A Phenomenological Study of White Female First-, Second-, and Third-Year Teachers in Title I Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine first-year experiences by interviewing second and third-year White female teachers at the beginning of their second or third year teaching, who work in Title I, K-5 schools. The overarching goal in this study was to: (a) identify similarities and differences in first and second-year teacher experiences; and, (b) identify the struggles teachers face inside and outside of the classroom. To achieve the goal of this study, the researcher used a qualitative phenomenological method. Data from this study was viewed with critical race theory, intersectionality, and cultural capital lenses. These lenses were used to identify cultural gaps, and socioeconomic differences between White, middle-class, female teachers and their students in Title I schools. Participants were white, female teachers in their second and third year of teaching at Title I, K-5 schools. Each participant was interviewed between December and March of their second or third year of teaching; therefore, each participant had worked through their entire first year of teaching at a Title I school. Each participant shared their experiences of their first and second year. White middle-class teachers were selected due to the possible differences in cultural capital and socioeconomic level between teachers and students. Additionally, White females represent 80% of teachers in the United States (Tale & Goldring, 2017). Participants at Title I schools are in more need of supports from their peers, mentors, and administration; however, most participants did not receive these supports. Due to the elevated needs of students at low-income schools, new teachers struggled to meet their needs and understand their cultural capital along with their own White privilege.

Pigmentation and practice : understanding perceptions of white female teachers within a colorblind racial ideology framework

Thoreau said, "The question is not what you look at, but what you see." In the world of education, what we don't see--or at least claim not to notice--matters just as much. For non-White children in American schools today, a failure to acknowledge their racial and cultural identity can have lasting impact on academic success. A failure to acknowledge racial and cultural identities can also impede full access to equitable educational opportunities. A well-documented educational achievement gap persists between Black students and White students despite the legally-sanctioned school desegregation of years ago. Because the teacher has great influence over classroom norms and instructional delivery--and recognizing that American teachers are predominantly White and female-- this study seeks to look closely at the perceptions of those teachers with regard to race and education. This dissertation is a qualitative inquiry of multiple case study design. Using the tenets of Colorblind Racial Ideology to construct meaning from teacher viewpoints and experiences, the goal is to facilitate candid conversations about racial diversity and promote the academic success of all students.

Revisiting and Disrupting Uncritical Diversity Narratives Through Autoethnography and Cellphilming

As two white female teachers, we look back on our teaching experiences in Hong Kong and Northern Alberta to disrupt problematic diversity narratives from our first classrooms. Through critical auto-ethnographic approaches and cellphilming (cellphone + video-production), we analyze our engagement with privilege within our classrooms. We found that we both promoted uncomplicated conceptions of diversity, and each engaged in what Eve Tuck (2009) has described as damaged-centered approaches—teaching practices that established, “harm or injury in order to achieve reparation” (p. 413). We see these experiences as a case study in how to look back productively to change the way we teach in the present and future toward visions of justice.

Do Teachers' Race, Gender, and Ethnicity Matter? Evidence from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988

Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), the authors find that the match between teachers' race, gender, and ethnicity and those of their students had little association with how much the students learned, but in several instances it seems to have been a significant determinant of teachers' subjective evaluations of their students. For example, test scores of white female students in mathematics and science did not increase more rapidly when the teacher was a white woman than when the teacher was a white man, but white female teachers evaluated their white female students more highly than did white male teachers.

Sex Differences in Female Teachers' Approval and Disapproval Behaviors as Related to Their Self-Definition of Sex-Role Type

44 white female teachers were observed by two observers for six separate 20-min. periods for a total of 88 hr. The frequencies of approval and disapproval behaviors toward boys and girls were obtained. After observation, the Bem Sex-role Inventory was administered to the teachers, and four groups of 11 teachers each were classified by a median split-procedure as androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated. As predicted, masculine teachers were more approving of boys' behavior, feminine teachers were more approving of girls' behavior and less approving of boys' behavior. In total observations, types of teacher did not differ, but when approval or disapproval was considered, there were significant differences according to pupils' sex and type of observation. Teachers' self-definition of sex-role type is likely to influence significantly their behavior toward middle-school boys and girls.