Doctoral Dissertation Research: Relational Cultures, Inequality and Belonging: Race, Class and Teacher-Student Relationships in Two U.S. High Schools

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

Research identifies minority students’ relationships with teachers as one driver of racial achievement gaps in American schools. Students with strong teacher relationships perform better academically. However, minority students experience more negative and less caring relationships with teachers than majority peers. This project addresses the social processes producing these racial disparities in teacher-student relationships. A growing body of research suggests the race and class composition of schools plays a role: schools with more majority and higher SES students have stronger teacher-student relationships overall but also wider achievement gaps between majority and minority students while schools with more minority and lower SES students have weaker relationships overall but also less disparity. Current approaches cannot explain 1) how predominantly minority and majority schools differ in developing teacher-student relationships overall and 2) how majority and minority students’ relationships with teachers vary within these differing environments. This project addresses these crucial factors through a comparative ethnography of a predominantly majority high school and a predominantly minority high school. This study will expand knowledge of inequality by showing how relationships are formed, maintained, and given meaning in school environments with varying outcomes for majority and minority students. The project will inform the design and implementation of educational reforms through identifying specific school-and classroom-level mechanisms that either support or constrain the development of teacher-student relationships. While focusing on relational cultures and inequality in schools, this project also has implications for youth-adult relationships in other organizational settings, such as in the criminal justice system and the workplace, thus implicating policies in these settings, as well. This project argues that schools have a relational culture, encompassing shared expectations and practices shaping interactions between teachers and students. The project analyzes how seemingly equivalent relationships between teachers and students can take varying forms in different schools with important implications for student outcomes. Through comparing across schools, this project analyzes: 1) how relational cultures are racialized and differentiated by social class, 2) how relational cultures produce differences in majority and minority students’ relationships with teachers, and 3) how students' relationships with teachers impact their school experience and outcomes. To address these questions, this project utilizes eight months of daily observations and in-depth interviews with teachers (N=40), students (N=96), and administrators (N=20) at one majority white high school and one majority-minority high school. Data are analyzed using Atlas.TI to derive coding and themes capturing the similarities and differences across and within the cases. Findings from the project will inform sociological theories regarding relational cultures, inequality regimes, and organizational processes, particularly for organizations varying in majority-minority concentration. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.