School imagery: Views from pluralistic constituencies

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 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 tested were: education, efficacy, parent status and student grade point average.

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 must be trained in methods to influence the imagery of their pluralistic constituencies. They should design strategies such as the use of community opinion leaders and interpersonal contact that will link the school to the various racial/ethnic groups and improve parent participation and thereby student success.

Findings supported the hypothesis that school image was complex and could be isolated into four dimensions: Problems, Organizational Affect, Quality of Teaching and School Size. There were also 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 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 imagery by the Asians and somewhat negative imagery by the Blacks supported Ogbu's theory. However, Hispanics were more positive than expected, Anglos more negative. The control group was most negative of all groups.