Date of Award
2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Education
Department
Teacher Education
First Advisor
Jodi Skipper
Second Advisor
Simone Delerme
Third Advisor
Kate Centellas
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
The study of embracing African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the classroom is often misunderstood. AAVE is an informal dialect spoken by many African Americans in the United States. Considering this dialect is spoken by many African American students, teachers have struggled with the appropriateness and legitimacy of its usage in the classroom for years. In order for teachers to help students maintain the richness and character of AAVE, yet allow students to learn and incorporate Standrd English conventions, they must embrace culturally relevant instruction.
Culturally relevant instruction (CRI) is an instructional approach that involves using students’ cultural and linguistic experiences to create a positive, nurturing, and non-threatening classroom environment (Delpit, 1995; Delpit & Dowdy 2002). One way to incorporate CRI in the classroom is through code-switching. With code-switching, students are able to engage in meaningful instructional activities and discussions using AAVE as well as Standard English. This heuristic qualitative inquiry investigates AAVE in the classroom and how urban educators feel about its existence and usage in the urban classroom. This study is significant because if the participants have positive attitudes about AAVE’s usage in the classroom, then they may be more willing to incorporate CRI strategies, like code-switching, that effectively infuse AAVE in the classroom.
The researcher sought to gather explicit information from 16 urban educators in regard to their experiences, attitudes, and beliefs about AAVE and its usage in the classroom. In this study, the researcher purposefully selected the 16 urban educators through a network sampling. The study participants consisted of school administrators, classroom teachers, an instructional coach, and a librarian. The researcher used three means of collecting data: a focus group interview, individual interviews, and writing responses. By analyzing the attitudes and ideologies of the study participants, the researcher was able to identify misconceptions about AAVE and bring awareness about dialectal differences in the classroom. Culturally relevant instructional strategies including code-switching pedagogical strategies are discussed and recommended to help teachers and other educators with the incorporation of informal and formal dialects in the classroom.
Recommended Citation
Knapp, Melanie Hines, "African American Vernacular English (Aave) In The Classroom: The Attitudes And Ideologies Of Urban Educators Toward Aave" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 964.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/964