”fifty" ..--.. --......-_-._.‘.— __. m7 ,, ........ SELECTED PERSONAL ATTITUDES OF INNER-CITY TEACHERS TOWARD LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES IN RELATION TO DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY WILLARD: E. ROBERSON 1972 7 4 ""’ LIBRARY ‘7 Michigan State ~ University ”A This is to certify that the thesis entitled .. «1" SELECTED 'PERSONAT. ATTITUDES OF INNER- CITY TEACHERS TOWARD LOW-INCOME . COMMUNITIES IN RELATION TO " DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN presented by Willard E. Roberson has been accepted towards fulfillment *‘ "” of the requirements for Ph.D. degreein Department of Adminis- tration and Higher Edu- cation 1. Date 0-7639 DIP“; BY ‘WH‘WAC & SUNS’ BOOK BINDERY INC. LIBRARY amoaas “I ' ”MIAMI! man I: IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I 3 1293 104 ABSTRACT SELECTED PERSONAL ATTITUDES OF INNER- CITY TEACHERS TOWARD LOW‘INCOME COMMUNITIES IN RELATION TO DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN BY Willard E. Roberson Purpose of the Study The basic purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a significant relationship between demographic variables of inner-city elementary school teachers and their attitudes toward disadvantaged com- munities in relation to attitudes toward children they teach from disadvantaged communities as measured by the Community‘Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Methodology The design of this study, which was comparative and descriptive in nature, sought to analyze the atti- tudes of urban elementary school teachers toward low- income communities in relation to their attitudes toward the children they teach from low-income communities. Willard E. Roberson Three instruments, the Personal Data Sheet, the Community Attitude Scale, and the Minnesota Teacher Atti- tude Inventory were used to gather the data for this study. The Personal Data Sheet was utilized to gather appropriate demographic data which served to establish the independent variables tested. The Community Attitude Sgalngas designed to measure the participants' degree of progressive attitudes on community life in such areas as community improvement, living conditions, and business. The Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory was the instru- ment used to determine the teachers' attitude toward children they teach in the classroom. In an effort to validate the results on the MEAT, personal interviews were scheduled with teachers, but due to the lack of any adequate teacher complicity, it was impossible to carry out the interviews. The collected data on the sixty-three teachers teaching in an urban-industrial educational park, within a Michigan school system were coded by each independent variable and punched on data-processing cards. These cards were subsequently used in a one-way analysis of variance program (UNEQl), through the IBM 3600 computer at Michigan State University. Major Findings Hypothesis l.--Age was a key variable in deter- mining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes Willard E. Roberson toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live. However, the second portion of Hypothesis 1 shows that age was not a key variable in determining whether or not teachers have harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis 2.--Total years of teaching experience was not a significant variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward dis- advantaged communities in which the children they teach live, or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged chil- dren they teach. Hypothesis 3.--Marita1 status was not a signifi- cant variable in determining whether or not teachers have progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live or harmonious atti- tudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis 4.--Academic degree held, when used as a variable was not essential in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live or har- monious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis S.--Teaching level when used as a variable was not influential in determining whether or Willard E. Roberson not teachers have progressive attitudes toward disad- vantaged communities in which the children they teach live or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged chil- dren they teach. Hypothesis 6.--Undergraduate school attended, when used as a variable was not significant in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live. However, the undergraduate school attended variable was significant in determining whether or not teachers hold harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis 7.--Fathers' occupational status was not an influential variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live or har- monious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis 8.--Fathers' educational status was not an essential variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live, or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they ‘ teach. Willard E. Roberson Hypothesis 9.--Residential background was not a significant variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live, or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis lO.--Race was not an essential variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live, or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis ll.--Northern or southern geographical location of rearing was not a key variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live. However, the northern or southern geo- graphical location of rearing variable was significant in determining whether or not teachers hold harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. SELECTED PERSONAL ATTITUDES OF INNER- CITY TEACHERS TOWARD LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES IN RELATION TO DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN BY 1T ,R Willard EYLRoberson A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Administration and Higher Education 1972 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For the encouraging assistance and direction given on the doctoral program and the dissertation, I am deeply appreciative of the patience, suggestions, criticisms, and most importantly, the friendship, of Dr. Richard Featherstone, who served as chairman of this study. A very special thank you is extended to Dr. James McKee and Dr. James Costar for their assistance as members of the committee. Appreciation is also extended to Dr. Clyde M. Campbell and the Mott Leadership Program staff for their efforts in making the Mott intern experience so valuable and unique. The financial assistance, provided from the Mott Foundation, is likewise appreciated. My sincere thanks are offered to Dr. Larry Lezotte for his assistance with the statistical design of the study and the analysis of data. Finally, to my wife, Phyllis, and my son, Eric, I owe my most sincere gratitude for making the innumer- able sacrifices which were necessary for the successful completion of this study. The understanding and persis- tent encouragement they provided made the effort a worth- while endeavor. ii Chapter I. II. III. IV. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . Statement of the Problem Rationale for the Study Hypotheses of the Study Design of the Study . Definition of Terms . . Delimitations of the Study Organization of the Thesis REVIEW OF LITERATURE . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . The Nature of Urban Poverty . . Urban Poverty and Its Effect on Children. Teacher Attitudes Toward Urban Dis- advantaged Children . . . . DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY . . . . Introduction . . . . . Selection of the Urban School . Population and Sample . . . . Statement of Testable Hypotheses Instrumentation . . . . . . Personal Data Form . . . . Community Attitude Scale . . Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory Procedures Used in the Collection Data 0 I O C O O I Statistical Analysis . . . . PRESENTATION AND ANALYSES OF DATA . Introduction . . . . . . Testing of Hypotheses . . . . smary O I I O I O O O 0 iii of Page 12 16 18 18 20 20 22 30 39 58 58 58 61 64 64 64 65 67 73 75 75 75 94 Chapter Page V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . 95 smary O O O O O O O O O O O 95 Purpose of the Study . . . . . . 95 Limitations of the Study. . . . . 95 Review of the Literature. . . . . 96 Design of the Study . . . . . . 97 Findings of the Study . . . . . . 98 Further Results. . . . . . . . 104 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . 104 Implications. . . . . . . . . . 107 Recommendations. . . . . . . . . 111 Recommendations for Further Study. . . 113 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 APPENDICES Appendix A. Demographic Data Form. . . . . . . . 123 B. Community Attitude Scale. . . . . . . 125 C. Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. . . 130 iv Table 3-1. 4-1. LIST OF TABLES Page Distribution of Subjects by Demographic Variables . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Att1tude Inventory fo or each of the Tfiree Age Groups 0 O O O O O O I O O O 77 Univariate Analysis of Variance--Age . . . 77 Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory f6r eaEfi'ofPEhejTHree Groups Regard1ng Total Years of Teaching Experience . . . . . . . . . . 78 Univariate Analysis of Variance--Total Years of Teaching Experience. . . . . 78 Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota TeaEher Att1tude Inventory for each’ of EHe Four Groups Regarding Marital Status . . . . . 80 Univariate Analysis of Variance--Marital Status 0 I O O O O O O O O C O 80 Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Att1tude Inventory for eaCh of the TEEee Academic Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Univariate Analysis of Variance--Academic Degree Held . . . . . . . . . . 81 Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and Minnesota Teacher IAttitudel Invento_y for each of the: Two TeaCh1ng LeveI* Groups . . . . . . . . . . 83 Table 4-10. 4-20 0 4-21. Univariate Analysis of Variance-~Teaching Level 0 O O O O O O O O O O I Mean Scores on the CommunityiAttitude Scale and the Minnesota TeaEher Attitude Inventory for each of the Three Under- graduate Schools Attended Groups . . . Univariate Analysis of Variance-~Under- graduate School Attended . . . . . Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota TeaEher Att1tude Inventoryfor each of the Four Fathers' OccupatIOnal Status Groups . . . . . Univariate Analysis of Variance-~Fathers' Occupational Status . . . . . . . Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for eaEh of the Four Fathers' ucat1onal Status Groups . . . . . Univariate Analysis of Variance--Fathers' Educational Status . . . . . . . Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota TeaEher Attitude Inventory for each of the Three Resi- entia Background Groups . . . . . Univariate Analysis of Variance--Resi- dential Background. . . . . . . . Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for each of tfie Two Race Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . Univariate Analysis of Variance--Race . . Mean Scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota TeaEher Attitude Inventory fOr each of the? Two Geograph- ical Location of Rearing Groups . . . Univariate Analysis of Variance-~Geograph- ical Location of Rearing . . . . . vi Page 83 84 84 86 86 87 87 89 89 9O 9O 93 93 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Scatter Diagram of Scores on the MinnesotggTeacher Attitude Inventory and the Community Attitude Scale . . . . 92 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In many communities throughout the nation, public schools have been torn apart by racial strife, decentral- ization, community control, taxpayer revolts, student protests, and teacher strikes. The issues mentioned are just a few of the many arthritic conditions hindering the idealistic goal of education--educating every child from age 6 to 16. Therefore, most educators recognize and are continually conscious of the fact that our success in educating all children from age 6 to 16 will be somewhat limited by the sheer magnitude of the task. As a con- sequence, education suffers from an enormity of criticism, even from the ranks of its teachers. Moreover, critics of education regard no facet of the system to be immune from their charges; and, their criticisms touch all educators, from the Commissioner of the United States Office of Education, to the class- room teacher. However, when criticism descends on the classroom teacher, it frequently rests most heavily on certain fixed attitudes the teacher has about disadvantaged or low—income communities, and the children he or she teaches from those communities. Packard elaborates on this issue to an extent by defining the type of people that comprise a disadvantaged or low-income community when he says that . . . the real lower class are the people everyone else looks down upon. They live in the decrepit slum areas that just about every American town has. They usually leave school as soon as legally allowed, if not before. They work erratically at unskilled or semi-skilled tasks, and try to find their pleasure where they can.1 Packard's findings are corroborated by Hollings- head's description of the lower class in Elmtown as seen through the eyes of their superiors: They have no respect for the law, or themselves. They enjoy their shacks and huts along the river and across the tracks and love their dirty, smoky, low-class dives and taverns. Whole families--children, in-laws, mistresses, and all--live in one shack. This is the crime class that produces the delin- quency and sexual promiscuity that fills the paper. Their interests lie in sex and its perversion. The girls are always pregnant: the families are huge, incestual relations occur frequently. They are not inspired by education, and only a few are able to make any attainments along this line. . . . If they work, they work at very menial jobs. . . . 2 Thus, not only is the disadvantaged or lower class faced with the most dire living conditions but they are 1Vance Packard, The Status Seekers (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1959), p. 56. 2August B. Hollingshead, Elmtown's Youth (New York: Wiley, 1949), pp. 110-11. also plagued by stereotypes and fixed attitudes that other groups or classes develOp and display toward them and the community they live in. Attitudes have been defined in various ways. According to Stern there seems to be agreement on at least four points concerning attitudes. l. Attitudes are socially formed. They are based on cultural experience and training and are revealed in cultural products. The study of life history data reveals the state of mind of the individual and of the social group from which he derives, concerning the values of the society in which he lives. 2. Attitudes are orientations toward others and toward objects. 3. Attitudes are selective. They provide for discrimination between alternative courses of action and introduce consistency of response in social situations of an otherwise diverse nature. 4. Attitudes reflect a disposition to an activity, not a verbalization. They are organizations of incipient activities, of actions not necessarily completed, and represent therefore the underlying dispositional or motivational urge.3 These four definitions form a basis for measuring attitudes of teachers. Although measurement is very dif- ficult, much of teacher actions within the classroom can be defined in the terms of these four ideas. For it is evident that attitudes are socially formed, oriented toward others, are selective, and reflect in actions toward others. 3George Stern, "Measuring Noncognitive Variables in Research on Teaching," Handbook of Research on Teach- in (washington, D.C.: National Education AssociatiOn, [9%3), p. 404. Citron further concludes that the . . . children sense the deep attitudes, spoken and silent, the real feelings. They see who is honored and who is dishonored. They hear tone and intonation, catch nuance and adOpt attitudes which adults may be unaware they (the adults) carry or unaware they transfer to children.4 Washburne and Heil conclude that "teachers who deal with the same children every day have a definite and determinable influence upon the attitudinal growth of their pupils."5 The teacher is a vital element in the educational _ process of children, therefore the attitudes teachers display toward children from disadvantaged communities are very important. The assumption can be made from Sexton's6 study of social class and income, that teachers can and do form attitudes about children and their achievements, if they know the type of community the child lives in, the class status and the parents' income level. Sexton states that: Social class is also a fairly accurate predictor of success in school. If you know a child's class status, his family income, his parents' educational 4Abraham F. Citron, The Rightness of Whiteness (Detroit, Mich.: Ohio Regional Educational Laboratory Publication, February, 1969), p. 12. SC. washburne and C. Heil, "What Characteristics of Teachers Affect Children's Growth?" The School Review, 1960, p. 426. 6Patricia Cayo Sexton, Education and Income (New York: Viking Press, Inc., 1961). levels, you can quite accurately predict what will happen to him in school and how successful he will Silberman corroborates the assumption drawn from Sexton's study in his statement of three primary findings concerning teachers' attitudes toward children. 1. Teachers' attitudes are generally revealed in their actions, in spite of many forces operating to contain their expression. 2. Different attitudes are translated in different ways. 3. Students who receive transmissions are aware of most behavioral expressions of their teacher's attitudes.8 Thus, schools are a major instrument of sociali- zation, and schools reflect the best and the worst atti- tudes in the society as such, teachers pass through a certifying institution which socializes them to consider certain behavior patterns and attitudes as normal. How- ever, teachers must begin to evaluate their attitudes and behavior on the basis of their impact on children. Statement of the Problem The problem in this study is to determine if there is a significant relationship between demographic variables of inner-city school teachers and their atti- tudes toward disadvantaged or low-income communities, 7Ibid., p. 40. 8Melvin L. Silberman, "Behavioral Expression of Teachers' Attitudes Toward Elementary School Students," Journal of Educational Psychology, LX (October, 1969), 365467. and whether the attitudes teachers form regarding dis- advantaged communities correlate significantly with the way in which teachers feel and behave toward those chil- dren they teach from disadvantaged communities. Although the problem has several elements, that should be considered, such as (l) demographic variables, (2) socio-psychological variables, (3) contact variables, and (4) knowledge variables, only selected demographic variables will be measured. Rationale for the Study_ The need for research on teacher attitudes inten- sified during the past decade, because of the increased failure of schools to educate the children from disad- vantaged or low-income communities. The fact that schools were not successful in educating children from disadvantaged communities, con- tributed tremendously to the volatile climate existing between school and community. For example, teachers criticize parents for the lack of involvement in the educational process of their children: and, parents vehemently retorted that biased teacher attitudes help create a syndrome of failure and rebellion in the urban child's school experience. Thus, according to Kernesky and Melby, "the school is the final destructive force in the life of many children."9 However, most research and reports have concentrated on the attitudes of indi- viduals toward communism.and the attitudes of indi- viduals toward the Democratic principles. Some of the research has also dealt with the attitudes of children towards teachers. The present study deals with an area neglected by most researchers--the attitudes of teachers toward disadvantaged communities in relation to their attitude and behavior towards children they teach from disadvantaged communities. Thus, it is more understandable, if it were not so before, that it is important for teachers to be given the chance to become aware and conscious of their atti- tudes and behavior towards the disadvantaged communities in relation to their attitude and behavior towards chil- dren they teach from disadvantaged communities. How- ever, most teachers come through classrooms similar to those in which they now teach. Research on teacher attitudes can facilitate the training and proper placement of teachers. Therefore, those teachers who are cognizant of their attitude and behavior toward children increase the probability of creating an effective educational program. Davis cor- roborates the fact that teachers should be cognizant of 9Vasil M. Kerensky and Ernest O. Melby, Education II--The Social Imperative (Midland, Mich.: PendeII”Pub- Iishing Company, 1971), p. 27. their attitudes when he cites two significant findings regarding the relationship between particular attitudes held by the teacher and effective learning: 1. All school-learning is stimulated or hindered by the teacher's feelings toward the student. Each must have faith and trust in each other. 2. All school-learning is influenced by the cultural attitudes which the teacher has toward the stu- dent and which the student experiences toward the teacher. In rejecting the cultural background, the teacher often appears to reject the student himself as a human being. In return, and as early as the first grade, the student may reject the culture of the school and of the teacher. Both teacher and pupil must learn to respect the ability and position of the other.10 This issue to an extent was investigated by Rosenthal and Jacobson. They conducted a study at a San Francisco school with a large student population of low socioeconomic status Mexican Americans. The teachers were told in the lower grades that certain children (ran- domly picked by the researchers) were "potential academic ll Achievement tests were administered to the spurters." supposed "spurters" and to a control group at the begin— ning of the school year and several times during the next two years. Results of this study indicate the "children from whom teachers expected greater intellectual 10A. Davis, "Changing the Culture of the Disad- vantaged Student," in Proceedings of the AHEA WOrkshop, working With Low Income Families (Washington, D.C.: American Home_EEonomics Association, 1965), pp. 22-23. 11R. Rosenthal and Lenore F. Jacobson, "Teacher Expectations for the Disadvantaged," Scientific American, CCXVIII (April, 1968), 22. gains showed such gains."12 The gains were greatest in the first and second grades, and "the average gain of the randomly picked 'spurters' was better than 27 test points."l3 After the end of the first year, the "spurters" were characterized by their teachers . . . as having a better chance of being successful in later life and as being happier, more curious, and more interesting than other children. There was also a tendency for the designated children to be seen as more appealing, better adjusted, and more affectionate, and as less in need of social approval. In short, the children for whom intellectual growth was expected became more alive and autonomous intel- lectually or were at least so perceived by their teachers.14 The study conducted by Rosenthal carries major implications for modern educational practice. In Rosen- thal's words: If it could be learned how (the teacher) is able to bring about dramatic improvements in the performance of her pupils without formal changes in her methods of teaching, other teachers could be taught to do the same. If further research showed that it is possible to find teachers whose untrained educational style does for their pupils what our teachers did for the special children, the prospect would arise that a combination of SOphisticated selection of teachers would give all children a boost toward getting as much as they possibly can out of their schooling.15 12Ibid. 13Ibid. 14Ibid. 15Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, P alion Winston, in the Classroom (New York: Holt, Rinehart and I968), p. 20. 10 Rosenthal and Jacobson's study which encompassed "low socioeconomic status" Mexican Americans, demonstrated how the attitudes and expectations of teachers influenced the educational advancement and emotional adjustment of these children; these facts do have some meaning for the present study. Teachers have attitudes where their chil- dren are concerned, and to expect other than this from them is to deny teachers the right to be human. However, it is unfortunate that teacher attitudes and expectations are quite often influenced by geographical, racial, and class stereotypes. Torrance16 hypothesized that the teacher's atti- tudes are intervening variables in the effectiveness of the learning process. His results show that although the teacher may try to inculcate the "right" attitudes, the teacher's "real" attitudes will show through. Sil- berman supports this hypothesis when he stated, " . . . even when the attitude is unconscious the teacher cannot avoid communicating it to the children in some way or other."17 16E. Paul Torrance, "Teacher Attitudes and Pupil Perception," The Journal of Teacher Education, XI (March, 1960), 97-102. 17Charles E. Silberman, Crisis in Black and White (New York: Random House, 1964). '11 Thus, according to Arthur Pearl: The teacher's responsibility is to teach but instead we engage in self-fulfilling prophecy. we decide that certain people cannot be educated. We refuse to educate them; they grow up uneducated and we pride ourselves on our exceedingly predictive index.18 The effect teacher attitudes have on disadvantaged inner-city children helps to explain a failure of American education. I Furthermore, the attitudes teachers have towards the disadvantaged or low-income communities is closely related to their attitudes towards disadvantaged children and, therefore, has great impact upon the effectiveness of the child's educational experience. In summary, tenets which fashion the need for this study are seen as having significant implications for those who are concerned with the nature of human com- munication, the improvement of staff selection, and the utilization of pertinent information concerning ethnic and regional attitudes of teachers. To a degree some emphasis is placed on the fact that the findings will have implication for an improved educational experience for disadvantaged children from low-income communities. Hopefully, the findings from this study will assist the following individuals: (1) school adminis- trators, (2) community school directors, (3) teachers, 18Arthur Pearl, Educational Change: Why--How-- For Whom (San Francisco: San Francisco Human Rights Com- mission, 1968). (Compiled from speeches.) 12 (4) children, (5) parents, and (6) the Mott Program directors. Moreover, if teacher attitudes are viewed as being a vital element in education, such research is necessary. Hypotheses of the Study The major objective of this study is to determine whether there is a significant relationship between demo- graphic variables of inner-city school teachers and their attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in relation to their attitudes toward children they teach from disad- vantaged communities. The following hypotheses will be investigated: Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between teachers' age and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale (CAS) and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory (ETAI). Hypothesis 2: There is no significant relationship between teachers' total years of teaching experience and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their'attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Communit Atti- tude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Enven- tory . Hypothesis 3: There is no significant relationship between teachers' marital status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their 13 attitudes toward children they teach from those com- munities, as measured by the CommunityAttitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 4: There is no significant relationship between teachers' academic degree held and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those com- munities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 5: There is no significant relationship between teachers' teaching levels and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their atti- tudes toward children they teach from those communi- ties, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 6: There is no significant relationship between teachers' undergraduate school attended and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 7: There is no significant relationship between teachers' fathers' occupational status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Communit Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitudexfnventory. Hypothesis 8:. There is no significant relationship between teachers' fathers' educational status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to 14 their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Aptitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 9: There is no significant relationship between teachers' residential background and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those com- munities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher AttiEfidE‘ifiventory. Hypothesis 10: There is no significant relationship between teachers' race and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher—Attitude—ifiventory. Hypothesis 11: There is no significant relationship between teachers' northern or southern geographical location of rearing and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged com- munities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Communit Attitudes Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Design of the Study The study was designed to analyze the attitudes of inner-city school teachers toward disadvantaged or low-income communities in relation to their attitudes toward the children they teach from those disadvantaged communities. Frequently, a major problem in studies dealing with the measurement of attitudes emanates from the lack 15 of valid instruments. However, the Community Attitude Scale, developed by C. Bosworth,19 and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory, developed by walter W. Cook, 0 Carroll H. Leeds, and Robert Callis2 are used in this study to determine whether there is a significant relationship between teacher attitudes toward disad- vantaged communities and their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities. The Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory question- naire will be used to interview teachers regarding their attitudes toward children they teach from disadvantaged communities. The interviews will take place a half-hour prior to the opening of school and a half-hour after school closes. The basic procedure employed in the design of this study included the selection of the sample, the collection of the data by administering the instrument to the subjects, the analysis of the data in terms of the objectives of the study, and the formulation of discussions and recommendations which could be 19C. Bosworth, "A Study of the Develoment and the Validation of a Measure of Citizens' Attitudes Toward Progress and Game Variables Related Thereto" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1954). 20Walter W. Cook, Carroll H. Leeds, and Robert Callis, The Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory, Manual (New York: The Psychological Corporation). 16 appropriately drawn from the research results. The study is comparative and descriptive in that it sought to obtain data about a phenomenon in education. Investigation substantiates the fact that a preponderance of studies dealing with the attitudinal measure utilize the .05 significance level when measur- ing attitudes. Therefore, the hypotheses within the present study may bear out significance only at the .05 level and beyond. ‘Thus, in the present study the level of rejection for the hypotheses was established at the .05 level. A Demographic Questionnaire used to supplement the Community Attitude Scale and Minnesota Teacher Atti- tude Inventory was developed especially for the purposes of this study. The study is designed to determine whether attitudes toward disadvantaged communities and children are significantly affected by such demographic variables as age, educational level, and geographical situation. Definition of Terms The following terms are Operationally defined in order to avoid semantic confusion concerning this study: Demographic Variables.-—are specific personal characteristics of an individual (i.e., sex, age, geo- graphic background, etc.). l7 Inner-City School System.-is a complex of public supported schools characterized by a core of schools with a predominantly minority (Black and Chicano) stu- dent population. Disadvantaged Children.--are those children who lack the necessary social skills and values due to eco- nomic deprivation and educational retardation. These disadvantages alienate them from the mainstream of society. Children who have not had exposure to language, as it is Spoken by the educated adults in our land, who have not had exposure to written or pictorial materials ' that will assist them in learning, and those who have not had access to the other types of experiences that will equip them with a positive and confident attitude toward learning are designated as being disadvantaged children. Attitude.--refers to an emotional stereotype. A generalized reaction for or against a specific psy- chological object.21 Inner-City Teachers.--are teachers who teach in the public schools of an urban community. 21L. Thurston and E. J. Chave, The Measurement of Attitude (Chicago: The University of CEiCago Press, 1929). 18 Disadvantaged or Low-Income Community.--refers to the employed or unemployed residents of a community who receive $3,700 or less a year. Delimitations of the Study The delimitations of this study are as follows: This study deals only with the phases of the program from pre-kindergarten to fourth grade and inclusive, implemented by certificated staff. This study is concerned only with the analysis of the attitudes inner-city school teachers have toward disadvantaged communities in relation to their attitudes toward the children from those communities. No attempt is made to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers or programs in terms of structure or outcome. No attempt is made to postulate ideal teacher attitudes. No attempt is made to postulate an ideal instructional situation or setting in relation to the attitudes teachers have about disadvantaged communities and children they teach from those communities. Organization of the Thesis The thesis is organized as follows: Chapter I presents the rationale for the study, the statement of the problem, the description of the 19 data-gathering instruments, the limitations, the hypothe- ses to be tested, the terms pertinent to the study, and an overview of the thesis. In Chapter II, related research and literature pertinent to the attitudes of teachers have been reviewed. This chapter contains relevant investigations upon which the present study is based. In Chapter III, a description of the methodology and procedures of the study are included. Information is included on instrumentation and the statistical pro- cedure used in the analysis of the data. In Chapter IV, the research data and results of the analysis of the data are presented. The testing of hypotheses appear in this chapter. In Chapter V, a summary of the results, con- clusions, and recommendations of the study are included. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Introduction The purpose of a review of related literature is to survey the profusion of books, publications, and articles upon which the present research is based. The author will not attempt to report on all of the liter- ature. Only pertinent research contributing knowledge related to the study will be investigated. A survey of the literature indicates that critics of education continue to deplore the fact that the public schools have not been as perceptive as they might have been in regard to the problem of educating the low-income or the disadvantaged child. Some critics of education are of the opinion that schools reflect the attitudes of the society they serve. This point is corroborated by warner, Havighurst, and Loeb: "The American School . . . reflects the socio-economic order in everything that it does, in what it teaches, whom it teaches, who does the 20 21 teaching, who does the hiring and firing of the teachers and what the children learn in and out of the classroom."1 Fortunately, the earlier research done by warner, Havighurst, and Loeb was not ignored. Since that time the problem has received a considerable amount of attention and support from the Federal Government. The Federal Government showed its concern by enacting such legislation as the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Elementary-Secondary Education Act of 1965, and the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966. Furthermore, there had been frequent allusion to the need to eradicate poverty in former President Johnson's description of the "Great Society" and the function education must play to achieve that goal.2 In order to investigate the different areas of this study it is imperative, for the sake of clarity, to delimit the review to three areas: (1) The Nature of Urban Poverty, (2) Urban Poverty and Its Effect Upon Children, and (3) Teacher Attitudes Toward Urban Dis- advantaged Children. 1W. Lloyd warner, Robert J. Havighurst, and Martin Loeb, Who Shall Be Educated? The Challenge of Unequal Opportunities (New Yofk: Harper and Row, 1944), p. 11. 2Frederick W. Bertolaet and Raphael O. Nystrand, "Urban Educational Problems," Engyclopedia of Educational Research, 1969. 22 The Nature of Urban Poverty The literature indicates that areas containing a higher incidence of disadvantaged or low-income families than are found in other communities, is due in part to racial discrimination, and mostly economic and social deprivation.3 During 1970, tremendous interest was focused on those living in urban areas who were able to work but whose actual incomes were intolerably low because of chronic unemployment or intermittent unemployment, low wage rate, or a combination of both. This popu- lation includes the groups commonly referred to as "disadvantaged," "hard core," "ghetto," and "minority." And within these groups many families have total incomes below the poverty threshold, approximately $3,700 a year for a family of four. Though the majority of poor were white, the incidence of poverty was heaviest in black and the other minority groups. The Bureau of the Census reports that in 1967, in the central cities of metropolitan areas, the number of poor whites (4.7 million) exceeded the number of poor Negroes (3.5 million) by about 35 per cent. But the proportion of Negroes who were poor (30 per cent) was three times that of whites (10 per cent).4 And the percentage for Spanish-Americans, who are mainly counted as whites, was even higher than for blacks. Out of the total number of poor, about 5 10.7 million (42 per cent) were children under 18. 3Ralph H. Rogers, "Health Characteristics of School Children Aged 8 to 9, in a Socio-Economic Poverty Area and Their Relation to Age and Achievement" (unpub- lished Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1971). 4"Training and Jobs for the Urban Poor," A State- ment on National Policy, by the Research and Policy Com- mittee Efrthe Committee for Economic Development, July, 1970, pp. 21-22. 5U.S., Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Consumer Income Series, P-60, No. 68, December 31, I969. 23 The single most astonishing fact included in the figures referred to above is that many of the families indicated as being disadvantaged or low income have employed heads of the family. Willie provides additional evidence to support the fact that the heads of low-income families are employed when he states that: A 1963 survey of 1,000 households in the four square mile area surrounding Cardoza High School in the District of Columbia revealed that 190 of the house- holds have "employed" heads who earn less than $3,000 per year. In most instances, the head is an unskilled worker who continues to work even though his earnings are insufficient to support his family. His the lot of the employed poor.6 The Research and Policy Committee for Economic DevelOpment further reports: About 30 per cent of poor white families, but only 11 per cent of poor Negro families, were headed by persons over 64 years old. In the under 65 group, 60 per cent of poor white families were headed by males and 40 per cent by females; with Negro fami- lies the proportions were reversed, 62 per cent were headed by females and 38 per cent by males.7 Thus these figures indicate that a relatively high prOportion of white poverty is associated with age, and a relatively high proportion of black poverty is associated with fatherless families. In investigating the literature on the socio- economic lower class, it becomes quite clear that there 6Charles V. Willie, "Education, Deprivation and Alienation," Journal of Negro Education, XXXIV (Summer, 1965), 210. 7Training and Jobs for the Urban Poor, 9p. cit. 24 are certain distinguishing characteristics that seem to apply fairly generally to socio-economic lower-class families or communities. In the following paragraphs attention will be devoted to these lower-class charac- teristics referred to above. In reference to the characteristics of the socio- economic lower class, Fine used the term "culturally dis- advantaged" while referring to the men and women over age 16 that live outside the mainstream of American life in urban ghettos and in isolated rural areas. To para- phrase Fine further, this group includes both minority members (Negroes, Mexican-Americans, Indians), and whites. They are functionally illiterate. Their reading ability rarely is above sixth grade. If they are hired as workers, they must frequently be provided with basic education by their employers. They are people who have not experienced our mainstream culture in terms of buy- ing and maintaining decent housing, eating balanced meals, wearing good clothes, and indulging in recrea- tional pursuits.8 Havighurst further concludes that these groups are about evenly divided between whites and nonwhites. They consist of the following: 8Sidney A. Fine, Guidelines for Em lo ent of the Eglturally_Disadvantaged Ka amazoo: The W. E.‘Upj0hn Institute for Emponment Research, June, 1969). 25 1. Negroes from the rural south who have migrated recently to the northern industrial cities. 2. Whites from the rural south and southern moun- tains who have migrated recently to the northern industrial cities. 3. Puerto Ricans, who have migrated to a few northern industrial cities. 4. Mexicans, with a rural background, who have migrated into the west and middle west. 5. Eur0pean immigrants with a rural background, from Eastern and Southern Europe.9 The above findings and possibly other research will support the fact that poverty in recent years has stemmed primarily from the country's rural areas, par- ticularly those in the south, where it historically has been widespread and chronic. In the great migrations from rural to urban areas during the war and post-war periods, poverty migrated along with the people. Thus according to the New York Times migration of minority groups was tapering off by the end of the 1960's and though greater numbers of their members were moving from central cities to suburbs, the concentration of blacks and other minority groups in cities promises to continue. The report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder projected that by 1985 thirteen of the nation's largest cities would be predominantly Black.lo 9Robert J. Havighurst, "Who Are the Disadvantaged?" The Journal of Negro Education, XXXIV (Winter, 1965), 43. 10"Training and Jobs for the Urban Poor," New York Times Edition, 1968, A Statement on National Policyiby thetiesearCHiand Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development, July, 1970, p. 391. 26 It is questionable whether a realistic comparison can be made regarding the early migration of people from the old world and this new migration of disadvantaged Americans from the rural areas to the urban cities. The early migrants were unable to meet the problems of adap- tation; due in part to the economic problems that com- plicated their hopes of survival in the large urban cities. The EurOpean immigrants of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also had to adapt to an America that was in the throes of change. They faced inevitable difficulties in adjusting to a new life and a new language. But a rapidly growing economy generally needed their labor, skilled and unskilled. They developed the capacity to assist later immi- grants in adjusting to the new surroundings. They brought their values and loyalties conducive to the deve10pment leadership. Thus they have enjoyed a solid basis from which to move into American life, and the American school greatly accelerated the process of assimilation. The second and third gen- erations have been able to participate fully in American progress.11 The hopes and aspirations of the early migrants seemingly were launched from a more anchored foundation than the new disadvantaged American migrants. The new disadvantaged American migrants are unable to cope with the new urban environment that they face. This is possibly due to the limited number of jobs available to the unskilled, and their lack of education. The 11The Education Policies Commission, "Education and the Disadvantaged American" (washington, D.C.: National Education Association of the United States, 1962), p. 9. 27 mobility of the disadvantaged American migrants tended to impede and hinder rather than help them overcome socio-economic disabilities. Thus mobility often fails to relieve misery. Indeed, mobility becomes a way of life for many of the dis- advantaged, who move from place to place within the city, seeking to better themselves. Nor is the lot of those who remain in rural areas necessarily improved in the long run by the departure of others. Depopulation and the growing inadequacy of the old ways to the demands of the new agriculture reinforce the processes of social deterioration in the rural society.12 The Education Policies Commission further con- cludes that: In this migration the tragic inadequacy of old cultures for new needs continues to exact its toll. In the cities as on the farms, jobs for the unskilled are decreasing, and the migrants are less able than are the better educated persons to be trained for skilled positions. They have little of the under- standing required of wise consumers. Often they and their children reject schooling. Inferior and overpriced housing further handicaps their health, education and ability to support themselves.13 One of the characteristics of the new disadvantaged American migrant noted in the material above, is the various debilitating forces which nurture aspirational 12The Education Policies Commission, "Education and the Disadvantaged American" (Washington, D.C.: National Education Association of the United States, 1962), p. 5. 13Ibid., p. 6. 28 defeatism. "The new poverty is constructed so as to destroy aspiration; it is a system designed to be impervious to hope."14 Harrington further reports: . . . one of the most important things about the new poverty is that it cannot be defined in simple, statistical terms. Throughout this book a crucial term is used: aspiration. If a group has internal vitality, a will--if it has aspiration--it may live in dilapidated housing, it may eat an inadequate diet, and it may suffer poverty, but it is not impoverished. So it was in those ethnic slums of the immigrants that played such a dramatic role in the unfolding of the American dream. The people found themselves in slums, but they were not slum dwellers.15 Persons and Leske further conclude that there are four reasons why the aSpirations of the poor, in this new kind of poverty, contributed to their decision to remain in the disadvantaged areas: 1. The peOple may not perceive themselves as dis— advantaged. 2. The disadvantaged adults may have a degree of satisfaction with their station in life. 3. They often have psychological barriers to move- ment from one social strata to another. This might be fear of failure or unwillingness to accept more responsibility which a higher strata may demand, and fear of unknown expectations in the job or task of a higher level. 4. The persons may lack the self-confidence to achieve.16 l4Michael Harrington, The Other America (Balti- more: Penguin Books, 1962), p. I7. lsIbid., p. 17. 16Edgar Persons and Gary Leske, "Adapting Adult Education to the Disadvantaged" (paper read at the Train- ing Institute for Rural Disadvantaged, August 17, 1970, Willmar, Minnesota). 29 Dunkelberger made another study of aspirations. He interviewed 965 male heads of households in seven southern states. His investigation, carried out in low- income areas of the South, focused on levels and intensity of aspirations of job mobility. Two closely intertwined adult goals, occupations and income, were chosen as the most appropriate status attributes for the purpose of measuring intensity of adult aspiration. He found that many men had a high latent aSpiration for occupational mobility and that their manifest level of aspiration would therefore rise in the event that changes occurred in their personal situation which removed any of the limitations serving to suppress these aspirations. He reported that persons dissatisfied with either their job, family income, or family residence had much more intense aspirations, and persons giving or placing priorities to secular values including job, education, community, and recreation over religion and family had more intense aspirations. Dunkelberger also found that persons aspiring to blue-collar occupations had more intense job mobility aspirations than persons aspiring to white-collar or farm occupations. He con- cluded that workers, when they became aware of their limitations, had lowered their level of aspiration to a point consistent with their prospects for achievement. Although their levels of aspiration were low in terms 30 of the goals desired, the goals themselves were realistic, and desired with considerable intensity.17 If this aspirational defeatism is allowed to go unchecked it will ultimately infect the children with the same type of hopelessness that entraps their parents. Though the social agencies may have spent time changing the slum dweller's residence, by replacing the hovel he has been living in, some pessimists agree that good . . . public housing may even change the physical face of the slum beyond recognition. But the impoverish- ment and disorder which are the essence of a slum seem to remain. They can only be eliminated when the slum dweller himself changes.18 At this point an examination of the effect poverty has had on the children who were unfortunate enough to be irrevocably trapped in a vicious cycle of deprivation will follow. Urban Povertyand Its Effect on Children The research findings indicate that in America, poverty and gettoization are two real reasons why dis- advantaged urban parents and their children are stereo- typed and often forced to occupy an inferior place in 17John E. Dunkelberger, "Intensity of Job Mobility Aspiration Among Household Heads in Low-Income Areas of the Rural South" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Miss- issippi State University, 1965), pp. 164-69. 18ChristOpher Jencks, "Slums and Schools," New Republic, CXLVII (September 10, 1962), 19. 31 society's social structure. Even though there are.many children living in poverty, being poor in America is not a birth-right. However, there are still some people who believe differently . . . the real explanation of why the poor are where they are is that they have made the mistake of being born to the wrong parents, in the wrong section of the country, in the wrong industry, or in the wrong racial or ethnic group. Once that mistake has been made, they could have been paragons of will and morality, but most of them would never even have had a chance to get out of the other America. There are two important ways of saying this: The poor are caught in a vicious circle; or, the poor live in a culture of poverty.19 This point is further corroborated to an extent by Passow as he states that: . . . the child tends to be restricted to his imme- diate environment, with conducted explorations "out- side" being infrequent and sometimes non—existent. In the slums, there is little opportunity to observe natural beauty, clean landscapes or other pleasant aesthetically pleasing surroundings.20 Although some of the fortunate and possibly a few of the less fortunate individuals, believe that persons living in poverty had mistakenly damned them- selves by selecting the wrong parents at birth, there are other rational-thinking individuals in society who believe that birth is not the basis of poverty. Sexton, 19Harrington, 9p, cit., p. 21. 20A. Harry Passow, ed., Education in Depressed Areas (New York: Columbia University, Teachers College, Bureau of Publications, 1963), p. 167. 32 in Education and Income, provides evidence that supports this assumption. She contends that education plays a significant role in the problems of urban poverty. National surveys show that job security also increases with educational levels. A college graduate had almost twice as good a chance of working throughout the 1958 recession as did the person with only an elementary education.21 . Sexton furtheroconfirms that "almost two thirds of those who earn incomes of less than $2,000.00 annually have no more than an elementary education."22 Research indicates that depressed income levels are related to low educational levels. Low educational levels depress income. This vicious cycle may have a great deal to do with the continued problems of the urban poor. , In corroborating Sexton's finding, Lipset and Bendix conclude that an individual from a lower socio- economic family will typically receive little education or vocational counseling; while he attends school his job plans for the future will be vague, and when he leaves school he is likely to take the first available job he can find. Thus, they maintain that poverty, limited education, absence of personal contact, lack of planning, and failure to explore fully the available job 21Patricia C. Sexton, Education and Income (New York: Viking Press, Inc., 196i), p. 13. 221bid., p. 15. 33 opportunities that characterize the lower socio-economic family are handed down from generation to generation. They further contend that the same cumulation of factors, which in the working class creates a series of mounting disadvantages, work to the advantage of a child coming from a well—to-do family. The social status of parents and the education of their children is, therefore, closely related both to the nature of the latter's first jobs and to the pattern of their later careers.23 Quite obviously, the facts presented above seem to discredit the assumption that birth is the basis of poverty. Although one of the characteristics regarding the slum child not noted in the evidence presented earlier by Sexton, Lipset, and Bendix was that of the environment in which he lives. Kerber and Smith describe the milieu from which the disadvantaged child has emerged in the following manner: In general, these children do not know enough of our cultural heritage, do not have the possessions, rewards, competencies, or knowledge which are too much taken for granted as given everybody in the American society. The culturally poor child has some of the following characteristics: 1. He comes from a blighted segregated, or socially disorganized area. 2. His family has little education and are often hostile and abusive. 3. The socio-economic status of the home is low, employment and money to pay bills are constant insecurities. 23Seymour M. Lipset and Reinhard Bendix, Social Mobility in_Industria1 Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959), pp.—I97-98. 34 4. The cultural traits of home and neighborhood-- the arts, ideational resources, social organi- zations and recreational outlets, and esthetic surroundings are squalid and inadequate. 5. The cultural environment conditions him to violence and degradation. He has few opportuni- ties to experience the meaning of the spoken American ideals.24 In light of the evidence presented in the above description regarding the disadvantaged child's environ- ment, it is easy to visualize the debilitating circum- stances that all too often thwart any hope of him escaping the "ghetto." However, many of these children present a puzzling paradox in that it is often very dif- ficult to distinguish between them and the more fortunate youngsters. Thus, according to Harrington: Clothes make the poor invisible too: America has the best dressed poverty the world has ever known. For a variety of reasons, the benefits of mass production have been spread much more evenly in this area than in many others. It is much easier in the United States to be decently clothed than it is to be decently housed, fed, or doctored. Even people with terribly depressed incomes can look prOSperous.25 Despite the possession of decent or suitable clothes which often makes the disadvantaged child invisible or hard to distinguish from the more fortunate youngster in school, there are other inherent disabilities 24August Kerber and Wilfred Smith, eds., Edu- cational Issuesip a Changin Society (Detroit: Wayne State UniVErsity Press, , p. . 25Harrington, 9p, cit., pp. 12-13. 35 about his life that will not allow him an opportunity to shield his blighted background. Riessman26 in accordance with the above material, provides evidence to indicate that the lack of a satis— factory parental relationship is a significant factor in the disadvantaged child's background. He contends that in the disadvantaged child's environment there is a common pattern and to think of the underprivileged family as consisting of a father, mother, and children alone is to miss vital aspects of this family today. The home typically includes aunts, uncles, and grandparents, all of whom may, to a degree, play a parental role. Intense parent-child relationships are infrequent, and while the danger of parental rejection is present, over protection is out of the question. Obviously, there are many other crippling disa- bilities that contribute to the disadvantaged child's background before he enters school. Evidence to attest this fact is provided by Conant as he quotes the principal of a slum school in describing the environment from which these youngsters come, " . . . in such an environ- ment all forms of evil flourish, the peddling of dope, 26F. Riessman, The Culturally Deprived Child (New York: Harper and Brothers Inc., I962Y, p. 36? 27Ibid., p. 37. 36 drunkenness, disease, accidents, truancies, physical, mental and moral handicaps, sex perversions involving children. . . . "28 Further evidence in support of Conant's findings is discussed by Klopf and Laster in the following manner: (a) In about half of the homes one or both parents had a history of alcoholism, criminality, poverty and instability. (b) Practically all of the homes may be described as culturally deprived. (c) The houses, like the neighborhoods in which they live, are generally ugly. (d) About a fourth of the children are born out of wedlock. (e) There is little evidence of family pride. (f) Half of the homes are without a male head. (g) Parents had made no definite plans for their children's future. (h) By and large parents did not teach their chil- dren self-respect. (1) Children have not been taught to aspire for more than day-to-day success. (j) The "problem" child has no clear conceptions of success as defined in traditional American thought. (k) Case histories of most of these families reveal a series of traumatic stresses, strains and breakups brought on by chronic illness, imprison- ment, poverty and/or separations.29 It is no wonder that the parents of youngsters who have led normal, or possibly sheltered lives, fear for the welfare of their children. Thus, it is easy to see that without the stimulation of positively oriented adults who are interested in the lower-class child's 28James B. Conant, Slums and Suburbs (New York: New American Library, 1964), p. 22. 29Gordon J. KlOpf and Israel A. Laster, Inte rat- ing the Urban School (New York: Teachers College, Cqum- bia University, 1963), p. 4. 37 learning and future welfare, the child would have to be most fortunate to enter school without possessing some debilitating form of retardation. In corroboration with this contention, Deutsch states: The thesis is that the lower-class child enters the school situation so poorly prepared to produce what the school demands that initial failures are almost inevitable, and the school experience becomes nega- tively rather than positively reinforced. Thus the child's experience in school does nothing to counter- act the invidious influences to which it is exposed 30 in his slum, and sometimes segregated, neighborhood. Silberman further concludes that the child from the slums often lacks of the sensory development that ordinary experience provides. "Providing such exper- iences in school or community programs is most helpful, but as the child goes on through school the home influence continues to fail to provide the experiences that will help the child to profit most from his school experience unless some change is made in the home."31 While a vivid description has been presented regarding the stunted and often distorted background of the lower-class child before he enters school, very little attention has been devoted to the importance of proper language with which a child needs in order 30Martin Deutsch, "The Disadvantaged Child and the Learning Process," in Education in Depressed Areas, ed. by A. Harry Passow (New York: Cdlumbia University, Teachers College, Bureau of Publications, 1963), p. 66. 31Charles E. Silberman, Crisis in Black and White (New York: Random House, 1965), p. 370. 38 to seek for more information and understanding. Thus, it is easy to see that when a child enters the academic arena without the ability to understand, to speak cor- rectly, and to ask questions clearly, he is immediately put at a distinct disadvantage. In connection with the above point of view, Robison and Mukerji in a study of the disadvantaged child's language, contend that, "while their most impor- tant need is for a larger, functional vocabulary, other language needs include fluency and more standard forms of syntax, enunciation and pronunciation."32 In addition to Robison and Mukerji findings, Ortego in discussing the bilingual child, provides evi- dence supporting the fact that a child's ability to speak correctly is important. He indicates that if a bilingual child is unable to speak correctly he is often relegated to classes for the mentally retarded because teachers, school psychologists, and administrators have equated a poor capacity to function effectively in English with low intellectual capacity.33 32Helen F. Robison and Rose Mukerji, "Language, Concepts--and the Disadvantaged," Educational Leadership, XXIII (November, 1965), 135. 33Philip D. Ortego, "Schools for Mexican-Americans: Between Two Cultures," Saturday Review, LIV, No. 16 (April 17, 1971), 64. 39 Deutsch, in reference to the previous view, is of the opinion that the causes hindering the disadvantaged child's ability to use proper language is due in part to the nonverbally oriented environment in the lower- class home. And while the environment is a noisy one, the noise is not, for the most part, meaningful in relation to the child, and for him most of it is back- ground.34 All of the literature investigated to this point provides an almost complete syndrome of why certain expectations, Opinions, and attitudes have developed toward the low-income community and the disadvantaged child. It appears that the same conditions will play an important part in forming the attitudes teachers will have toward these children when they enter school. Teacher Attitudes Toward Urban Di§advantaged’Children A review of the literature provides evidence of the fact that teacher attitudes play a vital role in the learning process and pupil fulfillment. Noteworthy authors have written on this topic and in this section the principle points of what they have to state in regard to this subject as it relates to the disadvantaged child will be covered. 34Deutsch, pp, cit., p. 171. 40 Attitudes have been defined in a number of ways. Katz, one of the foremost writers on the "science of attitudes" suggests that an: Attitude is the predisposition of the individual to evaluate some symbol or object or aspect of his world in a favorable or unfavorable manner. Opinion is the verbal expression of attitude but some attitudes include both the effective, or peeling core of liking or disliking, and the cognitive or belief elements which describe the objective of the attitude, its characteristics and its relation to other objects. All attitudes, thus include beliefs, but all beliefs are not attitudes. When specific attitudes are organized into hierarchial structures, they comprise a value system.35 Allport in corroborating Katz's definition of attitudes, further concludes that: . . . attitudes are never directly observed, but, unless they are admitted, through inference, as real and substantial ingredients in human nature it becomes impossible to account satisfactorily either for the consistency of any individual's behavior, or for the stability of any society.36 In a study by Heil, Powel, and Feifer37 evidence was provided to confirm the fact that certain types of teachers get along better with certain types of pupils. The ability to classify teachers and pupils as to types 35Daniel Katz, "A Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes," Public Opinion Quarterly, XXIV (1962), 163-68. iii 36F. H. Allport, Theories of Perception and the Concept of Structure (New York: ’Wiley, I955). 37Beeman N. Phillips, "The Individual and the Classroom Group as Frames of Reference in Determining Teacher Effectiveness," Journal of Educational Research, LVIII (November, 1964), 124. 41 is indicative of the fact that attitudes are recognizable in the classroom environment, and that these attitudes do play a significant role. Thelen38 in accordance with the findings of Heil, Powel, and Feifer indicates that teachers and students vary, and the crucial problem is to get the right com- bination for the most effective teaching-learning pro- cess. 39 refer to this as a "match" Fantini and weinstein of teacher behaviors with learning styles of the dis- advantaged, whereas Goldberg4o calls it the "fit." 41 further contends that children and Phillips teachers are different; and the analysis of teacher behavior should be directed toward obtaining the right "mesh" or best combination. Therefore, it is obvious, according to the facts presented above, that if teachers teaching in disadvantaged schools are improperly "meshed" or "matched" with certain 38H. A. Thelen, Classroom Gropping for Teacha- bility (New York: Wiley, 1967). 39M. D. Fantini and G. weinstein, The Disad- vantaged Challenge to Education (New York: Harper, 1968). 40M. L. Goldberg, "Adopting Teacher Styles to Pupil Differences: Teacher for Disadvantaged Children," Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, X (1964), 161—78. 41J. A. Phillips, Jr., "Teacher Typologies," High School Journal, LI (1967), 26-31. 42 children in class they become ”bewildered and desperate; they feel they cannot reach these children; they clutch at the teaching choices (which their own experience and education contradict); they bitterly submit to a 'trainer's' role or misguidedly try a clinician's role, and they no longer have faith that they can be teachers any more--in these (disadvantaged) classrooms."42 The theory of "significant others" strongly testifies to the fact that teacher attitudes toward disadvantaged children influence them in a positive or I 4 negative manner. Brookover, 3 in discussing the theory of "significant others" theorizes that each person in society learns certain types of behavior, and the person learns the kinds of behavior that he considers appropriate for himself; and the appropriateness of this behavior is defined for him through the internalization of the expectation, of "significant others." An extension of the theory of "significant others" is that the person also takes on the attitudes of "significant others," and reacts according to his conception of how he thinks his "significant others" view him. 42A. H. Passow, Toward Creating a Model Urban School System: A Study 5? the wa§hin ton, D}C. Pfiblic Schools, Report oftthe waShington, D.C. Fublic schools (New York: Columbia University, Teachers College, 1967), p. 265. 43Wilbur B. Brookover, "Some Social Psychological Conceptions of Classroom Learning," School and Society, XXCVII (1959), 84-87. 43 It is therefore reasonable to assume that teachers are capable of being "significant others" for lower-class pupils. The supposition supporting this contention is that the teacher is an influential agent of change in pupils' attitudes providing the pupil perceives the teacher as being important to him. “If the teacher is unimportant to the pupil, it does not matter to the pupil what the teacher thinks or expects of him. How- ever, if the pupil perceives the teacher as being an important person to him, the pupil will be influenced by the teacher's attitude and expectation. Menninger in support of Brookover's point of view regarding the theory of "significant others” states that: Most teachers are acquainted with.what psychiatrists call the three basic parts of the personality--the conscious, the unconscious, and the conscience. The unseen energy drives or forces generated in these parts of the personality anatomy make us the people we are. . . . Some of our automatic responses and behavior patterns are the result of attitudes formed in early childhood. Relationships with our parents, our brothers, and sisters, and our teachers have all played a part in the develogment of our personality-- just as, in turn, our personality and attitudes toward our students are affecting their development. . . . Since your students may be affected by your 44 patterns, it is important that you understand them. According to Clark, teacher attitudes and expec- tation work unfavorably against many of the disadvantaged children in the inner-city classroom. He states that: 44William Menninger, "Self Understanding for Teachers," National Education Association Journal, XLII (1953), 332. 44 A.normal child who is expected to learn, who is taught, and who is required to learn will learn. . . . A single standard of academic expectations, a demanding syllabus, and skillful and understanding teaching are essential to the raising of the self- esteem of urban disadvantaged children, increasing their motivation for academic achievement and provid- ing our society with the benefits of their intellectual potential.45 In devoting much attention to the kinds of atti- tudes teachers exhibit toward children, Riessman46 indi- cates that discrimination does exist in the classroom. The personal desires and expectations work unfavorably against the encouragement and respect disadvantaged children so badly need. He further contends that school psychologists and counselors frequently underestimate the possibility of the economically disadvantaged chil- dren attending college. Clark, writing in Education in Depressed Areas, further concludes that: Among many of the teachers who are required to teach children from culturally deprived backgrounds there exists a pervasive negative attitude toward these children. These teachers say repeatedly, and appear to believe, that it is not possible to teach these children. They offer, in support of their conclusion, the belief that these children cannot learn because of "poor heredity," "poor home background'u "cultural deprivation," and "low IQ."47 45Kenneth B. Clark, "Educational Stimulation of Racially Disadvantaged Children," in Education in Qgpressed Areas, ed. by A. Harry Passow (New York: Teachers College, 1963), p. 157. 46F. Riessman, The Cultgrally Deprived Child (New York: Harper and Brothers Inc.,il962). 47Clark, pp, cit., p. 149. 45 Berscheid and walster to a degree corroborate the findings of Riessman and Clark when they state that teachers tend to assume the best about the more attractive child from the moment he starts school. They asked 400 fifth-grade teachers to examine a child's report card. The report card itemized the student's absences during the school year, his grades, his performance in healthful living, his personal development, and his work habits and attitudes. Pasted in the corner of the report was a photograph of the child, one of six boys and girls who previously had been judged to be relatively attrac- tive, or one of six boys and girls judged to be less attractive. The teachers were requested to evaluate the student's IQ, his parents' attitudes toward school, his future educational accomplishment, and his social status with his peers. The researchers predicted that the child's appearance would influence the teacher's evaluation of the child's intellectual potential, despite the fact that the report cards were identical in content. It did. The teachers assumed that the better looking youngsters were not only brighter and more likely to Succeed but that their parents were more interested in their education.48 48Ellen Berscheid and Elaine Walster, "Beauty and the Best," Psychology Today, V, No. 10 (March, 1972), 44-46. 46 In addition to the importance of a disadvantaged child's success in school being related to his attractive- ness, he must possess decent or suitable looking clothes, as well as be void of body odor such as the smell of urine. Rist confirms this point of view when he states that a kindergarten teacher used certain nonacademic social facts to place ghetto children in one of three reading groups. He asserts that those children who were placed in the lowest reading group, had an odor of urine on them and that they were dressed quite poorly; and, the children that were placed in the next reading group above the lowest, did not have an odor of urine on them but they did wear noticeably old and often quite dirty clothes. Thus, the children that were placed in the first or "fast learner" group had no odor of urine on them, they often wore clean or new clothes to school, they verbalized frequently with the teacher, and they continually stayed physically close to her.49 He further declared that . . . no matter how well a child in the lower read- ing groups might have read, he was destined to remain in the same reading group. This is, in a sense, another manifestation of the "self-fulfilling prophecy" in that a "slow learner” had no option but to continue to be a slow learner, regardless of per- formance or potential.50 49Ray C. Rist, "Student Class and Teacher Expec- tation," Harvard Education Review, XL, No. 3 (August, 1970), 411-20. 5°Ibid., p. 435. 47 Rist concluded the following on the basis of his research: . . . the public school system not only mirrors the configuration of the larger society, but also sig- nificantly contributes to maintaining them. Thus the system of public education in reality perpetuates what it is idealogically committed to eradicate-- class barriers which result in inequality in the social and economic life of the citizenry. Yee in substantiating the findings of Rist, stated that . . . social class status determines great and con- sistent differences in teachers' attitudes--warm, trustful and sympathetic teachers instruct middle— class pupils and cold blaming and punitive teachers instruct lower-class pupils. 2 In this connection, Getzels and Jackson53 indicated that teachers tend to be warm toward the children they like; whereas, Perkins54 found that teachers tend to be more critical and less warm.with underachieving and lower- class children than with achieving and middle-class children respectively. 511bid., p. 449. 52Albert Yee, "Social Interaction in Classrooms? Implications for the Education of Disadvantaged Pupils," Urban Education, IV, No. 1 (April, 1969). 53J. W. Getzels and P. W. Jackson, "The Teacher's Personality and Characteristics," in Handbook of Research on Teaching, ed. by N. L. Gage (Chicago: Rand McNally, I963), PP. 506-82. 54H. V. Perkins, "Classroom Behavior and Under- achievement," American Educational Research Journal, II (1965), 1—12. 48 55 Wilson studied the effect that teacher atti- tudes had on the academic attainment of disadvantaged children. He discovered that the normalization of diverging standards by teachers crystallized different levels of scholastic attainment. Concluding that apparently teachers adapt their attitudes toward academic attainment and their concepts of scholastic excellence to the composition of the children in the school. Rich further discusses the attitudes of teachers toward the disadvantaged child when he states: Middle class standards of refinement and ambition mean more to most teachers than many would care to admit, and viewing children through their own middle class perspective, teachers see the world through their own value system. From out of such a system values are placed on the virtues of work, thrift, and cleanliness along with sharply defined standards of respectability, morality, and sexual behavior. But many public school children, coming from a markedly different sociological and socio-economic background, adhere to a different set of standards. Nor do these children necessarily abhor activities such as dishonesty, sexual promiscuity, unruliness, and carelessness in dress and speech. 6 The opinion of Rich was supported by Bettelheim when he stated that "white and Negro teachers of the disadvantaged apparently had similar attitudes toward 55Alan B. Wilson, "Social Stratification and Aca- demic Achievement," in Education in Dgpressed Areas, ed. by A. Harry Passow (New York: ”Teachers Coilege, 1963), p. 234. 56John Rich, "How Social Class Values Affect Teacher-Pupil Relations," The Journal of Educational Sociology, XXXIII (May, 1960), 366. 49 their pupils and that classroom problems were not based on color but grew out of the clash between the teacher's middle class attitudes and the lower class attitudes of 57 their pupils." These teachers were considered to be academic and achievement oriented rather than oriented to the needs of their pupils.58 59 teachers According to Davis and Havighurst need to see that their values do not become so removed from the lower-class children that communication is not only difficult, but may be largely negative. They further concluded that an attitude by the teacher, that her values are best "is fatal to the development of the full mental capacity of either the teacher or the pupil."60 Thus, in support of the evidence provided by the above material, Wayson61 reported that teachers of the disadvantaged tend to impose their will on students in 57Bruno Bettelheim, "Teaching the Disadvantaged," NEA Journal, LIX (September, 1965), 8. SBIbid. 59Allison W. Davis and Robert J. Havighurst, "The Measurement of Mental Systems," in Educational Ps cholo , ed. by Arthur P. Coladarci (New York: TEe Dryden Press, 1955), pp. 605-07. 601bid., p. 606. 61W. W. Wayson, "Expressed Motives of Teachers in Slum Schools" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1966). 50 determining and planning the lesson. Yee62 found that teachers who interact with lower-class students (over a period of two years) become more domineering and the stu- dents become more submissive. Passow63 found that teachers who are assigned to lower-track students as opposed to honor-track students, tend to be more authoritarian. Examining children's perception of their teachers' feelings toward them and their self-concepts, scholastic achievement, and behavior, Davidson and Lang found that children vividly sensed their teacher's attitudes toward them. "The children who felt their teachers ranked them low seemed to have lower self-perceptions, achieved less well, and behaved less well in the classroom than did 64 In this connection Rousseve more favored classmates." explains that the behavior of a disadvantaged child who feels he is ranked low by his teacher is characterized by "non-conformity to patterns of expected conduct, sub- missiveness, academic passivity, ambivalent reactions 62A. A. Yee, "Source and Direction of Casual Influence in the Teacher Pupil Relationships," Journal of Educational Psychology, LIX (1968), 275-82. 63A. H. Passow, Toward Creatingga Model Urban School System: A Study of the washington, D.C. PtBIic School, A Réportaf the washington D.C. Public SchEoIs (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1967). 64Robert D. Strom, ed., The Inner-CityyClassroom Teacher Behaviors (Columbus, Ohio: Charlés E. Merrill Publishing Cc.{*l966), p. 98. 51 toward their own reference groups, clowning, aggression, truancy, living-for-the-moment attitudes, unconscious 'compensatory exhibitionism' and even tendencies to 65 66 retreat from reality." In addition to this, Coleman found that the behavior of the lower-class child is accepted by his family and neighborhood but it is frowned on at school. Thus, the child typically does not expect empathy from the teachers, and often he feels like the teacher favors the upper- and middle-class children. In corroborating the above findings to an extent, 67 Goff found that disadvantaged Negro children showed a significant (.01 level) decrease in confidence as they increase from six to fourteen years of age. She recom- mends, along with D. P. Ausubel and P. Ausubel,68 65Ronald J. Rousseve, "Teachers of Culturally Disadvantaged American Youth," The Journal of Negro Edu- cation, XXXII (Spring, 1963), 116? 66James S. Coleman, The Adolescent Society (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961), pp. 66-68. 67R. M. Goff, "Some Educational Implications of the Influence of Rejection on Aspiration Levels of Minority Group Children," Journal of Experimental Edu- cation, XXIII (1954), 179-84. 68D. P. Ausubel and Pearl Ausubel, "Ego Develop- ment Among Negro Children," in Education in Depressed Areas, ed. by A. H. Passow (New York: Cqumbia University, Teachers College, 1963). 52 69 Bowman, Clift,7o Havighurst,-7l Kvaraceus,72 and Whipple73 that teachers can counteract this regressive tendency with behaviors that raise the disadvantaged child's self- concept and/or ego-development. In this connection, Wirth74 found that disadvantaged children's self-concepts were significantly related to the perceptions of the teacher's feelings toward them in twenty-one out of twenty-five classes. Paschal75 confirmed the fact that 69F. H. Bowman, "Improving the Pupil Self-Concept," in The Inner-City Classroom: Teacher Behaviors, ed. by R. D. Strom (Columbus, Ohio: Merrili, 1966), pp. 75-91. 70V. A. Clift, "Curriculum Strategy Based on the Personality Characteristics of Disadvantaged Youth," Journal of Negroy Education, XXXVIII (1969), 94-104. 71R. J. Havighurst, "Requirements of a Wild 'New Criticism,'" Phi Delta Kappan, L (1968), 20-26. 72William C. Kvaraceus, "Negro Youth and Social Adaptation: The Role of the School as an Agent of Change, Negro Self-Concept," in Im lications for School and Citi- zenships, ed. by W. C. Kvaraceus, J. S. GiBson, F. tatter- son, B. Seasholes, and J. D. Grambs (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1965), pp. 91-128. 73G. Whipple, "Curriculum for the Disadvantaged," in Education and the Disadvantaged, ed. by H. Goldman (Milwaukée, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Conference Proceeding on the Disadvantaged, June 8-9, 1967), pp. 91-105. 74J. W. Wirth, "Relationships Between Teachers and Opinions of Disadvantaged Children and Measures of Selected Characteristics of These Children" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, 1966). 758. J. Paschal, "A Concerned Teacher Makes the Difference," Arithmetic Teacher, XIII (1966), 203-05. 53 disadvantaged students substantially gain in achievement when their teacher's attitudes and behaviors are ego- supporting of them. Carter76 in an article in the March, 1968, School and Society came to the conclusion that the Chicano youngster did not have a lower self-concept, but that he was well aware of the fact that he was per- ceived in a lower regard by those around him. For example, the teachers and administrators tended to see the Chicano youngster as inferior to the Anglo and pre- sumed that the Chicano child went along with their 77 concluded interpretation of him. Anderson and Safar in a study conducted in two southwestern communities, where Chicanos, Indians, and Anglos were in the school system, that school administrators and teachers unani- mously felt that Chicano children are less capable of achieving in school, meeting desirable goals, and even- tually becoming productive citizens, when compared with their Anglo peers. As a result of the attitudes and expectations of the administrators and teachers, the Chicano children saw themselves as having less potential 76Thomas P. Carter, "Negative Self-Concept of Mexican-American Students," School and Society, XCVI, No. 2, 340 (March 2, 1968), 217-19} 77James G. Anderson and Dwight Safar, "The Influence on Differential Community Perceptions on the Provision of Equal Educational Opportunities," Sociology of Education, XL, No. 3 (Summer, 1967), 219-30. 54 than the Anglo and consequently the children failed in school to complete the cruel cycle of the "self-fulfilling prophecy." In support of the findings of Carter, Anderson, and Safar the Civil Disorder Commission emphasized in a recent report that studies have shown the attitudes of teachers have very powerful impacts upon educational achievement of students.78 79 found that if a teacher does not have Wade trust and respect for the students, he is not teaching, but rather indoctrinating. It is quite obvious according to evidence pre- sented on the previous pages that . . . children learn not what is taught, but what is "caught." Much of what is caught (attitudes toward learning, toward authority, values of right and wrong, and so on) come not from the formal curricu- lum but from the prevading culture of the school.80 Kvaraceus suggests that the school should become the ego-supporting institution that rebuilds the self- concept of disadvantaged children. Teachers play a vital 78R§port of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (New Yofk: 'Bantam BoEks, 1968), p. 429. 79Francis C. Wade, "Causality in the Classroom," Modern Schoolman, XXVIII (August, 1955), 145. 80Robert J. Havighurst and Bernice Nevgarten, Societ and Education (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1957), p. 185. 55 role in this rebuilding. However, evidence thus far indicates that the demands of a large city school system are most destructive to the egos of the disadvantaged children.81 . 82 83 With the support of Clark, Deutsch, and Ausubel,84 Kvaraceus further contends that: Although the big city system accepts all children, it does so on its own terms. These terms frequently demand some renunciation of differences--personal, social and cultural, and constant submission to the processes of conformity and standardization. Most schools achieve their goals at the prices of some loss of privacy, identity and individuality--the demands of the large-city school system are most 85 destructive to the egos of the disadvantaged child. It is not realistic or logical to assume that negative teacher attitudes are totally responsible for the debilitating circumstances that limit the disadvantaged child's academic and personal growth or progress in school. There are many other sources of destruction and frus- tration that afflict the child, such as the peer group relations, the home, the church, and the neighborhood 81William C. Kvaraceus, et al., Negro Self- Concept (New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1965): 82A. Harry Passow, ed., Educatipn in Depressed Areas (New York: Columbia University, Teachers College, Bureau of Publications, 1963), p. 152. 83Ibid., p. 177. 84Ibid., p. 118-23. 85Kvaraceus, 92; cit., p. 93. 56 environment. Thus since the school remains as the major area which monopolizes much of the child's time it is fair to assume that much of the rebuilding of "self" is derived from the relationships that exist within the limits of the classrooms. Combs supports this assumption when he concludes that: Good teachers have always been concerned about individual children and the classroom atmosphere or climate. These teachers have been concerned with the immediate, with changing ways of seeing things, with bringing knowledge and information to bear on the child's world in such a way that things are seen differently or that new ways of seeing things‘are learned. They know a good present experience is good for a child no matter what he has to put up with elsewhere. Good teachers are not like other people. They are not even like each other. They are intensely them- selves and have learned to use themselves effectively and efficiently in tune with the situations and pur- poses within which they operate. If good teachers are unique, then a good school must be a place where unique and different people work together. Since good teaching is a highly unique and personal thing, the school which seeks to make all its teachers alike will only succeed in producing the most banal medi- ocracy. . . . It will recognize that from such dif- ferences in teachers the most significant values for children come about.86 , In concluding the investigation of the literature, evidence strongly indicates that teacher attitudes play a vital role in the academic arena. Kvaraceus reports that the attitudinal role of the professional staff member is highly significant. "The most direct and effective way 86Arthur W. Combs, "Teachers Too Are Individuals" (unpublished address at Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Conference, 1962). 57 to strengthen the school as an ego-supporting institution is to improve the interpersonal relationships between teacher and student."87 Combs88 expresses a tremendous amount of concern to the extent that teacher attitudes should be concern with the individual child, especially as it pertains to underachievement. Thus Ausubel,89 Sexton,90 Deutsch,91 and Hau- brich92 all conclude that the teacher teaching in the big urban city school must be of a special nature, requiring certain attitudes, special training, and a deep personal philos0phy that will encounter the desires of the urban disadvantaged. 87Kvaraceus, pp, cit., p. 110. 88Combs, pp. cit., p. 232. 89Passow, pp. cit., pp. 109-41. 90Sexton, pp. cit., p. 44. 91Passow, pp. cit., pp. 163-80. 921bid., pp. 243-61. CHAPTER III DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY Introduction The procedure employed in the design of this study includes an identification and description of the samples, statements of the hypotheses, discussion of the instruments used, a description of the kinds of data collected, the sources of those data, and the methods of securing the data. Finally, an explanation is given of the methods of analyses used. Selection of the Urban School The study was designed to analyze the attitudes of selected urban elementary school teachers toward dis- advantaged or low-income communities in relation to their attitudes toward the children they teach from those disadvantaged communities. The school setting, a large 1,300 pupil, urban industrial elementary educational park in a Michigan school system, designated to participate in the study was not selected randomly. The decision to use the school was made on the basis of three criteria: (1) the 58 59 school's availability, (2) the willingness of the pro- fessional members of the school system to allow the school to participate, and (3) the author's interest and involvement in the educational park as a Mott Intern. The educational park serves four contiguous school attendance districts, which have a total pOpu- lation of approximately 10,000 persons. The four ele- mentary attendance areas in this urban city were basi- cally lower socio-economic residential communities. In reference to these four communities, one was predomi- nantly 90 per cent white, two were predominantly 95 per cent nonwhite, while the fourth was mixed with a 37 per cent - 53 per cent nonwhite-white racial makeup. The majority of the wage earners in the total area were employed at skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled positions within the cities industrial complex. Additionally, the major thoroughfares, while practically devoid of any social agencies, were punc- tuated with local business establishments and some light industry. Owing to the fact that the areas were in a state of declination and deterioration, the city government declared a principle part of them as major target areas for the Neighborhood Development of the Federal Depart- ment of Housing and‘Urban Development. 60 The park was designed to eventually serve 2,000- 2,400 pupils from pre-school (ages 3-5) through grade six classes. In addition to the program for pre-school and elementary children, the facility included provisions for adult and community programs and activities. The edu- cational park was planned jointly by the school district and city government to serve five basic needs: 1. To replace, in all or part, four existing ele- mentary school buildings which were not adequate for the educational programs. The buildings ranged in age from 50 to 75 years. 2. To facilitate racial integration of students. (Two of the buildings were predominantly black in student population while the others were pre- dominantly white.) 3. To provide an innovative and comprehensive edu- cational program for children from age 3 to 12. 4. To increase and concentrate community services to adult residents. (Of the 176,000 square feet of floor space in the new facility, almost 40,000 was planned for community use and included medical- ,dental facilities, adult classrooms, a theater, agency offices and food services provisions.) 5. To facilitate the physical renewal of the neigh- borhoods in the attendance area through a cooper- ative program between school district, municipal government, and the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.1 Finally, the culminating efforts of the school district, parents, municipal government, and the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development resulted in the opening of the educational park, with a differentiated 1Thor Petersen, "School Approval-Disapproval and Educational Enlightment of Parents Based on Occupation, Educational Level, Age, Race, Geographic Area and Length of Residency" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1971). 61 staff composed of parent volunteers, paid para- professionals, and certificated teachers. Population and Sample The population in the study is the total number of certified elementary teachers (68) who taught in the urban-industrial educational park previously discussed. In the beginning, the majority of the teachers in the population expressed a willingness to participate in the study. Although the sample used in this study is small, it provided an Opportunity for the investi- gator to meet personally with the total teacher popu- lation being sampled, explain the purpose of the study, and elicit their cooperation; whereas, such efforts by the investigator could not have been achieved with a larger sample. Additionally, sampling a larger popu- lation would have required the mailing of instruments and the inevitable loss of some necessary information through this impersonal process of data collection. Therefore, the study could not have been more extensive and still have retained its intensive character. Statement of Testable Hypotheses To ascertain whether a significant relationship exists between demographic variables of teachers and their attitudes toward disadvantaged communities, with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those 62 disadvantaged communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale (CAS) and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory (MTAI), certain demographic data were collected on each of the teachers in the population and were used to categorize the groups. The following hypotheses were investigated: Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between teachers' age and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the E§§ and the MTAI. Hypothesis 2: There is no significant relationship between teachers' total years of teaching experience and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with reSpect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Egg and the MTAI. Hypothesis 3: There is no significant relationship between teachers' marital status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those com— munities, as measured by the E§§ and MTAI. Hypothesis 4: There is no significant relationship between teachers' academic degrees held and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with reSpect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the E§§ and the MTAI. 63 Hypothesis 5: There is no significant relationship between teachers' teaching levels and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those com- munities, as measured by the Egg and the MTAI. Hypothesis 6: There is no significant relationship between teachers' undergraduate schools attended and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the EH§_and the MTAI. Hypothesis 7: There is no significant relationship between teachers' fathers' occupational status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Egg and the MTAI. Hypothesis 8: There is no significant relationship between teachers' fathers' educational status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the §H§_and the MTAI. Hypothesis 9: There is no significant relationship between teachers' residential background and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with reSpect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Egg and the MTAI. Hypothesis 10: There is no significant relationship between teachers' race and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged 64 communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the CAS and the MTAI. Hypothesis ll: There is no significant relationship between teachers' northern or southern geographical locations of rear- ing and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with reSpect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Egg and the MTAI. Instrumentation Personal Data Form The collection of selected demographic data from which the sub-groups were identified was secured from the Personal Data Form (Appendix A). The demographic data form was administered to the teacher population under investigation in the educational park. Community Attitude Scale The Community Attitude Scale (Appendix B) was designed to measure an individual's degree of progressive attitudes on community life in such areas as community improvement, living conditions, and business.2 The scale consists of sixty items with the Likert- based response alternatives of "strongly agree," "agree," 2C. Bosworth, "A Study of the Development and the Validation of a Measure of Citizens' Attitudes Toward Progress and Game Variables Related Thereto" (unpublished dissertation, University of Michigan, 1954). 65 "undecided," "disagree," "strongly disagree"; thus, these items were found to be most discriminating from.an origi- nal pool of over 300 items.3 The author of the E§§ assumes that an individual whose score places him at the low end of the scale will have a positive and a progressive attitude toward the community. On the other hand, the author assumes that an individual whose score places him at the high end of the scale will have a negative or unfavorable attitude toward the community. Finally, according to Bosworth,4 more progressive individuals were found to be better educated; and, the variables under investigation do seem important and the items do show good wording and high homogeneity, even though item content seems quite heterogeneous. Hinnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory As a measure of teacher attitudes toward children, the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory form (Appendix C) was used. This inventory is composed of 150 items with the Likert-based response alternatives of "strongly agree," "agree," "undecided," "disagree," or "strongly disagree." 3Ibid. 4Bosworth, pp. cit. 66 The authors of the inventory assume that a teacher whose score places him at the high end of the scale will be able to maintain a harmonious classroom situation. The authors of the HT§l_provide the follow- ing conclusions in their Instructional Manual: It is assumed that a teacher ranking at the high end of the scale should be able to maintain a state of harmonious sympathetic understanding. The pupils should like the teacher and enjoy school work. Sit- uations requiring disciplinary action should rarely occur. The teacher and pupils should work together in a social atmosphere of cooperative endeavor, of intense interest in the work of the day, and with a feeling of security, growing from a permissive atmosphere of freedom to think, act and speak one's mind with mutual reSpect for the feelings, right and abilities of others. Regarding those teachers whose scores fall on the low end of the scale the authors state: At the other extreme of the scale is the teacher who attempts to dominate the classroom. He may be suc-. cessful and rule with an iron hand, creating an atmosphere of tensions, fear and submission; or he may be unsuccessful and become nervous, fearful and distraught in a classroom characterized by frus- tration, restlessness, inattention, lack of respect, and numerous disciplinary problems. In either case both teacher and pupils dislike school work; there is a feeling of mutual distrust and hostility. Both teacher and pupils attempt to hide their inadequacies from each other. Ridicule, sarcasm, and sharp tempered remarks are common. The teacher tends to think in terms of status, the correctness of the position he takes on classroom matters, and subject matter to be covered rather than in terms of what the pupil needs, feels, knows and can do.6 5Walter W. Cook, Carroll H. Leeds, and Robert Callis, Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventogy Manual (New York: The PsychoIOgical Corporation, 1965), p. 3. 6Ibid. 67 The authors of the MTAI, in describing its creation and its uses write: Investigations carried on by the authors over the past ten years indicate that the attitudes of teachers toward children and school work can be measured with a high degree of reliability, and they are signifi- cantly correlated with the teacher-pupil relations found in the teacher's classroom. The MTAI has emerged from these researches.“ It is designed to measure those attitudes along with pupils in inter- personal relationships and indirectly hOW'Well satis- fied he will be with teaching as a vocation.7 ~ Procedures Usedpin the Collection of’Data After securing the names of all the certified teachers teaching in the educational park, the author met with the teachers personally and individually to determine the willingness of each to participate in the study. As indicated previously, the majority of the teachers expressed an interest in the study and a desire to participate. Following this determination, the author designated the team leader in each of the teach- ing teams to handle the distribution and collection of the demographic data form, the E§§ and the HT§£_question- naires. Upon distribution of the demographic data form, the E§§ and the 9251: the team leaders instructed the teacher population to answer the questions with respect Ibid. 68 to their knowledge concerning the disadvantaged communi- ties in which the children they taught lived. Table 3.1 indicates an overall response of 93 per cent of the total p0pu1ation. Thus, sixty-three of the sixty-eight teachers were sampled in the study. The other five teachers did not return their questionnaires. Additionally, Table 3.1 includes the following demographic variable categories and groups: 1. In the age category there are twenty-seven teachers in the 20-25 years of age group, seventeen teachers in the 26-33 years of age group, and nineteen teachers in the 34 years of age and older group. In the years of teaching experience category there are twenty-four teachers in the 1-3 years of experience group, twenty-seven teachers in the 4-7 years of experience group, and twelve teachers in the 8 years of experience and over group. In the marital status category there are forty- three teachers in the married group, three teachers in the divorced group, fifteen teachers in the single group, two teachers in the separated group, and no teachers in the widowed. 69 TABLE 3-l.--Distribution of subjects by demographic variables. . Number of Categories Groups Teachers Age 20-25 27 26-33 17 34 and over 19 Years of Teaching Experience 1-3 24 4-7 27 8 and over 12 Marital Status Married 43 Divorced 3 Single 15 Separated 2 Widowed 0 Academic Degree Held B.A. 41 B.A. plus 0-15 hours 1 B.A. plus 16 and more hours 21 Teaching Level Pre-School-Kinder- garten 12 First-Fourth 51 Undergraduate School Attended Northern predomi- nantly black 0 Northern predomi- nantly nonblack 49 Southern predomi- nantly black 12 Southern predomi- nantly nonblack 2 Father's Occupation Unskilled and skilled blue collar 19 Salaried Profes- sional and upper level manager or official 21 TABLE 3-l.--Continued. 70 . Number of Categories Groups Teachers Father's Occupation Self-employed busi- ness man, or farm owner or operator 16 White collar cleri- cal, sales or public service 7 Father's Formal Education Some school and grade school graduate 15 Some high school and high school grad- uate 23 Some college and col- lege graduate 18 Some post-graduate work and post grad- uate degree 7 Residential Background Urban 28 Rural 17 Suburban 18 Race Black 22 Nonblack 41 Geographical Location of Rearing Northern 46 Southern 17 71 In the academic degree held category there are forty-one teachers in the B;A. group, one teacher in the B.A. plus fifteen hours group, and twenty- one teachers in the B.A. plus sixteen or more hours group. In the teaching level categOry there are twelve teachers in the pre-school-kindergarten group and fifty-one teachers in the first-fourth group. In the undergraduate school attended category there are no teachers in the northern predomi- nantly black group, forty-nine teachers in the northern predominantly nonblack group, twelve teachers in the southern predominantly black group, and two teachers in the southern pre- dominantly nonblack group. In the father's occupation category there are nineteen teachers in the unskilled and skilled blue collar group, twenty-one teachers in the salaried professional and upper level manager or official group, sixteen teachers in the self- employed business man, or farm owner or operator group, and seven teachers in the white collar clerical, sales, or public service group. In the father's formal education category there are fifteen teachers in the some school and grade 72 school graduate group, twenty-three teachers in the some high school and high school graduate group, eighteen teachers in the some college and college graduate group, and seven teachers in the some post-graduate work and post-graduate degree group. 9. In the residential background category there are twenty-eight teachers in the urban group, seven- teen teachers in the rural group, and eighteen teachers in the suburban group. 10. In the race category there are twenty-two teachers in the black group and forty-one teachers in the nonblack group. 11. In the geographical location of rearing category there are forty-six teachers in the northern group, and seventeen teachers in the southern group. In addition to the teachers completing the demo- graphic data forms, the gap and the HEHE, interviews were also employed for the purpose of eliciting covert or overt attitudes teachers have about disadvantaged chil- dren. To eliminate the interruption of actual classroom instruction of children during the school day, the inter- views were to be conducted by appointment prior to the beginning of class, during the lunch period, and after 73 the last class period. The author made repeated attempts to interview the teachers during the scheduled times described above, only to realize very little cooperation or consideration from the teachers. Thus, due to the lack of any adequate teacher cooperation, the author found it was impossible to make any significant inferences about the teacher population under investigation through the interview technique. Statistical Analysis The statistical procedure used in the analysis of the data is the one-way analysis of variance. The one-way analysis of variance identifies the statistics which permit the researcher to describe the relationship of data being studied. The alpha (0) level of statistical significance was selected at the .05 level. The level of confidence was selected with the understanding that the chance of making a Type I error (falsely rejecting the null hypothe- sis) was increased. Conversely it was also recognized that the probability of making a Type II error (not rejecting the null hypothesis when it is false) is decreased. Finally, the Scheffé post hoc procedure was used to provide exact information as to where the dif- ferences existed between the demographic variables, 74 while the univariate analysis of variance merely indi- cates that differences exist somewhere between the levels of the particular dependent or independent variables. The demographic data collected on each teacher were coded and then punched on IBM data-processing cards. These cards were then processed by the Michigan State University CDC 3600 computer which used the Finn program and performed a one-way analysis of variance to establish the significance of difference between the means of each of the sub-groups' scores on the EH§_and the 535;. A further analysis of the data was that of establishing a frequency distribution of the responses to the ppg and HTHE. Finally, as a consequence of the statistical analyses of the data collected from the instruments, each hypothesis will be tested and analyzed in Chapters IV and V. I The data will be graphically and quantitatively presented so that the reader may more easily conceptu- alize the analyses being presented. CHAPTER IV PRESENTATION AND ANALYSES OF DATA Introduction This chapter contains the results of the statis- tical analysis of the data. Each hypothesis is restated and accompanied by the results of the univariate analysis of variance. The level of rejection for the hypotheses is established at .05. Testing of Hypotheses Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between teachers' age and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with reSpect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitudé Inventory. Significant statistical results were obtained by the uni- variate analysis of variance on the CAS for the age variable (P = .0194). This portion of Hypothesis 1 is rejected. However, significant statistical results were not obtained by the univariate analysis of variance on 75 76 the HT§£_for the age variable (P = .4862). This portion of Hypothesis 1 is accepted. Results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 1 are shown in Tables 4.1 and 4.2. The group means for the age variable on the ppp- munity Attitude Scale were subjected to further analysis using the Scheffé post hoc procedure to identify which groups differed significantly and contributed to the overall significant F value. The Scheffé procedure indicates that there was a significant difference between the means of age groups two and three (refer to Table 4.1). Hypothesis 2: There is no significant relationship between teachers' total years of teaching experience and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community aptitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. The univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 2 shows no significant results on the E§§ (P = .9808) and the H25; (P = .5990) when total years of teaching experience is used as a variable. Hypothesis 2 is accepted. Tables 4.3 and 4.4 show the results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 2. 77 TABLE 4-l.--Mean scores on the 90mmunity Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for each of the three age groups. Groupa N QHH ‘HTHI (1) 27 140.5926 354.2222 (2) l7 147.7647 366.6471 (3) 19 135.6842 347.1579 S.D. 12.5085 48.8148 aGroups are: (1) 20 to 25, (2) 26 to 33, and (3) 34 and over. TABLE 4-2.--Univariate analysis of variance-Age. . Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 659.5873 4.2157 >0.0194a MTAI 1739.2401 0.7299 >0.4862 aDenotes significance at the .05 alpha level. Degrees of Freedom for Hypothesis = 2. Degrees of Freedom for Error = 60. 78 TABLE 4-3.--Mean scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for eaChiof_tHe three groups regarding total years of teaching experience. Groupa N ggg MTAI (l) 24 140.6250 353.7083 (2) 27 141.2963 361.7037 (3) 12 141.3333 344.8333 S.D. 13.3541 48.9847 aGroups are: (l) 1 to 3, (2) 4 to 7, (3) 8 and over. TABLE 4-4.--Univariate analysis of variance--Total years of teaching experience. . Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 3.4679 0.0194 >0.9808 MTAI 1240.65059 0.5170 >0.5990 Degrees of Freedom for Hypothesis = 2. Degrees of Freedom for Error = 60. 79 Hypothesis 3: There is no significant relationship between teachers' marital status and the attitudes they hold toward dis- advantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Hptitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventogy. Hypothesis 3 is accepted. The univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 3 reveals no significant results on the §H§ (P = .9871) and the HEHI (P = .1074) when marital status is used as a variable. See Tables 4.5 and 4.6 for the results of the univariate analysis. Hypothesis 4: There is no significant relationship between teachers' academic degree held and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their atti- tudes toward children they teach from those communi- ties, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitudé'Inventory. The univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 4 indi- cates no significant results on the ggg (P = .5440) and the £251 (P = .4649) when academic degree held is used as a variable. Hypothesis 4 is accepted. Results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 4 appear in Tables 4.7 and 4.8. Hypothesis 5: There is no significant relationship between teachers' teaching levels and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their atti- tudes toward children they teach from those communi- ties, as measured by the CommunitypAttitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. 80 TABLE 4-5.--Mean scores on the Eommunity Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for eaEh of the fOur groups regarding marital status. Groupa N C S MTAI (1) 43 141.1628 359.2558 (2) 3 140.3333 289.3333 (3) 15 140.4667 359.3333 (4) 2 144.0000 343.5000 S.D. 13.4557 47.3363 aGroups are: (1) Married, (2) Divorced, (3) Single, and (4) Separated. TABLE 4-6.--Univariate analysis of variance--marital status. . Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 8.1989 0.0453 >0.9871 MTAI 4749.62329 2.1197 >0.1074 Degrees of Freedom for Hypothesis = 3. Degrees of Freedom for Error = 59. 81 TABLE 4-7.--Mean scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for each ofjthe three academic degree groups. Groupa N HHS MTAI (1) 41 140.9268 350.43908 (2) 1 127.0000 338.0000 (3) 21 141.9524 366.0476 S.D. 13.2235 48.7782 aGroups are: (l) B.A., (2) B.A. + 0-15, and (3) B.A. + 16 and over. TABLE 4-8.--Univariate analysis of variance--academic degree held. . Mean Univariate Variables Square Between F P CAS 107.5621 0.6151 >0.5440 MTAI 1846.2528 0.7760 >0.4649 Degrees of freedom for Hypothesis = 2. Degrees of freedom for error = 60. 82 Hypothesis 5 is accepted. The univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 5 reveals no significant results on the 9§§ (P = .5075) and the H25} (P = .4656) when teaching level is used as a variable. See Tables 4.9 and 4.10 for the results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 5. Hyppthesis 6: There is no significant relationship between teachers' undergraduate school attended and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Communi§y_Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Significant statistical results were not obtained by the univariate analysis of variance on the QHH for the under- graduate school attended variable (P = .9395). This portion of Hypothesis 6 is accepted. However, signifi- cant statistical results were obtained by the univariate analysis of variance on the H35; for the undergraduate school attended variable (P = .0145). This portion of Hypothesis 6 is rejected. Results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 6 appear in Tables 4.11 and 4.12. The group means for the undergraduate school attended variable on the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory were subjected to further analysis using the Scheffé pppp_ppp procedure to identify which groups dif- fered significantly and contributed to the overall 83 TABLE 4-9.--Mean scores on the Community Attitude Scale and Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for eadh of the two teaching level groups. Groupa N p§§ MTAI (1) 12 143.3333 364.7500 (2) 51 140.5098 353.2549 S.D. 13.2005 48.7832 aGroups are: (1) Pre-school and (2) Elementary. TABLE 4-lO.--Univariate analysis of variance--teaching level. . Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 77.4454 0.4444 >0.5075 MTAI 1283.6193 0.5394 >0.4656 Degrees of freedom for Hypothesis = 1. Degrees of freedom for Error = 61. 84 TABLE 4-ll.--Mean scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the MinnesOta Teacher Attitude Inventory—for each of the three undergraduate schooIs attended groups. Groupa N CAS MTAI (l) 49 141.0816 364.5714 (2) 12 140.4167 320.1667 (3) 2 144.0000 343.5000 S.D. 13.3445 46.0344 aGroups are: (1) Northern predominantly nonblack; (2) Southern predominantly black; and (3) Southern pre- dominantly nonblack. TABLE 4-12.--Univariate analysis of variance--undergrad- uate school attended. . Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 11.1335 0.0625 >0.9395 MTAI 9650.6944 4.5540 >0.0145a aDenotes significance at the .05 alpha level. 85 significant F value. The Scheffé procedure indicates that there was a significant difference between the means of undergraduate school attended groups one and two (see Table 4.11). Hypothesis 7: There is no significant relationship between teachers' fathers' occupational status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 7 is accepted. Inspection of Tables 4.13 and 4.14 showing the results of the univariate analysis of variance for the variable fathers' occupational status, reveals no significant results on the §§§ (P = .6424) and the MTAI (P = .9129) for Hypothesis 7. Hypothesis 8: There is no significant relationship between teachers' fathers' educational status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Hptitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventogy. The univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 8 shows no significant results on the gag (P = .6512) and the HEAL (P = .6243) when fathers' educational status is used as a variable. Hypothesis 8 is accepted. Check Tables 4.15 and 4.16 for the results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 8. 86 TABLE 4-13.--Mean scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for each of the four fathers' occupational status groups. Groupa N CAS MTAI (l) 19 143.3158 357.9474 (2) 21 142.0476 355.3333 (3) 16 138.2500 348.9375 (4) 7 138.2857 363.8571 S.D. 13.2828 49.6017 aGroups are: (1) Skilled and unskilled blue collar; (2) Salaried professional and upper-level manager or official; (3) Self-employed businessman and farm owner or operator; and (4) White collar clerical, sales, or public service. TABLE 4-14.--Univariate analysis of variance--fathers' occupational status. Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 99.1236 0.5618 >0.6424 MTAI 430.7156 0.1751 >0.9129 Degrees of freedom for Hypothesis = 3. Degrees of freedom for Error = 59. 87 TABLE 4-15.--Mean scores on the Compunity Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventogy fOr each of the tour fathersr educational status groups. Groupa N CAS MTAI (1) 15 142.2000 365.4667 (2) 23 143.0000 358.3043 (3) 18 139.2222 343.5000 (4) 7 136.8572 355.2857 S.D. 13.2872 49.0915 aGroups are: (1) Some school and grade school graduate; (2) Some high school and high school graduate; (3) Some college and college graduate; and (4) Some post- graduate work and post-graduate degree. TABLE 4-16.--Univariate analysis of variance--fathers' educational status. Mean ' Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 96.8296 0.5485 >0.6521 MTAI 1421.0080 0.5896 >0.6243 Degrees of freedom for Hypothesis = 3. Degrees of freedom for Error = 59. 88 Hypothesis 9: There is no significant relationship between teachers' residential background and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Communipy Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 9 is accepted. The univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 9 indicates no significant results on the QHH (P = .1947) and the H25; (P = .9964) when residential background is used as a variable. Results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 9 are found in Tables 4.17 and 4.18. Hypothesis 10: There is no significant relationship between teachers' race and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. The results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 10 indicate no significant results on the QHH (P = .2554) and the H35; (P = .1438) when race is used as a variable. Hypothesis 10 is accepted. See Tables 4.19 and 4.20 for the results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 10. Hypothesis 11: There is no significant relationship between teachers' northern or southern geographical location of rearing and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged com- munities with respect to their attitudes toward chil- dren they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. 89 TABLE 4-17.--Mean scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory for each of the three residential—background7groups. Groupa N QHH HTHI (1) 28 143.5714 355.0357 (2) 17 141.7647 355.2353 (3) 18 136.4444 356.2778 S.D. 12.9989 49.4020 aGroups are: (1) Urban, (2) Rural, and (3) Subur- ban. TABLE 4-18.--Univariate analysis of variance--residential background. . Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 284.2484 1.6822 >0.1947 MTAI 8.9607 0.0037 >0.9964 Degrees of freedom for Hypothesis = 2. Degrees of freedom for Error = 60. 90 TABLE 4-19.--Mean scores on the Compunity Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventogy for each of the two race groups. Groupa N CAS MTAI (1) 22 143.6364 343.1818 (2) 41 139.6585 362.0244 S.D. 13.1076 48.1405 aGroups are: (1) Black, and (2) Nonblack. TABLE 4-20.--Univariate analysis of variance--race. . Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 226.5467 1.3186 >O.2554 MTAI 5083.3072 2.1934 >0.1438 Degrees of freedom for Hypothesis = 1. Degrees of freedom for Error = 61. 91 Significant statistical results were not obtained by the univariate analysis of variance on the CHH for the northern or southern geographical location of rearing variable (P = .5613). This portion of Hypothesis 11 is accepted. However, significant statistical results were obtained by the univariate analysis of variance on the H35; for the northern or southern geographical location of rearing variable (P = .0178). This portion of Hypothesis 11 is rejected. Tables 4.21 and 4.22 give the results of the univariate analysis of variance for Hypothesis 11. Since there were only two levels contained in the geographical location of rearing variable (northern and southern), a Scheffé pppp H prrocedure would add no new information to the results reported in Tables 4.21 and 4.22. Although only a portion of Hypothesis 1, Hypothe- sis 6, and Hypothesis 11 was rejected on either the Q§§ or HEH} with a probability significance of less than the established alpha level of .05, a moderately high cor- relation between the two sets of scores was discovered. Figure 4.1 clearly shows the moderately high cor- relation of the gag and the H25; scores as they cluster near the line of perfect, positive correlation (+1.0). The computed correlation coefficient (r), using the Pearson product-moment formula, was found to be 0.539. MTAI Scores 500 480 460 440 420 400 380 360 340 320 300 280 260 240 220 200 180 160 140 92 100“ 110 - 130 . 140 4 150 - 160 J 170 - 180 - CAS Scores Computed Correlation Coefficient (r) = 0.539 Figure 1.--Scatter Diagram of Scores on the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory and the Community Attitude ScaIe. 93 TABLE 4-21.--Mean scores on the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventogy for each of the two geographical location of rearing groups. Groupa N CAS MTAI (1) 46 140.4565 364.1739 (2) l7 142.6471 331.8235 S.D. 13.2116 46.7748 aGroups are: (1) Northern, and (2) Southern. TABLE 4-22.--Univariate analysis of variance--geographical location of rearing. Mean Univariate Variable Square Between F P CAS 59.5617 0.3412 >0.5613 MTAI 12990.4763 5.9375 >0.0178a aDenotes significance at the .05 alpha level. Degrees of freedom for Hypothesis = 1. Degrees of freedom for Error = 61. This moderately high correlation indicates that respondents tended to score in the same manner on the CAS as they did on the MTAI. Summary Employing the univariate analysis of variance to analyze the data, only a portion of Hypothesis 1, Hypothe- sis 6, and Hypothesis 11 was rejected on either the g§§ or_HT§£_with a probability significance of less than the established alpha level of 0.05. Hypothesis 2, Hypothesis 3, Hypothesis 4, Hypothesis 5, Hypothesis 8, Hypothesis 9, and Hypothesis 10 were all accepted in their null form. The conclusions and recommendations derived from the data in this chapter will be discussed in detail in Chapter V. CHAPTER V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS This final chapter will be devoted to a summary of the study followed by a discussion of the conclusions generated from the analysis of the data, and concluded with recommendations and implications for further research. Summary Purpose of the Stugy The basic purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a significant relationship between demo- graphic variables of inner-city elementary school teachers and their attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in relation to attitudes toward children they teach from disadvantaged communities. Limitations of the Study 1. This study deals only with the phases of the program from pre-kindergarten to fourth grade and inclusive, implemented by certificated staff. 95 96 2. This study is concerned only with the analysis of the attitudes inner-city school teachers have toward disadvantaged communities in relation to their attitudes toward the children from those communities. 3. No attempt is made to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers or programs in terms of structure or outcome. No attempt is made to postulate ideal teacher attitudes. No attempt is made to postu- late an ideal instructional situation or setting in relation to the attitudes teachers have about disadvantaged communities and children they teach from those communities. Review of the Literature A review of the research on the disadvantaged indicates that poverty and gettoization in America, are two real reasons why negative and stereotype attitudes are formed toward disadvantaged communities and the peOple living in those communities. A survey of the literature on teacher attitudes suggests that attitudes of teachers compose a critical element of successful teaching. Further review indi- cates attitudes toward children and the teaching role can be influenced and indeed altered by the socio-economic level of the community and the children populating the school. 97 Design of the Study The design of this study, which was comparative and descriptive in nature, sought to analyze the attitudes of urban elementary school teachers toward low-income communities in relation to their attitudes toward the children they teach from low-income communities. Three instruments, the Personal Data Sheet, the Community Attitude Scale, and the Minnesota Teacher Atti- tude Inventory were used to gather the data for this study. The Personal Data Sheet was utilized to gather appropriate demographic data which served to establish the independent variables tested. The Community Attitude Scale was designed to measure the participants' degree of progressive attitudes on community life in such areas as community improvement, living conditions, and business. The Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory was the instru- ment used to determine the teachers' attitude toward children they teach in the classroom. In an effort to validate the results on the ngi, personal interviews were scheduled with teachers, but due to the lack of any adequate teacher complicity, it was impossible to carry out the interviews. The collected data on the sixty-three teachers teaching in an urban-industrial educational park, within a Michigan school system (Spring, 1972), was coded by each independent variable and punched on data-processing 98 cards. These cards were subsequently used in a one-way analysis of variance program (UNEQl), through the IBM 3600 computer at Michigan State University. Findings of the Study An amplified discussion of the analyzed data for each of the hypotheses follows. Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between teachers' age and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. There is evidence in the data indicating that there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores on the §§§_for age groups of (2) 23-26 and (3) 34 and older. Age group (1) 20-25 was not sta- tistically significant. The significant differences between the two age groups suggest that the 34 and older group had a more progressive attitude toward disadvantaged communities, than did the 26-33 age group. This portion of Hypothesis 1 was rejected (P = .0194). However, further inspection of the data indicates that no one group of teachers displayed greater statisti- cally significant differences in their attitudes than other groups, when age was used as a variable on the Hggg. This portion of Hypothesis 1 was accepted (P = .4862). 99 Hypothesis 2: There is no significant relationship between teachers' total years of teaching experience and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 2 was accepted. The results of the data analysis indicate that no one group of teachers displayed statistically significant differences in their attitudes than other groups when total years of teaching experience was used as a variable on the CAS (P = .9808), and the MTAI (P = .5990). Hypothesis 3: There is no significant relationship between teachers' marital status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher AttitudeInventory. Hypothesis 3 was accepted. There is no evidence in the data indicating that one group of teachers displayed statistically significant differences in their attitudes than others, when marital status was used as a variable on the g§§_(P = .9871) and the MTAI (P = .1074). Hypothesis 4: There is no significant relationship between teachers' academic degree held and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 4 was accepted. 100 The results of the data revealed that no one group of teachers displayed statistically significant differences in their attitudes than other groups when academic degree was used as a variable on the CAS (P .5440) and the MTAI (P = .4649). Hypothesis 5: There is no significant relationship between teachers' teaching level and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Invehtory. Hypothesis 5 was accepted. Data results indicate that no one group of teachers displayed greater statistically significant differences in their attitudes than other groups, when teaching level was used as a variable on the E§§. (P = .5075) and the MTAI (P = .4656). Hypothesis 6: There is no significant relationship between teachers' undergraduate school attended and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. There is no evidence in the data indicating that one group of teachers displayed greater statistically significant differences in their attitudes than other groups, when undergraduate school attended was used as a variable on the CAS. This portion of Hypothesis 6 101 was accepted (P = .9395). However, further inspection revealed that there was a statistically significant dif- ference between the mean scores on the HTH; for the under- graduate school attended groups of (1) northern and pre- dominantly nonblack and (2) southern and predominantly black. The third variable, southern undergraduate school attended was not statistically significant. The signifi- cant differences between the two undergraduate school attended groups, suggest that teachers who attended pre- dominantly nonblack northern undergraduate schools have better attitudes toward disadvantaged children as measured by the HTHE than teachers who attended pre- dominantly black southern undergraduate schools. This portion of Hypothesis 6 was rejected (P = .0145). Hypothesis 7: There is no significant relationship between teachers' fathers' occupational status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 7 was accepted. The results of the data analysis indicate that no one group of teachers displayed greater statistically significant differences in their attitudes than other groups, when fathers' occupational status was used as a variable on the CAS (P = .6424) and the MTAI (P = .9129). 102 Hypothesis 8: There is no significant relationship between teachers' fathers' educational status and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 8 was accepted. Data results indicate that no one group of teachers displayed greater statistically significant differences in their attitudes than other groups, when fathers' educational status was used as a variable on the CAS (P = .6512) and the MTAI (P = .6243). Hypothesis 9: There is no significant relationship between teachers' residential background and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 9 was accepted. The results of the data revealed that no one group of teachers displayed greater statistically sig- nificant differences in their attitudes than other groups, when residential background was used as a variable on the CAS (P = .1947) and the MTAI (P = .9964). 103 Hypothesis 10: There is no significant relationship between teachers' race and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged communities with respect to their attitudes toward children they teach from those communities, as measured by the Community Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Hypothesis 10 was accepted. There is no evidence in the data indicating that one group of teachers displayed sufficiently greater sta- tistically significant differences in their attitudes than other groups, when race was used as a variable on the CAS (P = .2554) and the MTAI (P = .1438). Hypothesis ll: There is no significant relationship between teachers' northern or southern geographical location of rearing and the attitudes they hold toward disadvantaged com- munities with respect to their attitudes toward chil- dren they teach from those communities, as measured by the ppmmunity Attitude Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Inventory. Data results indicate that no one group of teachers displayed greater statistically significant differences in their attitudes than other groups, when northern or southern geographical location of rearing was used as a variable on the pgp. This portion of Hypothesis 11 was accepted (P = .5613). However, inves- tigation revealed that there was a statistically sig- nificant difference between the mean scores on the H35; for the northern and southern geographical location of rearing groups. The significant differences between 104 the mean scores of the northern and southern teachers, suggest that teachers reared in the North have a better attitude toward the disadvantaged children they teach, as measured by the H25; than teachers reared in the South. This portion of Hypothesis 11 was rejected (P = .0178). Further Results In addition to the results reported above that related to the hypothesis under investigation, the follow- ing results were considered of enough importance and interest by the investigator to report them here. An examination of the H355 and Q55 scores plotted on the scatter diagram graphically depicts the moderately high correlation between the two sets of scores. The computed correlation coefficient showed the relation to be .0539 (see Figure 4.1). Conclusions On the basis of findings in this study, the following conclusions seem to be justified. Hypothesis l.--Age was a key variable in determin- ing whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live. However, the second portion of Hypothesis 1 shows that age was not a key variable in 105 determining whether or not teachers have harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hyppthesis 2.--Tota1 years of teaching experience was not a significant variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward dis- advantaged communities in which the children they teach live, or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged chil- dren they teach. Hypothesis 3.--Marital status was not a signifi- cant variable in determining whether or not teachers have progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis 4.--Academic degree held, when used as a variable, was not essential in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward dis- advantaged communities in which the children they teach live or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged chil- dren they teach. Hypothesis 5.--Teaching level when used as a variable was not influential in determining whether or not teachers have progressive attitudes toward 106 disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis 6.--Undergraduate school attended, when used as a variable, was not significant in determin- ing whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live. However, the undergraduate school attended variable was significant in determining whether or not teachers hold harmonious attitudes toward dis- advantaged children they teach. Hypothesis 7.--Fathers' occupationsl status was not an influential variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward dis- advantaged communities in which the children they teach live or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach . Hypothesis 8.--Fathers' educational status was not an essential variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live, or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. 107 Hypothesis 9.--Residential background was not a significant variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live, or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis lO.--Race was not an essential variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live, or harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Hypothesis ll.--Northern or southern geographical location of rearing was not a key variable in determining whether or not teachers hold progressive attitudes toward disadvantaged communities in which the children they teach live. However, the northern or southern geographi- cal location of rearing variable was significant in determining whether or not teachers hold harmonious attitudes toward disadvantaged children they teach. Implications Although this study was limited in scope and has primary application to the portion of a single elementary school from which the sample was drawn, it has significant implications for all school teachers and others who have 108 the responsibility for educating or providing education for inner-city, disadvantaged children or youth. The following implications are based on the observations of the researcher, a review of the related literature, the data collected, and their analyses. For as is evident in this study, demographic data such as age, undergraduate school attended, and geographical location of rearing can be utilized to determine, correlate, and/or predict attitudes of teachers. 1. To promote the development of harmonious attitudes and strong self-concepts among inner-city teachers, numerous urban pre-service and in-service train- ing workshops should be created. The need becomes eSpecially acute among urban school teachers who come from backgrounds dissimilar to those of the children they teach in the urban school setting. There is a large body of research which indicates that a significant relationship exists between the academic pro- gress and emotional well-being of children, and their self-concept which is directly con- tingent on the attitudes and self-concept of their classroom teacher. Therefore, it is para- mount that inner-city school teachers have strong positive self-concepts, which would enable them to convey more "appropriate" atti- tudes toward their urban disadvantaged pupils. 109 The employment of teachers for the public schools in urban communities should be primarily contin- gent upon the relationship between some specific demographic variables and personal attitudes. On the other hand, personnel officials of an inner-city school system should not include or exclude certain prospective teachers for employ- ment simply on the basis of their being different demographically--northern or southern collegiate background, age, geographical location of rear- ing, etc. There is evidence in this study supporting the contention that other nondemographic variables--warmth, personableness, sensitiveness, sympathetic awareness of urban community problems, etc., ought to be critically evaluated prior to the placement of any teacher in the public schools of an inner-city community. Inner-city school teachers for the most part have not received in their pre-service training the experiences that would enable them to critically assess and evaluate the effect their attitudes have on the academic progress and emotional well- being of their pupils. Therefore, it is impera- tive and crucial that teacher training insti- tutions begin to provide prospective teachers 110 with educational experiences that will allow them to become more conscious of their attitudes and permit them to cope more effectively, construc- tively, and creatively with the problems of disadvantaged inner-city children. 4. All teachers who teach in urban communities need to understand the impact of their inherent nega- tive or stereotype attitudes toward disadvantaged children, and be cognizant of the necessity to alter their attitudes and behavior, if they are adversely affecting the urban schools' clientele. Thus in order to change certain attitudes, the inner-city teacher should be exposed to a number of dif- ferent models through intrinsic as well as extrinsic experiences, which will hopefully result in better edu- cational experiences for all disadvantaged children in this country. The need for the kinds of experiences recommended above simply underscore the effect that teacher attitudes have on disadvantaged children, if these attitudes are perceived by the disadvantaged child as being negative toward his own ethnic group. Based upon the findings, conclusions, and implications from this study, the following recommendations 111 will be presented in two sections: (1) recommendations for inner-city community schools, and (2) recommendations for further study. Recommendations Personnel officials should use the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory, the Communipy Atti- tude Scale, and such demographic variables as northern or southern collegiate background, age, and geographical location of rearing to assist them in determining attitudes that prospective teachers may have toward low-income communities and disadvantaged children, when building a profile for selecting and screening teachers for positions in inner-city schools. There are teachers who should not be assigned to inner- city schools. A concerted effort should be made by personnel officials to employ many more male teachers for the purpose of teaching in early elementary grades. These male teachers should be dis- persed throughout the system as models of the significant others for the pupils and particu- larly boys. 112 Personnel officials should not assign any teacher to an inner-city school without first requiring that he attend a three-week workshOp, with pay, to gain experience working with disadvantaged children, to learn about the school itself, to know more about the school environment, and to have the opportunity to meet the parents of every pupil in the prOSpective teacher's class. Personnel officials should make every effort to place teachers with special qualities and attitudes in inner-city schools. These attitudes include: (a) A concern about the quality of one's own work; (b) Capability to act with dignity; (c) Capability to act with quiet firmness and fairness; (d) Capability to act with consistent behavior toward all pupils; (e) Capability to act with directness; (f) Capability to communicate with these pupils and their parents, and (g) Capability to prepare for a good day's work and expect the same from the pupils. There should be a constant in-service training program conducted at the district's expense and carrying college credit. The in-service training program should not only aid the supportive edu- cation of teachers, but it should enhance the 113 Democratic concept and maintain a better qualified staff. Such an in-service program should include: (a) The nature of self-concept and its relation- ship to the educational process; (b) Mental Health--designed to promote better mental health and less anxiety in the classroom; (c) Child growth and development to promote a better under- standing of the inner-city cultures; (d) Sociology-- for better understanding of ethnic, religious, and social problems of the large metrOpolitan popu- lations; (e) Educational Psychology--with an emphasis on learning theories; (f) Counseling and Guidance, and (g) Humanities--for a better working knowledge of the contributions of all men, nations, and religions to civilization. Recommendations for Further Study The relationship between urban teachers' atti- tudes toward low-income communities and dis- advantaged children has been a subject of edu- cational research in recent years. Perhaps a follow-up study, using the data gathered in the present investigation should be undertaken to determine whether these correlations are unchanged in the urban educational park investigated. 114 The present study could be replicated using the §5§ and the H355 to measure the relationship between demographic variables of inner-city school teachers (in another inner-city community resembling the community illustrated in the present study) and their attitudes toward low- income communities in relation to their attitudes toward disadvantaged children. Further research could test the credibility of the findings in the present study. A review of the literature relating to teacher behavior suggests that teacher attitudes toward children is one of the most critical components of a competent inner-city teacher. All elements of future teacher training should be geared to research in terms of its effect on the attitudes of prospective inner-city school teachers. Additionally, the children of inner-city schools and their parents have the right to expect that every teacher employed in the district be cogni- zant of urban school problems, and be willing to maximize all possible skills and competencies as dedicated professionals, to improve various urban school inadequacies. 115 For the sake of acquiring further knowledge of urban school problems, the Q55 and the.Hg5£ should be used in a study designed to determine if experimentally manipulated treatment can change stereotyped or negative attitudes of a selected sample of inner-city school teachers, toward low-income communities in relation to their attitudes toward disadvantaged children. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Allport; F. H. Theories of Perception and the Concept of Structure. New York: Wiley,’I955. Ausubel, D. P., and Ausubel, Pearl. "Ego Development Among Negro Children." Education in Depressed Areas. Edited by A. H. Passow. New York: CdIdfibia University, Teachers College, 1963. 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Kerensky, Vasil M., and Melby, Ernest 0. Education II-- The Social Imperative. Midland, Mich.: Pendell Publishing Company,t197l. Klopf, Gordon J., and Laster, Israel A. Integratipg the Urban School. New York: Teachers C611ege, Columbia UhiVersity, 1963. Kvaraceus, William, et a1. Negro Self-Conqppt. New York: McGraw-HiIl Inc., 1965. Lipset, Seymour M., and Bendix, Reinhard. Social Mobility in Industrial Sppiety. BerEeIey: University of California Press, 1959. Packard, Vance. The Status Seekers. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1959. 118 Passow, Harry A., ed. Education in Deppessed Areas. New York: Bureau of Puhiications, Teachers CoIlege, Columbia University, 1963. Pearl, Arthur. Educatiopal Change: Why-Hog:For Whom. San FranciSCo: San Francisco Human Rights Com- mission, 1968. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Dis- orders. New Yofk: Bantam Bo6ks,‘l968. Riessman, F. The Culturally Deprived Child. New York: Harper and Brothers Inc., 1962. Rosenthal, Robert, and Jacobson, Lenore F. Pygmalion in the Classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart and’ Winston, 1968. Sexton, Patricia Cayo. Education and Income. New York: Viking Press, Inc., 1961. Silberman, Charles E. Crisis in Black and White. New York: Random House, 1964. Silberman, Melvin L. "Behavioral Expression of Teachers' Attitudes Toward Elementary School Students." Journal of Educational ngchology, LX (October, 1969T, 402-071 Strom, Robert D., ed. The Inner-City Classroom Teacher Hehaviors. Columbus, Ohio: CharIes E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1966. Thelen, H. A. Classroom Grouping for Teachabilipy. New York: Wiley, 19671 Thurston, L., and Chave, E. J. The Measurement ofy5tti- tude. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1929. Warner, Lloyd W.; Havighurst, Robert J.; and Loeb, Martin. Who Shall Be Educated? The Challenge pf Uneqpal Opportunities. New York: Harper and Row, 1944. Whipple, G. "Curriculum for the Disadvantaged." Edu- cation and the Disadvantaged. Edited by HT——' Goidman. MiIWaukee, WiSconsin: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Conference Proceeding on the Disadvantaged, June 8-9, 1967. Wilson, Alan B. "Social Stratification and Academic Achievement." Education in Depressed Areas. Edited by A. H. Passow. New Yotk: Teadhers College, 1963. 119 Journals, Periodicals, and Unpubiished Materiais Anderson, James G., and Safar, Dwight. "The Influence on Differential Community Perceptions on the “Provision of Equal Educational Opportunities." Sociology of Education, XL, No. 3 (September, 1967). Berscheid, Ellen, and walster, Elaine. "Beauty and the Best." Psychology Today, V, No. 10 (March, 1972). Bettelheim, Bruno. "Teaching the Disadvantaged." NEA Journal, LIV (September, 1965). Bertolaet, Frederick W., and Nystrand, Raphael 0. "Urban Educational Problems.” EngyclOpedia of Edu- cational Research, 1962. Bosworth, C. "A Study of the Development and the Vali- dation of a Measure of Citizens' Attitudes Toward Progress and Game Variables Related Thereto." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1954. Brookover, Wilbur B. ”Some Social Psychological Con- ceptions of Classroom Learning." School and Society, LXXXVII (1959), 84-87. Carter, Thomas P. "Negative Self-Concept of Mexican- American Students." School and Society, XCVI, No. 2 (March 2, 1968). Clift, V. A. "Curriculum Strategy Based on the Per- sonality Characteristics of Disadvantaged Youth." Journal of Npgro Education, XXXVIII (1969), 94-104. Combs, Arthur W. "Teachers Too Are Individuals." Unpub- lished address at Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Conference, 1962. Davis, A. "Changing the Culture of the Disadvantaged Student." Wbrkin with Low Inéome Families, proceedings of the AHEAtWorkshop. washington, D.C.: American Home Economics Association, 1965. Dunkelberger, John E. "Intensity of Job Mobility Aspir- ation Among Household Heads in Low-Income Areas of the Rural South." Unpublished Ph.D. disser- tation, Mississippi State University, 1965. 120 The Education Policies Commission. "Education and the Disadvantaged American{“_ washington, D.C.: National Education Association of the United States, 1962. Goff, R. M. "Some Educational Implications of the Influence of Rejection on Aspiration Level of Minority Group Children." Journal of Ex eri- mental Education, XXIII (1954), 179-83. Goldberg, M. L. "Adopting Teacher Styles to Pupil Dif- ferences: Teacher For Disadvantaged Children." Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, X (1964), 161-78. Havighurst, Robert J. "Who Are the Disadvantaged?" The Journal of Negro Education, XXXIV (Winter, 1965). . "Requirements of a Wild New Criticism." Phi Delta Kappan, L (1968), 20-26. Jencks, Christopher. ”Slums and Schools." New Republic, CXLVII (September 10, 1962). Katz, Daniel. "A Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes." Public Opinion Quarterly, XXIV (1962). Menninger, William. “Self Understanding for Teachers." National Education Association Journal, XLII (1953), 332. New York Times Edition 1968. "Training and Jobs for the Urban Poor.II A Statement on National Policy by the Research and Policy Committee of the Com- mittee for Economic Development, July, 1970. Ortego, Philip D. "School for Mexican Americans: Between Two Cultures." Saturday Review, LTV, No. 16 (April 17, 1971). Paschal, B. J. "A Concerned Teacher Makes the Difference." Arithmetic Teacher, XIII (1966), 203-05. Passow, Harry A. "Toward Creating A Model Urban School System: A Study of the washington D.C. Public Schools." A report of the‘Washington D.C. Public Schools. New York: Columbia University Teachers College, 1967. Perkins, H. V. "Classroom Behavior and Underachievement." American Educational Research Journal, II (1965), 1-12. 121 Persons, Edgar, and Leske, Gary. ”Adapting Adult Edu- cation to the Disadvantaged." Paper read at the Training Institute for Rural Disadvantaged, August 17, 1970, Willmar, Minnesota. Phillips, Beeman N. "The Individual and the Classroom Group as Frames of Reference in Determining Teacher Effectiveness." Journal of Educational Research, LVIII (November, 1964). Phillips, J. A., Jr. "Teacher Typologies." High School Journal, LI (1967), 26-31. Rich, John. "How Social Class Values Affect Teacher- Pupil Relations." The Journal of Educational Sociology, XXXIII (May, 1960). Rist, Ray C. "Student Class and Teacher Expectation." Harvard Education Review, XL, No. 3 (August, 1970). Robison, Helen F., and Mukerji, Rose. "Language, Con— cepts--and the Disadvantaged." Educational Leadership, XXIII (November, 1965). Rogers, Ralph H. "Health Characteristics of School Children Aged 8 to 9 in a Socio-Economic Poverty Area and Their Relation to Age and Achievement." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1971. Rosenthal, Robert, and Jacobson, Lenore F. "Teacher Expectations for the Disadvantaged." Scientific American, CCXVIII, No. 22 (April, 1968i? Rousseve, Ronald J. "Teachers of Culturally Disad- vantaged American Youth." The Journal of Negro Education, XXXII (Spring, 1963). Silberman, Melvin L. "Behavioral Expression of Teachers' Attitudes Toward Elementary School Students." Journal of Educational Psychology, LX (October, -070 I Stern, Geroge. "Measuring Noncognitive Variables in Research on Teaching." Handbook of Research on Teachin . washington, D.C.: National EducatiOn Assoc1ation, 1963. Torrance, Paul E. "Teacher Attitudes and Pupil Per- ception." The Journal of Teacher Education, XI (March, 1960), 97-102. 122 "Training and Jobs for the Urban Poor." A Statement on National Poliqy by the Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Develop- ment, July, 1970. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports, Consumer Income Series, P-60, No. 68, December 31, 1969. Wade, Francis C. "Causality in the Classroom." Modern Schoolman, XXVIII (1955), 145. Washburne, C., and Heil, C. "What Characteristics of Teachers Affect Children's Growth." The School Review, 1960. Wayson, W. W. "Expressed Motives of Teachers in Slum Schools." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Uni- versity of Chicago, 1966. Willie, Charles V. "Education, Deprivation and Alien- ation." Journal of Negro Education, XXXIV (Summer, 1965). Wirth, J. W. "Relationships Between Teachers and Opinions of Disadvantaged Children and Measures of Selected Chapacteristics of These Children." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of :Florida, 1966. Yee, Albert. "Social Interaction in Classrooms? Impli- ‘cations for the Education of Disadvantaged Pupils." Urban Education, IV, No. 1 (April, 1960). . "Source and Direction of Casual Influence in the Teacher-Pupil Relationships." Journal of Education Psychology, LIX (1968), 275-82. APPENDICES APPENDIX A DEMOGRAPHIC DATA FORM Instructions: 1. APPENDIX A DEMOGRAPHIC DATA FORM Please circle or fill in only one answer for each question. How old are you? a. 20-25 b. 26-33 c. 34 and over How many years have you been teaching (Please include present year)? a. 1-3 b. 4-7 c. 8 and over What is your present marital status? a. d. What degree(s) do you presently hold? a. What level are you presently teaching on? a. Married Separated B.A. b. Divorced c. Single e. Widowed b. B.A. plus c. B.A. plus 16 0-15 » and over Pre-school--Kindergarten b. First grade--Fourth grade How would you characterize the school from which you received your undergraduate teaching degree? a. b. c. d. e. Northern Northern Southern Southern and predominantly black and predominantly nonblack and predominantly black and predominantly nonblack Other (Please write in) How would you characterize your father's occupation? a. b. Unskilled and skilled blue collar Salaried official professional, upper-level manager or 123 10. 11. 124 Continued c. d. HOW Self-employed business man, farm owner or operator White collar clerical, sales, or public service much formal education did your father receive? Some grade school and grade school graduate Some high school and high school graduate Some college and college graduate Some post-graduate work and post-graduate degree would you characterize the community in which grew up? Urban b. Rural c. Suburban would you characterize your racial background? Black b. non-Black How would you characterize your geographical location of rearing? a. Northern b. Southern APPENDIX B COMMUNITY ATTITUDE SCALE APPENDIX B COMMUNITY ATTITUDE SCALE Instructions: Please circle only one answer for question. >. F: 01 so) 0 ocn 0 31 6" 8 1. The school should stick to the 3 R's Into 4 and forget about most of the other courses being offered today. pp_ p_ 2. Most communities are good enough as they are without starting any new community improvement pro- grams. pp p_ 3. Every community should encourage more music and lecture programs. pp_ p_’ 4. This used to be a better community to live in. s_a p_ 5. Long-term progress is more impor- tant than immediate benefits. pp_ p_' 6. we have too many organizations for doing good in the community. 55’ p_. 7. The home and the church should have all the responsibility for preparing young people for marriage and parenthood. pp’ p_' 8. The responsibility for older people should be confined to themselves and their families instead of the community. pp_ p__ 9. Communities have too many youth programs. sa a 125 (D m G :J‘ Undecided l"’ I” l"’ IN) IN) IQ Disagree I“ I“ I“ I“ IQ: IQ: IQ: IO: Strongly disagree l8 10. ll. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 126 Schools are good enough as they are in most communities. Too much time is usually spent on the planning phases of com- munity projects. Adult education should be an essential part of the local school program. Only the doctors should have the responsibility for the health program in the com- munity. Mental illness is not a respon- sibility for the whole com- munity. A modern community should have the services of social agencies. The spiritual needs of the citi- zens are adequately met by the churches. In order to grow, a community must provide additional recreation facilities. In general, church members are better citizens. The social needs of the citizens are the responsibility of them- selves and their families and not of the community. Churches should be expanded and located in accordance with population growth. No community improvement pro- gram should be carried on that is injurious to a busi- ness. Industrial development should include the interest in assist- ing local industry. I‘” I” I93 I)” I93 I0! I91 . In! It” In! In! I0: I01 IN) l"’ IN) IN) IN.) l"’ IN) IN) IN) |"’ IN) IN) IN) '04 ID: ID.- ID- IQ: I04 ID.- ID: ID: ID: ID: ID- IQ- 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 127 The first and.major responsi- bility of each citizen should be to earn dollars for his own pocket. More industry in town lowers the living standards. The responsibility of citizens who are not actively partici- pating in a community improve- ment program is to criticize those who are active. What is good for the community is good for me. Each one should handle his own business as he pleases and let the other businessmen handle theirs as they please. A strong Chamber of Commerce is beneficial to any community. Leaders of the Chamber of Commerce are against the welfare of the majority of the citizens in the community. A community would get along better if each one would mind his own business and others take care of theirs. Members of any community organization should be expected to attend only those meetings that affect him personally. Each of us can make real pro- gress only when the group as a whole makes progress. The person who pays no attention to the complaints~ of the persons working for him is a poor citizen. It would be better if we would have the farmer look after his own business and we look after ours. ID) ID) I9) I!” In) '0) I0) ID) I)” In) IN) l"’ IN) l"’ l"’ IN) IN) I'“ l"’ IN) IN) |"’ ID: ID: ID: ID.- ID: IQ: ID: ID: IQ- ID: ID: IQ: 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 128 A11 unions are full of Communists. The good citizens encourage the widespread circuiation of all news including that which.may be unfavorable to them and their organizations. The good citizen should help minority groups with their problems. The farmer has too prominent a place in our society. A citizen should join only those organizations that will promote his own interests. Everyone is out for himself at the expense of everyone else. Busy people should not have the responsibility for civic pro- grams. The main responsibility for keeping the community clean is up to the city officials. Community improvements are fine if they don't increase taxes. The younger element have too much to say about our com- munity affairs. A progressive community must provide adequate parking facilities. Government officials should get public sentiment before acting on major municipal projects. A good citizen should be willing to assume leadership in a civic improvement organization. 83 ID) ID) ID) ID) '9) In) In) In) In) In) In) ID) ID) IN) l"’ |"’ IN) IN.) IN.) l"’ l"’ IN) l"’ IN.) l"’ IN) IO.- '94 ID.- ID: IO: ID: ID: ID: IQ: IQ- ID: ID; ID: 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 129 Progress can best be accom- plished by having only a few people involved. Community improvement should be the concern of only a few leaders in the community. A community would be better if less peOple would spend time on community improvement. projects. Only those who have the.most time should assume the respon- sibility for civic programs. Living conditions in a com- munity should be improved. A good citizen should sign petitions for community improvement. Improving slum areas is a waste of money. The police force should be especially strict with out- siders. The paved streets and roads in most communities are good enough. The sewage system of a com- munity must be expanded as it grows even though it is neces- sary to increase taxes. Some people just want to live in slum areas. The main problem we face is high taxes. Modern methods and equipment should be provided for all phases of city government. Bosworth, C . Ph.D. dissertation University of Michigan, 1954. In) In) In) ID) '9) In) In) In) In) In) In) IN) IN) IN) l"’ IN) IN) l"’ IN) |"’ ID- ID.- IQ: ID: ID.- ID: ID: ID.- ID: ID: ID: APPENDIX C MINNESOTA TEACHER ATTITUDE INVENTORY DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 'I'OLD TO DO SO MINNESOTA TEACHER ATTITUDE INVENTORY Form A WALTER W. COOK CARROLL H. LEEDS ROBERT CALLIS University of Minnesota Furman University University of Missouri DIRECTIONS This inventory consists at 150 statements designed to sample opinions about teacher-pupil relations. There is considerable disagreement as to what these relations should he; therefore. there are no right or wrong answers. What is wanted is your own individual feeling about the statements. Read each statement and decide how YOU feel about it. Then mark your answer on the space provided on the answer sheet. Do not make any marks on this booklet. sa a If you strongly agree. blacker: space under "SA" . 3 I If you agree. blarkeo space under "A" u ! If you are undecided or uncertain. blarkcn spare under ' U ‘ {A f If you disagree. blacken space under "D" u ii I! you strongly disagree. blacken spare rmdcr "SD" . I'nsred in US A 2? c - c :2? SD 3- O :.;:: Think in terms oi the general situation rather than specific ones. There is no time limit. but work as rapidly as you can. PLEASE RESPOND TO EVERY ITEM. The inVenrory conrained rn rhrs boulder has been desrgned for use with answer (onus Wished or authorized by The Psychologrul (.orporarion. If other shaver forms are used. Psychological Corporation rakes no responsibility for rhe meaningfulness of scores Copyrighr I95! by The Psychological Corporation. All rights reserved. No rr oi rhis inventory may be reproduced in any form of printing or y any orher means. electronic or mechanical. including. but nor limrred to. photocopying. audiovisual recording and rransmission. and portrayal or duplicarron rn any information storage .rnd retrieval system. wrrhour permission rn writing hum the publisher. The moor...» Cum-on. MM last fish Street. New You. H. Y. I00!) 130 70-I’I'II S:\—~ Strongly agree i" A—wAgrcc 131 ’17ndccirlcrl or uncertain l) --l)is;igrec SI l~ —Slrringly disagree 10. 11. II. II. M. 1‘. float children are obedient. Pupils who “act smart" probably have too high an opinion of themselves. Minor disciplinary situations should sometimes be turned into jokes. Shyness is preferable to boldness. . Teaching never gets monotonous. . Host pupils don't appreciate what a teacher does for them. . II the teacher laughs with the pupils in amus- ing classroom situations. the class tends to get out oi control. A child's companionships can be too carefully supervised. A child should be encouraged to keep his likes and dislikes to himsell. It sometimes does a child good to be criticised in the presence of other pupils. Unquestioning obedience in a child is not desirable. Pupils should be required to do more studying at home. The first lesson a child needs to learn is to obey the teacher without hesitation. Loung people are diflicult to understand these ys. There is too great an emphasis upon "keeping order" in the classroom. 10. I7. 10. ID. A pupil's failure is seldom the fault of the teacher. There are times when a teacher cannot be blamed for losing patience with a pupil. A teacher should never discuss sea problems with the pupils. Pupils have it too easy in the modern school. A teacher should not be expected to burden himself with a pupil's problems. Pupils expect too much help from the teacher in getting their lessons. A teacher should not be expected to sacrifice an evening of recreation in order to visit a child's home. Host pupils do not make an adequate eflort to prepare their lessons. Too many children nowadays are allowed to have their own way. . Children's wants are just as important as those of an adult. . The teacher is usually to blame when pupils Iail to follow directions. . A child should be taught to obey an adult without question. The boastful child is usually over»confident of his ability. 2.. Children have a natural tendency to be unruly. . A teacher cannot place much faith in the state- ’ ments of pupils. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE SA—Strongly agree A—Agrec 132 l} —Untlccidcd or uncertain l)——-l)isagree SD—Strongly disagree. SI. CI. Some children ask too many questions. A upil should not be required to stand when ting. The teacher should not be expected to man- age a child if the latter's parents are unable to do so. Ateachershouldneveracknow shisig- noranceofatoplcinthepreaenceof pupils. . Disciplineinthemodernachoolisnotasstrict as it should be. lost pupils lack productive imagination. . Standards of work should vary with the pupil. The majority of children take their responsi- bilities seriously. To maintain a teacher ood discipline in the classroom tobe“bard-boiled.” Succsas is more motivating than failure. Imaginative tales demand the same punish- ment as lying. . Every pu l in the sixth grade should have sixth gr reading ability. A ood motivati pageon of a pu pupils. device is the critical com- ’s work with that of other Itisbettsrlorachildtobebashfulthantobe “boyor girl crsay.” . Course grades should never be lowered as unlshmen P L dd. ‘7. ll. 51. lore “old-fashioned whippings" are needed today. The child must learn that “teacher knows best." Increased freedom in the classroom creates confusion. . A teacher should not be eapected to be sym pathetic toward truants. . Teachers should exercise more authority over their pupils than they do. Discipline problems are the teacher's greatest worry. . The low achiever probably is not working hard enough and applying himself. . There is too much emphasis on grading. Host children lack common courtesy toward adults. Aggressive children are the greatest problems. At times it is necessary that the whole class sufier when the teacher is unable to identify the culprit. Many teachers are not severe enough in their dealings with pupils. . Children “should be seen and not heard." . A teacher should always have at least a few It is easier to correct discipline problems than it is to prevent them. 00 ON TO THE NEXT PAGE S/\——Strong|y ngrr-r- A-Agree 133 [7 rlilirlt'r irlr'rl HI’ rim t'llillll I) -I)is;igrr't- Si) Strongly tlisagrt't‘ Cl. 70. 7|. 7‘. 75. Children are usually too sociable in the class- room. . Most pupils are resourceful when left on their own. . Too much nonsense goes on in many class- rooms these days. The school is often to blame in cases of truancy. . Children are too carefree. Pupils who fail to prepare their lessons daily should be kept after school to make this prep- aration. . Pupils who are foreigners usually make the teacher's task more unpleasant. . Host children would like to use good English. . Assigning additional school work is often an eflective means of punishment. Dishonesty as found in cheating is probably one of the most serious of moral oflenses. Children should be allowed more freedom in their execution of learning activities. t teachers if for no ey are teachers. Pupils must learn to res other reason than that Children need not always understand the rea- sons for social conduct. Pupils usually are not qualified to select their own topics for themes and reports. No child should rebel against authority. 70. 77. 78. 79. SI. 87. There is too much leniency today in the hand- ling of children. Difficult disciplinary problems are seldom the fault of the teacher. The whims and impulsive desires of children are usually worthy of attention. Children usually have a hard time following instructions. . Children nowadays are allowed too much free- dom in school. All children should start to read by the age of seven. . Universal promotion of pupils lowers achieve- ment standards. Children are unable to reason adequately. A teacher should not tolerate use of slang expressions by his pupils. e The child who misbehaves should be made to feel guilty and ashamed of himself. If a child wants to speak or to leave his seat during the class period. he should always get permission from the teacher. Pupils should not respect teachers any more than any other adults. . Throwing of chalk and erasers should always demand severe punishment. . Teachers who are liked best probably have a better understanding of their pupils. . Most pupils try to make things easier for the teacher. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE S:\—Struny.gl}~ :rgrr-r- A—»/\grcc 134 l.—-l‘nrlcctrlcrl or uncertain I l-- llisagrec Sil- Strongly disagree II. I”. 101. I“. 10‘. I“. lost teachers do not give sud’icient explana- tion in their teaching. There are too many activities lacking” in acad- emic respectability that are being introduced into the curricuhun of the modern school. Children should be given more freedom in the classroom than they usually get. Host pupils are unnecessarily thoughtless rel- ative to the teacher' a wishes. . Children should not expect talking privileges when adults wish to speak. Pupils are usually slow to “catch on” to new mat Teachers are r home conditions o bio for knowing the every one of their pupils. Pupils can be very boring at times. . Children have no business asking questions about sex. Children must be told exactly what to do and how to do it. Most pupils are considerate of their teachers. Whispering should not be tolerated. pile especially should be required to stand when rscitin Teachers should consider problems of con. duct more seriously than they do. A teacher should never leave the class to its own management. 100. l07. lOS. 100. 110. 111. Ill. 11!. Ild. III. its. I17. 118. Ill ISO. A teacher should not be expected to do more work than he is paid for. There is nothing that can be more irritating than some pupils. "Lack of application" is probably one of the most frequent causes for failure. Young people nowadays are too frivolous. As a rule teachers are too lenient with their pupils. Slow pupils certainly try one's patience. Grading is of value because of the competition element. Pupils like to annoy the teacher. Children usually will not think for themselves. Classroom rules and regulations must be con- sidered inviolable. lost pupils have too see a time of it and do not learn to do real wor . Children are so likeable that their shortcom- ings can usually be overlooked. A pupil found writing obscene notes should be severely punished. A 'teacher seldom finds children really enjoy- ab e. There is usually one best way to do school work which all pupils should follow. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE SI\-—St rr ingl); .‘rgrcr- A—Agrcc 135 l'—-Undccirlr-rl or uncertain I) —l)is;rgrcc SI L—Slnmgly tllhflkft‘t‘ III. III. I“. ‘u. I”. 187. III. III. I”. ISI. "S. I”. I“. I”. It isn't practicable to base school work upon children's interests. It is difficult to understand why some chil- dren want to come to school so early in the morning before opening time. Children that cannot meet the school stand- ards should be dropped. Children are usually too inquisitive. It is sometimes necessary to break promises made to children. Children today are given too much freedom. One should be able to get along with almost any child. Children are not mature enough to make their own decisions. A child who bites his nails needs to be shamed. ellildren will think for themselves if permit- C There is no excuse for the extreme sensitivity of some children. Children just cannot be trusted. Children should be given reasons for the re. strictions placed upon them. Nest pupils are not interested in learning. It is usually the uninteresting and difficult subjects that will do the pupil the most good. ISO. 187. ISO. 140. Ill. I“. I”. I46. I“. I“. “7. I“. I“. ISO. A pupil should always be fully aware of what is expected of him. There is too much intermingling of the sexes in extra-curricular activities. The child who stutters should be given the opportunity to recite oftsner. The teacher should disre ard the complaints of the child who constant y talks about imag- inary illnesses. Teachers bably over-emphasise the ser- iousneas 0 such pupil behavior as the writing of obscene notes. Teachers should not expect pupils to like them. Children act more civilised than do many adults. aggressive children require the moat atten- on. Teecharscanbeinthewrongaswellas pupils. Young people today are just as good as those of the past generation. Keeping discipline is not the that many teachers claim it to be. m A pupil has the right to disagree openly with his teachers. Most pupil misbehavior is done to annoy the teacher. One should not expect pupils to enjoy school. Inpupilappralsalefi‘ortshouldnotbedls- tinguiahedromscho p. "‘minnowuS