From “Middle Class” to “Trailer Trash:” Teachers' Perceptions of White Students in a Predominately Minority School

Morris, Edward W.

doi:10.1177/003804070507800201

Cited by 53 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…That is, teachers' perceptions of their students may change in schools where white students are not the majority. Morris's (2005) ethnography of a predominantly black school in Texas reported that white teachers often assumed the white students were from lower-socioeconomic-status or ''trailer trash'' families while the black teachers assumed the same students were middle class. Do teachers' views of black and white students differ in predominantly black schools?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perceptions that whiteness corresponds to intelligence and giftedness have been reported in multiple ethnographies of high schools and elementary schools (Morris 2005;Staiger 2004;Tyson 2003). Table 3 presents odds ratios that indicate the tendency for nonwhite teachers and white teachers of nonwhite students to report evaluations of scholastic ability that differ from white teachers' views of their white students' abilities.…”

Section: Teachers' Evaluations Of Scholastic Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Racial Mismatch in the Classroom

2012

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Previous research demonstrates that students taught by teachers of the same race and ethnicity receive more positive behavioral evaluations than students taught by teachers of a different race/ethnicity. Many researchers view these findings as evidence that teachers, mainly white teachers, are racially biased due to preferences stemming from racial stereotypes that depict some groups as more academically oriented than others. Most of this research has been based on comparisons of only black and white students and teachers and does not directly test if other nonwhite students fare better when taught by nonwhite teachers. Analyses of Asian, black, Hispanic, and white 10th graders in the 2002 Education Longitudinal Study confirm that the effects of mismatch often depend on the racial/ethnic statuses of both the teacher and the student, controlling for a variety of school and student characteristics. Among students with white teachers, Asian students are usually viewed more positively than white students, while black students are perceived more negatively. White teachers' perceptions of Hispanic students do not typically differ from those of white students. Postestimation comparisons of slopes indicate that Asian students benefit (perceptionwise) from having white teachers, but they reveal surprisingly few instances when black students would benefit (again, perceptionwise) from having more nonwhite teachers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Teachers' Evaluations Of Scholastic Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Mismatch in the Classroom

2012

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“…Over time, these teens adopted a shared view of themselves as low achievers, trouble makers, and outsiders, resulting in further marginalization and alienation from mainstream institutions and social networks (cf. also Morris 2005).…”

Section: Stigma and Mobile Homes In Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salvaging Decency: Mobile Home Residents’ Strategies of Managing the Stigma of “Trailer” Living

Kusenbach

2009

Qual Sociol

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This paper is based on 45 ethnographic interviews conducted with residents of mobile home communities in West Central Florida between 2005 and 2008. It investigates their strategies of managing the stigma that is commonly associated with living in a mobile home. Informants routinely encounter negative stereotypes regarding their "trailer" home, community, and lifestyle in public discourse and personal interactions, and consequently have developed ways of salvaging their decency. My analysis of these strategies particularly emphasizes two versions of distancing, here called "bordering" and "fencing," as examples of symbolic boundary work. Other techniques discussed include ignoring, passing, humoring, resisting, normalizing, upstaging, and blaming. Throughout the paper, I argue that mobile home residents' ways of salvaging decency are both similar and different compared to how other disparaged groups deal with stigmatization. The conclusion discusses broader sociological implications of the research in enhancing our understanding of the experience of stigmatization, folk conceptions of decency, symbolic and social differentiation, as well as race and class dynamics.

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“…They are shaped by contingencies in daily life that are not easily recognized in the framework of whiteness studies. Individuals interpret these exchanges not just as a matter of race, but also as a matter of class, family, and place (Erdmans 2004;Levine-Rasky 2000;Lewis 2004;Hartigan 1999Hartigan , 2000aMaimi et al 2002;Morris 2005;Perera 1999). Classes have distinctive cultures that consist of values, attitudes, beliefs, and practices that reflect objective positions within the mode of production.…”

Section: Whither the Class Struggle?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These cultures construct meanings, organize perceptions, define priorities, and influence behaviors. They provide differing degrees of capital for adapting to, and taking advantage of, local circumstances (Garner 2006;Lareau 2003;Morris 2005;Levine-Rasky 2000;Rose 1997;Royster 2003). For example, white children who live in economically poor and isolated neighborhoods that lack appropriate resources are just as likely as their nonwhite counterparts in similar circumstances to adopt a frame of reference that encourages failure (Lew 2006).…”

Section: Whither the Class Struggle?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Sociology or Partisan Sociology? The Curious Case of Whiteness Studies

Niemonen

2010

Am Soc

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This paper identifies the common themes in 245-plus refereed articles on whiteness studies that were published in academic journals after 1992 in an attempt to assess the implications of whiteness studies for the discipline of sociology. Of special interest is the relationship between whiteness studies and Michael Burawoy's call for public sociology. I argue that the emerging field of whiteness studies identifies itself as a public sociology that is infused by the moral vision of critical sociology. Nevertheless, the field does not accept professional sociology as Burawoy defined it. The ontological, epistemological, and soteriological foundations of whiteness studies encourage the field to pander to one segment of the public-the marginalized-and condemn another segment of the public-"privileged whites," thus rendering impossible a democratic dialogue on one of the most basic social issues of our time. Conflating Western epistemology with whiteness encourages a misreading of American social scientific work on race relations, thus opening the door to a so-called hermeneutics of suspicion. The result is not an innocuous "pop" sociology, but a partisan sociology, whose implications should caution sociologists against an uncritical embracing of public sociology.

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From “Middle Class” to “Trailer Trash:” Teachers' Perceptions of White Students in a Predominately Minority School

Cited by 53 publications

References 38 publications

Racial Mismatch in the Classroom

Racial Mismatch in the Classroom

Salvaging Decency: Mobile Home Residents’ Strategies of Managing the Stigma of “Trailer” Living

Public Sociology or Partisan Sociology? The Curious Case of Whiteness Studies

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