The Integration Project Among White Teachers and Racial/Ethnic Minority Youth: Understanding Bias in School Practice

Abstract

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled schools in the United States needed to desegregate and begin integration. The decision was a radical departure from the facilities argument initially presented; it added the issue that the segregation of Black students was having a deleterious effect on their self-concept. Many scholars argue the integration has not been sustained (Orfield and Frankenberg, 2014); in fact, a recent report highlights Black, Latino and Native American students are less integrated with White and Asian students than in 1954 (Orfield and Frankenberg, 2014). However the Brown decision set forth another integration project – the integration of White practitioners (i.e., teachers and principals) with Black, Latino and Native American student populations! This article brings together an array of social interaction research that articulates the complexity of this integration project. More specifically, the article focuses on demographic patterns of intimate interactions (i.e., friendship networks, interracial marriage), research studies that document race-based ideas of learning and achievement; the presence of “passive” lowered expectations occurring through interactions such as stereotype threat (Steele and Aronson, 1995) and racial/ethnic microaggressions (Wing Sue, 2010) and “active” lowered expectations through school structures such as curriculum (Anyon, 1983) and resource allocation (Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. NYS, 2003).

Additional Resources

1. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and persistence of racial inequality in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

   This book provides an overview of color-blindness as it exists and operates in American society. The book provides accounts of how such a perspective organizes the manner in which Whites view racial topics.

2. Fergus, E. (2016b). Solving disproportionality and achieving equity: A leader’s guide to using data to change hearts and minds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

   This book provides an overview of how disproportionality in special education, gifted programs, and suspension operates. The book provides an explanation of how bias-based beliefs set the stage for disproportionality and in order to solve it, practitioners need tools for changing the school climate.

3. Wing Sue, D. (2015). Race Talk and The Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

   Unspoken social rules determine much of what people say and do at home, at school, and at work with clients and coworkers. Often, these rules are good for society—they allow people to get along with one another in the world. But occasionally, these hidden rules have a detrimental impact, and in those situations the rules must be brought to light and eliminated. In avoiding this emotionally charged topic, we usually have good intentions—a concern for politeness, a desire not to offend—but Dr. Derald Wing Sue’s research has shown that people do far more harm than good when they stay silent about race.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Edward Fergus

Edward Fergus is an Assistant Professor at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University.