LD550_GwynnW3Assignment

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Grantham University *

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LD550

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Communications

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Jan 9, 2024

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Case Study – The angry mother… Thomas Gwynn University of Arkansas Grantham LD550: Cross-Cultural Communication Dr. Geoffrey VanderPal 8/29/2023

This case study brings to the forefront a lot of mixed emotions. Intolerance, perception of intolerance or selective perception all play a role in today’s society. How we base our judgements of something or someone are based on some sort of tolerance, intolerance, and perception. With this specific case study there are several actions in play that should be addressed. The first being was intolerance involved. The second being how can we relate those intolerances to what is described in our text. And finally should specific intolerances be determined by intent or by result. Was intolerance involved. Clearly looking from the outside in we have a very narrow lens for which we can look through. There are very little facts about the situation that we can look through. On one hand the child named James was said to be doing just as well as Devon. But later on the case study said that Devon’s abilities were clearly superior to those of James. To me this is in contrast to the first statement that James and Devon were at the same level. Nevertheless the mother felt that her son was doing much better than that of the other student which is why she wanted to confront the teacher. Also, from the case study it is not clearly evident if the other student was white, black, Asian etc. This information would have made it more clear as to the intent of the situation. But since it was not made clear and it was only inferred that the child was white due to the posters that were seen on the wall I will treat the situation as if the other student was white. . When the mother went and talked to the teacher and addressed the situation the teacher responded that she didn’t see color within her classroom when it came to the race of the students. So to me it clearly is stated that the teacher treated the students in the classroom with a blind eye. Seeing them through a colorless lens and treating each student as she would the next. The case study didn’t mention if there were any posters in Devon’s classroom that were similar to the other classrooms that had posters of white children in them. So I would venture to say that I would believe the teacher when she said she saw her students equally. Our text states that “Intolerance refers to any thought, behavior, policy, or social structure that treats people unequally based on group terms.” (Baldwin et al., 2014, P116) I feel that the intolerance

model does not fit the terms for which it could be used when it came to the actions of the teacher for giving the grade. There must have been good reason for the teacher to give the grade she did. I feel that the mother should have asked more questions to the teacher to explain why the grade was given. There had to be some papers, quizzes, tests, or projects that had lower grades that could explain the grade if she was given the chance to explain. Or there genuinely could have been a clerical mistake that could have been explained and the appropriate actions could have been taken to ensure that the correct grade be given. Given the mental state of the parent during the conversation it is obvious that it put the teacher in a defensive mode. This obviously wouldn’t have helped the situation and most likely compounded the issues at hand. If the mother would have kept her cool things could have probably been handled at the level of the teacher but due to the nature of the mother’s reaction it escalated quickly and she sought help from the school administrator. But, going back to what was mentioned early that the mother was walking down the hallway and saw posters in other classrooms with white children on them. She questioned to herself if this was what was seen instead of the color neutrality that the teacher had mentioned. And pondered if the school administrator would see it this way as well. I would venture to say that this action that the mother was eluding to was what our book calls attribution, “a process by which we give meaning to our own behavior and the behavior of others” (Baldwin et al., 2014, P117) I feel that the mother saw the posters and assumed that there was intent behind the posters. That it projected the meaning that only “white” children were meant to succeed. While I can admit that she could be totally right in thinking this, it could have been a mere coincidence. To subsequently think that because of posters that the whole school thinks a certain way could be also seen as bias and counterintuitive to the notion that she is bringing before the administrator. When it comes to specific intolerances and if they should be viewed by intent or result I feel that it should be judged by a combination of both in some instances. In other situations it would be one

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