Urban classroom conflict: Student-teacher perception: Ethnic integrity,solidarity, and resistance

This study compared student-teacher perception of discipline; inquired if it were interpersonal, procedural, or substantive; and examined how ethnicity, achievement, gender, and position influenced practice. Gay's (1981) theory about interethnic group interactions, combined with perceptual disparity and cultural discontinuity, provided the conceptual framework. Data sources were interviews, classroom observations, and school records. Students (N=16), African American, Chicano, European American, and Filipino, and teachers (N=9) from an urban high school participated. The data analysis revealed that interpersonal conflicts were more consequential for students of color. Evidence of disparate perceptions among ethnically diverse students and teachers surfaced. The attitudes, beliefs, and values of students and teachers differed and were associated with ethnicity, gender, and level of academic achievement.