Effort Optimism in the Classroom: Attitudes of Black and White Students on Education, Social Structure, and Causes of Life Opportunities

Autor/in	Matthew, Ervin
Titel	Effort Optimism in the Classroom: Attitudes of Black and White Students on Education, Social Structure, and Causes of Life Opportunities
Quelle	In: Sociology of Education, 84 (2011) 3, S.225-245 (21 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0038-0407
DOI	10.1177/0038040711402360
Schlagwörter	African American Students; Academic Achievement; Social Structure; White Students; Racial Differences; Grade Point Average; Regression (Statistics); Socioeconomic Status; Probability; Sociology + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? African Americans; Student; Students; Afroamerikaner; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Schulleistung; Sozialstruktur; Rassenunterschied; Regression; Regressionsanalyse; Socio-economic status; Sozioökonomischer Status; Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung; Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie; Soziologie
Abstract	Do black and white students hold similar beliefs about the causes of life opportunities? Disparities in academic performance between blacks and whites have been attributed, in part, to differing attitudes about the relationship between education and life opportunities. Advocates of oppositional culture theory argue that black students consider structural barriers to have more influence on prosperity than do their own efforts in the classroom; detractors contend that black and white students equally consider individual academic performance to be key to future life opportunities. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study, 1988 through 1992, the author demonstrates that students simultaneously accept both structural and individualistic explanations for prosperity. Black students report greater support for structural explanations than do white students, but they report equal or greater support for the relevance of education to their futures. The author finds that, while black and white students do differ in their optimism about future opportunities, dissimilar attitudes about social structure, rather than education, are accountable for this. (Contains 10 tables.) (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10