The Significance of the Racial Contract in Teachers' College Expectancies for Students of Color

• In Event: Navigating and Interrupting Racialized Deficit Schooling: Teachers Fostering Third Spaces to Support Students of Color

Abstract

Objective
Currently, an individualistic, test-driven perspective has defined college readiness (Wimberly & Noeth, 2005). Teachers’ race consciousness in fostering systemic practices to prepare students for college at the intersections of race and poverty has been under-documented. Given the existing white supremacist structure designed to deny students of color from reaching college, we cannot assume the current efforts to privatize public education to be a panacea. This paper addresses the research questions below to investigate how teachers harness their race-conscious expectations to prepare high school students of color for college:
How does race inform teachers’ college-going expectations of students of color?
How do teachers manifest educational expectations to establish school structures and curriculum to assist students of color towards college readiness?

Literature
Our theoretical analysis draws on the following interrelated theories: 1) the racial contract (Mills, 1997) and 2) whiteness as intellectual property (Harris, 1993). Research illuminates that low teacher expectation practices are a form of racial profiling and racism (Lynn, et al., 2010). As a racial contract, these expectancy practices diminish college-going opportunities for students of color. The term “college readiness” is narrowly constructed (Conley, 2007) and deterministic (Maruyama, 2012), reinforcing whiteness as intellectual property and casting students of color as the racial other. On the contrary, teachers’ race-conscious college-going expectancies challenge the system of white supremacy via school structure and curriculum. These expectancies provide counter-hegemonic spaces that draw on life experiences and curricular knowledge to assist students to move beyond negative images of their placement in society (Ladson-Billings, 2014).

Methods
Through the use of purposeful sampling, this 1-year case study took place in eight high schools in two large urban school districts in California. The study consisted of 27 teachers (13 teachers of color) who were selected due to their commitment to social justice. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, document collection, teacher journaling, and classroom observations. We used N.Vivo software and hand-coding techniques to analyze how teachers’ expectations are operative across school structure and curricular practices. We compared data analysis with the literature and theoretical framework. We conducted member-checking and triangulation to arrive at our findings (Creswell & Poth, 2017).

Findings
We found that while some of the teachers were aware about the role of race in their school, they nonetheless recreated racialized school structures embedded in the racial contract and whiteness as college-going property. While teachers’ consciousness were far more discerning when outwardly examining the racist behaviors and attitudes of others, they were seldomly self-reflective about their own participatory role in animating the racial contract. Our data also found several teachers to be effective in confronting inequities at the classroom level. Findings included examples of teachers who harnessed structures to foster students’ college readiness through classroom curriculum.

Significance
Our study shows that teachers’ expectations needs to take a systemic perspective to illuminate the conflicts and contradictions that contribute to the racial contract and whiteness as intellectual property. We need teachers who are capable of nurturing conditions to support students of color through self-respect, determination, and collective intellectual property.

Authors

• Daniel D Liou, Arizona State University

• Leticia Rojas, Brandman University