“To Know Is to Love, Right?” Educator Perspectives on Interracial Teacher-Student Relationships

• In Event: Understanding How Educators Interact With and Inform Adolescents’ Ethnic-Racial Identities

Abstract

Background & Aims. Culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies have underscored the necessity of representing and validating students’ cultural identities (Gay, 2002; 2010; Paris & Alim, 2017). A core component of this work are teacher-student relationships (TSRs) characterized by authentic care for students’ lives and identities (Garcia-Moya, 2020) including their ethnic-racial and cultural backgrounds (Doucet, 2019; Howard et al., 2020). Whereas ethnic-racial congruence between teachers and students can facilitate these culturally sustaining TSRs (de Royston et al., 2020; Milton, 2011; Ross et al., 2016); incongruence risks exposing students of color to teachers who carry harmful ethnic-racial beliefs into the classroom (Baldridge, 2014; Howard, 2014; Rogers & Brooms, 2020; Tanner, 2019). All teachers, regardless of background, are better positioned to provide holistic support for students of color when they critically reflect on their own ethnic-racial backgrounds and how their backgrounds inform their teaching practice (Phillip et al., 2017; Nuñez et al., 2020; Ulluci, 2011; Utt & Tochluck, 2020). Teachers in and entering into interracial TSRs, must reckon with the dual aims of building culturally sustaining relationships and navigating cultural similarities and differences between themselves and their students. The current study examined teachers’ perspectives on whether and how cultural congruence informs building positive TSRs with students of color.

Sample and Methods. Participants were 24 high school English and History teachers (20 White, 5 identified as people of color, 54% female) from two large, ethnic-racially diverse, urban high schools in the Northeast U.S. Data for the analysis were semi-structured interviews, approximately an hour in length, conducted via Zoom between May and September 2022. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied to analyze the interview data (Braun & Clarke, 2021).

Results. Overall, participants endorsed the perspective that positive TSRs were an important component of teaching and learning. Knowing students’ unique identities and building trusting relationships were consistently mentioned as aims for TSRs. Variation was expressed in the role student and teacher ethnic-racial backgrounds played in these relationships. Three themes representing distinct belief systems were identified: (1) a color-evasive belief where ethnicity and race are negligible factors to TSRs, (2) the belief that ethnic-racial matching is a bridge and ethnic-racial mismatch a barrier, and (3) the belief that discussing cultural identity and other topics related to race and ethnicity are an essential component of all TSRs.

Conclusion. The analyses offer insights into teachers’ intentions when approaching TSRs. Specifically, findings demonstrate how variation in teachers’ approach to TSRs are informed by the interaction between a shared belief in the value of positive TSRs and differing views on the possibilities and challenges of interracial relationship building. Findings suggest that building teachers’ capacity for culturally sustaining teaching must include engaging their relationship building across ethnic-racial differences.

Authors

• Ashley L. Ison, San Francisco State University

• Megan Satterthwaite-Freiman, Harvard University

• Mamfatou Baldeh, Harvard University

• Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University