Short Notices

Abstract

AimsThe research reported here is premised on the belief that lying at the heart of the process of education is the interpersonal relationship between the teacher and learner. However, we know very little about the teacher-pupil relationship from the view of ethnicity, particularly from the pupils' perspective. It has been argued elsewhere (Naylor, 1996) that the revelation of these perceptions and conceptions is important in understanding the effects teacher racism may have on pupils, why some schools alienate so many ethnic-minority pupils, and why educational opportunity is not equal for all ethnic groups. The exploratory research reported here, which is part of a larger project (Naylor, 1996), has attempted to investigate adolescent pupils' conceptions of teachers' racist behaviour and actions in the classroom.Methods Two interrelated methods of data collection were used. Method 1 A five-minute video presentation of an actual classroom episode, reconstructed for the purposes of the research, was produced. The film was scripted and role-played by a multi-ethnic group of twenty-one Year 9 and 10 (13-15 year old) English comprehensive school pupils. The film focuses on the behaviour of a white female teacher towards pupils of 'visible ethnic minority group membership' (VEMGM; Cohen and Manion, 1994, p. 268). A drama teacher elicited performances from the pupils and faithfully interpreted their directions in her portrayal of the devised teacher role. In order to elicit the role-players' perceptions of what the film was intended to portray, and also to provide a check on the internal validity of the film, the role-players subsequently provided their independent accounts of the roleplay.Method 2 An opportunity sample of sixty-one mid-adolescents (Year 9) responded to the role-play, using a bubble dialogue 'comic strip' technique. This technique involved 'grabbing' eight or nine key still images from the video film. 'Say' bubbles of the actual speech from each shot were superim-