Melanie Jones Awarded UC-ACCORD Dissertation Grant
Melanie Jones was awarded a UC ACCORD Dissertation Fellowship in the amount of $20,000 to support work on her dissertation, "Educational Advantages: Race, Class, and Teacher-Student Relationships."
UC ACCORD (All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity) is an interdisciplinary, multi-campus research center devoted to a more equitable distribution of educational resources and opportunities in California's diverse public schools and universities. The dissertation award is open to all graduate students in the University of California system and is highly competitive.
In her dissertation, Jones uses ethnographic methods, interviews,
and observations at a public high school in California with a
substantial African American population and diversity in social class
to examine how race and social class shape relationships between
African American students and their teachers. She also investigates how
teacher-student relationships help students gain increased support in
planning course schedules and preparing for higher education. In doing
so, Jones will highlight the specific roles teachers play in
reinforcing or moderating the relationship between social class and
preparation for college among African American students.