Very few studies have examined school racial climate in racially diverse school contexts. School racial climate refers to “perceptions of interracial interactions and the socialization around race and culture in a school” (Byrd, 2017, p. 700). The association between interracial peer interactions, psychological well-being, and academic outcomes is well documented, but little research has been done on perceptions of school racial socialization and its associated outcomes (Byrd, 2017). Perceptions of school racial socialization is important to address as part of understanding school racial climate, especially for youth from minority ethnic/racial backgrounds, because messages about how much they and their cultures are valued are positively associated with the extent to which these youth identify with academics (Booker, 2006; Byrd, 2015; Eccles, 2004). To address this gap in the research literature, the first study of my dissertation research project used survey data collected from a racially diverse sample of youth at one middle school to examine the psychometric properties of an existing measure of school racial climate. I also explored an alternative factor structure of this measure with the current study population and conducted a measurement invariance analysis to test whether the subscales had the same meaning to white students and students of color. The second study of my project built on the first study by investigating whether there were differences in perceptions of school racial climate subscales by race/ethnicity while controlling for other characteristics. This study also investigated whether school connectedness was associated with school racial climate subscales when controlling for other characteristics. The third study analyzed interview data collected from a subsample (n = 11) of Black male eighth-grade students about their perceptions of two types of school racial socialization messages: (a) messages about their own culture, traditions, and history at school (i.e., cultural socialization); and (b) messages about the cultures, traditions, and histories of other racial/ethnic groups (i.e., promotion of cultural competence). I drew on ecological systems theories from human development and sociological theories on how race as a macro-level ideology was reproduced in the microsystem of school to understand their impressions and reactions to school racial socialization. This dissertation study speaks to considerations for adapting measures of school racial climate that were normed on one population for use with another study population. Beyond using measures with different populations, this dissertation study also has implications for ensuring that constructs being measured for research studies have the same meaning to different subpopulations. Furthermore, this dissertation study highlights how the constructs of school racial climate is associated with other important measures such as school connectedness. The relationship between school racial climate and school connectedness, potentially expands the possibilities for areas of intervention that can bring about more positive educational outcomes for students from historically marginalized racial/ethnic backgrounds. Lastly, this dissertation study offers evidence supporting the case for using a multidimensional scale to measure school racial climate but also using quantitative and qualitative methods to examine this construct.

Creator

• Brown, Eric R

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-0r74-3369

Subject

• Middle school education
• Multicultural education

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:16424
• etdadmin_upload_962765

Date created

• 2023-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright