Classroom Event in Which Fourth

¶ … classroom event in which fourth and fifth grade students in a highly diverse urban school completed, discussed, and, ultimately, protested a district survey intended to illuminate the social climate of the city's schools, with a particular focus on race and racism. The aim of this paper is to examine the discussion surrounding the survey and the survey itself for what they reveal about children's understandings of race, privacy, response to authority, and the discourses about race that were supported and challenged by this classroom event. Key points in the lit review include, discussions on how elementary children are very capable of discussing race in complex and thoughtful ways. research which suggests that discussions of race in elementary classrooms are rare and, when they do occur, are most likely to emphasize racism as a historical issue that has largely been eliminated, and that there is no doubt that explicitly raising race as a topic of inquiry is fraught at all educational levels. (Dutro, Kazemi, & Balf, 2006)

Research Design:

The reading utilized a three-dimensional critical discourse analysis methodology. The researchers conducted three analyses of data related to the classroom event that was mapped on to one another. First, they analyzed the production of each text, examining the other texts that surrounded each of our key texts and the context through which each arose. Second, they analyzed each text he classroom discussion and survey. This analysis included: examining turn taking in spoken texts, identifying ideologically contests and value laden words and phrases, use of metaphor in both spoken and written texts, terms/phrases used to articulate race, difference, fairness, and privacy, and generic structures in the survey. This level of analysis also involved examining how the language of the survey led it to be consumed in a particular way by this group of children and Ruth. Third, they analyzed the socio-cultural context surrounding this event, particularly the characteristics of this particular classroom, including the high level of diversity and the teacher's stance. The critical discourse analysis was conducted in the context of ethnographic data collected over two years in this classroom. Extensive field notes, interviews, audio and videotaped lessons and discussions, support the researcher's understandings of the transcripts analyzed for this paper and collections of student work.(Dutro et al., 2006)

Findings:

The findings are discussed over several pages where the researchers discuss how the students felt regarding various aspects of the survey they had taken. The particular part discussed in this analysis is where the researchers discuss the racial and ethnic designations that were printed on each child's copy of the district survey. Grace, who points to the printed categories to support her argument that race/ethnicity should not matter, first introduced the issue of racial/ethnic categories.