Socializing Respect and Knowledge in a Racially Integrated Science Classroom

In this article we examine the socialization of respect in a racially integrated science classroom in Northern California that employed a character education program called Tribes. We focus on the ways scripts derived from this program are enacted during Community Circle activities and how breaches to these scripts and the norms of respectful behavior they espouse create productive opportunities for explicit socialization in the classroom. We find that respect in this classroom consisted predominantly of controlling both bodily comportment and discursive production. Our analysis sheds light on the ways curricular initiatives, such as the one utilized in the Tribes approach, while purporting to democratize classroom learning, may in fact function as vehicles for reproducing institutional hierarchies of power. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures, and 5 excerpts.)