Racial Learning and Teacher Leadership in a California High School

• In Event: 4451 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 1: Racialization in School

Abstract

Studies of racial tension often focus heavily on peer relations or school rules. But, there are signs that teachers can play a key role. We use a retrospective case study to explore a school, Sunnyvale High that had established a culture of involvement. This racially integrated, working-class school, like much of the U.S., experienced heightened interracial tensions from 1968 to 1970. Based on oral history interviews with 35 former students, teachers, and administrators, we analyze a moment of crisis in 1970, and the school’s efforts to improve inter-group relationships. These interviews point to the critical place of teachers’ leadership. Educators developed a curriculum to teach racial-ethnic history—U.S. Black History and Mexican American Literature—and structural inequality. As they mentored students in and outside the classroom—in clubs, athletics, theater, music, art—teachers established relationships of trust with students. Studies of racial conflict need to take more seriously the role of educators in mediating the process.

Authors

• Karen V. Hansen, Brandeis University

• Nicholas Charles Monroe, Brandeis University