A Crucial Between-Classes Curriculum: How New Teachers Work for Equity Before and After the Bell

• In Event: 31.061 - Culturally Relevant Curriculum

Abstract

This paper suggests that teachers’ interactions with students between classes correlate strongly with student success and are thus worthy of special attention. Based on a two-year qualitative study of four new, equity-oriented public high school teachers and 125 students across four schools, the paper describes how the teachers’ between-class interactions with students who went on to pass their class differed significantly from their interactions with those who went on to fail. While the teachers routinely engaged in humane, personal connections with students who went on to pass, their interactions with students who went on to fail were almost exclusively limited to procedural matters. Strategies for teachers to take advantage of these key moments of possibility for all students are recommended.

Author

• Deborah Bieler, University of Delaware