Hirnikel 1

Alicia Hirnikel
EDL 318
9 April 2015
Mid-Term Inquiry to Curriculum Project
Mini-Literature Review:
How does being a white teacher in a school of mixed races, with a
majority not being white, affect how you act in and out of the classroom?
And how students of different races respond to having a white adult teach
them and tell them what to do on a daily basis?

The question I choose to research is something I see on a regular basis

at Riverview Elementary. My host teacher is a white, female who is recently
divorced and just moved out of an upper class white neighborhood. She has
a daughter in a private Catholic high school and a son in college. She now
drives over half an hour to work each day from a middle-upper class
predominantly white neighborhood. I feel that observing her and her
interactions with her students has given me a very good insight into what my
question is asking and how a teacher actually interacts with students of
different cultures.
There have been many experiences in my few short months in this
classroom, but I have been able to observe much. Being another white
female presence in the classroom has allowed me to experience the
interactions I feel my teacher experiences on a daily basis. For starters,
there have been direct racial comments from the black male students toward
all white female adults in the room at some point or another. One day, one

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of the students blatantly said, Are you a white girl telling me what to do?
There was another day in which one of the students was very upset and
upon leaving the classroom yelled to the teacher that she was a dumb ass
nigga. These are comments that we discussed and are fairly certain these
students hear in the home setting, along with many others.
While reading an article about closing the culture gap from the
National Education Association, there were many things that stuck out to me
that made me think about my future as a white educator that could possibly
work in a classroom with students from predominately other cultures. The
first thing is that, while this question is of utmost importance, it should not
be as limited as I have created it. Culturally responsive teaching is not only
an issue for White, female educators (Walker). This comes from a black
teacher who is trying to make it in a classroom with many white students.
He is having the same troubles that I fear having to face as a white teacher
in a classroom with many non-white students.
The one thing that this article restates many times is the importance of
connecting with students and their families. Connecting with the students in
the classroom will only be possible if you are willing to go beyond the walls of
the room and get to know your students on another level. Culture is about
family life, religion, home life, and socioeconomic status. Its about who your
students are and where they fit in their community, and society as a whole.
(Walker).

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While reading Learning to Trust for EDT 473, there was an entire
section on building relationships. It discussed starting early and building
relationships with students as well as with their parents. It states that
meeting and talking with our students parents and caregivers early and
throughout the year will help us understand our students lives outside of the
school and the kind of relationships each child has with the most important
adults in his or her life (Watson, p. 43). If this were to happen, then the
aspect of race would not be as big of a factor.
The most important aspect to keep in mind when I do become a
teacher is that I will probably be the minority. The majority of my class will
probably be non-white, and from a working class family. I will have to keep in
mind the importance of building relationships with my students families and
know that just because Im white and have had more enriching experiences
than the students in my class, they have probably had many more life
experiences that I will never encounter. I will also have to keep in mind that
my students will know the differences in our races, and I will have to make
sure to keep the classroom a safe place where race should not be a factor. I
will have to remember that its not your fault you were born with white skin
and experience these privileges, but, whether you realize it or not, you do
benefit from it, and it is your fault if you dont maintain awareness of that
fact (Crosley-Corcoran, p. 2). I will have to maintain awareness that I am
different from my students, but do everything I can to learn about and
appreciate their culture so I can be more relatable to them in the classroom.

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Context:
Riverview Elementary is one of the many schools in Hamilton City
Schools. From conversations with people both in and out of the school, it is
said to be the poorest, most culturally diverse, and have the most behavioral
issues of all the elementary schools in the district. While this information
cannot be conveyed as data on the schools website, ODEs website, or any
other data collecting website, there is information that gives insight into the
socioeconomic status and educational aspects of Riverviews students.
On the ODE website, it states that Riverview is struggling academically.
It appears that the results include grades 4-6, which is not any of the grades
we have our placements in. This is still, however, representative of the
school and the builds upon what has been taught in grades K-3. They
received a C (70.9%) for performance index, which is based on how many
students passed the state test. They received an F (0.00%) for indicators
met, which is based on how well the students did on the state test. These
grades indicate that the school is struggling academically. They also
received an F (18.1%) on annual measurable objectives, or if every students
is succeeding regardless of income, race, ethnicity, or disability. For specifics
to K-3, Riverview received a 53.1% on the K-3 Literacy Improvement. This
measures reading progress in grades K-3, but is not the same at the third
grade-reading guarantee. The ODE website then goes on to say how many
students from each grade were not on track in the previous year but then
improved to be on track in first grade.

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As for the demographics of the students at Riverview Elementary,
there are a total of 726 students. 36.8% are Hispanic, 31.1% are black/nonHispanic, 25.5% are white/non-Hispanic, 3.5% are Asian/Pacific Islander, and
1.9% is multiracial. 13.1% of these students have disabilities
(kindergartners do not get included in the percentage because they are not
identified until 1st grade, as told by my host teacher). 33.3% of these
students have limited English proficiency, and in kindergarten and first grade
these students are put into their own classroom with only other students who
are also limited English proficient. And to add to this, 95.2% of students are
economicly disadvantaged. The school has such a high percentage of
students on free and reduced lunches that every student in the building gets
a free breakfast. The school has a very high attendance rate, with every
race being above 90%.
For my specific classroom, there are no English Language Learners.
There are 8 girls and 12 boys. 5 of the students are white/non-Hispanic, 13
are black/non-Hispanic, and 2 are Pacific Islander. The teacher is a white
female, who lives in a predominantly white community and commutes to
Hamilton everyday. There are 3 students that consistently have behavior
problems are suspended with relative frequency.
The classroom is a very inviting place for young learners. The theme is
mon-stars, and there are Pinterest like decorations covering every surface.
The students sit at 5 tables in groups of 4 students each. Each table has a
captain that is responsible for making sure everyone has their materials and

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is on task. The classroom has a kitchen/house center for playtime, a writing
center, an art easel, a Lego table, a large carpeted area for circle time or
playtime, and many games/toys. There is a bathroom at the back of the
classroom that is shared by an adjoining classroom.
The teacher always keeps the extra breakfast in her room for students
to snack on throughout the day. She frequently brings in food/treats for
students and always has a candy jar that students get to pick from if they
are doing something right, having a good day, answers a question correctly,
etc.
Findings:
How does being a white teacher in a school of mixed races, with a
majority not being white, affect how you act in and out of the classroom?
And how to students of different races respond to having a white adult teach
them and tell them what to do on a daily basis?
In the beginning I thought I would be able to conduct interviews to see
the students in the class and possibly other class thoughts on having a
white, female teacher since so many of the students in the school are either
black or Hispanic and a majority of the teachers are white females. The
more I thought about this and spent time in the classroom though, I decided
it would be highly inappropriate for me to ask the students their thoughts on
this matter since they are only in kindergarten and most of them dont have
many positive role models in their lives other than their teacher. I didnt want
to implant ideas that may have not been there otherwise.

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Instead, I decided to just conduct my research through reading articles
online and through intense observations and discussions with my peers at
the same school. I decided that this would be a much better way to gather
information about students reactions and teachers actions. My
observations provided me with much information from my host teacher and
the way she acts toward all of her students.
On a daily basis, my teacher makes many comments about students in
her class that my field partner and I just have to look at each other and hold
back our own personal comments. For starters, one day our teacher was
telling us that we should take a look in the classroom across the hall (all ELL
students). She was fed up with the bad behaviors of the students in her
class and said that we should get to experience the good behaviors that the
all-Mexican classes have.

She constantly refers to the Hispanic students as

the Mexican kids. On another day, when we took the students outside to
look at the surrounding community, we were talking about the different types
of housing you could see just by standing in the parking lot of the school.
There were houses, apartments, and if you looked across a field,
townhouses. One of the black students raised her hand and said that was
where the Mexicans lived. My teacher agreed with her and stated that she
was sure that the Mexicans lived there because they dont like free handouts
and she was pretty sure that the housing development that was being
discussed made you pay a very small rent to live there.

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As for punishment of students, my teacher has four black students that
constantly get in trouble. Three of them get sent to the office on a regular
basis and one was being suspended at least once every other week for a
while. My teacher always becomes upset when they dont suspend him (for
disrupting the class repeatedly) and goes on a rant about the reasoning
behind it. She says that they keep track of the suspensions and they want to
refrain from suspending black males because there is proof that those kinds
of students are the ones who are always in trouble.
For the students reactions to how they are treated by the white female
teacher, I do not have as much to go off of because I have never seen these
students in a setting with another teacher (other than the male principle). I
have observed one student question if a white girl was really going to tell
him what to do. The students appear to react very well to the white male
principal, and often request to go see him throughout the day if they are not
happy with what is going on in the classroom or if they did something well
and want to show him their reward. I am not certain if this difference in
interactions with the principal is because of the fact that he is male or
because he is a person other than their teacher that is willing to give them
praise and attention, but it has intrigued me to see how drawn the black
male students are to him.
While I have not directly found that being a white teacher in a school of
mixed races affects how you act in and out of the classroom, I have seen

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many examples of teachers-to-student and teacher-to-teacher interactions
as a result of the differences in race.
Discussion:
Based off of all of my findings, I feel that race may not be as big of a
hindrance as I was anticipating. I have seen how it is a factor for some
teachers in schools, but I also learned that you could look past it and focus
on building relationships in order to overcome the aspect of race. I also
learned that my concern for being a white teacher in a classroom full of nonwhite students is not the only way to look at this issue. There is also the
issue of being a non-white teacher in a classroom with white students. No
matter the angle you use to look at this issue, there is always going to be
someone in the minority in the situation, and how they react and treat/are
treated by the others can be very telling of who they are.
I believe that putting so much time and energy into my observations
on this topic has made me realize how I want to act when I have my own
classroom. The most important aspect of having a good rapport with my
students is the relationships that I build. I will attempt to get to know each
of my students and their cultural backgrounds and make connections with
both them and their families at an early stage in our school year.
I will also try to be cognizant of what I say and how I talk to and about
my students and other students in the building. I have learned from
experience in my field classroom that what a person says about students can
be interpreted in many ways, and you have to be very careful as to make

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sure it is appropriate and not offensive toward any person. Students can
also pick up behaviors and actions by the adults around them, and repeat it
in their own lives.
With our nation becoming much more diverse than it has been in
previous years, schools are becoming much more diverse. The majority of
teachers are still white females, but the classes at schools across the country
are filling up with black students, Hispanic students, non-English speaking
students and much more. The white female teachers have to do everything
they can to be able to create relationships with these students and form
bonds that will allow the students to trust and rely on them. It will take extra
effort from the teacher to be able to reach out to more and more parents, but
the effort should and will pay off when parent involvement means better
student participation.
My host teacher continues to tell me that she thinks I could succeed
working in a school like Riverview and each time she says it, it freaks me out
but gives me a little more confidence. I have always pictured myself working
at a predominantly middle to upper class white school, because that is what I
know. That is what I am used to being around. But now that I have had the
experience to be around such a diverse population of students and see the
joy that they bring to learning, I feel that I may be able to be successful in a
school like Riverview Elementary.

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Works Consulted:
Crosley-Corcoran, G. (2014, May 8). Explaining White Privilege to a Broke
White Person.
Retrieved April 5, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ginacrosleycorcoran/explaining-white-privilege-to-a-broke-whiteperson_b_5269255.html
Hamilton City Schools-Riverview Elementary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015,
from
http://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/Pages/DistrictReport.aspx?DistrictIRN=044107
Walker, T. (2011, January 1). Closing the Culture Gap. Retrieved April 4, 2015,
from
http://www.nea.org/home/43098.htm
Watson, M., & Ecken, L. (2003). Learning to trust: Transforming difficult
elementary
classrooms through developmental discipline. San Francisco, California:
Jossey-Bass.