Children—Seen and Heard
Jessica Calarco explores the benefits of seeking help in the classroom.
Brea Stover Jessica Calarco |
The philosophy that ‘children should be seen and not heard’ may be a thing of the past. Research suggests that today’s parents are actively encouraging their students to speak up in the classroom and are playing a vital role in the education process by coaching their children on how to advocate for their needs. In turn, students are becoming increasingly vocal and are developing strategies that Jessica Calarco, a Ph.D. candidate in the sociology department, predicts will have positive long-term implications in their lives. However, not all students are coming to school with these skills in hand. In her award-winning article entitled, “I Need Help!” Calarco examines the relationship between students’ social class and their propensity to acquire classroom assistance.
Calarco devoted three years to observing a group of Caucasian students from working and middle-class families from third grade through fifth grade. Within days of beginning her research, she detected a trend. Calarco recalls, “Help-seeking was not something I went into the project expecting to study, but it emerged immediately during my observations. I knew it was an area that hadn’t been explored thoroughly in prior research, despite the fact that it was an incredibly salient aspect of the classroom dynamic.”
During her fieldwork, Calarco discovered clear divisions among the students who requested assistance or communicated difficulty with an assignment. Of her sample population, middle-class students were the most frequent help-seekers. If hand-raising failed to signal the teacher’s attention, students called out or left their seats to approach the teacher. In contrast, working-class students employed an indirect approach—they intermittently raised their hands, but if they were unseen by the teacher or interrupted by a middle-class peer, they dropped the issue. As a result, teachers gave more individual attention to middle-class students and sometimes chastised working-class students for inferior performance.
Research has investigated social class differences related to concrete academic skills—such as reading ability and exposure to words and numbers—but is lacking when it comes to examining differences in soft skill sets, like the ability to advocate for academic needs. Self-advocacy is a technique that Calarco says is being proactively taught in many middle-class homes.
“Middle-class parents are playing a very articulated role in preparing their kids and saying ‘Here’s how to advocate for yourself in the classroom,’ whereas working-class parents are more likely to remind their children to be respectful of the teacher and to ‘not make a fuss,’” says Calarco. “The deliberateness of the middle-class parents to teach and promote self-advocacy was really unexpected.”
These cross-class inconsistencies in teaching strategies are leading to advantages for middle-class children. During interviews, students from both social classes responded positively to teachers offering unsolicited guidance, but working-class students were more emphatic about their appreciation. These students cited uncertainty of when and how to seek help and often admitted they were afraid of angering the teacher by voicing a question. For middle-class students, the concern was less about upsetting the teacher and more about how to get the help they needed.
Though these communication strategies are being learned at home, Calarco has recommendations to ensure working-class students are not being overlooked in the classroom. Through methods such as setting aside time for questions, circling the room and checking in with students, and establishing clear expectations for help-seeking, teachers can encourage students to feel comfortable asking for help. Consistency is also key: many students cited variations between teachers as an issue. By establishing a more cohesive, school-wide policy, students will be more aware of when and how to ask for help.
Learning to seek help will pay off generously in the long-term, Calarco says. “Students who have this skill at a young age are the same students who are able to ask their professor for an extension on a paper or to negotiate salary with an employer.” Calarco plans to revisit her sample students—now in middle school—to see if the same children are continuing to actively fulfill their learning needs. Ultimately, she says her research will help teachers and parents understand the culture behind interactions. “By identifying the tools and strategies that kids bring with them in their daily interactions, we can better understand how this matters to their long-term well-being,” she says. “These are skills with implications for a more successful life.”