Doctoral Dissertation Research: Race, Achievement and Trust in Student-Teacher Relationships

美国教育领域的种族不平等由来已久。这段历史最持久的表现是种族成就差距。这个项目将从种族隔离、高度贫困学校的黑人学生的角度来解决种族成就差距问题。更具体地说，本研究考察了信任如何塑造他们与教师关系的质量和他们的教育成果。本研究的前提是信任可以成为改善弱势学生学习体验和学习成绩的杠杆。先前的研究表明，信任是有效和有凝聚力的学校社区的重要组成部分。然而，现有的研究大多没有从学生的角度考虑信任问题。信任应该成为对教育中的种族不平等和更广泛的青年不平等感兴趣的研究人员关注的一个话题，因为研究表明，普遍存在的不信任情绪会巩固由更大的中观和宏观力量引发的劣势。认识到信任在塑造一个人中的力量吗？这是一项关于黑人年轻人倾向于信任他们的老师（即学生）的研究。教师信任)是他们的教育成果和未来福祉的潜在重要决定因素。本论文的目的有三个方面。首先，这项工作着手调查信任对学生个人和学校的学术影响。其次，本研究将研究学生对教师不信任的原因，并揭示信任与学生成绩之间的联系机制。最后，通过关注青年，本研究将推进社会科学文献的信任，这是迄今为止一直专注于成人的经验。为了实现这些目标，这项混合方法的研究将分两个阶段进行。第一阶段需要对纽约市公立学校的调查和行政数据进行定量分析。这一分析将阐明学生与学生之间的关系。教师在学校层面的信任和成就，并将为研究的第二阶段确定比较案例研究学校。第二阶段需要对纽约市四所公立高中的48名学生和20名教育工作者进行半结构化的深度访谈。这些访谈将允许在人际层面上检查信任。虽然本研究以师生关系为中心，但它将提供对青年信任和不平等过程的见解，这些过程可以应用于其他机构环境（例如，司法系统）。研究结果还将强调教育工作者和其他权威人士如何利用信任作为更好地吸引社会边缘青年的工具。

Racial inequality in education has a long history in the United States. The most persistent manifestation of this history is the racial achievement gap. This project will address the racial achievement gap from the vantage point of black students in racially segregated, high-poverty schools. More specifically, this study examines how trust shapes the quality of their relationships with teachers and their educational outcomes. This research is guided by the premise that trust can be a lever for improving the schooling experiences and academic performance of disadvantaged students. Prior studies demonstrate that trust is a salient component of effective and cohesive school communities. However, much of the existing research on this topic fails to consider trust from the perspective of students. Trust should be a topic of concern for researchers interested in racial inequality in education and youth inequality more broadly, since research suggests that pervasive feelings of distrust can cement disadvantage initiated by larger meso-and marco-level forces. Recognizing the power of trust in shaping one?s life chances, a study of black young people's propensity to trust their teachers (i.e., student?teacher trust) is warranted as a potentially significant determinant of their educational outcomes and future well-being.The aims of this dissertation are threefold. First, this work sets out to investigate the academic consequences of trust both for individual students and schools. Second, this work will examine the causes of students' (dis)trust in their teachers and reveal the mechanisms linking trust to student achievement. Finally, by focusing on youth, this study will advance the social science literature on trust, which to date has been preoccupied with the adult experience. To address these aims, this mixed-method study will proceed in two phases. Phase one entails a quantitative analysis of survey and administrative data on New York City (NYC) public schools. This analysis will illuminate the relationship between student?teacher trust and achievement at the school-level and will identify comparative case study schools for phase two of the study. Phase two entails semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 48 students and 20 educators across four NYC public high schools. These interviews will permit an examination of trust on the interpersonal level. While this study is centered on the student-teacher relationship, it will provide insight into processes of youth trust and inequality that can be applied to other institutional settings (e.g., the justice system). Study findings will also highlight how educators and other authority figures can harness trust as a tool for better engaging youth on the social margins.