The Role of Race in Black Adolescents' Discussions of Schools as Places That Produce Achievement

• In Event: 46.078 - Effects of School Climate and Composition

Abstract

Scholarship shows that school practices influence the extent to which youth racially categorize academic achievement and high-achieving peers as White. We examine whether similar processes underpin youths’ racial categorization of schools as collective spaces. In so doing, we bring the literature on race and education, which has examined how youth racialize achievement-related behaviors and high-achieving individuals, into dialogue with scholarship that attends to how individuals racially categorize spaces such as neighborhoods and workplaces. Joining these research streams, we analyze how being exposed to racial inequality and segregation at school could affect the extent to which Black adolescents racially classify school environments. We also analyze the underlying meanings about race in students’ discussions of “Black” and “White” schools.

Authors

• Simone Ispa-Landa, Northwestern University

• Jordan Conwell, Northwestern University