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Description
Few studies have dealt comprehensively with the effect of race/ethnicity on school imagery. The purpose of this study was to learn more about the dynamics of imagery from the perspective of parents of students in a multiethnic urban high school in a metropolitan city in the United States. Theoretical foundations for this study were derived from the literature in the areas of: 1) image formation and change; (2) communication theory; and (3) social learning theory, in particular, that of John Ogbu who posited a negative imagery of schools for Blacks and Hispanics, and a positive imagery for Asians and Anglos. It was hypothesized in the study that school imagery was; (a) complex and multidimensional, (b) varied by racial/ethnic group, and (c) influenced by communication strategies such as interpersonal contact, opinion leadership, direct experience, and media access. Other intervening factors: education, school efficacy, parent status and student grade point average (GPA) were also tested to determine their effects. A telephone interview survey was administered to 441 randomly selected, racially identified, parents of students who attend the high school and a control group of 117 adults, without children in the school, who live in the neighborhood. The outcomes suggested that educators, administrators and teachers alike, must be aware of the nature of the imagery of their pluralistic constituencies and be educated in methods to influence positive imagery. They should design action strategies such as the use of community opinion leaders and focused interpersonal contact to link the school to the various racial/ethnic groups with the goal of improving parent participation and thereby student success. The findings from the study supported the hypothesis that school image was complex and could be isolated into four dimensions: Problems, Organizational Affect, Quality of Teaching and School Size. It was also found that there were significant differences by race/ethnicity on all the image factors, except Organizational Affect. Further, with high interpersonal contact or opinion leadership, Hispanics and Blacks became more positive in their school imagery. In contrast, a high degree of education, low efficacy or high media contact produced a negative school imagery for all groups. The overall positive school imagery by the Asians and somewhat negative school imagery by the Blacks on some of the factors supported Ogbu's theory. However, the Hispanic and Anglo group were divergent in that Hispanics were more positive than expected, Anglos more negative. The control group was the most negative of all groups.
