AFRICAN AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND VARIABILITY IN BEHAVIOR ACROSS CLASSROOMS

摘要

Many African American adolescents who enter high school with lowachievement are at-risk for being perceived as defiant and uncooperativeby their classroom teachers. This generalized view of risk, however, offerslittle understanding of the differentiated behavior these students havewith their teachers. The study followed 35 African American students,who have a history of low achievement, across multiple classrooms in theirschool day. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that there was greatervariability in teacher-perceived defiance, cooperation, and officediscipline referrals "within-student" compared with "between-students."This shows that individual students tended to be perceived differentlyacross their teachers. Similarly, the study found that students also tendedto differentiate their teachers. Students who reported unfair treatmentwith a particular teacher were more likely to receive a discipline referraland be perceived as defiant and uncooperative by that teacher.Implications for a strengths-based approach to classroom behavior arediscussed.