many advocates who will actively seek ways to
meet their academic needs (Valenzuela, 1999).
Finally, with the dominant culture being able to change the rules for success at any given
time (Noddings, 1995), students of color are simply at a disadvantage, ill-equipped to achieve like
their white counterparts in the educational system. The remnants of an unequal educational system
can be observed in the achievement outcome data. For example, we know that there is a clear gap
in graduation rates between students of color and their white counterparts. Nationally, 82% of all
eligible high school students graduated in the 2011–2012 school year (Stark & Noel, 2015). Of
the 82% who graduated, 85% of all eligible Caucasian students graduated, while only 76% and
68% of African American and Latino students graduated, respectively (Stark & Noel, 2015).
Many researchers believe that one reason we see this gap is that students of color’s
knowledge bases that assist them in surviving their immediate circumstances are not generally
regarded as important by the dominant culture (Nasir et al., 2011; Valenzuela, 1999). These same
researchers believe that all students should have access to knowledge and that the curriculum
should be constructed in ways that meet the needs of these learners in order for them to acquire
the information necessary to further their development. They contended that students of color
should never be maligned or told that their cultural knowledge base is inferior to the information
learned in the classroom. Rather, researchers believe that the prior knowledge students of color
bring to the classroom is, in fact, a resource that should be used to unlock access to information
(Gay, 2013; Ladson-Billings, 1995).
Some have even stated that the national standards used to teach students are a sham, since
they produce the delusion of a meritocratic system where all students have an equal chance at
success without acknowledging that many students do not have the resources available to make
9
this a reality (Paris & Alim, 2014). Studies have found that students of color actively decide not
to connect to school because this institution dictates the way the dominant culture wants them to
behave and think. As such, many students deem this connection to school fruitless (Carter, 2003,
2006; Ogbu & Fordham, 1986). Since there is very little accuracy with regard to actual graduation
rates, this study seeks to understand what students perceive as the reasons they persist to complete
high school. More specifically, this study will examine whether and how teacher care and
pedagogical practices have any influence on why students choose to stay.
Statement of the Problem
With so many African American and Latino students rejecting the process of schooling by
their teachers at every educational level, it is important to recognize the factors causing this
problem to persist. Students who perceive a hostile and apathetic school environment have
difficulty finding reasons to connect to it (Carter, 2006; Nasir et al., 2011; Ogbu & Fordham,
1986). With very few role models serving as cultural navigators, some students of color shun the
white middle class values in schools for fear of being judged negatively by their peers (Carter,
2006; Nasir et al., 2011; Ogbu & Fordham, 1986). Cultural navigators are people who have
cultural knowledge and resources, both from their own racial group and the dominant culture.
Those with this knowledge can then assist others who are less informed about how to navigate
mainstream norms (Carter, 2006).
Since there are so few cultural navigators for students of color, the actions of the dominant
culture then influence the assumptions of some of their teachers, who subsequently perceive
students of color to be lazy and unconcerned with their future outcomes, as dictated by the
dominant culture’s definition of success. Some teachers also dismiss their students’ nondominant
cultural knowledge, thus cementing the students’ perceptions of school as a hostile place that
10
subtracts from their existence (Nasir et al., 2011; Valenzuela, 1999).
Research has shown that students exit school for a myriad of reasons (Butrymowicz, 2014).
With many opting for gangs, and others relenting due to the difficulties they face with
understanding assigned work, many students of color simply lose interest altogether
(Butrymowicz, 2014). Other factors include being bullied and major challenges faced in their
homes and neighborhoods (Butrymowicz, 2014). With a combination of one or more factors, it is
easy to see why some students of color equate the process of schooling to a hostile environment.
This creates an adversarial situation in which teachers are often ill-equipped to handle the issues
faced by their students, and therefore dismiss the things their students can offer in the classroom
setting. This then breeds a lack of connection, which ultimately results in a disconnection between
students, teachers, and school (Butrymowicz, 2014).
To bridge this connection gap, asset pedagogies, such as culturally relevant pedagogy
(CRP), culturally responsive teaching (CRT), and culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP), have
provided insight into how students of color have opportunities to connect in an educational system
when their repository of knowledge is valued and brought into the classroom. Research shows that
they are more likely to connect with teachers who utilize asset pedagogies, such as CRP, CSP, and
CRT. The research has also made it clear that students of color connect best with caring teachers
who understand that it is just as important to be interested in their students’ nonacademic goals as
their scholastic ones (Gay, 2013; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Morrison et al., 2008; Paris & Alim,
2014). Teachers who are able to master the skills of authentic care and culturally responsive
pedagogical practices have shown success with students of color because they enable students to
connect to school. To better understand how this happens from the perspective of the students,
this dissertation seeks to understand how students of color connect to the process of schooling and
11
persist to the 11
th
and 12
th
grade, despite possibly seeing others rejecting the process of schooling.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of African American and Latino
high school students about the influence of asset pedagogical practices derived from CRP and
CRT, coupled with authentic teacher care, on their connection to school (Carter, 2003, 2006).
Thus, the goal and purpose of the study is to look at how successful students of color persisted
until the 11
th
or 12
th
grade given the strategies teachers used to theoretically improve student
performance through school connectedness. With this in mind, the following question will be used
to inform my study:
What are African American and Latino high school students’ perceptions of the influence
of teachers’ pedagogical practices and demonstrations of care on their connection to
school?
Significance of the Study
This study is important to see how teachers in urban educational contexts are able to help
two specific student populations connect with the process of schooling and persist through to the
11
th
or 12
th
grade. The hope is that this study will also shed light on the role that students’ identities
play in their sense of connection to school. It will also examine the responses students give with
regard to the pedagogical and caring practices used by their teachers, judging whether those
strategies have impacted their decision to stay in school in one way or another. This study will
specifically inquire whether teachers use pedagogical practices and authentic teacher care to gauge
whether students believe these asset pedagogies have had an influence on their sense of
connection. The hope is that this information can inform educators of students of color.
12
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section, I describe the various ways in which students connect to the process of
schooling. I begin by providing a definition of school connectedness using Heather Libbey’s
literature review as a guide. Afterwards, I explore Nasir et al.’s (2011) thoughts on interpersonal
and institutional connectedness and expound on five other theories/bodies of literature that will
provide the framing for this study: Ladson-Billings’ (1995, 2009, 2014) work around CRP, Paris’
(2012) and Paris and Alim’s (2014) work on CSP, Gay’s work on CRT, Noddings’ (1986, 1988)
thoughts on teacher care, Valenzuela’s work on subtractive schooling and the need for authentic
care, and Watson et al.’s (2014) work on culturally critical care. All these theories, while focusing
on what the teacher does, speak to the importance of enacting practices that focus on the best
interests of the students. I also explore the work of Fordham and Ogbu (1986) with respect to
African American students dealing with the burden of acting white and Prudence Carter’s work
on three aspects of cultural identity used to describe how students of color relate to the process of
schooling. These and other studies inform the concepts used to comprise the conceptual
framework for this dissertation.
School Connectedness
School connectedness research has evolved over time and led to many different discoveries
around the issue of encouraging students to be more connected scholastically. Terms such as
“social bonding,” “social attachment,” “school engagement,” “school context,” and “school
connectedness” have been used to study students’ relationships to school. Although there are both
qualitative and quantitative studies on this topic, the litany of descriptions explaining school
13
connectedness has provided more questions than answers about how to conceptualize this
construct (Libbey, 2004). In this section, the groundwork is laid for this study’s perspective on
school connectedness, with a summary of Libbey’s (2004) literature review findings, as well as a
discussion of a more nuanced conceptualization of school connectedness through the work of
Nasir et al. (2011).
School Connectedness: A Review of Terms
In an attempt to provide clarity on a topic that has been researched using varied
terminology, Libbey (2004) conducted a literature review of many different research studies on
school connectedness. She studied 17 different articles using 21 different terms centered on
studying how students connected to school. School connectedness, as defined by Libbey, is a
student’s relationship with the school. She asserted that her goal was not to find a singular term to
override others; it was simply to help define what had been done in the past to understand this
concept. Thus, she used the 21 terms and categorized them using nine themes: academic
engagement, belonging, discipline and fairness, likes school, student voice, extracurricular
activities, peer relations, safety, and teacher support. She asserted that, although different ideas
made up the concept of school connectedness, no single theme took precedence over another, and
they were equally important in conceptualizing school connectedness. Since no single theme
emerged as the most salient in her review, she was able to conclude from the studies’ findings that
students who felt as if they belonged, were connected, and were supported by their teachers
ultimately performed better in schools than those who did not, regardless of the measure used to
study the connection. She was able to make this assertion based on her analysis of the different
experiments she reviewed.
14
Libbey’s (2004) work helped provide a synopsis of the numerous terms used to research a
concept that has been explored by many researchers. Her review concluded that school
connectedness at any level can lead to positive student orientation and development in one form
or another. As a result of her review, Libbey settled on a working definition of school
connectedness based on the idea that the term represents a student’s overall relationship with the
school from the nine themes stated above. Her work informs this dissertation because she provided
direction on a topic that has been studied in many ways. While her goal was not to provide a single
definition of connectedness, her review helped ground me on how this issue has been researched
while providing clarity with her working definition.
Interpersonal and Institutional Connectedness
Although Libbey (2004) provided a centralized voice on school connectedness from a
historical perspective by conducting a literature review, Nasir et al. (2011) drew from their
empirical research and looked to bifurcate school connectedness into two concepts: interpersonal
and institutional connectedness. In their study, the three researchers investigated school
connectedness by designing a survey that polled 120 high school students in a high-poverty urban
school in Northern California, while collecting observational and interview data from a small
group of 20 students focused on examining their interpersonal and institutional connectedness.
The study also examined the academic achievement and academic identities of students as
outcome variables, which they discussed in their findings (Nasir et al., 2011).
The authors wanted to reconceptualize school connectedness because they felt that studies
used to assess connection in the past had melded behavior and attitudinal measures without
disentangling them. Also, Nasir and colleagues (2011) found that studies infrequently examined
15
school connections for students in urban schools attended by students of color. Thus, little is
known about what factors from past research can be applied to this population, especially as it
relates to African Americans, Latinos, and poor students. They argued that previously used case
studies examining school connectedness lacked external validity in that the results from those
studies were conducted on suburban white students, with that information being used in a
generalizable fashion to students of color. Their research was important for shedding light on an
area that had previously been ignored with respect to urban youth.
Nasir et al. (2011) asserted that it was important to study this topic in an urban environment
because of how poorly many urban students performed in these environments. They framed their
research on school connectedness from the perspective that there was both an interpersonal and
institutional connection in an urban high school setting after their first round of interviews.
Interpersonal connectedness refers to the relationships the students had with school stakeholders,
including interactions with teachers, administrators, and other students. The researchers defined
institutional connectedness as a student’s behavior and sentiment toward their role in the process
of schooling itself. Nasir et al. (2011) studied both types of connectedness separately while
including a measure of academic identity as a bridge to relate the terms to each other. They defined
academic identity as how students saw themselves and the extent to which they viewed school as
an important part of their lives. This was important for how students related to the process of
schooling, because these two forks (interpersonal and institutional connectedness) explicated
student sentiment with regard to their connection to school. It also indicated that school
connectedness is not necessarily correlated with academic growth in and of itself. As a means to
orient their research, Nasir et al. (2011) designed a mixed methods research study asking the
16
following questions:
1. How are the affective and behavioral dimensions of school connection related to one
another for African American students in a high-poverty urban high school?
2. How do affective and behavioral connections and disconnections play out in the
school lives of students? How is it related to the specifics of the school context?
The researchers created a four-quadrant connectedness diagram (Figure 1), underscoring
both high and low academic results for students in these quadrants, and describing the ways in
which interpersonal and institutional connectedness occurred in each situation.
The Four Quadrants of School Connectedness, Used by Nasir et al. (2011)
In Figure 1, Quadrant A represents students who have high interpersonal connection and
high institutional connection; Quadrant B represents students with high institutional
connectedness and low institutional connectedness, and so forth. The researchers found that the
students in Quadrant A were high-achieving students with the highest grade point averages
(GPAs). Quadrant B included students who had the second highest GPAs, a full grade point lower
than the students in Quadrant A. Quadrant C had lower GPAs than Quadrant B, with Quadrant D
students reporting the lowest GPAs at 1.3 or below.
Additionally, they found that the dual aspects of connectedness (interpersonal and
17
institutional connection) operated in different ways for students in this urban school environment
in terms of their relationships with the process of schooling. They asserted that frequent staff
instability in urban schools played a significant role in why urban students had difficulties
connecting with school. They argued that historical issues within the community affected school
connectedness with regard to teacher relationships and scholastic performance. The particular
school in Nasir et al.’s study had systemic problems with students connecting because the teaching
staff had not created a rigorous scholastic environment. They believed that this particular urban
school was able to create a semblance of community with their students while not promoting
scholastic excellence. As such, the quadrants explained above serve as a way to show that students
fall into different categories in relation to institutional and interpersonal connectedness.
Nasir et al. (2011) provided findings that highlighted significant concerns with respect to
using traditional connectedness measures studied in suburban schools as opposed to urban school
environments. Their results reflect the fact that schools play a vital role in improving or
diminishing levels of connectedness for students in general. Since what students bring to the
classroom (institutional connectedness) and what the school offers students to promote academic
success (interpersonal connectedness) do not guarantee academic progress separately, it is
important to examine how these two aspects of connectedness can be viewed together. This can
create a bridge to understanding how connectedness can be improved for students of color in urban
environments. Nasir et al.’s (2011) conceptualization of school connectedness is used in this
dissertation to explore the practices teachers implement that help students connect to school, while
understanding the students’ own self-concepts with regard to identity and relationship to the
process of schooling.
18
Although the researchers described in detail how the students performed scholastically
with respect to connection, students’ connection to the process of schooling itself does not
automatically result in academic achievement. Nasir et al.’s (2011) study was more focused on
students’ perceptions of the process of schooling, how they felt their peers related to their thoughts
on connection, and what the students were willing to do despite the challenges they faced at their
local high school. This was important for understanding student perceptions of the process of
schooling because the students who wanted to connect found unique ways to do so, regardless of
whether they performed well academically or not.
A lot of what determines whether students connect to school is related to how they perceive
what teachers do and/or say in the classroom. As a result of the relationship between student
connectedness to the process of schooling and teacher actions, the purpose of this dissertation is
to highlight the different teaching practices used by teachers that may contribute to increased
student connectedness for students of color. Thus, I will discuss various pedagogical teaching
practices known to increase student connectedness to the process of schooling. Given that the
research conducted by Nasir et al. (2011) found that what the school offered students of color to
promote academic success was important (particularly as it relates to interpersonal
connectedness), highlighting successful practices advanced by educational theorists is paramount
to helping students of color achieve and connect to the process of schooling. The next section
addresses CRP.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
CRP is widely recognized as a way to help students of color from urban environments
connect with the process of schooling (Ladson-Billings, 1995). As an approach, CRP legitimized
19
cultural pluralism in the school setting by connecting cultural awareness to scholastic success
(Ladson-Billings, 1995). This section will discuss CRP in more depth to explain its relevance to
students’ school connectedness.
Gloria Ladson-Billings, whose work focuses on finding practices that help African
American students achieve success in school, is an important voice in the theory of CRP. Ladson-
Billings (1995) conducted a qualitative study examining eight teachers from a low-income school
in Northern California over a period of three years. To find her sample of teachers, the researcher
asked both parents and the principal, who they thought were good teachers of students of color,
based on a number of factors: their enthusiasm for student academic success, their ability to gain
and give respect in classroom settings, and student attitudes toward the teacher themselves.
Ladson-Billings then consulted the principal of that school for suggestions, which included
looking at teacher performance, standardized student test scores, and a low office referral count
for discipline purposes. Nine teachers were chosen, and eight were selected to participate because
they were on both the parent’s and the principal’s lists of preferred teachers.
The study was conducted in four phases. The first phase involved conducting an
ethnographic interview with each of the teachers and discussing a wide array of questions covering
topics from classroom management to their own teaching philosophies. The second phase
involved unannounced classroom visitations and observations, when their lessons were
videotaped. Phase 3 included a focus group discussion with the teachers. The first three phases
took two years to complete, with the last phase of the study consisting of the researcher observing
two teachers for one year, as both implemented their literacy strategies in reading (Ladson-
Billings, 1995).
20
Through her research, Ladson-Billings (1995, 2009) explicated CRP into three tenets
theorized to be universal among good educators of students of color. This served as the theoretical
underpinning of CRP. The three tenets of CRP are a comprehension of self and others, an emphasis
on social relations along with its construction, and the realization of knowledge (Ladson-Billings,
1995, 2009). These three tenets were reconceptualized by Morrison et al. (2008) to represent three
goals, which will be explained in the following sections:
• Students should experience academic success in school (high expectations).
• Students should develop and maintain a sense of cultural competence for growth and
advancement (cultural competence).
• Students should acquire critical consciousness in order to challenge the status quo of
the dominant culture (critical consciousness).
Based on the research, CRP has shown success with students of color, given that it supports
both the learner and teacher with affirming the cultural and academic needs of students of color
(Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2009). The next study will discuss how the students experienced academic
success through this asset-based pedagogy.
Experiencing Academic Success
Ladson-Billings (1995) asserted in her first tenet that students should be taught the skills
necessary to attain academic success despite social ills. She further contended that to advance in
a democratic society, students need to master literacy and numeracy while learning how to
navigate the world in political, social, and technological ways. She concluded that culturally
relevant teaching required teachers to properly educate their students, as opposed to simply
providing an atmosphere where students enjoyed classes without striving for academic excellence.
21
She believed that teachers could ignite a student’s desire for academic achievement by focusing
on how important academic success is in the world. Thus, the educators in her study also saw their
pupils as academicians and were willing to challenge the narrative usually attributed to low-
income students of color. These educators exuded confidence that all students were capable of
scholastic achievement. Through her observations, she remarked that the educators did not accept
excuses from their students but assisted them in finding alternative pathways to success.
One educator who subscribed to the CRP theory believed in the teaching-as-mining
principle introduced by Paulo Friere. This calls for an educator to extrapolate information from
learners as opposed to giving their students the information because it is important that students
achieve academically (Ladson-Billings, 2009). This is in contrast to the years of neglect and
apathy exhibited by the teachers of this population. Thus, strategies that promote critical thinking
encouraged student discourse in the classroom, and in the study, this dialogue allowed teachers to
model the use of academic language as a means to teach students how to code switch between
African American language and standard English. All of these moves spoke to the expectations
that the teachers in this study had for their students. Rather than being deficit-minded, they
embraced the abilities of their students and used everything they could to promote mastery,
excellence, and community for their learners in an attempt to connect their students to the process
of schooling.
Cultural Competence
Ladson-Billings noted that teachers who focused on fostering cultural competence
encouraged both students and themselves to maintain their cultural integrity. CRP was theorized
as appreciating and incorporating the intelligence brought to school by students. She asserted that
22
students’ knowledge needed probing and proffering to turn them into true academics (Ladson-
Billings, 2009). She derived this thought from a study done on African American students in
Washington, D.C., where Fordham and Ogbu (1986), through observation, surmised that African
American students linked scholastic achievement with whiteness. As a means of rejecting this
perception, students would refuse to exhibit an interest in school, thus not succeeding in academic
tasks. This idea of disconnecting from the process of schooling because of its perceived
association with whiteness will be explained later in this review. Using Ladson-Billings’ (1995)
definition, cultural competence describes the concept that a student should be knowledgeable and
proud of their own heritage while learning different aspects of another culture without forfeiting
their own heritage.
Additionally, Ladson-Billings (1995) did not want the connection between school and
whiteness to be the prevailing thought of students of color, although she believed that a large
number of African American and other nonwhite students perceived the classroom as a place
where they could not be themselves because their culture was not valued. The teachers in her study
understood that their role was to help students construct connections amid multiple identities—
cultural, global, local, national, and racial—because understanding the fluid nature of these
identities would help them navigate properly through school and beyond (Ladson-Billings, 1995,
2009). Thus, she contended that culturally relevant teachers had to use students’ cultures to drive
instruction while providing them with a curriculum that connected their prior knowledge and
cultural experiences to new information. An example of this was when Ladson-Billings (1995)
observed one of the teachers connecting her love of poetry with her students’ appreciation of rap
and hip hop music. Students were allowed to perform lyrics from non-offensive rap songs. The
23
teacher then led classroom discussions on the literal and figurative meanings embedded in the
songs and connected them to the various elements used in poetry.
With regard to community, Ladson-Billings (1995) discussed involving parents in the
classroom as a means to cultivate cultural competence for students of color. She thought that
involving parents would improve students’ perceptions about the people around them. She stated
that teachers should search out the talents and gifts of their students’ parents and ask them to come
into the classroom to conduct in-class seminars as experts in areas in which teachers are not
knowledgeable. After the presentation, the teacher could then create opportunities for the students
to conduct more research on what was presented. Ladson-Billings surmised this after observing a
teacher who had a parent known for her baking ability teach the students how to make sweet potato
pies. The teacher then constructed an entire unit researching culinary arts and famous African
American scientist George Washington Carver’s work on sweet potatoes. Finally, the teacher
helped the students create a marketing strategy to sell the pies, thanking the community volunteers
for their expertise. Ladson-Billings (1995) discussed the intentional decisions of participating
teachers choosing their students’ family members as experts in the classroom. She believed this
communicated the idea that students would be able to see the value of their culture and the assets
that existed in their communities.
Another way to recognize students’ cultural competence was to see the value of students’
home language. Ladson-Billings (1995) asserted that cultural competence could be furthered by
encouraging students to use their home language while learning standard English. She believed
that teaching students how to code switch between their home language and academic English
armed them with invaluable skills that would help them to become more marketable in the future.
24
Additionally, the student’s familiarity with their home language was thought to improve the
chances that students would feel valued in school, and thus develop a connection to it.
Critical Consciousness
In her “realization of knowledge tenet,” Ladson-Billings (1995) shared that teachers who
used CRP needed to raise the critical consciousness of their students by helping them develop a
broader sociopolitical awareness of the dominant cultural worldview. She believed this skill would
give students of color the tools necessary to evaluate the cultural norms, mores, and institutions
that foster and sustain social inequities. She stated that having individual success was not enough
to improve a student’s outlook, and that teachers should provide many opportunities for students
to critique societal norms. She believed this type of teaching could encourage students to
successfully lead movements that could change oppressive systems of government and rule. This
helped students increase their sense of connection to the process of schooling because they felt
that their thoughts and concerns were being honored by their teacher. This encouraged them to
learn more about the inaccuracies present in their everyday lives based on knowledge learned at
school, which correlated with their out-of-school experiences.
Moreover, Ladson-Billings (2009) witnessed teachers educating in ways that helped create
lifelong learners. She noted that the teachers were willing to adapt the state-registered curriculum
to fit the needs of their students, while also vocally criticizing the structures that created inequality
in school curricula and resources. The teachers in her study led discussions on how to properly
represent the cultural backgrounds of students in the classroom setting. Instead of lamenting how
outdated and unrepresentative the textbooks were, teachers in Ladson-Billings’ study critiqued the
information in the textbooks while discussing the system of inequitable funding that allowed
25
students who came from more affluent backgrounds to have newer books. Teachers and students
then wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers informing the community about the paucity
of adequate materials and resources. Teachers also brought articles and resources to supplement
the information presented in the textbooks. The researcher thought that culturally relevant teachers
should view the information students possessed as a reasonable source of knowledge, as opposed
to the prevailing thought that teachers are the sole suppliers of academic understanding (Ladson-
Billings, 2009).
One thing to note is that Ladson-Billings (2009) did not notice a commonality in the
teaching styles of the eight participants. For example, while some of the teachers created student-
centered learning environments that were more unstructured, others had a more traditional
classroom structure. Ladson-Billings remarked that this phenomenon forced her to study the
philosophical underpinnings of teachers’ desire to educate rather than their particular style.
Through this, she was able to recognize similarities across the eight participants. She noticed that
the teachers immersed themselves in their communities without being ashamed of their profession.
They were proud to teach African American students and wanted their students to commit
themselves to improving their communities as well. These teachers were often seen doing many
things in the community, such as shopping and attending church services. This allowed them to
foster positive relationships with their students, which in turn allowed them to push their students
toward academic excellence.
Furthermore, the teachers wanted the students to build a sense of camaraderie and fidelity
to each other, as opposed to an aggressively competitive atmosphere. They strove to promote an
atmosphere where the students could succeed together as opposed to apart, thus maintaining the
26
aspect of community they endeavored to instill. Finally, culturally relevant teachers viewed
instruction as a shared practice between instructors and students that needed to be reciprocated for
students to believe that teachers indeed had their best interests at heart. Educators connected with
all students while expecting them to develop mutual alliances and genuine associations among
themselves (Ladson-Billings, 2009). She stated that CRP helped students avoid notions of egoism
by fashioning collaborative educational opportunities. This helped to make the students
accountable to each other as opposed to being competitive with one another.
Embedded in this work is the concept that connecting students culturally to what is
happening in their classrooms is one of the key ways to connect students to the process of
schooling. Ladson-Billings concluded that students needed to know that their teachers were
approaching their craft in an honest and intentional way. She believed that students were smart
enough to sense if their teachers had negative thoughts about them (Ladson-Billings, 2009).
CRP in Practice and Scope
In an attempt to communicate the best practices of what good culturally relevant teaching
looks like, thus extending Ladson-Billings’ ideas, Morrison et al. (2008) reviewed 45 classroom-
based case studies from 1995 to 2008 and synthesized their findings. Their goal was to review all
literature pertaining to CRP using six online literature databases (ERIC, JStor, Info Trac One File,
Educational Full Text, Educational Index Retrospective, and Academic Search Premier) to
identify peer-reviewed journals, including articles with the words “culturally responsive” and
“culturally relevant.” They settled on 45 articles that they used for the purposes of their review.
While they also used words such as “cultural congruence” and “multicultural education” as search
markers, the reviewers felt that the literature produced from these searches was not sufficient for
27
their purposes. Their goal was not to simply redefine CRP; they were more interested in describing
best practices that had been used as they related to CRP. Although Morrison et al. (2008) noted
that there were multiple frameworks created to describe this phenomenon, they settled on Ladson-
Billings’ framework from 1995 as a means to classify their work. They took the three central tenets
from Ladson-Billings’ work and renamed them (high expectations, cultural competence, and
critical consciousness) to meet the coding needs of their review. In this section, Morrison et al.’s
(2008) review is summarized as a way to corroborate and extend the findings from Ladson-
Billings’ study. Each of the three tenets is further described with Morrison et al.’s (2008) subcodes
representing specific practices.
High expectations. Morrison et al. (2008) referenced the following techniques under the
high expectations concept: modeling, scaffolding, and clarifying challenging curricula for students
of color. They found that having students work together on a difficult task while the teacher
modeled how they should approach a particular lesson intentionally increased student
achievement. Moreover, the reviewers discussed the need to activate students’ prior knowledge of
a subject.
Teachers who were able to effectively communicate high expectations were those who felt
personally responsible for the success of their students. According to their research, culturally
relevant teachers go beyond the scope of their job descriptions to help their students (Morrison et
al., 2008). For example, teachers attended professional development training on how to implement
more culturally relevant strategies in academic settings. Because the teachers in this category were
taught to reflect often on what their students were learning, the reviewers surmised that the
commitment levels of the teachers from the studies they reviewed were very high. Through their
28
reflections, these teachers were able to celebrate their students’ successes while taking
responsibility if their students had difficulties with certain topics. This led to student buy-in and
connectedness to the educational process.
Another best practice used by the teachers to maintain high expectations was to create a
nurturing environment conducive to learning. These were environments where safe zones were
created against bullying, name-calling, and student targeting. The teachers’ thought process was
that building a community was paramount to ensuring the success of students of color in an urban
school setting. From a student’s perspective, these practices made it safe to come to school.
Finally, teachers had high expectations for their students to behave in a manner that promoted
learning.
The reviewed studies included teachers who believed that a disorganized learning
environment was a disservice to their students. Thus, their classroom rules were specific and
accommodated the needs of diverse learners. The students also had an opportunity to critique and
ask questions about what they were expected to learn. Teachers from these studies used tools such
as sticker carts and daily graphic behavioral organizers to provide students with immediate
feedback on their behaviors. The students felt that these environments helped them work to their
fullest potential without being distracted. Thus, they were able to focus on producing quality work
without having to contend with the physical or physiological issues that come from classroom
environments that could be considered hostile (Morrison et al., 2008).
Cultural competence. Morrison et al. (2008) separated cultural competence into three
areas that shape the curriculum given by the school, building on students’ funds of knowledge and
establishing relationships between the school and their local community. Primarily, the reviewers
29
noted that students benefited if teachers reshaped the curriculum by adapting what they received
from the publisher. Thus, Morrison et al. (2008) corroborated Ladson-Billings’s findings that
information was better when teachers assisted their students in challenging the curriculum given
to them. The teachers accomplished this through supplementation and intentional conversation.
Other ways teachers reshaped the curriculum included having students attend seminars and
cultural events where people of color would be presenting. Student connection was then created
because they were taught the skills necessary to do this on their own, thus creating the potential to
become lifelong learners who could look at things given by the dominant culture’s educational
system with a critical eye.
Another culturally congruent strategy coded by the researchers was the fact that teachers
who were successful with students built on the knowledge base the students possessed. They chose
not to discredit the intelligence students brought with them to the classroom. The researchers noted
that these teachers researched the backgrounds of their students to effectively connect the
information in a way that was relevant to their students. They accomplished this through home
visits, student questioning, and classroom discussions, which resulted in information that they then
blended into the curriculum they taught. Choosing to honor the information students brought to
the classroom increased student connectedness because it created a safe space where students felt
their ideas were being heard and respected. The teacher’s job at this point was to equip the students
with the requisite strategies necessary to understand their education from a dominant cultural
perspective.
Furthermore, Morrison et al. (2008) recognized the relationships teachers formed with the
communities in which they taught. Strategies used by the teachers included inviting parents and
30
students to attend many events at the school, along with allowing the parents to facilitate events
and fairs at the school. The goal was to highlight the parents and community stakeholders as
experts, thus validating their importance. The researchers saw that schools that were successful
with this also involved stakeholders in the decision-making aspects of the school. This allowed
the parents to feel as if their voices were being heard, and their input included decisions on
curriculum, facilities, and governance issues. Moreover, community stakeholders enjoyed the
opportunity to contribute to the lives of the students in their communities. Successful
collaborations included the creation of a health and wellness center, along with the usage of
community facilities to host school-sponsored events.
Critical consciousness. Using Ladson-Billings’ (1995) work as their guide, critical
consciousness revolved around helping students learn how to critique social issues in their lives
and communities. The reviewers coded four different areas: critical literacy, helping students
engage in social justice work, showing students how to recognize and identify the power struggles
in mainstream society, and how teachers should share the power of the classroom setting.
The reviewers saw that many of the teachers took a critical stance on how their students
approached literary texts in the classroom (Morrison et al., 2008). From preselecting certain pieces
to providing the perspectives students should read from, many of the studies reviewed by Morrison
et al. (2008) noted that teachers were careful to instruct their students on how to approach all texts
given to them. The reviewers saw that many of the teachers did not use their prescribed textbooks
as the sole basis of knowledge for their classrooms. Rather, the books were used to spark
conversation, dialogue, and assignments geared to teach the students how to review texts they
would read in the future with a critical eye. The teachers wanted their students to examine the
31
hidden curriculum agendas embedded in state-prescribed educational materials.
Morrison et al. (2008) also saw how some of the teachers from the studies took the idea of
critical literacy and extended it, encouraging their students to engage in social justice projects
targeted at improving their local communities. One such piece involved a case study in which a
teacher used math to help students identify issues in their community. The students concluded that
there were too many liquor stores near their schools. They studied the implications of this situation
for their community and began to speak out against these establishments. The police in their city
became involved, and as a result of the work presented by the students, over 200 citations were
issued, resulting in the closure of two liquor stores with a city council resolution concerning the
consumption of alcoholic beverages near these areas. The researchers noted that the teachers
wanted to help the students understand the responsibility they had to engage in social action for
the good of their community (Morrison et al., 2008). These types of teacher-led activities have the
potential to increase student connectedness, since they create a space where students can utilize
what they learn in the classroom to positively affect their community in a tangible way.
Several studies have noted that teachers were certain that they were preparing their
students for the world at large by educating them on how the mainstream dominant culture controls
aspects of society. With this as the backdrop, these teachers taught their students about the culture
of power by allowing them to use the vernacular they were used to communicating in, while
transitioning them to understand the expectations of the dominant culture. The students in these
particular studies were also trained in how to properly compare and contrast the vernacular or
dialect they were comfortable using to standard American English. The connections the students
were able to make helped facilitate the process of becoming culturally aware and thus connected
32
them to the process of schooling.
Finally, the teachers in these studies were willing to share their classroom space. This
contrast to what happens in traditional settings was welcomed by the students, since they were
given permission to make decisions that would impact their learning. In these settings, students
were allowed to contribute to creating the syllabi, while others were allowed to discuss topics they
felt were relevant to their culture. Morrison et al. (2008) noted that critical consciousness was seen
as the least influential of the three main categories. Since they believed that critical consciousness
was critical to the conception of CRP, they thought that students would benefit from understanding
how this concept helped frame what they should do as learners. They believed that students who
understood critical consciousness could help create as many opportunities for success as possible
for students of color (Morrison et al., 2008).
The review by Morrison et al. (2008) underscored the important role that teachers have
with regard to building student connectedness. Whether teachers used academic subjects that led
their students to become change agents or gave up the traditional power dynamics in their
classrooms to create a safe learning space, students of color in these environments were able to
increase their sense of school connectedness. This premise is critical to the development of this
dissertation because most students of color need to sense that their teacher has an interest in what
affects them as people, which leads to student buy-in.
Empirical studies linking school connection to CRP. Morrison et al. (2008) reviewed
many studies that explored how CRP helps students connect to the process of schooling. In this
section, I have chosen two studies that do the best job of describing instances in which CRP was
used with great success. One such study was conducted by Tyrone Howard (2001), who conducted
33
a qualitative study of four elementary teachers in urban settings. Twelve potential participants
were nominated by a group of 21 people consisting of their colleagues, parents, school
administrators, and community stakeholders because they understood the importance of culture as
it relates to learning. The purpose of his study was to illustrate and observe the pedagogical
practices of these teachers as they worked with African American students. Howard (2001) was
guided by a conceptual framework drawing on the work of Ladson-Billings (1995) and others,
which resulted in a list of 20 practices he believed were necessary to label a teacher as culturally
responsive. Figure 2 shows the list Howard (2001) used.
Figure 2
Chart Used by Howard (2001) to Judge the Competency of Teachers
Using this figure, Howard observed and interviewed all 12 teachers, hoping to see at least
15 of the 20 practices listed in action over a four-month period. After Howard’s lengthy process,
four African American female teachers were selected because they consistently utilized teaching
strategies that were culturally responsive.
Howard (2001) found that three salient themes emerged from his observations: holistic
34
instructional strategies, culturally consistent communicative competencies, and skill-building
strategies that promoted academic success. The researcher contended that holistic instructional
strategies involved educators teaching character-building strategies so that students of color would
grow to become responsible students who were able to cooperate effectively and skillfully with
their peers. He also stressed that aside from teachers educating their students on how to engage in
the curriculum, students needed to learn how to be sympathetic to the needs of their classmates in
a communal way. Howard (2001) contended that it was the nonacademic issues that African
American students dealt with that conflicted with their academics. He observed the teachers in
this study making a conscious effort to educate the whole child, as opposed to simply helping their
students prepare for exams. For example, he witnessed these teachers visiting convalescent homes
with their students so that they could read stories to the elderly. The goal of these teachers was to
use experiential education to change the narrative that African American students were
unconcerned with uplifting their local communities in a positive manner.
This was also true of how they regarded extracurricular education. With the teachers
spending a great deal of time teaching the students how to be responsible and wise in their
everyday interactions, Howard observed that their holistic teaching strategies impacted how the
students saw their academics as a means of demonstrating that they were indeed intelligent. This
was important since students of color usually dismiss the process of schooling because their
intelligence (especially concerning nondominant cultural ideals) was categorically dismissed by
their teachers. Howard’s recognition of the students wanting to prove their intelligence showed
that these particular students were willing to connect to the process of schooling to show society
that they were indeed smart, wise, and prudent (Howard, 2001).
35
The second theme that arose from Howard’s (2001) study was how important it was for
teachers to provide many opportunities for students to engage in meaningful conversations
stemming from classroom interactions. A teacher in the study mentioned that teachers with
minimal experience working with African American students needed to understand that this
student population was extremely verbal, which stemmed from the storytelling nature of the
African/African American culture. Thus, culturally responsive teachers allowed their students to
express themselves using African American language and Ebonics structures, which are
considered nontraditional in a dominant culture setting.
The third and final theme that emerged from Howard’s study was that by teaching students
to turn their discussions into writing activities, teachers were improving their skills and providing
them with the opportunity to excel academically. The teachers mentioned that empowering their
African American students without teaching them how to excel academically would be doing them
a disservice. Howard (2001) observed that teachers learned their students’ academic strengths and
weaknesses to help them achieve. Understanding how students learn is important to instill
confidence in them that they are indeed intelligent, while allowing their teachers to help them
strengthen their academic weaknesses. This influenced student connectedness because it validated
their intelligence.
The researcher also observed that all four teachers had excellent classroom management
skills, which gave them maximum time to implement the strategies necessary for their students to
succeed. Howard (2001) also found that teachers were able to dispel any negative thoughts of low
achievement in their students’ minds by using phrases such as “All students can learn.” He also
observed that the teachers in this study were able to cultivate meaningful relationships with the
36
students without compromising the level of work they expected their students to produce. All the
teachers were quick to tell and show their students that they loved and cared for them. One of the
ways they accomplished this was by teaching them the fundamentals of how to acquire a solid
education. Howard noted that the passion the teachers exhibited for their students created such a
bond that the students responded in kind by attempting to reach the expectations set by their
teachers.
In another study of culturally relevant strategies, Powell (1997) conducted a five-year
longitudinal study on how a Caucasian female teacher successfully created and implemented
culturally relevant strategies in her teaching practice. This study also highlighted the importance
of how strategies for improving student outcomes are research-based and founded on good
teaching, and that strong pedagogical strategies can influence student connectedness. It was also
chosen because of the skill set of the participating teacher, who was selected by the researcher
because of her ability to successfully work with a wide variety of students from different
backgrounds. The researcher conducted many classroom observations and formal and informal
interviews and asked the teacher to maintain a personal journal of her thoughts throughout the
five-year study. Powell (1997) stated that six practices emerging from this study should be
evidence to help students of color learn in the classroom setting: acquiring cultural sensitivity,
reshaping the classroom curriculum, inviting students to learn, setting classroom expectations,
providing stress-free classroom environments, and ensuring safe classrooms.
The researcher highlighted cultural sensitivity as one of the important points of this study.
The teacher made it a point to find out about the outside interests of her students and how those
things could influence the learning that would ultimately take place in the school setting through
37
conversations and home visits. She then took the information she gathered and strategically helped
her students develop leadership roles or improve their school work, providing more time to
students whom she knew did not have a strong family support system. A second related theme
was that the teacher also reshaped the classroom curriculum to cater to her student population. As
a result of being frustrated with the curriculum prescribed to her by the school, she adapted it by
choosing topics that were more relatable for her students while also providing them with choices
in how they completed their assignments. She accomplished this by assigning more culturally
relevant stories about Mexicans and African Americans to her students and connecting those
selections to the American literature standards she was required to instruct. These subtle
adjustments influence connection because they relate the curriculum to students of color’s
interests, as opposed to having them persist through state-issued books.
She invited her students to learn (the third theme) by showing them how they could take
part in the process of schooling with her because she created an environment where her students
felt comfortable while they were learning (the fourth theme). The students said they felt safe with
her in the English class and that she worked to create an enjoyable environment. The researcher
also described how the teacher genuinely valued the presence and contributions of her students,
which caused them to work toward their academic potential. The teacher wanted her students to
know that she thought they were competent and intelligent, and she accomplished this by building
healthy relationships, laughing, smiling, and interacting with them in a positive way. Powell
(1997) also mentioned that the classroom was free of stress and that the students felt safe and
validated. The students believed that the teacher’s classroom was a peaceful environment where
they felt physically safe. Though she challenged her students academically, she had mastered the
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art of being demanding while caring for them by building relationships with them individually.
With this climate, the teacher could challenge her students academically with positive results.
CRP has been studied by many different researchers seeking to understand how teachers
can create strategies that best serve students of color. With this as its primary goal, CRP, when
used properly, has been shown to produce growth and connection in students of color, regardless
of the race or gender of the teacher implementing the strategies (Howard, 2003). Since CRP has
been successful for students of color, this dissertation seeks to understand how this approach has
been received by students of color as a means of promoting student connectedness.
Culturally Responsive Teaching
Many theorists have extended Ladson-Billings’ theory of CRP, and Geneva Gay has
advanced the idea of CRT. In her book with the same title, Gay (2010) described CRT as a teaching
strategy that utilizes what students naturally bring into the classroom to make the learning
environment more effective and appropriate for students of color. In another study, she noted that
CRT was critical for the development of students of color. She contended that education as a whole
would be failing these students if they chose not to use CRT in their classrooms because they
would find it difficult to connect to education using traditional, mainstream methods of educating
(Gay, 2002). By making use of cultural facts and prior experiences, CRT allows teachers to
maximize their students’ strengths to help them learn.
Building on Ladson-Billings’ thoughts, Gay (2010) believed that culturally responsive
teachers should be concerned with teaching the whole child, which was also found in Howard’s
(2001) later work, as summarized above. This meant that teachers who subscribed to being
culturally responsive were those who taught more than just the academic principles necessary for
39
advancement to the next grade. Rather, culturally responsive teachers taught their students how to
be civically, politically, and socially minded. Gay and Ladson-Billings both believed that teachers
who were only concerned with the academic components of their jobs were doing a disservice to
students of color. Paramount to CRT was the concept that culturally responsive teachers placed
value on maintaining the cultural heritage and identity of their students, and that this was more
important than understanding grade-level curriculum (Gay, 2010). The belief was that students
would connect if CRT practices were utilized.
As a means of orienting teachers, Gay (2010) showed that CRT is based on the following
premises:
• CRT recognizes that cultural backgrounds and heritages can and do affect students’
attitudes, temperaments, and engagement in learning.
• CRT should connect home and school experiences with academic concepts that are
infused with the prescribed curriculum.
• CRT utilizes a plethora of instructional strategies to meet the needs of different
learning styles.
• CRT should teach students how to properly identify, celebrate, and appreciate their
own cultural heritage.
• CRT blends multicultural resources and materials into all academic subjects.
Aside from empowering students of color, Gay (2013) wanted CRT to dissuade the
dominant culture from using negative stereotypes to characterize people of color. Through
learning strategies that help students of color learn, Gay (2013) wanted all people to move away
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from societal norms that allowed alienation and discrimination to persist in schools. Not limiting
her work to African American students, she argued that CRT was necessary for any student group
that needed support and that it was incumbent on their teachers to study the identities of their
student population to better serve them. She believed that CRT was largely effective because it
built on the cultural fibers that reside naturally in all people. Furthermore, she called teachers who
employed CRT “change agents,” since the theory differed dramatically from how mainstream
education functioned in that mainstream American education utilized deficit theoretical
frameworks designed to strip students of color of their identity as a means to assimilate. This
information blends well with CRP, because Ladson-Billings (1995) understood that the culture
and home languages of a student should be regarded as indispensable elements of the learning
process.
Culturally relevant teachers can then use the strategies from CRT to utilize children’s
strengths and nurture them so that they can connect to the new knowledge being taught in the
classroom. This creates a positive learning environment in the classroom setting, and students
perform better because they sense respect and gratitude for the cultural capital they add to the
instructional environment.
Gay (2010; 2013) contended that CRT would advance the classroom environment in
different ways. One of the ways she believed this could occur was to make certain that CRT was
clear so that many readers could access the curriculum without distraction. This meant that
culturally responsive teachers needed to break down vocabulary that could make understanding a
text confusing. Since the researcher believed that literature in the classroom should mirror the
various ethnic perspectives in the class and beyond, she was adamant that CRT should demystify
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the curriculum by adapting it so that students could have full clarity on what they were being asked
to do and learn. Math instruction would incorporate everyday-life concepts, such as economics,
employment, and consumer habits, of various ethnic groups. In order to teach the different learning
styles of students, activities would reflect a variety of sensory opportunities: visual, auditory, and
tactile (Gay, 2010; 2013). Furthermore, she noted that while it was difficult to account for all
possible differences in a classroom, teachers should provide a variety of resources, much like
differentiated instruction strategies are utilized to make curriculum accessible to all students (Gay,
2010, 2013). Gay (2013) also mentioned that since the inception of the theory, she had found four
salient points that had helped CRT to be successful: restructuring attitudes and beliefs, resisting
resistance, centering cultures and differences, and establishing pedagogical connections. Each of
these is summarized below.
Restructuring Attitudes and Beliefs
Gay (2013) believed that CRT was important for changing the negative narratives about
students of color into more positive ones, noting that traditional classroom practices that did not
honor students of color were largely ineffective. She stated that teachers had the responsibility and
power to create a space where positive thoughts about student achievement and school connections
were evident. Gay felt that this was created through teachers believing that the students were
strong and could achieve, as opposed to being weak and incapable (Gay, 2010).
Gay (2013) also mentioned other factors that should be highlighted as they relate to
scholastic underachievement for students of color. They included cultural disconnections between
the schools and the populations they serve, the stresses and anxiety students face having to
navigate the differences between their school and home environments, the wide gap in student and
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teacher relationships, the lack of intentional ethnic and cultural pedagogical training in school
programs, the lack of diversity in staff hiring, and student perceptions of school being a hostile
environment.
These thoughts led to Gay’s (2010, 2013) creation of questions that teachers should ask
themselves as they prepare to teach students of color.
• What do I believe are the underlying causes of the achievement difficulties of various
culturally diverse students?
• Am I able and willing to articulate and scrutinize my beliefs about cultural diversity
in general and about ethnic groups?
• Can I discern how specific beliefs about ethnic populations are embedded in
particular instructional decisions and behaviors?
• Am I willing to consider making significant changes in my attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors, and if so, do I know how to proceed?
Gay (2013) contended that the answers to these difficult questions could be the starting
point for real dialogue among teachers concerning changing long-held beliefs about students of
color and their ability to learn and achieve. She believed that teachers who were willing to go
through this introspective process would form positive attitudes toward these students. However,
she also noted that many teachers were not willing to do this; thus, it was incumbent on culturally
responsive teachers to strive for this kind of reflection for the sake of their students.
Centering Culture and Difference
Gay (2013) asserted that centering culture and difference was important to furthering CRT.
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She felt that culture and difference should never be looked upon as positive or negative constructs.
Rather, both terms should be dealt with as a natural part of life and, thus, should be anticipated.
This means that since culture and difference are a part of everyone’s life, simply making
provisions to help students navigate them is important to help them survive and thrive in the school
setting. She noted that a student’s culture usually becomes an issue when teachers do not
understand how to use what is different to benefit the classroom setting, especially if there is a
difference in culture and race between the teacher and the students. As a result, race and
differences become a major issue in the classroom, often leading to marginalization of student
behavior that is not aligned with middle class dominant cultural values.
Gay remarked that instead of dealing with the differences naturally present in culture,
teachers often dismissed race. Some teachers, for example, stated that the idea of race was a
created construct, and should thus not be a focus. Gay shared that these approaches were
detrimental to the growth of students of color because they inherently promoted the dominant
cultural ideologies of school while ignoring the importance of the culture and differences of their
students. As a result, the researcher’s salient point for this theme was the thought that teaching
through cultural diversity was a humanistic approach that would allow all students to connect to
the process of schooling (Gay, 2013). She concluded that ignoring race and culture in the
classroom limited the effectiveness of teaching and resulted in a lack of care for the whole child
(Gay, 2013).
Establishing Pedagogical Connections
Gay (2013) believed that pedagogical practices in a classroom should match the strategies
best suited for the student demographic being served to ensure student buy-in and success. Since
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teachers often implemented strategies that were not aligned to their student population, she found
it difficult to formulate strategies that worked universally with all students, regardless of
background (Gay, 2013). She asserted that the level of recognition, ownership, and awareness of
this concept was important for helping teachers understand what was necessary to help their
students connect to the process of schooling with the goal of achieving academic excellence.
Gay (2013) described several strategies that could help educators overcome these
challenges, informed by over 30 years of research. First, she contended that teachers need to use
multiple multicultural and multiethnic resources and strategies to create student interest. She also
stated that these examples should then be threaded into every scholastic discipline. She gave an
example of this that connected cultural diversity to a social studies curriculum. By utilizing the “e
pluribus unum” motto of the United States, Gay created a curriculum that helped students
understand similarities and differences between different cultures while learning more about their
own culture. Referring to her own work undertaken in 1994, Gay (2013) asserted that education
needed to become more pluralistic in nature since the country itself has become increasingly
pluralistic. She stated that students and teachers alike needed many examples in action to effect
necessary change and see CRT as a viable way of educating. Gay knew that these teaching
strategies did not come to teachers overnight, so she suggested that teachers needed to develop
their range in all of these areas so that they would know when and how to effectively use CRT in
their classrooms. She believed that not doing this would perpetuate a system that alienated legions
of youth who would choose not to assimilate into a Eurocentric educational system that devalued
their very existence.
CRP and CRT create avenues where students of color can learn about themselves while
45
they are learning about how to function within the rules of the dominant culture. These two
theories work very well together, as they are both used to help students of color achieve
academically while connecting to the process of schooling. This information is critical to this
study, since I will use it to observe how teachers use and develop these pedagogical strategies in
attempts to educate students of color (Gay, 2013).
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
CSP looks to further the work of theorists who have written about CRP and CRT by
examining the pluralistic nature of our ever-evolving world. Ladson-Billings (2014) accepted that
knowledge is ever-shifting. With that, she understood that the CRP theory would be adapted to fit
the needs of new learners and legitimized Django Paris’s (2012) emerging theory of CSP. As
opposed to assuming one homogenous group, CSP permitted the intricacies of heterogeneous
identities. Paris (2012) noted that although Ladson-Billing’s conceptualization of CRP attributed
worth to cultures and languages in educational settings, it lacked a focus on sustaining and
supporting the cultures and languages that students spoke outside of school. Although CRP
provided scaffolding on how teachers should deliver instruction in a way that reached students of
color, Paris and Alim (2014) believed that CSP assisted in furthering the pluralistic perspectives
of students and teachers alike by focusing on cultural pluralism and the ever-changing challenges
that students of color deal with on a daily basis (Paris & Alim, 2014). Paris (2012) believed that
the process of schooling needed to support multilingualism and multiculturalism every day to
properly educate students of color. Ultimately, Paris’s concern was for teachers and others to
consider that other factors outside of traditional cultural norms based on race could help engage
and sustain youth in the process of schooling (Paris, 2012). This consideration is important to
46
connectedness because it implies that students can connect to the process of schooling in multiple
ways.
Paris (2012) presented a summary of his findings and explained how he came to build his
CSP framework. He began by looking at the work on deficit approaches that permeated education
before the 1960s and 1970s. He stated that deficit approaches used in the classroom at that time
sought to eradicate culture, language, and literacy from any student who was not a part of the
Anglo culture. This called for students of color to acquiesce to the White, dominant culture’s way
of operating and communicating. As a result, students disconnected from their home lives and
communities to function in a society that viewed their identities as inferior.
Paris (2012) reviewed how other asset pedagogies served to improve the language and
literacy of students of color in the school setting. “Asset pedagogies” is a term used to classify
educational work that seeks to benefit disenfranchised students by seeing their identities and
backgrounds as assets to the classroom. He referenced the work undertaken by Moll and Gonzalez
(1994) on funds of knowledge, which highlighted the fact that all people, including students of
color, have information and skills that can be used to enhance and advance learning in any setting.
This argument was used to discredit the deficit model. It supported knowledge that could naturally
be brought to the classroom, although it was learned elsewhere. Similarly, CRP assumes that it is
necessary to value and use students’ own languages and cultures in education.
However, Paris had questions as to how CRP theory aided in maintaining students’
languages, cultures, and customs. He felt that CRP did not provide adequate support to achieve
this goal because it did not explicitly provide support for multilingual and multicultural students.
Thus, Paris and Alim (2014) penned a “loving critique” of other asset pedagogies while building
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CSP ideology. They found that previous pedagogies did not account for the fluidity of change that
can happen within a culture. They also believed that other pedagogies failed to show how changes
within languages and cultures could be sustained long term.
Paris and Alim (2014) argued that CSP attempted to shift the scope of asset pedagogies to
account for more diversity. They believed that the K–12 schools followed an approach that viewed
cultural practices not approved by the dominant culture as a paucity needing to be exterminated,
and that asset pedagogies should stress the significance of cultural norms, practices, and languages
as an advantage for students. Paris and Alim (2014) suggested that the culture of power had shifted
from the white middle class and included the need for multilinguistic and multicultural education
to navigate a globalized society, similar to the theories of Moll, Gonzalez, and Ladson-Billings.
Thus, CSP ensured access to a globalized society by teaching more than standard English. The
researchers argued that it was important for students to learn standard English, but also to maintain
multiple ways of speaking and being. This slight shift recognized the organic changes within
society and the reality that cultures are not static. They chose not to focus on historical issues in
individualized cultures because they felt it related to the deficit practices of the past. Rather, they
wanted CSP to recognize the need for manifold languages and cultural perspectives, since it dealt
with the idea that youth from different cultures identified with aspects of culture that were once
thought of as homogeneously adopted by a collective.
Unlike previous asset pedagogies, CSP provides a framework for practice that allows
teachers to provide students with the opportunity to sustain and develop their cultural identity
while interfacing with the dominant culture, which has the potential to increase student
connectedness and encourage exploration of different pathways to engage the world. Paris (2102)
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stated that CSP required schools and classrooms to be more than merely tolerant of the cultural
experiences and practices of young people. Rather, CSP mandated that teachers assist their
students with sustaining their cultural and linguistic practices while learning how to function in a
world governed by the dominant culture’s style of operation.
With this in mind, Paris (2012) declared that education had to become more germane to
the cultural orientation of students. He asserted that pedagogy had to accommodate the vibrant
and evolving character of culture to continue and expand a learner’s intellect. Education and
pedagogy could not be motionless, but rather, needed to be fluid enough to adapt to the needs of
today’s youth, who may have already moved past the concerns of merely being a student of color
traversing a system they felt had been created to fail them as learners. While CSP has more focus
on teachers creating lessons that extend past traditional cultural lines, this practice should be
undertaken to help students connect to the process of schooling and gain the necessary skills to
function effectively in society.
To support his work, Paris drew on the work of Jason Irizarry (2007), who studied the
complex identities of high school Latino students after being exposed to CRP in their classroom
setting. Irizarry (2007) mentioned that his original intention was to fill a dearth in the literature by
studying how CRP affected Latino students. However, after observing and interviewing the
teacher and students, it became clear to him that the idea of culture needed to be reframed to
account for the complex identities students subscribed to that lay outside traditional cultural norms
(Irizarry, 2007).
Irizarry (2007) conducted his study at an urban high school in the Northeast United States.
The school was 58% Latino and 28% African American, and was also known to have the highest
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dropout rate in the district, along with the lowest pass rate on standardized tests for students to
fulfill their graduation requirements (Irizarry, 2007). A history class consisting of 12 students was
chosen for his case study. All the students in this study were either juniors or seniors, with seven
of them of Puerto Rican descent and the other five of African American descent. The teacher in
this study was chosen because of their ability to reach students of color effectively. Irizarry used
the following two questions to frame his research:
1. How is “culture” used in the study and practice of culturally responsive pedagogy?
2. What are some of the teaching practices and aspects of teacher identity that Latino
students in this study identified as culturally responsive?
Irizarry (2007) collected data for about half a school year using classroom observations,
field notes, videotapes, and interviews with the teacher and his students. In the interview, the
researcher used open-ended questions to begin his sessions with the conversation, ultimately
focusing on students’ perceptions of what they thought a good teacher was, along with the
importance of CRT in their education. The researcher then saw three practices that the teacher
used to impact his classroom, and that the teacher and students were able to identify: community
connection, language, and music.
The researcher noted that the teacher was able to make a community connection with his
students by sharing his personal story with them. His students appreciated the fact that he
identified with their neighborhood and that he was proud to interact with them, since he was one
of them. The teacher did not treat the two racial groups differently. Rather, he spoke to the
community as an entire collective. The researcher noted that the students recognized this, and they
were able to relate to their teacher without any issues.
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Second, since the teacher allowed the students to use nontraditional academic language in
the classroom, all of the students began using the African American language (Ebonics) as a form
of communication. Irizarry (2007) noted that the Latino students engaged in class discussions
using Ebonics, with no issues at all. One of the students remarked that he was trilingual, knowing
English, Spanish, and now Ebonics. With the teacher allowing the Latino students to speak in
Spanish without consequence, it created an atmosphere in which the students felt comfortable
accepting each other and the languages in which they chose to communicate. Allowing the
students this freedom created a hybrid language situation in which everyone felt as if they were
learning from each other, thus creating a sense of community, cultural connectedness, and
camaraderie with everyone in the classroom.
Finally, Irizarry (2007) commented that the teacher used rap music as a means to connect
his students, since the genre was well liked across cultural lines and divides. The students loved
that they were able to express themselves using this medium. This revelation came about when
the researcher asked the students to comment on a time they felt that their teacher used academic
concepts to connect their cultures. The students commented that using this medium was effective
for them. They did not feel connected to other teachers like they did to their history teacher, and
would thus overtly reject those teachers’ efforts. Since the students regarded the teacher’s use of
rap and language as culturally responsive, they connected to him and the process of schooling in
his classroom (Irizarry, 2007). This study demonstrated that in urban environments, culture is no
longer regarded as a static measure to govern students, since our society is pluralistic in nature.
This allowed teachers to understand that setting up a culturally connected classroom where all
students can feel comfortable sharing what they bring to the classroom can positively influence
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student connectedness.
Understanding CSP is critically important to this dissertation, as it helps to provide clarity
on what can be done to help students of color connect to school. It takes into account the pluralistic
nature of our world, while not dismissing that using a student’s background can affect how they
connect to the process of schooling. Together, CRP, CRT, and CSP provide a strong platform that
communicates some of the reasons African American and Latino students have had issues with
being connected to school in the past, while providing solutions for how educators can bridge the
gap. While these theorists have focused on teachers’ pedagogical practices, their findings have
implications for students connecting to school.
Teacher Care
In the research by Ladson-Billings and others, the thought is presented that students of
color need to know that they are genuinely cared for to buy into the instruction delivered by their
teachers. Nasir and colleagues’ (2011) distinction between interpersonal and institutional
connectedness highlights the importance of teacher care through the articulation of the former.
Interpersonal relationships in the academic setting necessitate teacher care because they provide a
context in which educators and students relate. One of the students from Nasir et al.’s (2011)
school connectedness study explained that he thought teachers and administrators could not
possibly care about students, given the level of apathy they displayed toward them. The
researchers also observed the allowance of egregious conduct by school staff, teachers, and
administrators. When faced with this level of apathy, another student from their case study
mentioned that she would simply leave a location that she felt was uncontrolled and would access
another location of the school that was more peaceful (Nasir et al., 2011). Similarly, Ladson-
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Billings (1995) stated that urban students of color learned best in a communal atmosphere where
teachers were genuinely interested in the needs of their students. Given this, teacher care must be
examined as a way to facilitate students’ connections to school and subsequent academic success.
In this section, teacher care is discussed from three perspectives. Noddings is considered
the forerunner of the work on teacher care. Angela Valenzuela’s work on care as it relates to Latino
students will then be discussed, followed by a case study highlighting culturally relevant caring
taking place in a heterogeneous setting (Watson et al., 2014). Watson et al.’s (2014) work is
highlighted in this chapter because it blends the ideas of CRP and teacher care.
Noddings’ Ethic of Care
Noddings focused her work on the ethics of care: the notion that caring should be a
foundational element for moral decision making. Her argument stems from the idea that care is
basic to human life. She advanced the idea that all people inherently want to be cared for in a
genuine way (Noddings, 1988), and that the goal of education should be to create skilled people
who love and care for each other. Although she explicated her ethics of care concept in different
ways over the years, her central thoughts on the matter hinged on her discussions of two types of
care: natural care and ethical care.
Noddings conceptualized natural caring as a form of caring that did not require a
considerable amount of commitment to accomplish (1984). Although a significant amount of
physical and mental effort may be needed to exhibit its function, natural caring lacks the
connection necessary to create a lasting impression on those receiving it (Noddings, 1988).
Noddings believed that while people can be led by naturally caring for someone, this was not the
best way to influence the life of another in an authentic fashion. Based on this definition, she
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explored the notion of a deeper level of caring, which she termed ethical caring. This type of care
was branded through relationships, receptiveness, and relatedness. Ethical caring requires a person
to be engrossed in the lives of those receiving the caring action. It is deeper than natural care,
which is more surface level in nature.
Noddings (1984) highlighted the difference between the two types of care, claiming that
the emotion of wanting to care for someone in the act of love and affection constitutes natural
caring. Because the desire to care for a loved one is natural, these actions do not require much
effort due to the relationship that is already in place. This type of caring is necessary to meet the
basic human need of being cared for, loved, and appreciated in a real and tangible way (Noddings,
1984). Noddings described ethical caring as a derivative of natural caring. She believed that it was
through a person experiencing others’ caring for them in a natural way that the idea of ethical care
was then learned.
Although Noddings (1984) thought it would be foolish to provide a systematic equation
for properly caring for one another, she did offer three postulates to exhibit the right kind of care.
She argued that the person giving the care (caregiver) had to demonstrate what she termed
“engrossment and motivational displacement,” with the person receiving the care (care recipient)
responding in some way to the action. Noddings described engrossment as thinking about someone
as a means to gain a better understanding of them as human beings. This concept requires an
individual’s holistic situation to be understood before the caregiver can determine what type of
help the care recipient needs. Noddings (1984) also concluded that engrossment alone was not
enough to complete the act of caring, since it was possible for a person to possess an acute
awareness of another person while acting against that person’s best interests. Her thoughts on
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motivational displacement were created to address this potential. Noddings’ term “motivational
displacement” was enacted when the caregiver’s behavior was predicated on the needs of the care
recipient alone. Much like engrossment, motivational displacement alone would also be
inadequate for ethical caring to be present. Simply acting primarily from a need to finish
something for someone void of careful consideration of the care recipient’s needs would constitute
a failure of proper ethical care. Thus, engrossment and motivational displacement work together
to constitute ethical care. Finally, Noddings asserted that caring requires some type of
acknowledgment from the care recipient that the caregiver is actually providing care. It is only
then that the act of caring can be considered complete (Noddings, 1984).
Through her research on the ethics of care, Noddings (1988) argued that teachers need to
care about the needs of their learners. Fidelity in education, according to Noddings, speaks more
to building the whole child as opposed to the rudimentary charge of teaching children how to excel
academically. She wanted teachers to consider how the curriculum affected the lives of their
students longitudinally. She stated that the ethic of caring should encourage teachers to consider
two main questions as they plan for instruction:
What effect will this (what is being taught) have on the person I teach?
What effect will it have on the caring community we are trying to build?
Thus, Noddings (1988) surmised that the goal of education should be to create skilled
people who love and care for each other. She felt that students should learn the knowledge and
skills necessary to help them navigate the world around them while simultaneously caring for
children, the elderly, animals, and the environment. As a means of orienting educators to exhibit
a nurturing perspective toward their students, Noddings stated that education from a teacher care
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perspective had four key components: modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation.
Modeling is a central tenet of teacher care, as it instructs students how to exhibit authentic
care explicitly. Noddings (1988) stated that teacher care should be concomitant with the job of
teaching, and that the educational profession was ripe with caring opportunities. She contended
that all teachers should show elements of care while seriously considering both the moral and
scholastic advancements of their students (Noddings, 1988). Thus, as a teacher is teaching, they
should model scenarios whereby caring relationships can be organically developed by students, in
which they are engaged in relationships that reciprocate caring behavior. Teachers should then
treat their students with respect to help them imitate similar kinds of caring relationships with
others by demonstrating what it means to care. Teachers should not exhibit care in speech and
words alone; caring must be demonstrated by teachers through the development of meaningful
relationships with their students (Noddings, 1998).
The second element of caring, according to Noddings (1988), is dialogue. It is important
for both students and teachers to understand that dialogue must be open and reciprocal, and neither
should have any preconceived notions about the outcome of any conversation prior to starting it
(Noddings, 1988). Both teachers and students need to actively pursue explanation, clarification,
and illumination mutually (Noddings, 1988). While neither the teacher nor the student should
relinquish their own individual convictions, the discourse between them has to be genuine in order
to provide reciprocity for both parties. Noddings (1988) stated that the intent of the discourse was
to engage people in a dialogue about caring for each other, and that it was impossible to model
caring without meaningful dialogue. This dialogue, she felt, needed to directly reference and
explore how an individual cared, since caring could be exhibited in different ways. Noddings
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stated that understanding this concept could help people examine their own relationships and
practice of care critically. Thus, she believed the feedback received from teachers’ efforts to
dialogue about care contributed valuable information to the caregiver/care recipient relationship.
Finally, she discussed the reality that open dialogue was indeed a lengthy process in which
both teacher and student needed to have a well-developed relationship built on a level of trust
(Noddings, 1988). This relationship can only be developed through meaningful dialogue.
Educators need to provide opportunities for students to develop moral character by
practicing care in classroom interactions (Noddings, 1988). Practice, the third component of
Noddings’ ethic of caring in education, calls for teachers to provide opportunities for students to
interact with one another with reciprocal care. Practice is an important component of care because
when care is modeled correctly through dialogue, ethical care is given effectively. With practice
as a premise for growth and development, Noddings felt that teacher care should create an
atmosphere where high quality student/student and teacher/student interactions take place,
ultimately influencing scholastic achievement. The researcher believed that meaningful caring
experiences should produce a mentality whereby adults care for each other, making it easier for
students to simulate the act of caring through practice with each other (Noddings, 1988).
Finally, confirmation demands that teachers respond to students’ exchanges through the
lens of teacher care (Noddings, 1988). Noddings (1988) contended that confirmation made the
ethic of caring different from alternative theories to moral education, in that confirmation was an
act of celebrating the best in others. According to Noddings, when someone is confirmed, they
should be able to identify with a better sense of self, with the ability to improve upon themselves
in the future. This can only be done if a strong relationship is present. Noddings (1988) believed
57
that confirmation involved developing trust and continuity between teacher and student
(Noddings, 1988).
Teacher care encourages teachers to assume the most favorable intention when reacting to
students’ behaviors, even when a teacher dislikes the behavior of students at any given time
(Noddings, 1988). Noddings believed that the purpose of teacher care was to co-labor with
students as mutual partners in constructing how the students felt, thus shaping their lives for the
better. This opposed the traditional notion of contouring a student’s scholastic path predicated on
teacher-based ideologies. Teachers usually speak of scholastic excellence for all students without
specific knowledge of their students and their personal preferences (Noddings, 1988). Teacher
awareness and understanding is more likely to result in a negotiation with the student that produces
a positive relationship and leaves the student feeling affirmed.
Furthermore, Noddings (1992, 1988) believed that students and teachers needed to spend
more time together to build the necessary trust for a reciprocal relationship that would assist a
student in their maturation. While the student must be an agreeable participant in this relationship,
the teacher should be the one who initiates the partnership because it is their responsibility to
provide the foundation for student learning, development, and growth (Noddings, 1992, 1988,
1986).
Valenzuela’s Authentic Care
Much like Noddings’ work, Valenzuela’s (1999) research on subtractive schooling
illustrated the importance of student–teacher relationships in the authentic form of teacher care.
Her book reports the outcomes of a three-year ethnographic exploration of the success and
schooling orientations of immigrant Mexican and Mexican American students at a high school in
58
Texas. The school was chosen because it was large, overcrowded, underfunded, and in an urban
location that served the student demographic that Valenzuela was interested in: a mixture of US-
born and Mexican-born Latinos. She used an ethnographic approach to examine data on academic
achievement among Mexican youth from a qualitative perspective (Valenzuela, 1999).
The data for her study were gathered through participant observation and informal
interviews with every stakeholder from the school community. Her primary interest was to
ascertain the extent to which generational (first/second generation) status aided in explaining how
students achieved scholastically. She also wanted to see how US-born students compared to
students born in Mexico (Valenzuela, 1999). Through her research, she found that first- and
second-generation students did better than their third- and later-generation Latinos, because they
were intrinsically motivated to achieve scholastically to be upwardly mobile, so they could be of
assistance to their families. By the third generation and beyond, the students had assimilated to
mainstream America. Valenzuela (1999) argued that this was due to a lack of authentic care and
the subtractive nature of the school.
Valenzuela (1999) drew on Noddings’s ethic of care theory and the concept of social
capital as a foundation for the arguments she discussed in her book. Social capital, as defined by
Valenzuela (1999), stresses the use of exchange networks built through trust and solidarity within
a group of people wanting to accomplish things that could not be acquired individually. She
believed that social capital affected caring, in that the act of caring necessitated the need for
reciprocal relationships that were cultivated between teachers and students.
Valenzuela (1999) argued that Latino students favored an educational system that matched
the ideologies of the Mexican concept of educación, which dictates that education is best
59
facilitated through respectful and caring relationships. She described how the term “educación”
was a foundational cultural idea that provided directives on how people should conduct themselves
on a daily basis. Highlighting respect, responsibility, and sociality, it set a benchmark against
which all humans were to be evaluated, regardless of their background. She stated that both
immigrant and US-born youth preferred authentic caring, which is based on relatedness and
manifested through reciprocal personal relationships between students and teachers.
Valenzuela (1999) also noted that the majority of the teachers in her study subscribed to
and exhibited aesthetic care rather than authentic care. Aesthetic care is a nonrepresentational form
of caring in which teachers demand that their students show a level of dedication to educational
practices that they believe will lead to academic achievement. This level of respect is expected
from students without requiring a teacher to care about their students’ basic needs (Valenzuela,
1999). She purported that aesthetic care was dismissive in that it highlighted form over content.
By this, she meant that the teachers defined caring as students pledging their allegiance to
American educational norms that were incongruent with their background and heritage. The
teachers, in turn, vilified their students for not subscribing to these norms, thus believing that the
students did not care about their success and giving the teachers license to not engage in
meaningful relationships with their students. The researcher referred to this as cultural genocide,
since the teachers attributed academic success and care to the students consenting to cultural
disparagement and de-identification with their home culture and background. Valenzuela (1999)
stated that students’ capacity to connect to the process of schooling was invariably related to their
thoughts and perceptions of the school being a caring or noncaring environment. This means that
students only invest in their own achievements if they perceive that those involved are invested in
60
them as individuals. As a result, the students resisted most of the teachers’ efforts to engage them
in the classroom setting (Valenzuela, 1999).
Because aesthetic care, according to Valenzuela (1999), was marked by teachers requiring
students to care about the process of schooling and academic success without developing
meaningful relationships with them, this was detrimental for students. She argued that teachers
who ignored students’ cultural, linguistic, and community-based knowledge created a wedge
between them and their students. Knowing one’s students can only come from fostering
community in the classroom. Valenzuela (1999) believed that forcing students to subscribe to
aesthetic care generated an educational atmosphere in which the students’ informational base was
subtracted, leaving them little to offer the classroom setting and ultimately disillusioned with
school.
Valenzuela (1999) provided evidence of subtractive schooling practices exhibited in many
different ways. She believed that the Texas State exam was subtractive in that it was a graduation
requirement and was only available in English. She also believed that most of the teachers had
taken an apathetic approach to adapting the school curriculum to the needs of their student
populations. The few teachers who did were all Latino. These teachers were proactive in
highlighting the school curriculum’s inability to build on students’ skills, knowledge, and cultural
background. One Latino teacher stated that accommodations should be made for the students,
since English was unfamiliar to non-native English speakers, much like Spanish or any other
language would be for a non-native Spanish speaker (Valenzuela, 1999). The researcher noticed
Spanish-dominant students took ESL courses that focused primarily on oral fluency, with little
regard given to writing, reading comprehension, or academic vocabulary. If students were
61
fortunate enough to be placed in an ESL math/reading classroom, there were no honors-level
courses, with many of the students denied the chance to enroll in advanced/accelerated courses.
Moreover, Valenzuela (1999) observed the predominantly non-Latino staff’s perceptions
of the students as not caring sufficiently about the school, while students saw teachers as not
sufficiently caring about them. The teachers and students operated on different definitions of care,
which created a mutual sense of alienation between the groups. The researcher noted that the
teachers perceived their students as uncaring because of their preoccupation with looking and
acting in ways that were “trendy.” The teachers attributed tattoos, gold pendant chains, and baggy
pants worn by the students as garb linked to gang affiliation. They also thought that the students
did not care about success, since they continually skipped classes to congregate in the school’s
cafeteria during class periods. Valenzuela (1999) discussed the students’ style of dress, aberrant
behavior, and dismissive attitudes as portrayals of vigorous opposition against their teachers
because they viewed the process of school as a meaningless chore.
One instance of the fractured student/faculty relationship occurred at a Cinco de Mayo
celebration, where some of the administrators and teachers took issue with students waving a
Mexican flag at the beginning of the program. Although the students’ behavior was viewed as
disrespectful by some adult stakeholders, the students used it as a public opportunity to triumph
over the antagonism they felt from the adults while celebrating their heritage (Valenzuela, 1999).
As a result of the rift in their community, negative relational constructs were evident in
Valenzuela’s observations and student interviews. She found that many students chose not to
partake in classroom tasks because the environment was uncaring and without meaningful
personal relationships. She noted that students viewed caring through reciprocal relationships as
62
the basis for all learning environments and constructs. They connected caring to a nurturing
relationship with an adult in school.
Through these observations, Valenzuela (1999) concluded that teachers were not equipped
with the necessary tools to help students with issues and thus could not respond holistically to
them. She advanced this idea because she observed teachers making universal assumptions or
holding deficit thoughts about students of color. Some teachers believed that these students were
unable to appreciate quality education because they were poor. These observations led Valenzuela
(1999) to declare that teachers both caused and were victimized by a structure that systematically
disenfranchised Latino youth. She thought that teachers misjudged their capacity to positively
affect their classrooms.
Conversely, Valenzuela (1999) discovered that although students dismissed the process of
schooling and often skipped classes, they regularly attended classes they deemed significant. She
saw that students understood the difference between authentic versus aesthetic care when they
complained that some of their teachers spent more time feeling sorry for them than teaching them.
Students wanted caring teachers with high expectations and expressive classroom environments
that allowed for dialogue and discussion, which is what some of the Mexican students were
accustomed to in their previous educational experiences in Mexico.
As an example, Valenzuela described the attempts of a 9
th
grade English teacher to bond
with his class. Although the students initially rejected his efforts, the teacher allowed them to
express their disdain with his class and the school. By allowing dialogue, he was able to re-
establish his influence in the class. As time progressed, he was able to achieve caring relationships
with his students, which led to the students accepting his attempts to educate them.
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From this and other examples, Valenzuela (1999) developed a list of traits that caring
teachers possess. Caring teachers paid attention to students’ work and considered whether they
needed to redo a task to improve their marks. She also believed that caring teachers evaluated
students’ work properly while regularly communicating with and advising them. These teachers
readily helped their students by encouraging them to bridge their future desires with their current
scholastic endeavors. She also believed that caring teachers respected all of their students,
regardless of their academic abilities.
Valenzuela (1999) was included in this section of the literature review because her
thoughts on teacher care were similar to the idea of interpersonal connections advanced by Nasir
et al., both of which highlight teachers’ role in helping students connect to school. She chronicled
how an uncaring school environment prevented the acquisition of knowledge in urban schools
because relationships were not developed between students and their teachers. A lack of
knowledge and respect for what students naturally contributed to the school setting caused
students to disconnect from the process of schooling while at the same time reminding them that
they lacked power and social capital and were without reciprocal caring relationships (Valenzuela,
1999).
Culturally Relevant Care (CRC)
In an effort to meld CRP with the ethic of caring, Watson et al. (2014) conducted a
qualitative study to investigate how Black and Latino males were affected by participating in an
all-male, school-based mentoring program. Through their study, they introduced their theory of
CRC. Drawing largely on the work of Ladson-Billings, Valencia, Noddings, and others who have
contributed to understanding the complex world of educating Black and Latino students, they
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chose a mentoring program that was designed to positively impact the academic and social needs
of Black and Latino males who were both over-aged and under-credited for high school graduation
requirements.
They collected data over a two-year period from 14 participants (seven Latino students
from different parts of Latin America and seven Black students), ranging from age 16 to 20, who
were chosen because they were all pushed out of at least one traditional school for various
academic or disciplinary reasons. The other participant in the study was the African American
male mentor who started the program and worked with the participants. Data collection included
weekly one-on-one meetings with the mentor and focus group interviews with the 14 participants
for the duration of the study, twice a week for 90 minutes each time. The researchers conducted
observations while the mentor worked with the participants. After compiling the data, they were
able to categorize it into three areas: mutual trust, warm demands, and moments of humanization
and freedom.
Mutual Trust
Watson et al. (2014) found that young men were able to experience care through the
development of mutually beneficial relationships because the program was created in such a way
that student voice and participation were integral to the program’s success. This created a space
where the students felt safe to open up about their feelings while sharing their experiences in a
communal fashion. Since a prerequisite of CRC was that community members were expected to
bring their experience to the community as a learning tool, it allowed the students to be viewed as
experts, meaning they could share freely without fear of failure. One of the participants praised
his mentor as an individual who cared about the needs of Black and Latino youth by teaching and
65
dialoging about his personal struggles when he was their age. That participant appreciated how
vulnerable the mentor allowed himself to be, which meant that he was able to feel secure with the
process. Furthermore, the fact that the student felt that he was being taught was a salient point for
the researchers because this particular student had difficulties learning in a traditional school
setting (Watson et al., 2014).
The researchers also noted from one-on-one interviews that the male participants in this
study had a hard time trusting other individuals, especially those with authority. They spoke about
negative experiences in places like foster homes, the juvenile justice system, and schools as
sources of contention, because they all represented painful memories of people trying to control
them rather than help them when they needed assistance (Watson et al., 2014). The mentoring
center served as a place where they could discuss the hurt they had experienced. One of the
participants mentioned in his interview that hearing how they all had experienced similar struggles
bonded the group together because they could all relate to each other. The researchers noted that
these shared experiences assisted in freeing the participants from the constraints that race
sometimes enforces, with the Black and Latino participants viewing each other as equals against
a system they thought was limiting their growth as humans. This led the participants to refer to
themselves as brothers since they experienced the same issues.
Warm demanding. The trusting atmosphere created by the mentor led to a community
atmosphere in which it was common for the young men to share their resources, much like a family
would. Watson et al. (2014) often saw the students sharing their thoughts and their resources with
each other. This allowed the boys to make what the researcher called “warm demands” among
themselves without diminishing their self-worth. Warm demanding is defined as people being able
66
to expect and demand excellence from one another because a loving and genuine relationship has
been forged (Watson et al., 2014). This was evident in many ways in the study, with the researchers
noting that the mentor leader would share complaints he received about the participants openly
with the group, who would then discuss the issue. The vulnerability of the mentor teacher to be
open to criticism and support encouraged a warm, demanding relationship where the mentor did
not place himself above his mentees.
Often, the group members would reprimand their brother themselves if he had made a bad
decision in school, for example. They had created a pact in which they believed that a legitimate
reprimand about one group member was a bad mark against the entire group, because it
jeopardized the new identities they were endeavoring to create for themselves as a collective.
Thus, they worked to solve their issues communally. Watson et al. (2014) noted that this
atmosphere was created by the mentor leader, who readily shared instances in which he was
frustrated with other colleagues and other situations, and allowed the participants to assist him in
problem solving. The researchers also observed that he was able to create a reciprocal warm
demand relationship where both the students and mentor could demand things from each other.
The mentor accomplished this by clearly outlining a discipline system where the students knew
their boundaries, because the mentor leader modeled his expectations succinctly.
Watson et al. (2014) also noted that the measures communicated by the mentor to his
mentees were well received, with positive results. One participant noted in an interview that the
program had helped him make changes. He had begun to arrive at school on time and was more
responsible. Another young man mentioned in an interview that he had gone from hating school
to loving school because he felt that he had brothers who would not allow him to fail, and he felt
67
connected to his fellow group members. Watson et al. (2014) felt as if these statements did a great
deal to dispel the violent moniker usually attributed to Black and Latino male students while
connecting CRP’s warm demand that students of color should want to achieve academic success
(Ladson-Billings, 1995). Moreover, the researchers noted that students who were once referred to
as “ne’er-do-wells” were now wanting to excel, which spoke to the effect of mutual trust and warm
demanding in that they were able to communicate diplomatically with each other after they were
expelled from traditional school settings.
CRC as a humanizing pedagogy. The researchers concluded that mutual trust and warm
demands rehumanized the participants (Watson et al., 2014). The mentor leader mentioned in an
interview that he felt his role in education was to educate the whole child. He elaborated by
mentioning that the salient aspect of effective teaching was to get the students to see themselves
as learners. He felt that this would help students evolve organically into being teachers themselves.
The humanization phenomenon that the participants experienced helped them increase their
capacity for success, which led to the students applying to colleges and conducting panel
discussions on issues that affected Black and Latino communities. One of the participants stated
that he had begun to plan for his future in ways he had never considered before entering the
program. He felt that he was equipped with the tools necessary to orient his life in a positive
direction.
CRC’s tenets meld well with many different theories that help encapsulate how important
it is for teachers to create environments where students can feel safe to share their innermost
thoughts. This allows teachers to help students become better versions of themselves without being
subject to dominant cultural and societal norms that may not fit with students of color. This study
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was also important in that it showed how both African American and Latino students were able to
benefit from an environment where both groups are interacting together.
After studying school connectedness, CRP, CRT, CSP, care, and CRC, it is clear that
certain actions need to be undertaken by teachers to ensure academic success for students of color.
While there are many outside factors that can affect why students do not connect to the process of
schooling, implementing these strategies in the school context can improve academic outcomes
for students of color. Up to this point, the research used for this dissertation has sought to paint a
picture of how teachers can help students of color connect to the process of schooling and achieve
academically. In the next section, the reviewed articles center on student identity with regard to
student connectedness.
Student Identity and School Connection
Student identity plays an integral part in connection and connectedness to school for
students of color. Despite the best intentions of teachers who utilize the aforementioned strategies
for their students, urban students of color still have a difficult time connecting to the process of
schooling. In this section, the works of John Ogbu, Signithia Fordham, Prudence Carter, and
Hersholt Waxman are reviewed to describe how students respond to the efforts of their teachers,
develop their own self-identities, and connect to the process of schooling.
“Acting White”
Ogbu and Fordham (1986) advanced their theory of “acting white” to explain how African
American students who achieve academically are labeled negatively as something outside of their
race simply because they are engaged. They conducted a study at an inner-city Washington high
school called Capital High, which had a 99% African American student population. As opposed
69
to being shunned by their peers, the researchers believed the African Americans practiced the
notion of assumed kinship among the “white” behaviors they rejected, such as visiting the
Smithsonian and dancing to lyrics rather than a beat. The black students identified 17
characteristics they considered to be acting white. Some of these characteristics included listening
to “white music,” going hiking or rock climbing, timeliness and punctuality, and speaking standard
English (Ogbu & Fordham, 1986).
Data were gathered for over a year, with the intense study of 33 11
th
grade students, of
which eight cases were used to understand the dynamics of the school. The researchers found that
most of the students were intelligent enough to excel academically through their test scores on
several measures, including the PSAT, and noted that they had the aptitude to perform well but
feared being teased. The underachievers feared being called brainiacs by their peers and decided
not to excel academically. The researchers found that the underachievers did everything in their
power to give the perception that they were not academically sound. It was also found that this
group was concerned with doing just enough to make it scholastically for fear of being labeled
negatively by their peers. Although the underachievers came from different backgrounds and
socioeconomic statuses, they all chose not to excel academically due to the negative peer pressure
and stigma of scholastic achievement exerted by their peers.
The high-achieving students consciously made the choice to excel academically, despite
the negative monikers given to those who did. They did this by developing strategies to cope with
the burden of ridicule. One such strategy called “lunching” was used by one of the students in the
group to describe how he employed a jovial and clownish nature in his everyday demeanor to
deflect the fact that he was excelling academically. By cloaking his academic identity in a comedic
70
fashion, he avoided being called a “brainiac” and was able to successfully straddle Capital High’s
proverbial peer relational fence. Other students used the lunching strategy, while also befriending
students who were considered ne’er-do-wells by exchanging their friendship for help with their
homework. The boys were serious about maintaining the appearance of being cool comedians in
an attempt to avoid being labeled “gay” or “homosexual” because it was a prevailing theory among
the student population that academically strong young men had to be gay to achieve academic
success.
The high-achieving young ladies stated that they were able to cope with the burdens of
criticism by maintaining a low profile and denying opportunities for academic growth and success.
To maintain this persona, they chose not to attend class and other things that would lead to the
label “brainiacs.” Like the boys, they also employed the lunching strategy by being comedic.
Ogbu and Fordham (1986) argued that since people of color had lingering hurt stemming
from past discrimination, it aided in creating an oppositional cultural relationship between students
of color and the process of schooling. They found that students resisted both the belief that white
behavior was better and the notion that scholastic achievement led to career advancement. Ogbu
and Fordham (1986) traced the roots of the “oppositional culture” to institutionalized racism
within American society, which they contended led blacks to define academic achievement as
pejorative, thus rejecting it to pursue alternative interests.
Although many researchers have since moved away from Ogbu and Fordham’s (1986)
findings because they were seen as overly simplistic, their work served to provide a framework
for analyzing students’ relationships with the process of schooling and how that relates to their
peers and their perceptions of the benefits of school. The comments and thoughts of the students
71
resonated with ideas that are still true for African American and Latino groups today. In another
study, Ogbu, and Matute Bianchi (1986) found that Latino students considered scholastic
achievement to be an Anglo or white thing, thereby rejecting the process of schooling. It should
also be noted that the camaraderie or fictive kinship described by Ogbu and Fordham was a bond
that proved to be particularly strong for both achievement groups. As a result, they found that
students who actively engaged in preserving the oppositional aspect of fictive kinship shunned the
thought of connecting to the process of schooling for academic success.
While Ogbu and Fordam’s advancement of “acting white” was critical to understanding
some students’ disconnection from school, other researchers believed the idea should be further
problematized. Prudence Carter focused fresh attention on the clash that occurs between dominant
cultural expectations for achievement in school and the cultural styles of students from
nondominant cultural backgrounds. She showed how the variability in school engagement patterns
among low-income black and Latino youth was influenced by their varying ideologies about their
social identities and described how best to deploy these identities in their response to the social
inequities they encountered in school.
Navigating the Process of Schooling
In explaining how students of color have different experiences navigating the process of
schooling, Carter (2006) provided unique insight into the educational achievement outcomes for
African American and Latino students from low-income urban communities. Her mixed methods
case study on the attitudes and cultural norms of Black and Latino students in Yonkers, New York,
provided new information on the ways students of color from urban communities negotiated their
educational experiences. In a quest to provide distance from the belief that students of color merely
72
see academic achievement through the lens of acting White, Carter (2006) disputed this universal
rationalization. She used the responses from a broader study she conducted with 317 families from
the Yonkers area (a racially divided and segregated community of New York), and chose 68
students aged 13–20 to participate in this study. All of these students were from low-income
households, with over half of the participants coming from households with a combined parental
income of less than $10,000 per year. She interviewed them over a 10-month period, with each
interview lasting around 90 minutes.
The participants were surveyed on their thoughts about school connections, life outcomes,
and discrimination. Carter highlighted three roles that students of color assumed during this
process of schooling: cultural mainstreamers, cultural straddlers, and noncompliant believers. She
ultimately argued that students who were able to negotiate the school system while drawing on
their own cultures were the most successful. The following section provides more detail on each
of the types of students Carter described.
Cultural mainstreamers were students who assimilated and subscribed to dominant, middle
class cultural norms, even though this may have sparked the ire of their peer group, who perceived
them as failing to stay true to their cultural roots. Cultural straddlers were described as students
who utilized multiple cultural strategies to traverse cultural borders and boundaries. These
particular students developed the ability to relate with their cultural peers while still being able to
successfully interact and identify with the dominant middle class culture. The third role was that
of the noncompliant believer. These students rejected the advances of the dominant culture in
order to remain true to their roots. According to the researcher, this group encountered the most
challenges with their teachers. This led to poorer levels of academic achievement and less
73
engagement with the process of schooling. Although cultural straddlers and cultural
mainstreamers were shown to perform better than noncompliant believers, all three groups were
skeptical about the benefits of education.
Cultural Responses to Achievement
To explain her typology, Carter (2006) used Bourdieu’s (1984) work on cultural capital
theory and Ogbu’s cultural ecological theory. Both researchers have been widely cited to explicate
the lack of achievement observed among urban students of color and other low-income students.
Rather than further the thoughts on their theories, Carter discussed the issues of each framework
as it related to modern-day students of color, thus providing a different explanation for how
students of color could respond differently within their own culture. Carter felt that although
students of color had an understanding of certain aspects of the dominant culture and their
privilege for access purposes, cultural straddlers and noncompliant believers also used their own
capital to gain position, access, and acceptance within their local milieus. Using this as her
premise, Carter argued that the opposition to acting White for many Black students was more
about keeping their cultural identity, and less about accepting or dismissing the dominant cultures’
standards of success. This divergence supplied a pertinent response to the overused idea that urban
students of color associated school success with acting White and rejected it altogether for this
reason. Carter attributed academic engagement, or the lack thereof, to three different roles that
students adopted and used to negotiate the process of schooling. She also compared how the male
participants in her study understood manhood and masculinity with the behaviors their schools
expected to see for academic success. Through her work, she found that boys were categorized as
noncompliant believers more often than girls.
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Furthermore, Carter found that girls were more likely to be identified as cultural straddlers
or cultural mainstreamers. These findings were important because the researcher constructed her
study to flesh out how gender ideologies were handled by the schools, by the students themselves,
and by their families. This helped to explain why many low-income African American and Latino
boys in particular may have difficulty becoming cultural straddlers. This gender differentiation in
Carter’s findings is important to this study because it speaks to the reasons boys of color may have
more issues in school than girls. It also expanded on the idea that culture can be examined
differently based on gender associations.
Ultimately, Carter’s work supported the research conducted by Ladson-Billings, Gay,
Paris and Alim, and others who studied how urban students of color flourished by negotiating both
dominant and nondominant cultural systems proficiently. Carter argued that urban students of
color needed guidance from role models in the form of multicultural navigators—adult school
employees who would usher them through the process of properly code switching to adapt to their
current environments without having to compromise their own personal nondominant cultural
identities. With many of the students in her study unable to identify staff members at their school
with the ability to assume this role in their lives, Carter felt that schools needed to hire and instruct
many teachers and staff members who could help students of color through this process. She
believed that this was one of the ways schools could help them attain successful academic
achievement.
Carter’s richly textured study depicts how students’ refusal to “act white” does not always
imply a devaluing of education or a rejection of schooling. Rather, she postulated that refusing to
“act white” was more about maintaining a sense of identity, belonging, and loyalty to one’s peers
75
and community. In other words, the students wanted to “keep it real” while also doing well in
school. She also contended that students resisted a school environment that systematically ignored
and devalued their nondominant forms of cultural capital and demanded conformity to white,
middle class ways.
Carter (2003) also held interviews with 44 African American low-income students who
participated in the aforementioned study, explaining the struggles they had negotiating dominant
and nondominant cultural views and perspectives. The information gathered showed how the
students learned how to code switch between nondominant ways of engaging with their African
American friends, while at other moments using what they knew the dominant culture required to
gain acceptance from teachers, judges, and employers. This information further explained why
cultural straddlers had the most success in negotiating the process of schooling.
The only way students were able to be successful with code switching was to ensure that
they were perceived as authentic to whichever side they subscribed to, even if they were cultural
straddlers. Black students strove for authenticity among their peer groups by using colloquial
monikers and certain inflections that they felt their Black peers could understand. Choice in music
was another identifier, with some of the respondents stating that they felt that white people only
listened to alternative rock music, while Blacks and Latinos listened to R&B, rap, and hip hop.
After music and speech, style of dress was another salient identifier of “Blackness” to the
participants.
An interesting dynamic in this study was how quickly Black students were shunned for not
acting according to nondominant cultural markers. One of the young ladies, who was a high
achiever, immediately declined to participate in the group interview for fear of ridicule. Many of
76
the respondents thought that black students who did not use slang or appropriate Black
nondominant language markers were weird. This was also true for attire and music choices. Carter
mentioned that the answers given by the high school students were affected by age, maturity levels,
and care for all of the respondents. Many of the respondents mentioned the importance of being
able to code switch between cultures.
Carter (2003) argued that many participants rejected the efforts of their teachers to have
them accept the dominant culture, especially if it came at the cost of devaluing their race. They
felt as if the classroom was a hostile environment where their culture, sense of being, and ways of
living were not important to their teachers. This sentiment led students to dismiss their teachers,
their lessons, and their rhetoric. Although the students often stated that their treatment was a result
of their teachers serving as gatekeepers to how they wanted things done from a dominant cultural
perspective to create a semblance of obedience and conformity, Carter (2003) stated that student
compliance did not immediately equate to academic achievement. She also found through the
interviews that since the teachers were not properly equipped to handle the needs of their learners,
student connection and growth could not be facilitated. This study led to the Yonkers School
District rethinking its professional development practices entirely, leading to classes in which all
district employees had to be trained on how to properly serve students of color.
Ultimately, Carter’s (2003, 2006) work led to many discoveries that furthered the work of
Ogbu and Fordham (1986), confirming that avoiding whiteness was not the only way students of
color negotiated their connection to school. Students of color have multiple identities within their
cultures. Stereotypes, age, sense of worth, desire for friendship, camaraderie, and acceptance play
a significant role in why students of color choose to either connect or reject the process of
77
schooling. Her work also supports the work of Valenzuela (1999) and Noddings (1995) by arguing
that students of color need teachers to serve as cultural navigators and aides to help urban students
of color through the process of connecting to school. Again, while student connection to school is
important, it does not guarantee academic success. This merely increases the likelihood that
students will achieve academically (Libby, 2005).
In an attempt to explore how students navigate their scholastic experience, Hersholt
Waxman (1992) conducted a study to see whether there were any considerable disparities between
effective and ineffective urban schools based on two factors that centered on students’ classroom
behavior and their own classroom learning environments. He examined students from eight
schools: four effective and ineffective urban elementary institutions that taught predominantly
African American students. He spent time observing these schools during the school year and had
the students complete three surveys toward the end of the school year.
Waxman (1992) posited that students from effective schools were more successful in
working independently, interacting positively with their teachers, and finishing complex written
assignments than those from ineffective schools. He also contended that students from effective
schools exhibited considerably higher levels of motivation, academic self-concept, task
orientation, rule clarity, and student aspiration scores than students from ineffective schools
(Waxman, 1992).
Additionally, Waxman (1992) identified numerous threats that could hinder scholastic
success for African American and Latino students. He declared that ineffective schools often
estranged both students and teachers, had mediocre standards, and provided a low quality of
education because they set low expectations of their students. He also contended that these schools
78
had low completion outcomes for students with classroom teaching strategies that were both
disconnected and unresponsive to students’ learning needs. He believed that these conditions
drove students to have high truancy rates and disciplinary problems because they felt that they
were inadequately prepared for their futures. Furthermore, he noted that Latino students who
attended some of these ineffective schools needed a great deal of assistance, and if their learning
environments were altered, it may be possible to improve both their education and their overall
chance of success in society (Waxman, 1992).
Padrón and Waxman (1993) examined the mathematics and science instructional practices
in an urban middle school serving largely Latino students, and found that science teachers taught
using whole-class instruction approximately 93% of the time, with math teachers using whole-
group instruction about 55%. While the students in math classes were afforded the opportunity to
work independently about 45% of the time, no opportunities for independent work were witnessed
in science classes by the researchers (Padrón & Waxman , 1993). With little to no group work
assigned in both classes, the researchers had questions about the academic rigor of the school’s
instructional program, in which students were expected to do more listening than actual inquiry
(Padrón & Waxman, 1993). With Waxman being a proponent of CRT and CRP as asset
pedagogical strategies that assisted with connecting students of color to school, he and other
researchers contended that these passive instructional strategies amounted to a pedagogy of
poverty orientation in which teachers focused on low-level thinking skills to instruct African
American and Latino children (Padrón & Waxman, 1993).
Waxman, Huang, and Padrón (1995) investigated the pedagogical practices of 90 teachers
from 16 urban middle school institutions with largely Latino students, and found that students
79
were usually taught using whole-class instructional strategies. This strategy did not allow much
time for interaction and reflection with their peers and teacher, because about 70% of the students
were involved in nonverbal interaction since the lessons were primarily teacher focused. With
very few opportunities for small-group activities, the researchers noted that the teachers hardly
ever allowed the students to choose their own academic activities. Waxman, Huang, and Padrón
(1995) observed extremely flaccid classroom learning environments in which the students were
either watching or listening to the teacher.
These types of learning environments tend to disconnect students from the process of
schooling, and it has been shown that students of color can and will leave school if they are not
engaged. This becomes more important as the students are able to give feedback on what they
think helps them remain in school until the 11
th
and 12
th
grades. While scholastic achievement is
not the focus of this dissertation, it is assumed that the students need to have passed their classes
to be considered an 11
th
or 12
th
grader.
Conceptual Framework
Drawing on the literature on the ways in which high school students connect to the process
of schooling, a conceptual framework was developed that will guide this study and is presented in
this section. Important concepts are presented that frame the kinds of questions students are asked
to examine how they perceive the influence their teachers have on their sense of connection to
school. Specifically, this conceptual framework highlights how teacher practices—in terms of
pedagogy and the demonstration of authentic care—shape how students connect and ultimately
persist in school.
80
Figure 3
Conceptual Framework
In the first yellow box, the student needs to have a strong self-identity that is supported by
their teachers, friends, or school staff members. A strong self-identity is characterized by the way
students describe who they believe themselves to be and explain how this identification provides
a rationale for persisting through school. Carter’s (2006, 2003) work will provide a basis for
describing how students characterize themselves by providing a vignette of their descriptions of
themselves. The second yellow box describes the need for teachers to serve as cultural navigators
based on Carter’s (2003, 2006) work. The third yellow box describes the need for students to
experience authentic care from their teachers, as discussed by Valencia (1999) and Noddings
(1992).
Carter and Self-Identity
The identity a student chooses to subscribe to has an effect on how they will connect to the
81
process of schooling, according to Carter’s (2003, 2006) typology of cultural straddlers, cultural
mainstreamers, and noncompliant believers. She suggested that it was important to examine how
students identified themselves and how these particular identities helped them persist through the
educational process. Understanding student alignment with different peer groups and whether
these associations have an effect on how they personally connect to school is important. In
addition, it is necessary to ascertain whether students feel a need to form strategic alliances with
the school staff if they are unable to create peer alliances. With cultural mainstreamers bonding
more with teachers, noncompliant believers aligning more with other students, and cultural
straddlers aligning with both sides, my goal will be to understand where students feel their
allegiances lie. The salient point is the notion that students need to have developed a strong self-
identity and feel supported by a group they identify with to persist until the end of high school.
Carter and Cultural Navigators
Students of color need teachers who can serve as cultural navigators; it can be challenging
for them to navigate the process of schooling by themselves (Carter, 2006). Cultural navigators
are people who have an understanding of these students’ academic, emotional, and social needs
and help them move through schooling in productive and effective ways. Cultural navigators are
able to assist students of color in successfully traversing academic fields. These teachers and staff
members must have a concrete understanding of the needs of the student demographics they serve.
As the literature suggests, every attempt should be made by teachers to learn about students’
families, cultures, and interests because this is one of the only ways to help students of color
succeed.
In Cartern’s study, students remembered their teachers discussing what they had learned
82
through books, documentaries, music, academic studies, and anything else that informed them
about their student population. In these cases, the students felt that their teacher navigated them
through challenging periods and situations to help them persist to the end of high school. Examples
of cultural navigation include when teachers help students understand the importance of
navigating the gap between dominant and nondominant cultures to reach their desired goals. Other
forms of cultural navigation revolve around information given to students that makes their journey
through the process of schooling easier to navigate.
Valenzuela, Noddings, and Authentic Care
Finally, students of color need teachers to demonstrate authentic levels of care while using
CRP, CRT, or CSP in their teaching to help them connect to the curriculum. While care and
pedagogical changes are necessary to help students of color connect to the process of schooling,
this section specifically discusses how students felt about the care and pedagogical choices
exhibited by their teachers. It was hoped that students discuss demonstrations of care that their
teachers have exhibited toward them, as described by Valenzuela and Noddings, and how teachers
expect them to participate in the classroom through dialogue and intentional interactions. It would
be encouraging to hear the students discuss whether teachers give them multiple opportunities for
success for improvement purposes. Finally, it was hoped that students discuss how teachers and
other staff members built relationships with them that freed them from traditional teacher/student
interactions to develop something more meaningful. These and other types of relationships
between teachers and students are critical for students of color, since these interactions help ground
and sustain students in a world that is foreign to most of them (Noddings, 1995). In this study,
students were asked about the caring relationships they have developed with teachers to create a
83
sense of trust and rapport.
In addition to experiences when students felt authentically cared for, student responses on
the types of pedagogical practices teachers used that they perceived impacted them in any way
were sought. Teacher pedagogical practices are an important part of the third box in the conceptual
framework. Questions will be asked about the types of strategies teachers use to engage students
in the classroom setting. Practices highlighting CRP, CRT, and CSP are of particular interest, such
as how teachers modify the curriculum to provide access for all students or use teachable moments
to shed light on complex topics. Information on whether teachers allowed the students to express
themselves through different mediums like rap and poetry as assessment tools are also critical.
As a result of these three things—a strong sense of identity, the presence of cultural
navigators, and teachers who exhibit authentic care and culturally relevant, responsive, and
sustaining pedagogies—this entire process should theoretically produce students who are
connected to the process of schooling in such a way that they want to persist through high school.
While academic achievement is sometimes seen as merely a measure of persistence, in this study,
clarification is sought regarding whether there are students who persist through the 11
th
or 12
th
grade without actually assimilating to typical school expectations of behavior and academic
achievement. By focusing on student connectedness by virtue of persisting, there could be multiple
reasons students have chosen to continue their scholastic journeys until this point, not necessarily
because they are strong students academically. Ultimately, the goal is to see how these three
concepts are at play, while understanding that there could be alternative reasons why students
connect to the process of schooling long enough to reach the end of their secondary education.
84
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS
This chapter discusses the methods used to conduct this study. The purpose of this study
was to research how students responded to the teachers to see what role teachers played in
students’ connection to school. The research question was as follows: What are African American
and Latino high school students’ perceptions of the influence of teachers’ pedagogical practices
and demonstrations of care on their connection to school?
Merriam (2009) defined a case study as an in-depth description and analysis of a bounded
system. Because the focus is on discovering what happens and what students perceive, as opposed
to simply hypothesizing and testing, a qualitative approach was chosen. Moreover, since
understanding was sought about what strategies students feel influence their feelings about school,
a qualitative approach was suitable because it is exploratory in nature. Merriam (2009) described
a qualitative case study as spreading the net of evidence widely, so this approach will allow
discovery of everything that could happen in a real-life classroom setting and context. Thus, how
students perceived the culturally relevant and responsive strategies outlined by Gay, Ladson-
Billings (2003), and others was studied, along with authentic care for students, as described by
Noddings and Valenzuela, to help students connect to the process of schooling.
Merriam (2009) considered qualitative case studies an exhaustive, comprehensive
explanation and analysis of a bounded phenomenon, such as a program, person, or process. The
units of analysis for this study were 11
th
and 12
th
grade students. By studying students at the high
school level, understanding was sought about the methods students of color perceived contributed
to an environment in which they connected to school. A qualitative multicase study approach was
85
chosen because this approach permits the exploration of differences within and between cases,
thus providing a more nuanced description (Merriam, 2009).
Because insight was sought into the methods students feel teachers use to connect them to
school, it was critical to frame findings through the lens of the conceptual framework based on the
literature review. Thus, the aim was to interview 7––10 high school students of color, which would
produce information that could be used to deepen understanding of what teachers do specifically
that helps their students connect to school. The conceptual framework was used in the data-
gathering process to see 1) how the students identified and how this influenced their feelings about
school, 2) what the students thought the teachers did in their pedagogical practices that aided their
students, and 3) how teachers cared for students in ways that encouraged them to take part in the
project of schooling. The goal was to report the findings from the data and judge them against the
literature review to see how the elements of the conceptual framework either supported or rejected
what students perceived teachers doing to help them connect to the process of schooling.
Sample
Selecting a School Site
This study was conducted with students from a high school in Southern California using
purposeful sampling. A school site was chosen that served both African American and Latino
students successfully. Merriam (2009) stated that a certain set of criteria connected to the purpose
of this study had to be in place to utilize purposeful sampling. Thus, the following criteria were
used to choose the school for this study:
Criterion 1. The school must be a public high school in Los Angeles County with a student
population including students from both African American and Latino heritages, with a combined
86
majority of the student population at 51% or more. The school must also have at least a 10%
population of both races to be selected. These characteristics were chosen to ensure that the student
population of the school had a strong mix of both races.
Criterion 2. Students must come from a school that demonstrates the ability to serve this
population, as measured by a CAHSEE pass rate of at least 70% or more schoolwide, for at least
two or more years. Since this was the measure widely accepted to judge the academic effectiveness
of a public high school in California by the California Department of Education (CDE) and the
LAUSD at that time, this benchmark was utilized in this study for the same reason, using the
CAHSEE results from 2013–2015. The two most recent CAHSEE scores on the file were used
with the CDE. The Smarter Balanced test scores were used to choose the school. In the past,
California Academic Performance Index (API) scores were used to gather this information, if
available. However, since California changed the tests and the curriculum it uses to measure
school effectiveness, Smarter Balanced test scores were used in this study, as well as CAHSEE
results from the 2014–2015 school year, with a cut score of a Level 3 or higher on the Math and
ELA sections of the exam.
Studying a school’s overall academic performance was critical to this study since
understanding is sought about how the pedagogical practices of teachers help students to connect
to school while achieving academically. Coupling this with Criterion 1 allows the study of a school
with a record of success with the student population of interest in this study. The reason for
choosing the setting before selecting the teachers was to ensure that the school had a reputation
and culture of wanting students of color to achieve academic excellence so that there would
theoretically be a wider pool of students to select for this study. For feasibility purposes, one
87
school in Southern California will be studied.
Participants
Merriam (2009) advised that the criteria used to conduct purposeful selection should
supply direction in selecting the participants for an in-depth case study. Thus, purposeful selection
was used to choose and recruit the participants. With this as the premise, nine 11
th
and 12
th
grade
students who attended an urban public high school in the Southern California area were
interviewed. The reason for selecting this student population is that these students have persisted
through the process of schooling without quitting. The goal will be to see if teachers’ pedagogical
and caring practices had any influence on their identities and their choice to remain in school.
Data Collection and Instrumentation Procedures
The purpose of this study is to examine how students perceive the teachers’ use of
culturally relevant and responsive teaching practices with authentic teacher care to influence their
sense of identity and connection to school. Since this is a qualitative case study, my role as the
researcher required me to serve as the primary instrument for data collection and analysis
(Merriam, 2009). I sought to discover how African American and Latino high school students
perceived teachers who had an understanding of their student demographics. I wanted to know
their thoughts on how teachers used strategies that were both culturally relevant and responsive,
while exhibiting an authentic level of care toward them to connect them to the process of
schooling. In order to explore these strategies, I collected data by interviewing nine students.
Interviews
For the purposes of this dissertation, nine 11
th
and 12 grade students of different genders
were interviewed on two different occasions each to gain their insight into the topic of this study.
88
Using the conceptual framework, a semi-structured interview format was used. The first round of
interviews focused on a set of questions centered on student identity and persistence in school.
The second round of interviews centered on student sentiments and beliefs about how their
teachers used culturally relevant responsive pedagogical practices and authentic teacher care to
influence their sense of connectedness. These interviews lasted approximately 45 minutes each.
With Merriam (2009) stressing the need to conduct effective interviews, the questions were
informed by the conceptual framework.
Data Analysis Procedures
The informational data collected for this case study were coded for any themes that
emerged from the various methods of data collection. Student interviews were transcribed and
categorized. Using the conceptual framework as a guide, the data were examined and reflected
upon immediately after collection. Corbin and Strauss (2008) described analysis as a method of
providing meaning to data by extrapolating its different parts to see how they relate to each other.
Thus, after all of the data were transcribed, categorized, and coded, it was reconciled into a
database that helped reveal the themes that emerged from the data collection and coding process
(Merriam, 2009). Corbin and Strauss (2008) stressed the need to collect data and immediately
code the information.
I wrote memos to myself at every stage of this process. Memos served as guideposts to my
thinking and development as a researcher, and helped me come up with themes to organize my
findings. Corbin and Strauss (2008) believed that extensive written memos were critical, since
they assisted in building a researcher’s intellectual capacity.
89
Credibility and Trustworthiness
Credibility and trustworthiness are words used to describe the validity and reliability of a
qualitative research case study. This study required that the research be done in a principled
manner (Merriam, 2009). A study is considered valid and reliable only if consideration is given to
how the data are acquired and then shared (Merriam, 2009). As I am the primary instrument for
data collection and analysis, my explanation and interpretation of the reality of this study will
drive this process. Since I gathered data using interviews, I triangulated the data with the research.
Merriam (2009) believed that triangulation was critical to ensuring validity because it meant that
the data would be cross referenced through multiple sources. This was key because it allowed me
to apply and acquire dependable data.
Member checks also occurred. I allowed the students to review both the data I collected
(their own transcripts) and my interpretations of them. The member check process was an
important component of establishing trustworthiness, because participants had an opportunity to
authenticate their statements before commencement of the analysis phase. At times, participants
can help the researcher by filling in any information they feel should be clarified during follow-
up interviews.
Merriam (2009) stated that reliability was the degree to which research outcomes could be
replicated, so that the design of the study would produce similar results if conducted again. For
this reason, it was important for me to guard against human error while conducting this study.
Qualitative research makes this difficult, since there is a lower expectation for the results to be
replicated due to the importance of the researcher as the key instrument. Creswell (2009)
contended that the purpose of qualitative research was to comprehend a social situation,
occurrence, job, cluster, or interaction. He noted that reliability could only be achieved when a
90
researcher processed the occurrences of a social phenomenon by comparing, contrasting,
cataloging, classifying, and coding the information being gathered and analyzed. With this in
mind, to ensure the reliability of my findings, I shared my research procedures.
Ethics
The ethical concerns for a qualitative study revolve around guarding my subjectivity as a
researcher, as well as protecting against breaches of confidentiality. As the primary instrument for
gathering this information, I withheld all personal sentiments and prejudices during the study. I
protected the confidentiality of the participants and the school that granted access. I also used
pseudonyms for all participants and I changed the name of the school.
I alerted all of the students and parents that their participation in this study was voluntary.
Guided by USC’s IRB, I ensured that participants were fully aware of their rights and provided
informed consent for participation. When students chosen for this study were under the age of 18,
I obtained both parent and student consent.
Conclusion
This study examined how students perceived the ways in which their teachers utilized
culturally relevant/responsive and authentic caring teaching practices to help African American
and Latino students connect to the process of schooling. Nine 11
th
and 12
th
grade students were
chosen and used as the units of analysis for this case study. Data were collected through two semi-
structured interviews with all students discussing their thoughts on pedagogical practices and
interactions with their teachers. In the interview phase of this study, information was sought by
asking clarifying questions about the information presented by the students. The next chapter
presents the findings the students shared based on their responses.
91
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS
This study aimed to understand how students respond to teachers’ use of culturally relevant
and responsive teaching strategies and the ethics of authentic care, and their role in student
connection to the school. The research question is: What are African American and Latino high
school students’ perceptions of the influence of teachers’ pedagogical practices and
demonstrations of care on their connection to the school? Further, this study sought to understand
the pedagogical practices that students of color (African American and Latino students) felt
teachers used to help them connect to school. Interviews with the students took place on two
separate occasions for approximately 45 minutes each, with questions derived from the conceptual
framework and centered on topics highlighted in the literature review: authentic vs. aesthetic care
and cultural navigation. Raw data themes emerged from the conversations, and coding was done
based on the interviewees’ responses. Pseudonyms were used for the students to provide
anonymity.
Open-ended interviews took place with nine students (four male and five female) from a
Southern California high school. Five of the students were in the 12
th
grade and four were in the
11
th
grade. All the students attended the same school in the Southern California area, with a 95%
African American and Latino student population. The students came from varying homes and
circumstances that fueled their desire to connect with the process of schooling and to persist
through to graduation. A discussion of the findings is prefaced with a brief set of case study
vignettes that depict nine students’ identities, and as Carter (2006) discussed, this background
served to influence their experiences and perceptions.
92
Case Study Vignettes
Self-identity influences perceptions and is critical to how students approach the process
of schooling. Carter’s work on cultural identity and Nasir’s academic identity reveal that students’
perceptions of their identity are essential to their educational journeys (Carter, 2006).
The participants consisted of nine students: four males and five females in the 11
th
and 12
th
grades. The students were Latino (6) and African American (3). One characteristic not shown in
the chart below was revealed through self-reports: students had GPAs ranging from 3.0 to 4.1.
The participants in the study were as follows:
Name Age Race/
Ethnicity
Gender Grade
Joe 17 African American Male 11
Lesean 17 African American Male 11
Albert 17 African American Male 11
Ray 18 Latino Male 12
Yaelin 18 Latino Female 12
Analise 17 Latino Female 11
Sadie 18 Latino Female 12
Diamond 18 Latino Female 12
Camille 18 Latino Female 12
Joe, a 17-year-old African American male who identified himself as a student athlete,
spoke about how another high school he attended allowed him to not focus on his academic
studies. Instead, they let him concentrate on basketball. Though talented as an athlete, being
recruited by several universities for his services allowed him to become disinterested in school,
which he felt diminished him as a person. He saw himself as a student athlete and a future business
major in college. He stated that being an athlete was tiring and time-consuming, but he was willing
93
to invest his time in what was needed to succeed in both. His identity was wrapped up in the type
of philanthropy he did outside of school and his role as an athlete, and he took school extremely
seriously as an African American male.
Albert, a 17-year-old senior student athlete, reported traveling roughly 30 minutes to attend
the school he said helped him become more organized and focused. He was driven by not
becoming a negative statistic, like many young black males before him. He spoke extensively
about the plight of young African American males and how he did not want to be labeled as a
ne’er do well. He wanted to achieve greatness, and this fueled his desire to persist.
Ray, an 18-year-old Latino male who stated that he had once not been very educated,
shaped his identity as an athlete on a basketball team and a student who excelled in school, given
his background and how he was raised. He described how his family had ties to the gang lifestyle
and how he often cut class and misbehaved before settling into school.
Sadie, a 17-year-old Latino senior, expressed the goals and dreams of making her parents
proud through being scholarly. She wanted nothing more than to become a high school graduate
and, subsequently, a college graduate. She appreciated teachers who provided extra help and
support for their students.
Diamond, an 18-year-old senior, was driven toward being successful in light of the issues
her older brother faced by not being as studious. Seeing what her parents experienced due to her
brother’s mishaps gave Diamond the desire to finish school, despite the odds. Seeing her brother’s
struggle helped her want to succeed.
LeSean was a 17-year-old Ethiopian student who immigrated to the US when he was eight.
His father was impoverished and wanted to instill a hard work ethic in him. Like many students,
94
he would be the first person in his family to graduate from school. It is challenging to manage
those expectations without a robust support system.
Yaelin was a 12
th
grader who described herself as outgoing and active. She enjoyed helping
people with their problems and providing advice whenever she could. She attributed much of her
success to a small school environment that allowed everyone to know each other, which meant
she could champion the causes of others, since she felt a deep sense of connection to both her
teachers and her peers.
Analise described herself as a student who did not like getting into any trouble. She was
driven to do well in school, since her parents were not able to complete college. After hearing their
struggles, she believed that her parents would have been more financially successful had they
finished college. Not wanting to experience the same issues, she was motivated to create a better
life so that she could assist them and her younger siblings.
Camille, an 18-year-old senior, shared that she had not been interested in pursuing a
college degree until she injured her knee playing soccer. This experience helped her appreciate
that getting her degree was something she could do to become successful. She considered herself
an outspoken student wanting to see people of color succeed. While she admitted that her
outspokenness had gotten her into trouble, the same quality was what had helped her succeed.
Research Findings
This section addresses the research findings according to two themes and the two-part
research question. The first section addresses teachers’ pedagogical practices according to
demonstrations of care, and the second, according to students’ connection to school. Each part of
the question revealed two themes. The first part of the research question on Demonstrations of
95
Care, revealed Aesthetic Care and Authentic Care. The second part of the research question on
Connection to the School is discussed according to the themes Supportive and Unsupportive
Teacher Practices.
Demonstrations of Care
Noddings (1996) discussed how demonstrations of care were essential for students to
succeed in school. Valenzuela furthered Noddings’ work by specifically outlining the differences
between authentic and aesthetic care as it related to students of color. These demonstrations of
authentic and aesthetic care were shared through both supportive and unsupportive teacher
practices.
Thematic Claim 1: Students’ Perceptions of Their Teachers’ Authentic Demonstrations of
Care
All nine of the participants shared experiences in which teachers demonstrated authentic
care toward them. They mentioned the provision of extra time, adjustments to lesson delivery, and
leniency as ways that helped them progress. Given their shared experiences, this level of care
proved to be foundational for students of color in this study to succeed. The nine students shared
how their teachers exhibited a deep sense of concern and understanding of the needs of the
students, and addressed those concerns.
The participants found that these authentic pedagogical care practices helped them connect
to the process of schooling. The students communicated both positive and challenging moments.
In their responses, they discussed why they thought they had persisted through the challenges they
had faced to reach this position in their lives through their teachers’ demonstrations of care.
Authentic care seeks to meet the needs of students at a deep level. The students spoke fondly of
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the teacher’s demonstrations of authentic care, providing examples where they believed they had
received the assistance they needed.
Aesthetic care was a more nonrepresentational form of caring where the teachers
demanded that their students show a level of dedication to educational practices that they believed
would lead to academic achievement, which in turn would trigger the teacher to provide support
for their students. The participants shared their experiences on this level of care, not helping them
to connect as much to the process of schooling.
For example, Abel shared that he did not initially connect to the process of schooling until
he entered high school. When prompted to discuss the shift in his thinking, he described the
support he received from his teachers and how that extra support and guidance helped him connect.
He stated, “I love the teachers. They do their best to support me, and also, if I don’t do my
homework or forget to do something, they're always there for me. I appreciate them for it.”
Ray described how his teachers showed care by fostering appropriate relationships with
him and other students, through either coming before or staying behind after school to provide
extra tutoring/assistance. “We all had a question about art; they stayed after school for hours. They
will remain for hours to help you if you have a question about a test or something. They will stay.
They don’t care. I have stayed here once with a teacher for like two hours after school to
understand a topic.” Ray continued that he had different negative experiences at other schools with
different teachers who were not as supportive:
I have been at more prominent schools like there are so many students, teachers that don't
have the time or just don't feel like helping you with certain things that you might have
questions about.
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Through this, Ray described the type of care he needed for his success. Camille furthered these
thoughts by sharing her experiences of care exhibited by her teachers when she was struggling to
complete some of her assignments:
So that had a huge impact in my life because I was depressed and I didn’t want to do my
work, you know, and I thought about it being like I can’t quit education because of an
injury like I have to keep going no matter what so I had teachers that told me it’s ok you
have an injury that's every player’s part and life and so you just can’t quit education
because you want to make a difference in life so you stick to whatever you have to do… I
think mostly all because they saw how that I was at home and I wasn’t going to school so
they understood my situation so I came back to school they kind of gave it easy on me,
giving me work, giving me time to actually do it so they helped me in my perspective to
like actually do my work.
Given these demonstrations of authentic care, Ray and Camille clearly communicated the things
they needed from their teachers for their success as students of color. The extra time and leniency
provided for them to catch up on their work helped them connect to school. In fact, all nine
students shared and agreed that these pedagogical moves were helpful in connecting them with
the process of schooling.
Albert praised his Honors English class, where the teacher exhibited care by helping him
pass exams, providing extra help, and revising essays that were not even assigned by the class. Joe
mentioned that he believed his teachers genuinely cared about the students, showing genuine
interest in their success.
If they know you’re struggling in the classroom they’ll try their best to get your grade back
up and make sure they’re up to because they want you to go to college.
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Likewise, Diamond offered the following experience:
If you need help with like any classes, like picking them up or anything, you could ask for
help, and the teachers push it so like do better. Mr. Glim, my math teacher and adviser, is
my favorite. The thing is that there’s no sort of left behind like they always try to like make
you reach your potential and no matter anything.
Joe commented on how he enjoyed history because his teacher, Mr. Gray, was a great
instructor who cared. He described some of the teacher’s strategies used to prepare students in his
class, such as using the computers, using the writing notes, preparing for the test, and conducting
quizzes to prepare students for more significant tests. He further stated that he appreciated how
most of his teachers provided meaningful lessons, as opposed to PowerPoint presentations, which
he found to be lacking. Joe expressed that the teachers he appreciated helped by “making the
classrooms like a family environment, like we’re all friends and work together.”
My classrooms are very safe and comfortable. My teachers make it comfortable and that
it’s okay to make mistakes—it’s fair everybody gets a fair chance and everybody makes
mistakes. They makes it comfortable to share out.
The teacher allowed his students to communicate, but he also allowed them to put it in their
language registers and assist the students in reframing it for understanding. The students continued
to discuss in depth how their teachers would make subtle pedagogical shifts when needed. One
student mentioned that when one math teacher saw that the lesson was not going well, they
adjusted the lesson to make sure the students understood the concept that was being taught in that
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class. After the concept was adjusted, the students were successful with the material. Diamond’s
analysis of her advisory teacher providing support in her homeroom class echoed what many of
the students shared concerning the teachers providing support to help them persist through high
school.
Joe continued to provide context on how the teachers were extremely helpful toward him
succeeding in school. He mentioned that the teachers did not want him to fail; rather, they wanted
to help him succeed in school:
I like that the teachers are very helpful, and they want us to succeed in this school. They
don’t want you to fail.
Albert shared how his teachers supported him while he was taking a test, giving him insight into
how he could best answer questions in an exam. He and two other Black students spoke highly of
an African American teacher who connected with many of them at the school, helping them in
their academic journeys through care and support. Her relatability through his description of this
particular teacher echoed many of the thoughts others shared about the type of care needed for
their success.
Stacy communicated that the teachers from the school helped her feel comfortable in the
classroom while being asked to respond to questions.
I feel like one thing that I really like my favorite teachers do is, well when they call me out
in class and I usually get nervous in front of classes so when they notice that I’m getting
nervous they themselves tell me, you know it’s okay if I don’t know I’m call in somebody
else afterwards—they tell me that I did good whether I was right or wrong they tell me that
I was good and sometimes I ask them questions it sort of just like they give me like a pat
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on the shoulder or something to make me feel reassured that like what am I thinking is like
um like they won't judge me or like that but I’ll just—that’ll be fine.
She described how her teachers provided comfort for her, since she felt a sense of anxiety
when asked to respond to a class question. As she responded back and forth with her teachers, she
was reassured of her progress, and it helped her to learn without feeling embarrassed.
The students communicated their thoughts and feelings about the pedagogical adjustments
made by their teachers, rooted in authentic care. They shared that being provided extra time,
leniency, and understanding allowed them to connect to the process of schooling and persist. Next,
aesthetic care is discussed, which is a lower form of care that students described as less helpful.
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Students’ Perceptions of Their Teachers’ Practices of Aesthetic Demonstrations of Care
Aesthetic care also emerged from the findings as a theme that addressed the perceptions
students had of their teachers’ practices as unsupportive. Eight of the nine participants explained
aesthetic care according to Valenzuela’s definition as a nonrepresentational form of caring in
which teachers demanded that their students show a level of dedication to educational practices
they believed would lead to academic achievement. A certain level of respect was expected from
students without requiring a teacher to care about their basic needs (Valenzuela, 1999). The
students spoke to how this basic level of care in their classroom, with minimal support, was not
helpful for them. Moreover, the students spoke about how some teachers at the school did not
seem to show genuine care toward them in the classroom setting at all.
Albert discussed a particular teacher who did not allow him much freedom in class to be
himself. As a result of the teacher having a rigid class setting, it was very difficult for him to
participate in the class and receive the material taught in the classroom.
Like, for example, you can feel like the most quiet kid and like just out of the blue you can
have a question for her and then you ask the question and she just get all mad and be like,
Oh! You should know that. Oh! Just like no reason when you’re just simply asking a
question or simply when I know this or that. She just have a reason for someone to get
mad. She thinks everyone doesn’t like her and everything.
Albert mentioned here that the teacher presented a barrier to him based on the types of questions
he was asking. He shared that he felt “dismissed” or disconnected from the class since his needs
were not being met in such a way that he could learn. Diamond also shared a story about a
particular Spanish teacher who seemed to also provide barriers with regard to aesthetic care.
I think I don’t like about her the day I went for a school night, the one where the parents
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have to meet the teacher. She was like we had to turn in some project that we had to turn
in, and she was telling your mom, No, she didn’t put her name on it, she didn’t do this, she
didn’t do that. When I had done it, and it was my mom noticed that. She was like trying to
put me in trouble with my mom. My mom was also like, not a good teacher.
Diamond shared that her teacher did not recognize the work she did for a project, although the
mother and daughter both attested to the fact that the child did indeed complete the work. These
types of interactions and accusations make it challenging for students to connect. Diamond felt as
if the work she had completed was not acknowledged. Her mother, based on Diamond’s account,
surmised the same thing, since she witnessed Diamond complete the task. When the teacher in
this case was trying to show care toward Diamond by communicating to her mother that her work
was incomplete, it actually showed a lack of care because Diamond and her mother could both
attest to the fact that her work was indeed completed on time, with her staying up late to complete
the assignment. While the teacher attempted to assist, the presumption of Diamond not doing her
work caused the opposite reaction.
Albert discussed having a difficult time in his chemistry class because he was not able to
form a bond. Albert stated that the teacher did not do an effective job of helping and did not allow
for academic discourse in the classroom. He stated that, often, the class was not enjoyable due to
not having a bond with this teacher rather than a dislike of the subject matter. Camille also
mentioned a time when a former teacher at the school exhibited aesthetic care when she asked for
extra support for her math.
Okay, so like um I have this teacher called Miss Grum, she no longer teaches at the school,
but she did like last year and she was our math teacher and my previous teacher unlike the
other school she didn’t take the time to help me with my math.
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Summary
The students discussed how the teachers who exhibited care helped improve their
outcomes as learners. Through sharing the adjustments teachers made to help them, the students
communicated that they needed a high level of care for their success. Some shared how staff
members assisted with caring acts that went above and beyond the scope of their position, and
how they received help and support when they needed it. They spoke candidly about how failed
attempts at exhibiting care had a negative effect on students and, in one instance, a parent. While
care is needed for all students to succeed, the students of color in this study shared in depth how
it made an indelible difference in their lives.
Thematic Claim 2: Students’ Perceptions of the Influence of Pedagogical Practice on
Connection to School is Evidenced in Both Supportive and Unsupportive Navigation.
Supportive Cultural Navigation
Most students perceived their teachers as supportive navigators through individual
pedagogical practices, such as being provided extra time, rewrites, work, and leniency, which they
felt helped them to navigate through school. There were also collective practices undertaken
schoolwide by most of the teachers, such as providing groupwork activities and articulating a
roadmap to college.
Individual Pedagogical Practices
The students communicated how their teachers helped them throughout their high school
experiences. Carter argued that urban students of color needed guidance from role models in the
form of multicultural navigators, adult school employees who would usher them through the
process of effective code switching to adapt to their environments without compromising their
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nondominant cultural identities. The students interviewed for this study shared their accounts of
how teachers and other staff members served them in that way.
Joe shared his experiences with his teachers serving as navigators toward college. He
highlighted one particular African American teacher as a cultural navigator.
The teachers help as navigators by showing the students how to get to college. They push
you to go to college, and a lot of people at the school go to college. It’s pretty hard here
making people go to college. She serves as a support for me because she’s there for me
and for other things not only just school—so going there to help you solve problems.
Joe further mentioned how other teachers helped keep him on track for graduation. Ray supported
these sentiments by commenting that his teachers were instrumental in helping him get to where
he was in his life as a successful student.
I received a lot of attention and help, and I feel like this school is a big family. Teachers
stay around for a long amount of time to help him succeed. One time, a teacher stayed for
about two hours in order to have a successful grade, and he received an A+.
Albert also discussed the expectations he had concerning a particular African American teacher
who served as a guide and helped shape his thoughts.
I feel like I can communicate whatever I want because me and Miss Bryant have a
relationship. She comes around and just talked to me about different stuff. Not just in a
classroom or like other stuff.
Albert shared how this teacher was highly influential in guiding him through his extracurricular
activities.
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She coaches the girls’ basketball team. She’s got to know all of us mainly. She just gets to
all of us, and we only know the good relationship with Miss Bryant.
Ms. Bryant, as an African American English teacher, understood that teachers play an integral part
in helping students of color to advance. She exhibited the kind of support used to inform this
dissertation regarding helping students of color succeed.
The teachers who supported students as cultural navigators showed them how to get to
college and beyond. They provided guidance about life after college, giving students of color hope.
Albert shared the following about Ms. Bryant:
It’s pretty hard here making people go to college. Ms. Bryant serves as a support for me
because she’s there for you for other things not only just school—so going there to help
you solve problems. Other teachers also allow him to keep him on track for graduation…
she only helping me do my work and keep me on track.
The student discussed how his teacher assisted him in understanding how to get through high
school, and he felt comfortable speaking to her about anything he needed assistance with. She
contacted his father with information to help the dad as well. Albert appreciated her helping him
throughout his high school journey. He also commented on some of the other teachers at the
school.
They do go an extra step, like sometimes they help you with the test. They are cool
sometimes you don’t know and they come out of nowhere to help you. I have forgotten the
word but they put very detail in education... Like for example my teacher Mr. Greg, they
will always say are you focusing on your education? Education is important.
Analise appreciated that one of her teachers shared their experiences concerning college and their
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life, which motivated her to do the same. She discussed a story about her teacher dealing with
being bullied when she was in high school and how the teacher persevered toward her goal of
becoming an educator to support other students like her.
Collective Pedagogical Practices
Many of the teachers employed demonstrations of care that were both supportive and
retractive, according to the students’ replies. Pedagogical approaches like discussing going to
college and providing general support to the students were well received by the participants.
Below are some of the comments shared by the students.
Sadie discussed how her teacher always emphasized attending college. She said that before
attending the school, previous schools had never mentioned the importance of attending school.
Like when I became a freshman well before—I entered high school nobody really talked
to me about education and like Oh going to college, so when I came here I was really
surprised that like they talked about college like every week they would always bring it up
in the announcements or like scholarships and stuff like that and was really shocking to me
like growls in tenth grade I remember getting an announcement saying that we could apply
for scholarships and I was like I’m only in 10th grade—scholarships what do you mean?
But I feel like it helped me realize that I should go to college and I do need to go to college
just to better myself—like they’re always talking about it so I feel like it helps us realize
that.
She believed that her decisions to attend school were influenced by how her teachers
continuously promoted a college-going culture.
LeSean discussed how all his teachers assisted him with improving his grades and setting
himself on the “right path.” He stated that his middle school experience was unpleasant because
he was in danger of not passing. After coming through that, he began to exhibit the same
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behaviors from middle school to high school. The teachers rallied around him to provide him
with stability. He appreciated this because he eventually attained a strong GPA due to his
teachers intervening and providing him with the right amount of structure and guidance. They
also encouraged him to seek out more friends in the school instead of associating with outside-
school friends that he seemed to get him into trouble. He also discussed how one of his former
teachers was a role model for him.
She was a great influence on me she was the one who showed me like she’s—she was a
role model for me. My parents at that time did not understand the cultures they did not
understand the language and everything and she helped me and my brother out when we’re
going to elementary school. I am very grateful for that and she showed me how great
English was—she started like printing out articles for me and like finding books and so I
can expand my English because I wasn’t good at it at that age, so that’s my favorite subject.
LeSean was not very fond of writing, but his teacher pushed him to complete his
assignments. He also discussed how his current English teacher motivated him when he lacked
motivation or was simply being lazy. He appreciated a time when she shared with him how not
completing an assignment was affecting his grades, and how such a simple gesture redirected him
to finish it. LeSean shared that his favorite teacher was his math teacher, although he did not
possess an affinity for the subject.
Teachers, well they understand my personalities and they understand uh what like what
gets to me and what gets me motivated. Teachers allow me to connect and disconnect from
touchy conversations in the classroom.
Unsupportive Cultural Navigation
Eight of the nine students perceived some of their teachers as unsupportive navigators,
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communicated through individual and collective practices. Individual practices included rigidity,
accusations, and differentiation of time commitment.
Individual Unsupportive Practices. Four of the nine students shared that there were some
unsupportive practices by teachers that hindered them individually. These practices included
accusations, rigidity, misinformation, and differentiation of time commitments.
Diamond shared a story about a particular Spanish teacher who seemed to provide barriers.
Based on her account, there was a disconnect with the level of help the Spanish teacher felt she
was providing versus how Diamond, as a student, understood the conversation.
I think I don’t like about her the day I went for a school night, the one where the parents
have to meet the teacher. She was like we had to turn in some project that we had to turn
in, and she was telling your mom, No, she didn’t put her name on it, she didn’t do this, she
didn’t do that. When I had done it, and it was my mom noticed that. She was like trying to
put me in trouble with my mom. My mom was also like, not a good teacher.
Joe stated that while most of the teachers at the school were supportive, the ones that were not
were primarily ignored by his friend base in respectful but dismissive ways. He spoke of a teacher
who was rude and did not exhibit care at all.
Everything she does is just rude. You can ask some question and she will be like very rude,
like I don’t see a connection. She doesn’t help you at all.
Diamond also shared another time when her teacher did not recognize the work she did for a
project, although the mother and daughter both attested to the fact that she had completed the
work. These types of interactions make it challenging for students to connect. Diamond felt as if
the work she had completed was not acknowledged. Her mother surmised the very same thing,
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since she had witnessed Diamond complete the task.
When the teacher in this case was trying to show care toward Diamond by communicating
to her mother that her work was incomplete, it actually showed a lack of care because Diamond
and the mother could both attest to the fact that her work was indeed completed on time by staying
up late to complete it.
Collective Unsupportive Practices
The following unsupportive practices affected the students’ ability to see their pathways
to success. Rather than the teachers being seen as navigators by these students, the perception they
had when eight students reported unsupportive teachers’ practices was communicated through
classroom control practices and minimal representation of people of color as role models in course
material and class discussions.
Classroom Control Practices. Eight of the nine students referenced their displeasure with
the classroom control practices used by some of their teachers. They commented on the punitive
practices used by the teachers to maintain discipline in their classrooms. While they understood
that maintaining a safe classroom environment was important, they believed that some of the
practices used by some of their teachers were excessive and unnecessary.
Sadie shared things about her Spanish teacher that made her seem unsupportive and rigid
in her teaching approaches, which were not well received by her or her peers.
Although it was sort of like an easy class because it is Spanish, her teaching is really—it’s
really boring and she’s a nice person but she also… like instead of saying okay well could
you speak Spanish she says ‘ballet’ over it over again… just a lot of people know her class
was really boring and I fall asleep in her class… she would never let us use the restroom
at all and then sometimes there’s an emergency she wouldn't let you—she was very strict
about her rules.
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Yaelin communicated her issues with the level of classroom control that she and the other
students found to be excessive.
It’s like when something I believe in but like an example recently like about two weeks
ago our English teacher made this new rule that we had to raise our hand for everything—
we could not get out of our seat to go throw something away without raising your hands—
we couldn’t get a pencil without raising your hands and like and then if we didn’t raise
your hand it would be like first warning and the consequence were just so like so—I was
like you kind of got a upset.
These punitive practices actually had the reverse effect of causing students to be more
rebellious. Ray shared, “Because sometimes teachers have a class that is super boring… and they
will tell you to be quiet, I’ll be a little bit rebellious right there.” After probing further, Ray
mentioned a particular English teacher using punitive practices to create classroom control: “It
feels like every time we walk into the class is like we’re going to jail or something.” The eight
students also mentioned that the teachers who employed these practices also had difficulties
making connections with the students. Minimal Representation of People of Color in
Course. The students discussed the lack of representation as role models in material and class
discussions in some of their classrooms. Three of the nine students commented that they wanted
to hear more about their own culture in the course material and during discussions. Albert
commented that he had never heard any real meaningful/positive references to black people in his
history class, which he felt was not good for his self-esteem.
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For history we never learn about like Africans, black people, we never hear them talk about
us. We always here about slaves and all that. It doesn’t boost our self-esteem, all we hear
about is Europeans, white people and we hear about them succeeding in doing all this stuff
but we never hear them talk about us.
Albert communicated passionately about this topic. He sat up in this chair and began using hand
gestures as he described how the lack of positive references made him feel. Other students
mentioned that they wanted more of their classroom teachers to mention and discuss their culture
in meaningful ways, as opposed to highlighting one aspect of what took place historically, thus
leaving out connections to how other people of color may have contributed to making a difference
in that moment.
Joe mentioned wanting more diversity with regard to this topic. Since he saw himself as a
successful student and athlete, he wanted more discussions to center on how others like him
succeeded, as opposed to how challenging things were for African Americans. He wanted to see
more representation for people of color everywhere he could.
LeSean shared that while he did not like that there was minimal representation, he wanted
to see positive references of high-performing students that indicated he was just as good as anyone
else. He said, “Whatever, we are all equal.”
Summary
The students shared both the individual and collective practices utilized by their teachers
that contributed to them moving through school. These practices helped all nine of the participants
remain in school through both the individual and college navigational practices of their teachers.
Pedagogical approaches like the provision of extra time, adjustments to given assignments, verbal
encouragement, and providing roadmaps to college were considered instrumental by the students.
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Furthermore, based on the responses given by the students, unsupportive cultural
navigation was not well received. Eight of the nine students commented in detail on how
unsupportive navigation was off-putting. They described how aspects of control, misinformation,
minimal representation, and accusatory claims were not beneficial for their growth and
development. With the students sharing that they enjoyed being assisted by their teachers, it is
important to note the strong comments given by the students to express their dislike of
unsupportive cultural navigational practices. Supportive cultural navigational practices were well
received and appreciated by the students.
Conclusions
The participants communicated that deep authentic caring practices where they received
support and guidance for finishing school and entering college were important for students of color
finishing high school. Surface-level aesthetic care with minimal support was summarily rejected
by eight of the nine participants in this survey. The fact that most of the teachers at their schools
understood the importance of aiding their students helped the students to connect, despite times
when it was difficult due to teacher actions.
Teacher pedagogical approaches are important because they impact the lives of students.
Actions like providing extra time, allowing for leniency, and having explicit conversations to
navigate students of color toward college were highly successful in helping the students in this
study. It is uncertain how the students in this study would have fared without these pedagogical
practices. The students’ level of disdain toward unsupportive teacher pedagogical practices was
evident. The next chapter will link the information learned from the students with the literature
researched in Chapter 2, followed by some recommendation
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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS
This qualitative dissertation sought to understand the pedagogical approaches teachers
took to help their students of color connect to the process of schooling. Nine students were
interviewed (three African American and six Latino) to share their thoughts. Two themes emerged
based on the students’ responses. The student interview data revealed that demonstrations of care
and cultural navigation to enter college were salient and essential ways in which their teachers
helped them connect to school.
The problem of practice created a research question seeking to understand the following:
What are African American and Latino high school students’ perceptions of the influence of
pedagogical practices and demonstrations of care on their connection to school? The students
communicated how connected they were given the actions of their teachers.
As the literature suggests, student connectedness to the process of schooling is critical to
the success of any child. Students of color share that it is paramount to their success as learners.
Through the dialogue developed and shared, the students shared how important it was for them to
connect to schooling. While authentic care from teachers was essential, other adults who work at
a school can have just as much or more of an impact than teachers. All adults at the schoolhouse
must be vested in the students’ success to connect to and persist through high school.
Students of color showed that they needed a strong sense of self, supported by their peers.
There was a difference between their in-school peers and their out-of-school peers. The
participants shared that their out-of-school peers were not as supportive as their in-school peers.
In-school peers helped aid their success as they built a community with one another, pushing each
other when times and situations became difficult. The students were consistent with their
responses concerning how their peers helped them persist in completing their high school
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education.
Discussion of Findings
After speaking with the students and listening to them explain their thoughts on student
connectedness and identity, the conceptual framework from Chapter 3 was used to frame the
analysis through the data-gathering process according to two thematic claims: 1) Latino and
African American students’ perceptions of the influence of their teachers’ pedagogical practice on
demonstrations of care are both authentic and aesthetic; and 2) the students perceived the actions
of the teachers as cultural navigators.
The students discussed the pedagogical practices of the teachers and commented on the
approaches they thought were best. They communicated that their identity and background were
fundamental to them as they navigated the process of schooling. Whether related to their parents’
immigration status or gang affiliations, the students all shared that who they were and where they
came from was critical in connecting to the process of schooling. Furthermore, through
interpersonal and institutional connectedness, the students felt supported by the school because
the teachers authentically cared about their success (Nasir et al., 2011).
The students also appreciated that the teachers and other school personnel assisted as
navigators throughout their academic journeys. The students shared stories of teachers and
coaches who allowed them to miss practice to maintain athletic/scholastic eligibility, and security
guards who provided critical information to help them connect to the process of schooling.
The students also commented that teachers who showed authentic care were better received
than those who did not. The responses were clear in this area. As Noddings (1994) posited,
teachers who merely showed aesthetic care were not well received by students of color. The
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employees (school staff) who showed care experienced little to no resistance from the students.
The teachers who were not culturally responsive and caring were subject to some resistance from
the students in this study.
Further, the school itself created a positive atmosphere, and the students felt, for the most
part, that most of their teachers exhibited authentic care toward them. Carter (2006) supported this
finding in her study, stating that schools needed to hire and instruct many teachers and staff
members who could help students of color through the process of schooling. In line with
Valenzuela’s (1999) research on the subtractive nature of education for students of color, they all
stated that they felt as if the school wanted them to succeed. The participants discussed college
days when they could break the uniform dress code in favor of a college sweatshirt to prepare
them to apply to four-year colleges and universities as a graduation requirement. The school
created avenues for completion and success. Furthermore, the students shared that the school
affirmed their culture while teaching them how to graduate and enter a four-year university
successfully.
Butrymowicz (2014) shared that outside factors such as being bullied at home and in their
neighborhoods made the students create alliances with peers who shared their same interest in
connecting to and completing high school (Butrymowicz, 2014). Distinct from Butrymowicz’s
findings, these students shared that their outside friends were not always supportive of their
academic endeavors. They shared how their close in-school friendships helped them connect to
the process of schooling.
Finally, self-determination was also highlighted through the students’ discussions of their
identities. They shared how they felt that they had to succeed and persist through school as students
of color. Their responses reflected how society treated people of color, and they did not want to
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be negatively labeled. The students cared about how they were perceived and wanted to show that
they could beat the odds and succeed.
Implications
The analysis of this study revealed the richness of adult/student relationships that can
inform schools on how to shape a culture in which students can develop a strong self-identity with
teachers who exhibit authentic care and serve as cultural navigators. Student accounts also
revealed that the teachers made academic pedagogical choices that supported them in succeeding,
such as provision of extra time, adjustments to lesson delivery, and leniency, which helped them
progress.
As a matter of practice, the research conducted in this study has improved my own
pedagogical approaches and demonstrations of care in the classroom, primarily through creating
lanes of trust, care, and choice. I am more cognizant of the tools used to instruct children of color
while providing them with opportunities to share with me what they believe would improve
classroom offerings. Gone are the days of rigidity, replaced with more authentic connections with
students who are happy to come to school and improve their attendance.
These layers of information can help teachers understand how they can improve their
approach to help students of color connect. The power to make these changes and show
demonstrations of care lies with them. Furthermore, administrators and teacher education
programs could provide the support necessary to teach and train new and future teachers on how
to prepare for African American and Latino students. As the students expounded on their academic
journeys, it became clear that schools would benefit from providing in-depth professional
development and training on these matters.
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Recommendations for Future Research
School connectedness is a matter that needs further research, especially as it relates to
students of color. Researchers must study the influence of school communities on African
American and Latino students. The current state of the literature is still lacking in this regard.
Studies on how other school community members, such as clerical office staff, custodians,
cafeteria workers, classified staff members, and coaches, can affect how students connect to school
should be considered. Since this research focused on how teachers in particular affect the process
of schooling, the following discussion outlines other areas that are just as crucial to address, since
many different stakeholders interface with students every day.
Recommendation 1: Improving Hiring Practices
Research could be conducted on the hiring practices of schools and how to craft interview
questions and scenarios that set the culture of authentic care for schools that serve many students
of color. Other research areas could include how schools implement schoolwide practices that
would help foster authentic care in an affirming way, rather than subtractive (Valenzuela, 1999).
Recommendation 2: Helping Parents/Families to Connect/Reconnect
Authentic care and support from parents or in the household are essential to the process of
schooling. Considerations should be given to parents who have had issues connecting to the
process of schooling, seeing whether or not their perceptions of schooling can negatively affect
how their children approach school. Families who have had a positive experience with the process
of schooling should also be examined in this manner. Attention could be given to whether there is
a connection between parents creating relationships with their children through warm demanding
and mutual trust (Watson et al., 2014). It would be interesting to see if providing struggling parents
with training on how to develop connections with their children and how they can approach the
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process of schooling together could improve outcomes. This is especially true for students of color.
Other studies could center on the amount of support schools provide families with regard
to student connectedness. Questions should be asked about whether there is enough support for
families at every level, including students who are raised by grandparents and caregivers
(guardians). Foster and homeless students and their school connectedness are also critical areas
for research, and information is needed to assist students impacted by unique family
circumstances.
Recommendation 3: Professional Development on Ethics and Care and Cultural
Navigation
Studies and professional development can be provided for all staff members and districts
regarding students’ needs to receive mentoring and leadership through the process of schooling.
Studying the impact of other school staff members would benefit schools as a whole. Continued
study on the needs of scholars in urban contexts and how staff members like custodians, nurses,
counselors, cafeteria workers, yard staff, and others affect a school environment could shed some
light on how we can help more students of color persist and complete their academic studies.
Limitations and Delimitations
One limitation of the study was that I could not obtain a second interview with Ray. The
timing of the year and his commitments as an athlete made it difficult to reconnect with him. As
a result, I was unable to fully capture some of his thoughts. I guarded against the limitations of my
race, ethnicity, and immigrant status mentioned in Chapter 3 by relying solely on the students’
responses to frames and shared their authentic experiences. Member checks and triangulation
through coding were also put in place to limit any issues.
Delimitations included binding the study to students of color. I wanted to know how
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students of color, African Americans and Latinos in particular, connect to the schooling process.
While all students have to connect to school, students of color face more issues in the education
system than their White counterparts. Given the absence of research on this topic, it was necessary
to study the circumstances that could potentially assist students of color in connecting to school.
Impoverished students of color, in particular, have challenges connecting to the process of
schooling, resulting in many of them having difficulties achieving in school (Nasir et al., 2011).
Implications for Equity/Connection to the Rossier Mission
This study has implications for providing equity for African American and Latino scholars
and the mission of the Rossier School of Education. Given the mission of preparing leaders to
achieve educational equity through practice, research, and policy in an urban context, hearing the
voices of the students we serve is crucial. The voices, thoughts, and feelings provided by the
students in this study conveyed the need for schools in urban environments to provide authentic
care and navigation. Based on their responses, the students would not connect with their teachers
and staff members positively unless they felt the adults in front of them loved and valued them as
people, let alone learners. This study revealed that school communities need training on how to
be attentive to the needs of students so that the students themselves will connect at deeper levels
to the school.
Conclusions
This study aimed to study high school students of color, what they did to connect to school,
and the level of care or lack thereof exhibited by teachers that contributed to this process. The
assumption that students will connect to and respect teachers merely because they are adults has
caused many educators to show low levels of aesthetic care, expecting students to respond by
participating in school. Due to subtractive schooling practices, dominant culture maligns students
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of color as unwilling to connect to school (Valenzuela, 1999).
Furthermore, students were affected in many ways by the thoughts and suppositions held
by others regarding their academic prowess, achievements, and aptitude, expressing that they often
felt slighted by teachers and other school representatives. Ogbu and Fordham (1986) and Carter
(2003, 2006) also found this in their research. Research has also shown that all students respond
well to pedagogical practices geared to their needs (Libbey, 2004). They also respond well to
caring teachers who support them, promote academic progress, and show an interest in their
nonacademic needs, regardless of who they are (Libbey, 2004). Culturally relevant and responsive
teaching strategies are highly effective for students of color (Gay, 2013; Ladson-Billings, 1995).
The students interviewed in this study echoed these sentiments. They mentioned that they
had no issues connecting to school when teachers and staff members exhibited care and
pedagogical practices that affirmed them but rejected teachers who did not employ these practices.
The students also mentioned that their school friends assisted them as well, keeping them on track
when they wanted to stray. The students also mentioned that their self-determination, based on
their family background and identity as students of color, helped them persist and complete high
school. The findings from this research revealed that these pedagogical practices in the classroom
could assist students of color from low-income environments to connect with and finish high
school successfully. Given this premise, it is essential that schools employ, train, and retain staff
members sensitive to the needs of students of color. Supporting students of color in school will
ultimately help more of them connect to the process of schooling. When more students connect,
we deliver more hope to communities who are often left feeling unsupported.
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APPENDICES
University of Southern California
Institutional Review Board
Letter and Parental Consent Form
How High School Students Connect to the Process of Schooling
Your child is invited to participate in a research project being conducted by Pierre Codio under
the supervision of Artineh Samkian at the University of Southern California, because your child
is an 11
th
or 12
th
grade student of color. Your child’s participation is voluntary. You should read
the information below, and ask questions about anything you do not understand before deciding
whether your child should participate. Please take as much time as you need to read the consent
form. You may also decide to discuss participation with your family or friends. If you decide to
participate, you will be asked to sign this form. You will be given a copy of this form.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This study seeks to find out what types of things teachers do to help students of color connect to
the process of schooling. Questions will also be asked about how classmates have influenced your
connection to school and why you have chosen to persist to the end of high school.
STUDY PROCEDURES
Should you allow your child to participate, your child will be asked to take part in two
interviews. Their involvement will consist of only two 1-hour sessions. If you agree, it will be of
great benefit because it will help me better understand what helps students of color connect to
the process of schooling. While I am interested in the things teachers have done to facilitate this
process in particular, I am also interested in other school-related interactions that also contribute
to student connection. There may be interview questions that your child is uncomfortable
answering or that you simply prefer not to answer. Please know that if you agree to allow for
participation in this study, it is strictly voluntary, and you and your child are under no obligation
to answer any interview questions you do not want to answer. Please be advised that your child
will be audio recorded. You can still allow your child to participate in this research study if you
do not wish to be audio recorded.
POTENTIAL RISKS AND DISCOMFORTS
While there are no inherent risks to you or your child, you/your child can refuse to answer any
question you choose.
PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
There will be no compensation for participation in this study.
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CONFIDENTIALITY
Your child’s records will be kept confidential, as far as permitted by law. However, if I am
required to do so by law, I will disclose confidential information about your child. Only myself
and the University of Southern California’s Human Subjects Protection Program (HSPP) can
access the data. The HSPP reviews and monitors research studies to protect the rights and welfare
of research subjects.
The data will be stored on my computer and iPad under strict password protection. As a
participant, you have the right to review/edit the audio recordings or transcripts whenever you
choose. The personal identity will be shielded/disguised, and the audio/video-recordings will be
erased after the dissertation is completed. Also, your child will provide us with a fictitious name
that will be used for the duration of this study, and your personal information, research data, and
related records will be coded and stored to prevent access by unauthorized personnel.
CERTIFICATE OF CONFIDENTIALITY
Any identifiable information obtained in connection with this study will remain confidential,
except if necessary, to protect your rights or welfare (for example, if you are injured and need
emergency care). A Certificate of Confidentiality was obtained from the federal government for
this study to help protect your privacy. This certificate means that the researchers can refuse to
release information about your participation to people who are not connected with the study,
including the courts. The Certificate of Confidentiality will not be used to prevent disclosure to
local authorities of child abuse and neglect, or harm to self or others.
When the results of the research are published or discussed at conferences, no identifiable
information will be used.
PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL
Your participation is voluntary. Your refusal to participate will involve no penalty or loss of
benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. You may withdraw your consent at any time and
discontinue participation without penalty. You are not waiving any legal claims, rights, or
remedies because of your participation in this research study.
EMERGENCY CARE AND COMPENSATION FOR INJURY
If your child is injured as a direct result of research procedures, you will receive medical treatment;
however, you or your insurance will be responsible for the cost. The University of Southern
California does not provide any monetary compensation for injuries.
INVESTIGATOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions or concerns about the research, please feel free to contact Artineh
Samkian at samkian@rossier.usc.edu.
I have read the information provided above, and all of my questions have been answered. I
126
voluntarily agree to the participation of my child in this study. I will receive a copy of this
consent form for my information.
______________________________ _________________________________
Parent / Legal Guardian Signature Parent / Legal Guardian Signature
Name of Child _______________________________
Interview Protocol
Introduction
Welcome, and thank you for your participation today. My name is V. Pierre Codio, and I am a
student at USC conducting my dissertation at the Rossier School of Education. Thank you for
participating. This interview will take about 45 minutes and will include questions about your
experiences as a student in the classroom setting with your teachers and peers. Just to remind
you, this interview is voluntary, and if you want to stop participating at any time, you can do so
without any consequence to you. Also, everything you share with me will remain confidential.
This means that I will be sure to use a different name so that you won’t be identified. I would
like your permission to record this interview, so I may truthfully chronicle the information you
convey. If at any time during the interview you want to discontinue either the use of the recorder,
or of the interview itself, please let me know. As already discussed, all of your responses will
remain confidential and will be used to develop a better understanding of how your teachers’
practices can help students like yourself feel connected to school. The purpose of this study is to
hear your thoughts on what you think helped you feel a connection to school and stay in school
to your (11
th
/12
th
) grade year.
Do you have any questions or concerns before we begin? Then, with your permission, and my
sincerest appreciation for your participation, let’s get started.
Questions
First, I will ask you about your experiences in high school:
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1. What school do you currently attend?
2. What grade are you in?
3. What grade did you begin attending your current school?
4. What do you think about your school?
a. What would you say is your favorite thing about the school? Can you give me
an example?
b. What would you say is your least favorite thing about your school? Can you
give me an example?
5. What do you think about education more generally?
a. What, if anything, is the purpose of going to school and getting an education?
b. What are your thoughts about the importance of education in your life?
c. In which way is education not useful for you?
6. How do you think your high school has shaped your ideas about education more
broadly?
7. How would you describe yourself as a student?
a. What words would you use to describe yourself as a student? (i.e., Straight A
student, student athlete, etc.)
b. How would you say you are doing in school?
c. What are your thoughts about what it means to be a good student?
d. How does how you see yourself reflect this definition of a “good student?”
Can you provide a recent example of something you did or didn’t do that speaks
to the idea of a “good student?”
e. Would you consider yourself a student who usually follows the status quo in a
class without resisting?
f. Would you describe yourself as a person who is resistant to what your teachers
say in the
classroom?
g. Or would you describe yourself as a mixture of the two?
h. Tell me why you say that.
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8. How do you feel about schoolwork?
a. How do you deal with class work required by your teachers?
b. How do you manage completion of this class work?
c. How do you deal with homework required by your teachers?
d. How do you manage completion of this homework?
9. Besides going to class, tell me about the other activities you are involved in at your
school, if any?
a. What prompted you to get involved with that?
b. Tell me what you like about it?
c. How do you think your involvement in these activities contributes to your
identity as a student?
d. How do you manage both schoolwork and these activities?
10. If I were to tell you that many students don’t make it this far and don’t graduate from
high school, what would you say?
a. What do you think might be the reasons so many students drop out?
b. What advice would you give to a student who wants to drop out?
11. What do you think has influenced you to continue in school? Can you provide a
specific example of something that you heard or saw that made you want to stay in
school?
Now, I want to ask you about your classmates/friends at school
12. Tell me a little bit about your friends at school.
a. How would you describe them?
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b. Are these friends mostly the people you have classes with? Or are you in other
activities with them?
13. Tell me a little about the kind of students your friends are.
a. What words would you use to describe your friends as students? (i.e., Straight
A student, student athlete, etc.)
b. How would you say your friends are doing in school?
c. Given what you said earlier about what it means to be a good student, how do
you see your friends reflect this definition of a “good student?” Can you provide
a recent example of something they did or didn’t do that speaks to this idea of a
“good student?”
d. Would you consider them students who usually follow the status quo in a class
without resisting?
e. Would you describe them as students who are resistant to what their teachers
say in the
classroom?
f. Or would you describe them as a mixture of the two?
g. Tell me why you say that. Can you give an example of a time they did
something (or didn’t do something) that demonstrates what kind of a student they
are?
14. What do your friends think about school? Provide specific examples.
15. How do you think your friends see education more generally?
a. Do they value getting an education? How do you know? Can you provide a
specific example of something they said or did that makes you think this?
b. Do they not see the purpose of getting an education? How do you know? Can
you provide a specific example of something they said or did that makes you
think this?
16. When you talk about school together, what do your conversations sound like? Can
you provide an example?
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17. When you talk about your future (after high school), what do your conversations
sound like? Can you provide an example?
18. How do your friends feel about the fact that you have made it to (11
th
/12
th
) grade?
a. What do they say about it?
b. Do you have friends who have different opinions about your staying in school?
19. Tell me about how you build relationships with other students/classmates (those who
you wouldn’t necessarily consider your friends)?
20. Can you describe any time when you needed support from other students or your
friends to get through school? Provide a specific example.
I would also like to know about your friends outside of school.
21. Tell me about your friends outside of school.
a. How would you describe them?
22. What are your outside-of-school friends’ beliefs about school?
a. How are their beliefs similar to yours? Can you share a specific example?
b. How are their beliefs different from yours? Can you share a specific example?
23. What are your outside-of-school friends’ beliefs about education more generally?
24. What do your friends think about your making it to 11
th
/12
th
grade?
Now, I’m going to ask you some questions about your experiences in the classroom and with
your teachers.
25. Tell me about your favorite class.
a. What do you like about this class?
b. What is it about the subject that you like? Provide specific examples.
c. What is it about the books and other materials that you like?
d. What is it about what you do (or don’t do) in the class that you like?
e. What is it about the teacher that you like?
26. Do you have any other classes you would consider great classes?
a. What do you like about them? Provide specific examples.
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b. What is it about the subjects that you like?
c. What is it about the books and other materials that you like?
d. What is it about what you do (or don’t do) in the classes that you like?
27. Tell me about your least favorite class.
a. What do you not like about this class? Provide specific examples.
b. What is it about the subject that you don’t like?
c. What is it about the books and other materials that you don’t like?
d. What is it about what you do (or don’t do) in this class that you don’t like?
28. Now tell me a little bit about your teachers. Who is your favorite teacher?
a. What do you like about this teacher?
b. What does the teacher do (or not do) that you like? (Probe for both inside and
outside the classroom)
c. Can you give me an example of something this teacher did (or didn’t do) that
you think shows why they are your favorite teacher?
29. Tell me about your least favorite teacher.
a. What do you not like about this teacher?
b. What does this teacher do (or not do) that you don’t like? (Probe for both
inside and outside the classroom)
c. Can you give me an example of something this teacher did (or didn’t do) that
you think shows why she/he is your least favorite teacher?
30. Now, I would like you to think about the classes or the teachers you enjoy the most.
What does a typical class session look like? In other words, if I were to come along with
you to that class, what would I see and hear?
a. How does the teacher usually start her lesson?
b. What are the students expected to do in class?
c. How, if at all, does the teacher ask what the students already know?
d. How, if at all, do students communicate what they know?
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e. Are there opportunities for students to work with each other? How does this
look?
f. Are there opportunities for students to bring their own ideas into class? Can
you give me an example of this?
31. Again, thinking of your favorite teachers, what do you think your teachers do to help
you feel comfortable in your classroom?
a. Are there classroom norms that you and your classmates follow?
b. How safe do you feel to communicate your thinking?
i. Can you give me an example of a time you felt comfortable enough to
share something with the class?
ii. What did the teacher do to help you feel comfortable?
iii. How did the teacher respond after you shared?
iv. How did your classmates respond after you shared?
32. Now tell me about what your teachers do in the classroom to help you learn.
a. How much do you think your teachers know about their students?
i. Can you think of a teacher who knows you as a person? If so, what do
they know about you?
ii. How did they learn this about you?
iii. Can you think of a teacher who knows other students in the class? If
so, what do they know about the other students?
iv. How did they learn this about them?
v. Can you think of a teacher who understands where you come from
(e.g., community, race/ethnic background, family)?
133
vi. What specifically do they know?
vii. How did they learn this about you?
viii. How do you feel about your teacher knowing about you? Is there
more you wish your teachers knew about you?
b. Describe a time, if any, when you feel a teacher adjusted their lesson because
the students needed something different. How did they change the lesson?
i. How did they know that you or your classmates needed something
different?
c. Describe a time, if any, when you feel a teacher used an example or did a
lesson that you were really interested in.
i. What was interesting about it?
d. Describe a time, if any, when you feel a teacher used an example or did a
lesson that you felt was relevant to your community or family.
i. What do you think makes it relevant to your community or family?
e. Describe a time, if any, when you feel a teacher helped you understand the
connection between what they were teaching and the outside world. In other
words, how did the teacher show you the importance of what they were teaching?
f. Describe a time when you felt your teachers had taken a different approach to
teaching. How do you think it could have been different?
33. Still thinking about your favorite teacher…
a. How would you describe your relationship with your favorite teacher?
b. What do you usually talk to this teacher about?
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c. How, if at all, does this teacher show that they care about you as a student?
Can you provide a specific example?
d. How, if at all, does this teacher show that they care about you as a person? Can
you provide a specific example?
34. Now thinking about your least favorite teacher, how would you describe your
relationship with them?
a. What do you usually talk to this teacher about?
b. How, if at all, does this teacher show that they care about you as a student?
Can you provide a specific example?
c. How, if at all, does this teacher show that they care about you as a person? Can
you provide a specific example?
35. What are your thoughts on the role your teachers play in your education?
a. How do your teachers support you in your learning?
b. What would you say is missing in their support of you in your learning?
36. When you need help in school, how comfortable do you feel approaching a teacher?
a. Can you think of a time you needed help and you did approach a teacher?
What did the teacher do to help you?
b. How do you feel about the outcome of this situation?
37. When you need help in school, how comfortable do you feel approaching another
adult in your school?
a. Can you think of a time you needed help and you did approach another adult?
What did this person do to help you?
b. How do you feel about the outcome of this situation?
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Now, I’m going to ask you some more questions about how you identify.
38. Tell me about how you identify racially or ethnically.
a. What does “student of color” mean to you?
b. Who do you think influences how you do in school?
i. How do your teachers see you? Can you give me an example of a
specific conversation or action of a teacher that shows how you think your
teachers see you?
ii. How, if at all, do you think your teachers see students of different
ethnic or racial groups (think about both your favorite and not so favorite
teachers)?
39. What does school connectedness mean to you?
a. When you hear that phrase, what does it make you think of?
b. Can you provide an example of something a student does (or doesn’t do) that
shows they are connected to school?
c. How, if at all, do you think school connection is different for White vs.
students of color?
i. Are there different ways that students of color connect to school?
ii. Are there similar ways that students of color connect to school?
40. How do you think students develop connections to school?
a. What do you think is the role of the teacher, if any?
b. What do you think is the role of friends and other students at school, if any?
c. What do you think is the role of friends and others outside of school, if any?
136
d. How, if at all, is the process of developing a connection to school different for
students of color?
41. If you could give your teachers advice about how to make sure students of color
connect to school, what would it be?
a. What strategies would you recommend they use in the classroom to make sure
their students learn?
b. What do you think they need to know about their students to be able to teach
them well?
c. How should teachers gain this information? (e.g., from you and your
classmates, from doing research, from visiting the community).
d. What are some things teachers should avoid doing to prevent their students
from disconnecting from school?
i. How do you think these actions/practices affect students?
e. What are some things teachers should avoid saying to prevent their students
from disconnecting from school?
42. If you could give your school advice about how to make sure students of color
connect to school, what would it be?
a. What strategies would you recommend the school use to make sure students
feel connected?
b. What are some things schools should avoid doing to prevent their students
from disconnecting from school?
43. Is there anything else you would like to share with me before we end this interview?
44. Closure
1. Thank the interviewee.
137
2. Reaffirm their confidentiality.
3. Ask permission to follow up ______
Abstract (if available)
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Codio, Valery Pierre
(author)
Core Title
Teacher practices and student connection: high school students' perceptions of the influences of teacher pedagogy and care on their sense of connection
School
Rossier School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education
Degree Program
Educational Leadership
Degree Conferral Date
2022-05
Publication Date
05/02/2022
Defense Date
01/19/2022
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
asset pedagogies,authentic care,cultural navigation,OAI-PMH Harvest,student connectedness,student identity
Format
application/pdf
(imt)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Hasan, Angela Laila (
committee chair
), Crawford, Jennifer (
committee member
), Foulk, Susanne (
committee member
)
Creator Email
codio@usc.edu,vpcodio@gmail.com
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC111208439
Unique identifier
UC111208439
Document Type
Dissertation
Format
application/pdf (imt)
Rights
Codio, Valery Pierre
Type
texts
Source
20220503-usctheses-batch-937
(batch),
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
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Repository Email
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Tags
asset pedagogies
authentic care
cultural navigation
student connectedness
student identity