A Case Study of Teachers’ Perceptions of School Desegregation and the Redistribution of Social and Academic Capital

Abstract

This case study gauges the perceptions of teachers to the “harm and benefit thesis” of Coleman’s social-capital hypothesis. The study uses data from one de facto segregated southern school system that hastily implemented a court order in 2000. The study collects the perceptions of teachers at five predominantly middle-class White schools that received 460 lower socioeconomic status African American students ordered bussed when their inner-city schools were closed. Sixty-percent of the teachers feel that the African American students are better off in the White schools. However, only 11% feel that the White students are better off than before the busing. Open-ended responses reveal that most teacher comments are negative, with fully 40% of teachers specifically indicating that busing had increased discipline problems. The study findings undermine the notion that transferring Black students to majority White schools is necessarily a superior pedagogical strategy.