NCJ Number
195553
Journal
Social Forces Volume: 80 Issue: 4 Dated: June 2002 Pages: 1157-1189
Date Published
June 2002
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This study examined the school-related attitudes of young African American students.
Abstract
The gap in achievement between African Americans and whites is found at all socioeconomic levels. The underachievement of middle-class Black students has been attributed to negative school-related attitudes. The purpose of this study was to represent younger Black students in sociological literature on Black students’ attitudes toward school. It also examined the relationship between attitudes toward school and academic performance. There is a dominant perception of Black students as disengaged from school, resistant in the classroom, and not valuing education and achievement. Yet recent research findings from data on adolescents contest the anti-academic attitude thesis. The data were collected as part of a larger study examining the mechanisms by which the environments created in schools contributed to the production of particular student outcomes. This examination centered on a Black independent school (Alternatives) and an all-Black public school (Madison). The methods were third and fourth grade classroom observation and the selection of a random sample of 10 students for in-depth interviews. The results showed that the narratives of the students contradicted the notion that school, learning, and academic success were unimportant or uninteresting to Black students as a group. There was also no support for the thesis that a rejection of school norms was part of a larger Black culture. There were no signs of condemnation or ridicule of students who appeared to be learning and excelling except when it appeared that those students were showing off. Lower-achieving students seemed to resent behavior that appeared to put them down. There were also cases of both high- and low-achieving students teasing one another for academic failure and at other times encouraging each other’s and their own successes. There are possible alternative explanations of these findings, such as competitive behavior in the two schools, the uniqueness of the schools, and class background. Important research questions to be addressed are what happens during adolescence that contributes to the change in attitudes; does it manifest itself differently among racial groups; and could negative attitudes be masking other feelings. 18 notes, 56 references