Presumed Capabilities: How Stereotypes and Social Constructions Effect Expectations

“Why you trying to teach me to multiple, Ms. L? Black people don’t multiple; black people just add and subtract. White people multiple.” (Delpit, 2012, pg. 14)

            While teacher expectations have a large impact on the education of every student, the presence of low or high expectations are more apparent in the lives of certain students. Many teachers base their expectations for each student on what past teachers have told them or the student’s academic record, but stereotypes, societal “norms,” and biases also play a large role on who is suspected to succeed. This blog will focus on two of the main social constructions, race and ethnicity and socioeconomic status, which effect the immediate expectations set for them.

Race and Ethnicity

            The race of students and the culture they are apart of have a large impact on the expectations set for them, and, in turn, the educational experience they will have. “After intellectual ability, ethnicity has the second most powerful effect on both normative and cognitive expectations” (Riley & Ungerleider, 2012). Black and Hispanic children are expected to fail, and this expectation has started to affect their success in very large ways. As Delpit describes, there is a widespread preconceived notion that African-American children are inherently less capable and less intelligence than white children from birth (Delpit, 2012, pg. 3). People believe African-American are born less intelligent, and this social construction is so widespread there are actually policies in some states to lower expectations for African-American children. In her Ted talk, “A Tale of Two Teachers,” Melissa Crum talks about race based academic standards which are present in some states (Crum, 2017). These standards lower the scores needed for African American students to meet standards, and these policies tell African-Americans they are not expected to meet the same goals or be as smart as their white peers. This is not the message we should be sending to these students. We should be telling students they are capable of meeting the same goals because they are just as intelligent as their white peers. Race and ethnicity do not determine intelligence. 

            While African American and Hispanic students face low academic expectations because of social constructions, Asian students may face the opposite effect. In her Ted talk, Canwen Xu, discusses the difficulties of dealing with social constructions about her race and being a “model minority.” The stereotypes excepted of her caused her to be self-conscious of her attributes which confirmed these stereotypes, like being good at math. She believed because she was Asian people would account her being good at math to her race instead of her hard work (Xu, 2016). Though Asians are thought of as being a “model minority” the expectations built from the social constructions which surround them can cause a lot of emotional turmoil for these students. In their attempt to conform to the “norm” culture these students may try to disprove all expectations set on them because of their race. This shows the importance of teachers being aware of how social constructions inform their expectations, even if they cause them to raise expectations. If teachers are raising expectations simply because of the race or ethnicity the student is apart of, the student may reject those expectations.

Socioeconomic Status

            The expectations set for students based on socioeconomic status are very similar to expectations based on race and ethnicity. Students from low socioeconomic households are automatically expected to perform worse than their peers from middle and high socioeconomic households (Diamond, Randolph, & Spillane, 2004, pg. 75). This affords students from middle- and- high income households more opportunities on top of their higher availability to better resources and materials. Similar to the experiences of minority children, teachers often presume that students from low income households are less intelligent and are not able to perform as difficult of tasks or learn as much information as their higher SES classmates. When students come from low income households, teachers often take this as permission to teach students less and “dumb down” material. This is not helpful or appropriate for these students. As Lisa Delpit says in her 10 ways to create excellence in urban classrooms, teachers must “recognize the brilliance of poor, urban children and teach them more content, not less” (Delpit, 2012, pg. xix). Teacher must recognize the strengths of these students and capitalize on them to set high expectations for students.

            In her “culture of poverty” theory, Ruby Payne stated:

One of the reasons it is getting more and more difficult to conduct school as we have in the past is that the students who bring the middle-class culture with them are decreasing in numbers, and the students who bring the poverty culture are increasing in numbers. (Kunjufu, 2006, pg. 10)

In this statement, Payne made it apparent that low SES students, not teachers, are too blame for their lack of academic success. This not only is ineffective, it also provides justification and permission for teachers to set low expectations for these students and stop trying to teach them. These kinds of mindsets and studies have perpetuated the stigma that students from low SES households should not be expected to succeed.

            While race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status are some of the main factors which effect teacher expectations, there are also many more factors, such as gender, previous achievement, student disposition, disabilities, ect., which effect the expectations teachers have for their students. Many of these factors and characteristics are completely out of students’ control, but they still have a huge impact on their future and educational opportunities. Self-fulfilling prophecies could cause the expectations that are set for these students to come true, so teachers need to be aware of the common social constructions and biases they hold to help consciously set high expectations for all students.

References

Crum, M. [TEDx Talks]. (2017, June 17). A tale of two teachers [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgtinODaW78

Delpit, L. (2012). Multiplication is for White people: Raising expectations for other peoples’ children. New York: The New Press.

Kunjufu, J. (2006). An African Centered Response to Ruby Payne’s Poverty Theory (Vol. 1st ed). Chicago, Ill: Independent Publishers Group. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.ucs.louisiana.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,uid,url&db=nlebk&AN=291196&site=eds-live

Riley T., & Ungerleider C. (2012). Self-fulfilling prophecy: How teachers’ attributions, expectations, and stereotypes influence the learning opportunities afforded aboriginal students. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne de l’éducation, (2), 303. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.ucs.louisiana.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,uid,url&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.canajeducrevucan.35.2.303&site=eds-live

Xu, C. [TEDx Talks]. (2016, April 29). I am not your Asian stereotype [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pUtz75lNaw 
(2015). [Tree of hands graphic]. Retrieved from https://donofalltradesblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/helping-hand.jpg