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By Holder, Stephen D. Proposal Defense; Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity As the population of America becomes more diverse, her children become more diverse. Public schools continue to have increasingly ethnic student enrollment. Teachers are also growing diversely, although not as fast as students. Does matching teacher-student ethnicity have benefits?

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter I I try and lay it all out on the table. We have all these cultures (teachers) (White, Black. Asian, Hispanic, etc…) All graduated and now teach. All have different results at the end of the year in terms of students reactions and grades. What went wrong? It’s a school, what do you expect?

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter I True, there could be a thousand reasons why things didn’t work out. But I looked at (teacher) preconceived notions… Just a little revisit of teacher preconceived notions… - Black students are in gangs / always smoke weed - White students are going to make it / purchasing illegal drugs - Native American students are Alcoholics / Should give up fighting for land - Asian students are smart and work hard / No need to help them - Latino students are come over from their country to get free everything

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter I Then I took it to expectations; because if one has preconceived notions about somebody then they’ll probably going to have expectations about that somebody as well. Example, you have a student from Guam and student from Japan. You’d probably expect the Japanese student to pass with flying colors while you’d expect the Guam student to struggle and struggle

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter I So,… a big question from Chapter I is… Why is teacher-student ethnicity important? My best answer… Teacher Influence on Students

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter I Negative argument for matching… Positive argument for matching One concern when dealing within matching teacher-student ethnic backgrounds is the fear teachers will negatively influence students based on the teachers’ own pass experience...studies argue for a match between the race/ethnicity of teachers and students because ethnic teachers can provide a role model for, and are more likely to have high expectations of, minority students in high- needs environments (Goldhaber & Hansen 2010)

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter II In terms of research, what’s already been done? Some, but nowhere near enough. Analyzing ethnicity and classroom participation is not an easy task. Research in the field is sparse and not focused (Gomez, A. M., & Others, A. 1995).

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter II According to Vierra (1984)….. Matching student and teacher ethnicity seems to be ineffective when ethnicity is broadly defined… (Vierra,1984) However, Vierra continues on to say…. …but it is still plausible that Hispanic children’s achievement is enhanced when their teachers in fact have backgrounds similar to those of the students and/or self-identify with their students’ ethnicity, for example (Vierra, 1984) Vierra’s (1984)….. Case study on Chicano students.

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter II I found it fascinating that all the references I found talking about the negative impact of teacher-student ethnicity always turned the idea of matching around at the end of the article (Vierra for example). Kellas suggests the best way to do this is by something she refers to as family story telling. Family stories affect and reflect family culture. Through family storytelling, a family’s identity is constructed, at least in part, by the stories in its repertoire (Kellas, 2005). Everybody likes stories; no matter how old the age. If you want to know about more about a student, get them to tell you a story. Return the favor and tell them one of yours. What did I get from the research? What does the research say?

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter III My study will be an Anthological study focusing on the urban environment Who?: High School Juniors, preferably. (No younger than Jr. High.) What?: Is there a benefit to matching ethnicities between teachers and students? How does it effect expectations of either? Where?: Local Urban School District. When?: May into June. Possibly September and a little in October. Why?: Haven't found a study that’s quite been done like this before. Hope to spark interests of others to try something similar in suburban and rural areas. And it’s a requirement for the masters. How?: Anthologically – i.e. Brute force observations with paper and pencil. Interaction guides* will be used to assist in recording notes. Possibility use of survey questions*

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter III Subjects: White teacher, with ethically matched students, White teacher, with non-ethically matched students. Black teacher, with ethically matched students, Black teacher, with non-ethically matched students. Hispanic teacher, with ethically matched students,[KISS] Hispanic teacher, with non ethically matched students.[KISS] Ideally, I would like to observe the following scenario's…

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter III Gender is not the focus of this study, however notes will be taken on how students interact with males and females teachers. The same teacher will be used for each matched paired group of students. The majority of ethically matched students will be determined by the roster.

Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity Chapter III What do teachers think about matched teacher-student ethnicity? Some key questions… What do students think about matched teacher-student ethnicity? What do parents think about matched teacher-student ethnicity?

…a little revisit… Now…

Scenario 1 Student tries and tries – can’t seem to make it to the top What advice would you give this student? Scenario 2 Student does nothing and is already at the top What advice would you give this student? Or others about this student ? Scenario 3 Student just doesn’t quite fit in…. What advice would you give this student? For each of the following scenarios what advice would you give to a student of a different ethnic background?

And what was all this about...?

Everyone had his or her own idea… Pretty innocent to say the least… It was a no brainer to some… But in all actually… Everything may not be what it seems… Develop good listening skills…

References used for Proposal Defense presentation; Goldhaber, D., & Hansen, M. (2010). Race, gender, and teacher testing: How informative a tool is teacher licensure testing? Koenig Kellas, J. (2005). Family ties: Communicating identity through jointly told stories. CommunicationMonographs, 72, Lachuk, A. S. J., & Gomez, M. L. (2011). Listening carefully to the narratives of young adolescent youth of color. Middle School Journal, 42(3), Vierra, A. (1984). The relationship between chicano children's achievement and their teachers'ethnicity. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 6(3), doi: /

By Holder, Stephen D. Proposal Defense; Teacher-Student Expectations & Ethnicity