The Culturally Relevant Classroom Management Competence of Novice Teachers

Abstract

Public education in the United States is White, middle class, and urban/suburban normed. However, in the past decade, national population trends show an increase in minority populations, particularly in the southeastern United States. This trend has resulted in a cultural mismatch between teachers who are not trained in strategies that are responsive to the needs of a diverse student population. Novice teachers in a rural school district in eastern North Carolina participated in a study to examine the degree to which they were prepared to successfully interact with their culturally diverse student populations through the lens of culturally relevant classroom management (CRCM), based on their training at either historically White (HWIs) or Black (HBCUs) postsecondary institutions. As part of this larger study, we found that teachers trained at HWIs, although well-intentioned, enter the classroom far less prepared than their HBCU-trained counterparts. However, for both groups of novice teachers, intercultural interactions earlier in their lives seem to have a greater influence than institutional effects on effective, culturally relevant classroom management practices.

Citation

Young, T.R. and Chambers, C.R. (2020), "The Culturally Relevant Classroom Management Competence of Novice Teachers", Chambers, C.R. and Crumb, L. (Ed.) African American Rural Education (Advances in Race and Ethnicity in Education, Vol. 7), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 133-153. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-231720200000007009