Ethnic identity, children's perception of expectations of the teachers, and feelings about school of Mexican-American and White children

Many factors have been investigated to determine what contributes to Mexican American students' school dropout rate. Earlier studies focused on deficits in the culture and or the children themselves. More recent approaches focus on children's perceptions and understanding of stereotypes and how these are manifested in the school system. This dissertation is unique in that it attempted to better understand how the effect of Mexican American and White children's perceptions about teacher expectations influences their feelings about school, examining the possible mediating role of the strength of their ethnic identity development. The children were recruited at several local community organizations and centers in the city of Lubbock, Texas. The sample (134 Hispanic and 131 Anglo) included 265 children (124 boys and 141girls). A highly trained research assistant interviewed each child in one individual interview session (30 minutes). The main findings indicated that Hispanic children who rank ordered their ethnicity as less important than other personal descriptions, and White children who rank ordered their ethnicity as more important stated that they perceived Hispanics teachers to expect less ofHispanic children. Hispanic older children assigned more importance to ethnicity compared to Hispanic younger children, and overall Hispanic children assigned more importance to ethnicity compared to White children at all grades. Hispanic children's strength of ethnic identity was higher compared to White children at all grades, with 6th graders having slightly higher ethnic identity scores than 1st and 3rd graders. Other results revealed that children in the first grade reported liking school more than children in the upper grades. Girls reported having more positive teacher related feelings about school than boys did. For White children, the findings suggest that when the mother is more educated the child likes the school least. The most significant finding of the present study was that for Hispanic children. White teacher's expectation about a Hispanic child's performance was the strongest predictor of feelings about school.