ERIC Number: EJ968049
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jun
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0002-8312
EISSN: N/A
Smartness as a Cultural Practice in Schools
Hatt, Beth
American Educational Research Journal, v49 n3 p438-460 Jun 2012
This study explores smartness as a cultural construct rather than a biological capacity. The cultural construction of smartness has broad consequences related to teacher expectations, student academic identity development, and schooling inequities. This study is based on a 1-year ethnography in a kindergarten classroom, and the author investigates smartness by first historicizing the concept of intelligence and then using the theoretical framework of figured worlds. Through the teachers' disciplinary and pedagogical practices, students were taught and learned not just whether they were smart themselves, but how other student identities were constructed according to smartness as well. Analysis suggests smartness was used as a mechanism of control and social positioning along racial and class lines. Implications are discussed related to schooling practices and policy.
Descriptors: Kindergarten, Teaching Methods, Ethnography, Cultural Influences, Cognitive Ability, Intelligence, Theories, Teacher Attitudes, Discipline, Classroom Techniques, Identification (Psychology), Social Status, Racial Bias, Social Class
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Kindergarten
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A