ERIC Number: ED364620
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1993
Pages: 14
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Minority and Traditional Elementary Students: A Comparison Study.
Cypher, Thomas W.
This ethnographic study relates the differences reported by student teachers as they experienced teaching in a culturally diverse elementary school that contained a large population of minority students and compared that placement with a rural school that had few or no minority students. The methodology involved preplacement interviews, journals, written comparisons, and postplacement interviews with 20 student teachers in South Central Pennsylvania. Tables I through IV contain the major findings of the study and relate: (1) the preplacement expectations of the student teachers; (2) the postplacement reactions; and (3) the differences between the school that contained the large minority population and the school that contained few or no minority students. Student teachers reported that there was a lack of praise of students in the minority school, and that black students tended to be ambivalent toward academic efforts and success, findings that point to a need for more praise, not less. The comparisons made by these student teachers indicate the necessity of helping teachers develop cultural awareness. (Contains 15 references.) (SLD)
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Black Students, College Students, Comparative Analysis, Cultural Pluralism, Elementary Education, Elementary School Students, Ethnography, Higher Education, Interviews, Minority Group Children, Multicultural Education, Preservice Teacher Education, Rural Schools, Student Teachers, Teacher Expectations of Students, Urban Schools
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A