Racialized and Gendered Constructions of Ability and Behavior

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this symposium, we bring together six papers that examine how school processes create and reinforce racialized and gendered perceptions of students' abilities and behaviors. The symposium expands on existing understanding of how students’ abilities and behavior are constructed by examining the roles of multiple actors, and social factors. While all the papers are tied together by a focus on the racialization and/or gendering of ability and/or behavior, papers also examine nativity and social class, and how these identities and positions intersect. Moreover, the papers ask how different actors and organizational contexts shape perceptions of students’ abilities and behavior, focusing on the roles of teachers, school counselors, parents, and students, and how school context and instructional practice matter.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Sociology of Education

Chair

• Rachel Elizabeth Fish, New York University

Papers

• What Drives Racial/Ethnic Disparities in School Discipline? - Jayanti Owens, Brown University

• Killing Black Boys Softly: School Discipline and Racial Death in Early Childhood - Calvin Rashaud Zimmermann, University of Notre Dame

• Unseen Girls, Policed Girls: Race and School Context Shape Perceptions of Girls' Abilities and Behavior - Rachel Elizabeth Fish, New York University

• Perceptions of Identity and Academic Ability Among African and Non-African Students in New York City - Mercy Agyepong, New York University

• Experts and Learners: Small-Group Instruction and Academic Ability in a Diversifying Middle School - Alexandra J. Freidus, University of Connecticut

• "English Comes So Naturally to Me": How School Processes Shape Middle School Girls' Career Aspirations - Michela Musto, Stanford University

Discussant

• Amanda E. Lewis, University of Illinois at Chicago