The Social Reproduction of Education Inequality: Still Separate Still Unequal
Graduation Date
Fall 2005
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program Name
Education
Program Director
Madalienne F. Peters, EdD
Abstract
Citing Brown v. The Board of Education and Lewis Terman's The Measurement of Intelligence as theoretical rationale, this critical observation examines my experience as a teacher within a classroom setting. By comparing reflective teacher anecdotes and current literature, the success of European American teachers when they teach poor minority students is explored. What Milner (2003) calls "racial and cultural mismatch" is scrutinized, and an attempt is made to connect this "mismatch" to teacher effectiveness in managing behavior of those students who do not mirror his or her cultural experience. The focus of this work relates to how behavior of students affects their achievement. In schools where there are African American students and European American teachers, teachers sometimes rely heavily on paraprofessionals, who often are more culturally similar to the students than they are to the teachers, for the maintenance of discipline. If the students view this reliance as an abdication of authority, this may be an important factor in student achievement.