Teachers’ Talk About Race and Caregiver Support: “You Can NEVER Be Too Sure About Parents”

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Delale-O’Connor ◽  
DaVonna L. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Parental Support ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Family Characteristics ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Caregiver Support ◽  
Social And Cultural Capital ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Teacher Race ◽  
Cultural Capital Theory ◽  
Context Characteristics

This study focused on teachers’ perceptions of caregiver support for engaging in conversations about race in the classroom. We analyzed data from the Teachers’ Race Talk Survey, an exploratory survey that examines teachers’ perceptions about discussing race and racial violence in the classroom. Our analyses suggested that respondents espoused broad uncertainty for talking about race with regard to parental support. Teachers explained their responses drawing on four primary logics: (a) context characteristics, (b) family characteristics, (c) teacher characteristics, and (d) subject. We connected logics to social and cultural capital theory to further explain connections between caregivers and teacher race talk.

scholarly journals Intergenerational and Marriage Mobility of University Professors in the Netherlands During the 19th Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 167-171
Author(s):  
Ineke Maas ◽  
Marco H. D. Van Leeuwen ◽  
Antonie Knigge
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Occupational Group ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Civil Marriage ◽  
Cultural Capital Theory ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Do So

In this study we ask the question to what extent 19th-century university professors were a closed occupational group in the sense that they had little intergenerational and marriage mobility. We do so in honor of Kees Mandemakers, who is about to retire as a professor, but whose younger family members may follow in his footsteps. We derive competing hypotheses from cultural capital theory and the meritocracy thesis and test them using civil marriage records for the period 1813–1922 in six Dutch provinces (N = 1,180,976 marriages). Although only 4.4% of all university professors had a father in the same occupation, the odds ratio of 331 shows that this is much more likely than to be expected under independence. Similarly, professors were much more likely to marry the daughter of a professor. Compared to other elite occupations the intergenerational immobility of professors was not especially high, but their marriage immobility was exceptional. Cultural capital theory receives more support than the meritocracy thesis. We hope that Mandemakers, Mandemakers and Mandemakers will accept the challenge and investigate whether these findings can be generalized to contemporary society.

scholarly journals Avoiding Us versus Them: How Schools’ Dependence on Privileged “Helicopter” Parents Influences Enforcement of Rules

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco
Keyword(s):  
Parent Involvement ◽  
Elementary School ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Helicopter Parenting ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Helicopter Parents ◽  
White Families ◽  
Cultural Capital Theory

As privilege-dependent organizations, U.S. public schools have an interest in catering to higher-SES White families. But, what happens when privileged families’ interests conflict with schools’ stated goals? Focusing on the case of homework, and drawing insights from organizational theory, cultural capital theory, and research on parent involvement in schools, I examine how schools’ dependence on higher-SES White families influences their enforcement of rules. Using a longitudinal, ethnographic study of one socioeconomically diverse public elementary school, I find that teachers wanted to enforce homework rules, but they worried doing so would lead to conflict with the higher-SES White “helicopter” parents, on whom they relied most for support. Thus, teachers selectively enforced rules, using evidence of “helicopter” parenting to determine which students “deserved” leeway and lenience. Those decisions, in turn, contributed to inequalities in teachers’ punishment and evaluation of students. Broadly, these findings suggest privilege-dependence leads schools to appease privileged families, even when those actions contradict the school’s stated goals. These findings also challenge standard policy assumptions about parent involvement and homework, and they suggest policies aimed at reducing the power of privilege are necessary for lessening inequalities in school.

Apprendre à travailler: The uneasy journey of counter-school culture in the country of cultural capital theory

Ethnography ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-495
Author(s):  
Sylvain Laurens ◽  
Julian Mischi
Keyword(s):  
School Culture ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
French Translation ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Cultural Capital Theory ◽  
French Sociology ◽  
Culture Concept

This paper retraces the journey of Learning to Labour in the French intellectual landscape, by examining the context in which we had this book translated in 2011. We first analyse the slow importation of Willis’s research in France (the originality of the counter-school culture concept is highlighted in light of Bourdieu’s theoretical emphasis on the role of cultural capital in social reproduction) and the conditions that made a French translation possible 30 years after the original’s publication. We then discuss the ways in which this 2011 translation, entitled L’école des ouvriers, collided with French debates on the role of school and the then prevalent postmodern theories. We end by discussing the uses of Willis’s work in contemporary French sociology.

scholarly journals Avoiding Us versus Them: How Schools’ Dependence on Privileged “Helicopter” Parents Influences Enforcement of Rules

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco
Keyword(s):  
Parent Involvement ◽  
Elementary School ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Helicopter Parenting ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Helicopter Parents ◽  
White Families ◽  
Cultural Capital Theory

As privilege-dependent organizations, U.S. public schools have an interest in catering to higher-SES White families. But, what happens when privileged families’ interests conflict with schools’ stated goals? Focusing on the case of homework, and drawing insights from organizational theory, cultural capital theory, and research on parent involvement in schools, I examine how schools’ dependence on higher-SES White families influences their enforcement of rules. Using a longitudinal, ethnographic study of one socioeconomically diverse public elementary school, I find that teachers wanted to enforce homework rules, but they worried doing so would lead to conflict with the higher-SES White “helicopter” parents, on whom they relied most for support. Thus, teachers selectively enforced rules, using evidence of “helicopter” parenting to determine which students “deserved” leeway and lenience. Those decisions, in turn, contributed to inequalities in teachers’ punishment and evaluation of students. Broadly, these findings suggest privilege-dependence leads schools to appease privileged families, even when those actions contradict the school’s stated goals. These findings also challenge standard policy assumptions about parent involvement and homework, and they suggest policies aimed at reducing the power of privilege are necessary for lessening inequalities in school.

scholarly journals Schools, Cultural Mobility, and Social Reproduction: The Case of Progressive Discipline

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
Emily Milne ◽  
Janice Aurini
Keyword(s):  
Parent Involvement ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
School Staff ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Cultural Capital Theory ◽  
Cultural Mobility ◽  
Progressive Discipline

Abstract: Drawing on a case study of Progressive Discipline (PD), this paper asks: How does greater discretion, flexibility and parent involvement affect the application of school policy? What are the consequences of these conditions? PD is part of a suite of changes that caters to students’ individualized academic and social needs while formalizing increased parent involvement. Drawing on forty-four interviews with school staff members, we find that PD has the potential to enhance students’ social and behaviour literacy. And yet, educators are unable to fully tame higher-SES (Socio-Economic Status) parents. According to our interviewees, higher-SES parents are more likely to participate in disciplinary proceedings, confront and threaten school staff and negotiate more favourable disciplinary outcomes for their children. Our paper contributes to cultural capital theory by examining how higher-SES families exploit “discretionary spaces” (i.e., opportunities that allow parents to improve their child’s social, academic or disciplinary outcomes) in schooling organizations. Résumé : En s’appuyant sur une étude de cas de mesures disciplinaires progressives (MDP), cet article pose la question : Comment une plus grande discrétion, souplesse et participation des parents influent sur la mise en pratique de la politique scolaire ? Quelles sont les conséquences de ces mesures ? Les MDP font partie d’une série de changements qui répondent aux besoins scolaires et sociaux individualisés des élèves, tout en formalisant la participation accrue des parents. À partir de quarante-quatre entretiens avec des membres du personnel œuvrant dans des écoles, nous constatons que les MDP ont le potentiel d’améliorer les habiletés sociales et comportementales des élèves. Pourtant, les éducateurs sont incapables de composer de façon satisfaisante avec les parents jouissant d’un statut socio-économique plus élevé. Selon les membres du personnel interviewés, il est plus probable que les parents de statut socio-économique plus élevé participent plus activement au suivi disciplinaire, confrontent et menacent le personnel de l’école et négocient des solutions disciplinaires plus favorables pour leurs enfants. Notre article contribue à la théorie du capital culturel en observant comment les familles de statut socio-économique plus élevé exploitent des « espaces discrétionnaires » (c’est à dire, les possibilités qui permettent aux parents d’améliorer les résultats sociaux, académiques ou disciplinaires de leur enfant) dans les organisations scolaires.

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