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

教育中的种族不平等在美国有着悠久的历史。这段历史最持久的表现是种族成就差距。该项目将从种族隔离、高度贫困学校的黑人学生Vantage解决种族成绩差距问题。更具体地说，本研究探讨了信任如何塑造他们与教师的关系和他们的教育成果的质量。本研究的前提是，信任可以改善学校的经验和学业成绩的弱势学生的杠杆。先前的研究表明，信任是有效和有凝聚力的学校社区的一个重要组成部分。然而，现有的许多关于这一主题的研究未能从学生的角度考虑信任。信任应该是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话题，因为研究表明，普遍的不信任感可以巩固更大的中观和宏观层面力量引发的劣势。认识到信任在塑造一个人方面的力量？一项关于黑人年轻人信任老师的倾向的研究（即，学生？教师信任是影响教师教育成果和未来幸福感的重要因素。首先，这项工作着手调查的学术后果的信任都为个别学生和学校。其次，本研究将探讨学生对教师信任（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，通过关注青少年，这项研究将推进社会科学文献的信任，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之间的关系？在学校一级，教师的信任和成就，并将确定比较案例研究学校的第二阶段的研究。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入访谈。这些访谈将允许在人际层面上检查信任。虽然这项研究的中心是师生关系，它将提供洞察青年信任和不平等的过程，可以应用于其他机构设置（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.