Acting White in Context: Social Experiences and High Achieving Students

• In Event: 478 - Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Understanding and Identifying Sources of Educational Inequalities

Abstract

Black students routinely underperform in school relative to white students. One provocative—and controversial—explanation for this disparity is the 'acting white' hypothesis, which holds that black adolescents associate high academic achievement with ‘whiteness’. As a consequence, high-achieving black students are ridiculed by their peers, discouraging future achievement. Recent research suggests that these social pressures depend tremendously on the school environments of youth and often extend beyond the traditional black-white dichotomy, affecting Latino students as well as low-income white students in some environments. Using data from the National Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) we investigate differences in social pressures experienced across race, paying particular attention to the ways that school environments shape these social pressures. Focusing on achievement differences across groups within schools, we provide a broader look at the ways that social pressures within school influence larger patterns of achievement inequality and the contexts in which these patterns arise.

Authors

• Joseph Workman, Oxford University

• Jennifer Flashman, University of Notre Dame