Weighing In: Elementary-Age Students and the Debate on Attitudes toward School among Black Students

Abstract

Many of the prevailing theories concerning the relatively low academic performance of African American students tend to center on the attitudes of adolescents. Much less research attention has been paid to the attitudes of younger students. As a result, the image of black adolescents — who, like most American adolescents, exhibit oppositional attitudes — has come to represent much of what we know and take for granted about black students as a group. The findings of this study, based on data collected in an ethnographic study of two all-black elementary schools, suggest that black children begin school very much achievement-oriented and engaged with the process of schooling. These findings provide evidence that the school experience plays a significant role in the development of attitudes toward school.