Punished For Being Normal! A Culturally Relevant Critique of the Deviant Behaviors of Minority Millennials

Abstract

Socially disadvantaged minority students, including African American students are disproportionately, singled out for disciplinary action and behavior intervention programs in schools in the United States. The article draws from triangulated evidence sources, including the researcher’s experience as an educational leadership administrator, faculty member teaching educational leadership, research, and policies, classroom lesson observations, collaborations and input from practicing teachers and principals, and literature reviews. Perhaps one of the readily accepted collective stereotypes is that socially disadvantaged minority students including African-American children are more prone to engage in negatively deviant behavior than any other group of students.  This factor is one of the major contributors to the disproportionately high number of discipline referrals, parent-conferences, in school and out of school suspensions, grade retention, underperformance, alternative school placements, school-to-prison pipeline, and dropout rates, among the seemingly endless list of other problems minority students face.  To help educational leaders and teachers to better understand more of the diverse students that they serve, the paper critically examines some of the commonly misinterpreted behaviors of black K-12 students and offers possible culturally relevant interpretations and rationale for such otherwise ‘normal’ behavior. Further, for each of the behaviors analyzed, the paper suggests alternative avenues for re-examining culturally ‘normal’ behavior that mainstream public schools routinely label as deviant.  The article argues that leaders and other educators ought to continue to critically examine this issue, in order to deepen their insights into the cultural and home backgrounds of their students, and to find novel mechanisms of labelling, curbing, and appropriately dealing with otherwise normal behavior that is mischaracterized as deviant.  The paper also suggests innovative ways for educators to help students and families identify potential triggers and causes for behavior and attitudes that are likely to be construed by mainstream educators as negative deviance.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.16.12.7