Interactionist Theory: Segregation And Desegregation In Urban Schools

It has been well documented that the American public school has not benefited or served non-white student populations adequately since first admitting African American students during the middle 18th Century. In fact, historical analyses of some of the obstacles faced by African American students have been well documented, made national headlines and even tried in U.S Federal courts (Little rock 9, Topeka Kansas). Issues such as segregation versus desegregation in public schooling offers a depiction of the circumstances-good and bad- that created such barriers for African American students in receiving an adequate free and public education. Such exclusionary practices particularly those in direct relation to segregation that existed among Black students, allowed Boykin (1986) to conclude that, “school problems of Afro-American children have historically been the most visible and the most intractable of…any minority group”. Franklin and …show more content…
According to Sadovnik, the interactionst theory examines “the relationship between school and society”, which ultimately helps to unveil how schools, particularly the inner workings between students, teachers, and labeling are functioning within school contexts. Interactionist theory offers a rich variety of qualitative, ethnographic studies of schools and classroom practices, which ultimately seeks to describe how school processes create social stratification . This theory is especially important when examining the schooling practices and outcomes for children housed in urban school districts. Unlike sociological research, the educational research that I have come across has a tendency to blame marginalized students and focus on their personal attributes such as genetic, racial, or behavioral concerns as oppose to factors that are school-based, structural barriers as the means in which to examine achievement