The Role of Language in Bronx Leadership Academy
The performance of an individual in an academic setting depends on a number of factors, including the location of the space, endemic socio-cultural groups, and student-instructor relationships. High school students ranging from 13-20 years old were observed and interviewed in Bronx, NY. This ethnography aims to explore how language influences teacher-student relationships and can, in turn, affect the motivation of students at Bronx Leadership Academy (BLA). The observed usage of slang, otherwise known as “Black English,” at BLA both inhibited and catalyzed the academic progression of students. However, the long-term effects of using Black English colloquially in an academic setting can predispose …show more content…
Bronx Leadership Academy, a two-story tall building painted blue and gray, is located in the Bronx, NY on a street full of auto shops and bodegas with a KFC fast-food restaurant directly across the high school building. In the main entrance of the building, there is a security guard waiting to scrutinize your bag and other personal belongings through a detector. The students at BLA are 60% Latinx and 40% African-American. Faculty is 23% White, 36% Black, 29% Latinx, and 11% Asian. The Bronx, where BLA is located, is often portrayed in mainstream media as having a “ghetto” or inferior culture has potential to proactively influence students to place less value regarding their education. This is because the conditional imagery leads them to develop thoughts about the life trajectories and outcomes of citizens in the Bronx, which normally does not amount to much. The typical student in the Bronx would be described as academically unwilling, a troublemaker, and most likely to be working a job in retail. To be accepted by other BLA students, one must ascribe to one of the categories previously mentioned. Most importantly, being able to speak the major language mostly utilized in the Bronx, Black English, or having the ‘Bronx accent’ brings one closer to the Bronx community; thus, being accepted in BLA by …show more content…
McLean’s English classroom, I was immediately greeted by shouts of joy and hoots from the students in the class, and it took about 5 minutes to get the students’ undivided attention. The desks of the students were set up independently and positioned to face the board of the classroom which showed a body paragraph that the class was writing as a whole. The learning taking place in the classroom was very interactive and very much guided by Ms. McLean’s analysis of the book. It was surprising to see students wearing headphones and using their electronics in class; something like that would have triggered a social drama back when I attended BLA (Turner, 1976). The breach, which does not always escalate to a crisis, would have been identifying a student using headphones and/or a cellphone during class. This would result in a crisis that would have consisted of the teacher dismissing the student from class and directing them to their dean’s office (Turner, 1976). Another thing that struck me was how the students would interrupt Ms. McLean’s teaching and how loosely profanity was used by the students in the English classroom. Ms. McLean speaks to the students as though they were on the same level: she says things like “I heart you,” “that’s stupid,” and makes fun of the students in front of the whole classroom. After the class ended, I briefly spoke to Ms. McLean about my project and immediately noticed her change in speech. She said phrases like, “it was such a
The performance of an individual in an academic setting depends on a number of factors, including the location of the space, endemic socio-cultural groups, and student-instructor relationships. High school students ranging from 13-20 years old were observed and interviewed in Bronx, NY. This ethnography aims to explore how language influences teacher-student relationships and can, in turn, affect the motivation of students at Bronx Leadership Academy (BLA). The observed usage of slang, otherwise known as “Black English,” at BLA both inhibited and catalyzed the academic progression of students. However, the long-term effects of using Black English colloquially in an academic setting can predispose …show more content…
Bronx Leadership Academy, a two-story tall building painted blue and gray, is located in the Bronx, NY on a street full of auto shops and bodegas with a KFC fast-food restaurant directly across the high school building. In the main entrance of the building, there is a security guard waiting to scrutinize your bag and other personal belongings through a detector. The students at BLA are 60% Latinx and 40% African-American. Faculty is 23% White, 36% Black, 29% Latinx, and 11% Asian. The Bronx, where BLA is located, is often portrayed in mainstream media as having a “ghetto” or inferior culture has potential to proactively influence students to place less value regarding their education. This is because the conditional imagery leads them to develop thoughts about the life trajectories and outcomes of citizens in the Bronx, which normally does not amount to much. The typical student in the Bronx would be described as academically unwilling, a troublemaker, and most likely to be working a job in retail. To be accepted by other BLA students, one must ascribe to one of the categories previously mentioned. Most importantly, being able to speak the major language mostly utilized in the Bronx, Black English, or having the ‘Bronx accent’ brings one closer to the Bronx community; thus, being accepted in BLA by …show more content…
McLean’s English classroom, I was immediately greeted by shouts of joy and hoots from the students in the class, and it took about 5 minutes to get the students’ undivided attention. The desks of the students were set up independently and positioned to face the board of the classroom which showed a body paragraph that the class was writing as a whole. The learning taking place in the classroom was very interactive and very much guided by Ms. McLean’s analysis of the book. It was surprising to see students wearing headphones and using their electronics in class; something like that would have triggered a social drama back when I attended BLA (Turner, 1976). The breach, which does not always escalate to a crisis, would have been identifying a student using headphones and/or a cellphone during class. This would result in a crisis that would have consisted of the teacher dismissing the student from class and directing them to their dean’s office (Turner, 1976). Another thing that struck me was how the students would interrupt Ms. McLean’s teaching and how loosely profanity was used by the students in the English classroom. Ms. McLean speaks to the students as though they were on the same level: she says things like “I heart you,” “that’s stupid,” and makes fun of the students in front of the whole classroom. After the class ended, I briefly spoke to Ms. McLean about my project and immediately noticed her change in speech. She said phrases like, “it was such a