Understanding Teacher Perceptions of Socioeconomic Status and the Implications for Student Labeling and Success

• In Event: 45.093 - MTCC Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: 45.093-4 - Undoing Deficit Discourses in Teacher Education: Troubling Notions of Student Engagement and Success

Abstract

What are the inherent implications of labeling schools based on socioeconomic status? What is the perception of teachers working in low poverty versus high poverty schools? How far-reaching are these labels in the formation of ability perceptions and learned helplessness amongst teachers? To consider the demographic and social expectations of norms, this study will measure teacher surveyed responses to their ability perceptions of students in school scenarios with conditions of schools labeled low or high poverty and low or high performance. The data will be examined to assess attribution relationships of norm expectations of student ability and school labeled socioeconomic/performance. A survey has been developed to examine latent expectations of teachers relative to the performance ability of students.

Authors

• Heather Marie Thompson, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Sarah Margaret Wells, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Sean W. Mulvenon, University of Nevada - Las Vegas