The Interplay of Student Characteristics: Ethnicity and Gender as Factors Influencing Teachers’ Judgment

• In Event: Examining the Role of Racial-Ethnic Biases in Teacher Perceptions and Decision Making

Abstract

Students possess various characteristics that can influence teachers' judgments, such as gender and ethnicity. This is mostly a result of stereotypes. Stereotypes generally refer to different student characteristics, as for example gender or ethnicity. Such characteristics can play a role in the assessment process and lead to differential judgments (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990), which have already been shown for several student characteristics (Holder & Kessels, 2017; Parks & Kennedy, 2007).

However, characteristics have often been considered separately, hence ignoring the interplay of different characteristics when considering judgments. For example, gender differences have not been systematically examined in the context of disadvantage for ethnic minority students. Studies on the assessment of female (Authors, 2018) and male (Author, 2016) ethnic minority students show a disadvantage in the judgment of language competence, but do not investigate gender differences. Especially when it comes to gender-stereotyped assessment dimensions, such as language or mathematics, gender can play a role. For example, girls were rated lower than boys in mathematics for the same performance (Holder & Kessels, 2017; Steffens et al., 2010). Judgment dimensions also play diverse roles for ethnic minority students, who are rated lower in mathematics compared to students from the ethnic majority (Author et al., 2017). Additionally, ethnic minority students may face dual disadvantages in language competencies due to both their ethnicity and gender. This study aimed to examine the interaction between students' ethnicity and gender in relation to teachers' language and mathematics judgments.

118 German teachers (93 female) participated in the study using student vignettes depicting below-average school performance and academic engagement, with variations in students’ ethnicity and gender. Teachers assessed language and math skills. The study thus had a 2(female vs. male) x 2(ethnic minority vs. ethnic majority) x 2(language vs. math) mixed design with repeated measures on the last factor. An interaction effect between student gender and assessment dimension was observed. Female students are rated lower than male students in terms of mathematical skills, which was not evident in terms of language skills. Simultaneously, male students are rated higher in their mathematical skills than in their language skills, which did not show up for female students. A significant interaction was found between students' migration background and the assessment dimension. Ethnic minority students were rated as less competent in language skills than ethnic majority students while there was no difference in mathematical skills. The three-way interaction of ethnicity, gender and assessment dimension was not significant.

The study's results confirm that ethnic minority students receive lower ratings compared to ethnic majority students. Gender also influences judgments in language and mathematics. This dual disadvantage for ethnic minority students highlights an additional characteristic that may lead to biased judgments by teachers. Future research should consider the intersectionality of student characteristics when it comes to stereotypical judgments in education.

Authors

• Meike Bonefeld, University of Freiburg

• Hannah Kleen, DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education

• Sabine Glock, University of Luxembourg