Reflection 2 Afrocentric School Debate
In Edward Morris’ article ”"'Tuck that shirt in!' Race, class, gender and discipline in an urban school," Morris explores the
differences in disciplinary action between race and gender at a middle school
in Texas (Morris, 2005). Essentially, the findings suggest that black and
Latino students were disciplined in an unfair manner when compared to white
students who misbehaved in the same way. Morris suggests that these schools are
reproducing and possibly even exaggerating inequalities of race, class and
gender (2005, p. 26). Morris’ findings were particular
intriguing to me as I read the article because I have never seen students be
treated like that in schools I have gone to, which is not to say it didn’t
happen, I have just never witnessed it. As I read, I didn’t understand how a
school could so blatantly display acts of racism and get away with it. Maybe
because the black and Latino students had a more hateful and less-conforming
attitude when told to tuck their shirt in than the white students did or
perhaps because the staff were slightly racist but couldn’t admit it to
themselves? Whatever reason for their mistreatment towards non-white students,
it was wrong.
Reflection 1 The Impact of Cultural Capital
From personal experience, I
can say that class or gender-based cultural capital has impacted my education
and also the education of my peers. An idea in the article "Bourdieu on Education and Social Cultural Reproduction" by Roy Nash proposes that working
class students would not benefit as much as middle-class students if they were
in the same classroom because they would feel alienated (Nash, 1990, p. 435). I do not feel that
this is a plausible statement because benefitting from education comes down to
the desire the student has to be successful, but it reminds me of an example of
what I perceive as class-based cultural capital. At my high school, there were
no university prep courses offered, but at the other local high school there
was a program called the IB program, which was supposed to prepare students for
post-secondary education and even count as possible university credits. I never
had the opportunity to take the course because I couldn’t transfer to that
school due to transportation reasons. My own school did offer advanced
placement courses but they cost money, which my family could not afford. By offering
the free IB course, that high school possessed a lot of cultural capital by
providing students with higher education which would give those students more
educational assets. I feel as if this
impacted me because although I know that I am a smart and hard working student,
if my own high school had offered IB courses I, along with many other students,
could have benefitted greatly. It seemed as if that school wanted to have
class-based cultural capital by boasting that they have students that study at a
university level, insinuating higher class. Through my high school not offering
the IB program though, I feel as if my education has been impacted.
