This qualitative study investigates the existence of cultural themes in classrooms serving low-income African American students. A classification scheme categorizing classroom dynamics that evidenced cultural themes is developed and used to record teachers and students'behaviors. Four hundred sixty classroom observations are specified to either a mainstream or Afrocultural ethos. Results support the home-school cultural misalignment argument. There are more observations of mainstream classroom behaviors than Afrocultural ones. Mainstream cultural themes emerge from teacher-initiated behaviors, whereas Afrocultural themes are most often recorded as student-initiated behaviors. Instrumentation limitations and implications of the observed cultural dissonance between teachers and students' behaviors are discussed.One response among researchers and educators to the continued academic failure of low-income African American elementary school students has been the proliferation of evidence-based edu-521

The present study examined the presence of specific cultural values within the preferred classroom and home activities of African-American upper elementary students. Written scenarios were constructed and used to determine whether students preferred their home and classroom activities carried out under specific cultural terms. Students also reported their perceptions of teachers and parents' cultural value-based preferences for classroom and home activities. With analysis of variance techniques, it was shown that students and their parents have significantly stronger preferences for communal and vervistic activities at home and at school than for individualistic and competitive activities. Perceived teacher classroom preferences, however, were significantly higher for individualistic and competitive activities. Such findings underscore the presence of cultural mismatch in the classroom experiences of African-Americans and illustrate a need to enhance school-based efforts to appreciate and utilize cultural value variation.

This study examined the influence of culture on students' perceptions of academic success. Students read scenarios depicting hypothetical classmates achieving success through the cultural themes of individualism, competition, communalism, or verve. Students reported their social endorsement for the hypothetical classmates. A 2x4 repeated measures analysis, examining the effects of cultural group and cultural theme on students' endorsement, revealed an interaction between the two variables. African American students were significantly more accepting of communal and vervistic high-achieving peers than European American students. European American students endorsed individualistic and competitive high achievers significantly more than African American students. These and other findings suggest that the value students attach to academic success should not be understood in the absence of cultural considerations.

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