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Dyan Watson

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Mica Pollock

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Next Steps/Future Direction of the Research

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Next Steps/Future Direction of the Research

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Pollack (2012) promotes multiple areas of further research in relation to this issue. Of most relevance to my researc are the following questions:

“How does the acceptance of deficit narratives influence student outcomes?

How are deficit narratives currently being challenged and countered?” (p.888).

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The research builds a case for teacher academic language and its impact on student comprehension, teacher beliefs about students and the profession, and teacher language about student abilities.
What is lacking in the reserach thus far is a clear thread from teacher beliefs --> teacher behaviors --> teacher talk --> impact on student outcomes.

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Student Culture - The customs, beliefs, actions, and language students present as a function of their racial and ethnic background

Teacher Discourse - (for the purposes of this research) The structured and unstructured conversations teachers have about students outside of the classroom setting

Urban Education - What do we mean when we say 'urban'? Follow the link for a short explanation of Dyan Watson's definition

Student Outcomes - The measurement of student engagement and academic acheivement

Teacher Perception - Founded, or unfounded, beliefs and assumptions teachers make about student abilities in light of their own cultural background and the cultural background of their students

Deficit Discourse - "‘Deficit discourse’ refers to disempowering patterns of thought, language and practice that represent people in terms of deficiencies and failures. It particularly refers to discourse that places responsibility for problems with the affected individuals or communities, overlooking the larger socio-economic structures in which they are embedded." - Source

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Why does a teacher’s perception of a student matter?

What background experiences do teachers bring to the table, not limited to their race and beliefs about students, that influence how they view students?

What narratives do teachers tell themselves and others about their students, particularly students of color?

How might these narratives reinforce a deficit model about African American students?

And lastly, how might those teacher narratives not only impact the teacher’s work, but student performance as well?

What is the relationship between biased or racialized teacher language about students and the academic performance of students of color?

How might teachers shift their language practices as a means to positively impact student performance and engagement?

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Title: The Stories We Tell: Negative Teacher Talk and its impact on Students
Date: March 1, 2020

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Students of color, particularly African American students, continue to under perform academically, compared to their peers as a whole.
National data tells a story about African American academic achievement and school engagement and make it worthwhile to take a closer look at how teacher talk about students may impact student outcomes. In what whys might teacher talk shape these academic and behavioral experiences? When we also take into consideration that most teachers in the United States do not come from the same backgrounds as the students they teach; the implications of the attitudes and beliefs teachers may hold about students of color becomes more significant (Pollack, 2012). Any relevant information that may help to shift the academic reality for students of color is a worthwhile endeavor. Students need strong teachers, access to relevant and rigorous curriculum and meaningful relationships that will help keep them in classrooms. While there is much to address here, this research seeks only to identify how ‘teacher talk’ about students contributes to student outcomes and how those teacher behaviors might be mitigated.

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Topic Description: How does negative teacher talk about students impact student engagement and acheivement?

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Topic Description: How does negative teacher talk about students impact student engagement and acheivement?

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This research is concerned with how teacher behaviors and beliefs manifest themselves into how teachers talk about their students and the impact that has on student academic achievement and engagement, in particular on African American students. Simply stated, in the examination of how teachers talk about their students, is there a correlation between the stories a teacher tells about his or her student and that student’s performance in school? For the purposes of this research, teacher talk, also referred to as teacher discourse, is limited to the conversations teachers have about students in structured (e.g. meetings) and unstructured (e.g. personal conversations) settings. Pollack (2012) defines these unstructured spaces as “casual, everyday teacher talk (including stories, comments, references, advice, gossip, etc.) about students” (p. 864). Pollack (2012) posits that these casual conversations teachers have about students are not only a reflection of, but also influence “people’s underlying beliefs and assumptions about diversity and “differences”” (p.864). The potentially negative or deficit stories teachers tell about students has the ability to impact students in ways that have yet to be fully examined. A student’s ability to fully invest in their education should be the concern of all educators. If how educators talk about African American students impedes their achievement or access, then we as a body of educators must find a remedy.

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What impact does negative ‘teacher talk’ about students have on student academic performance and school engagement?

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My interest in this topic is guided by two statements that I wrote on index cards six years ago: ‘how we talk to children matters’ and ‘how we talk about children matters’. How teachers interact relationally with students is something I’ve witnessed the triumphs and pitfalls of for years and it has been a professional and personal concern for the majority of my career. This is a critical part of our practice that we often overlook in favor of addressing more concrete aspects of teaching.  Curriculum and instruction are worthwhile studies, but alongside the efforts we pour into building instructional capacity, having a genuine practical understanding of how the stories we tell ourselves and other educators about our students impacts student learning and engagement is important. The goal of this research is to continue the connection between teacher discourse and the academic performance of students of color.
I believe it’s critical to better prepare and inform teachers about the impact their words have and set the stage so teachers can unpack habits that may be detrimental to student growth and help them and future teachers develop the discourse habits that will be most beneficial to creating safe and engaging learning spaces for students. Current and future practitioners would benefit from a clear understanding of how the conversations they have about students’ race, culture, and abilities impacts the students themselves, their engagement and academic achievement.