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The Impact of Social and Cultural Factors on Minority Students’ Participation in an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program University of Northern Colorado Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC Dissertations Student Research 12-2019 The Impact of Social and Cultural Factors on Minority Students’ Participation in an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program Elizabeth Scott-Janda Follow this and additional works at: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Scott-Janda, Elizabeth, "The Impact of Social and Cultural Factors on Minority Students’ Participation in an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program" (2019). Dissertations. 642. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/642 This Text is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © 2019 ELIZABETH SCOTT-JANDA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO Greeley, Colorado The Graduate School THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FACTORS ON MINORITY STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN AN INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE DIPLOMA PROGRAM A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Elizabeth Scott-Janda College of Natural and Health Sciences School of Mathematics Educational Mathematics December 2019 This Dissertation by: Elizabeth Scott-Janda Entitled: The Impact of Social and Cultural Factors on Minority Students’ Participation in an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program has been approved as meeting the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in College of Natural and Health Sciences in the School of Mathematics, Program of Educational Mathematics. Accepted by the Doctoral Committee ____________________________________________________ Dr. Robert Powers, Ph.D., Research Advisor ____________________________________________________ Dr. Bill Blubaugh, Ph.D., Committee Member ____________________________________________________ Dr. Steven Leth, Ph.D., Committee Member ____________________________________________________ Dr. Francie Murry, Ph.D., Faculty Representative Date of Dissertation Defense __________________________________________ Accepted by the Graduate School _________________________________________________________ Cindy Wesley, Ph.D. Interim Associate Provost and Dean Graduate School and International Admissions ABSTRACT Scott-Janda, Elizabeth. The Impact of Social and Cultural Factors on Minority Students’ Participation in an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. Published Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2019. Although concern about mathematical achievement inequities has become widespread, even in well-funded, high-performing high schools, unequal outcomes for minority and disadvantaged students can seem persistent and difficult to change despite strong efforts. This project reports on an ethnographic study that examined how social environments within schools can affect students’ choices of whether or not to attempt advanced coursework in mathematics, especially among marginalized groups like Hispanic minorities, low socio-economic status (SES) and rural populations. It considered how social and peer environments affect students’ approaches to schooling, and decisions they make that will have long-term implications for their futures. In particular, it focused on the academic cultures which arise around advanced tracks such as International Baccalaureate (IB) and AP classes, asking if those cultures may draw some students in and leave others out based on whether students can conform to cultural expectations within those peer subcultures. Finally, gender expression and gender norms were considered, especially as they intersect with academic norms and high achieving sub-cultures. This work may help schools to understand their own academic and gender cultures, making it possible for them to influence on-campus environments in order to create the opportunity for greater access to mathematics for all students. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1 Project Description.......................................................................................4 II. SCHOOLS, STUDENT CULTURE, AND UNDERACHIEVEMENT: TOWARDS A THEORY OF WHY SOME MATHEMATICS STUDENTS MAY NOT TRY...................................................................26 Underachievement as Reported in Studies of School Culture ...................27 Cultural-Ecological Theory: A Dominant View of School Underachievement .........................................................................30 Beyond Ogbu’s Cultural-Ecological Theory .............................................37 Conclusion and Implications......................................................................41 III. THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL FORCES ON STUDENTS’ ACCESS TO ADVANCED MATHEMATICS COURSES: ETHNICITY AND GENDER MATTER ........................................................................44 Reasons for Minority and Low Socio-Economic Status Students’ Lower Representation in Advanced Mathematics Classes ............46 The Setting .................................................................................................53 Methods......................................................................................................57 Access and the Academic Cultures at Lakeview High School ..................59 Mathematics Achievement and Gender Culture ........................................77 Conclusions and Implications ....................................................................92 IV. WHEN STUDENTS RESIST SCHOOLS’ ATTEMPTS TO DESEGREGATE, UNTRACK, AND CREATE PATHS INTO HONORS PROGRAMS ............................................................................98 Why Have Schools Neen Unable to Give All Students the Same Chance to do Well? ........................................................................98 How Students’ Peer Groups and Individual Choices Contribute to Reproducing Traditional Achievement Patterns ............................99 What Schools Should Know and What They Should Do ........................103 Conclusion ...............................................................................................106 iv CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .................................................108 Summary of the Study .............................................................................108 Implications of This Research to Literature .............................................110 Implications to Practice and Policy..........................................................117 Limitations ...............................................................................................120 Future Directions .....................................................................................121 Conclusion ...............................................................................................124 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................126 APPENDICES A. Institutional Review Board Approval ......................................................142 B. Submission Receipt for Research Paper (Harvard Educational Review) ....................................................................................................145 C. Invitation to Resubmit Research Paper (Harvard Educational Review) ....................................................................................................147 D. Submission Receipt for Literature Review Paper (for the Learning of Mathematics) .......................................................................................149 v 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION One of the important values that public education serves is the American ideal of a free and just society, in which people of all backgrounds have equal access to homes, jobs and other resources that contribute to their pursuit of happiness. Public education has become a primary means by which our country attempts to address existing inequality and provide opportunities for greater economic security to all students (Condron, 2009; Haveman & Smeeding, 2006), and it especially serves as a bridge for immigrants (Noguera, 2004). Many people assume that, with a public education, disadvantaged students will be able to obtain greater economic security than their parents and will then in turn educate and care for their own children as new members of the middle class. In this way, we intend education to fight poverty, and even more broadly speaking, to lay the foundations for a society that resists becoming economically stratified, as were the Old World cultures from which we as a nation broke away (Jeffrey, 1978). But economic and educational statistics do not show that our current, education-based system to offer upward mobility is successful, particularly in the communities most in need: those which are poor, rural, ethnic minority, have low educational achievement levels among adults, or are not fluent English speakers (Condron, 2009; Haveman & Smeeding, 2006). On the contrary, as noted by the 2 National Education Association (NEA, 2015), “Although there are exceptions, students from poor family backgrounds tend to do poorly in school” (para. 5). Indeed, many authors are clear that no other factor makes more difference in a child’s academic achievement
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