An Opportunity Gap? Examining Teacher-Parent Perspectives on Black Girls’ Socioemotional Learning in Kindergarten

• In Event: Early Childhood Education (ECE) Equity: Unpacking Racial Injustice in ECE Access, Readiness, Relationships, and Disparities

Abstract

School discipline rates for Black girls are high, disproportionate, and begin as early as preschool (CRDC, 2018). Risk for discipline referral is likely rooted in social and emotional learning (SEL), specifically discrepant teacher-parent perspectives on SEL. For instance, teachers’ subjective evaluations of Black girls’ behaviors (e.g., noncompliance) often leads to discipline referrals (Gibson et al., 2019) but parents may socialize the very behaviors (e.g., assertiveness) teachers find problematic (Oshin & Milan, 2019). This discrepancy is an opportunity gap—a lack of access to high-quality educational resources (Carter & Welner, 2013). An opportunity gap exists for Black girls when teachers and parents do not share similar perspectives of their strengths and vulnerabilities which would enable teachers and parents to co-create supportive school and home contexts that strengthen their SEL.

Guided by the Integrative Model and Attribution Bias Context Model (De Los Reyes & Kazadin, 2005; Garcia Coll et al., 1996), this study extends research which shows weak to moderate teacher-parent agreement on children’s SEL (Gresham et al., 2018; Rescorla et al., 2014) but is largely centered on white children’s’ experiences and overemphasizes problem behaviors. Using a person-centered, strengths-based approach, our study aims to: (1) explore profiles of teacher-parent agreement on Black girls’ SEL, and (2) examine how individual, relational, and contextual factors explain SEL profile membership.

Our sample comprised Black girls (n = 1490) in kindergarten (ages 4–7; M = 5.57, SD = 0.53) and their teachers (n = 1410) and parents (n = 1280) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 (ECLSK:2011). Measures were 10 SEL profile indicators: teacher-reported self-control, interpersonal skills, externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and approaches to learning and parent-reported self-control, interpersonal skills, externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and approaches to learning in kindergarten. Individual factors were teacher race and gender, teaching satisfaction and self-efficacy, and teacher evaluation and grading practices. Relational factors were teacher-student relationship quality and family-school collaboration. Contextual factors were school ethnic-racial diversity and school poverty. Covariates were teacher, school, child, and family demographics.

Using latent profile analyses, we found three profiles reflecting discrepancies in teacher-parent perspectives on Black girls’ SEL and one profile reflecting concordance in teacher-parent perspectives. Using multinomial logistic regression analysis, preliminary findings showed that white women teachers were more likely to be members of the most discrepant profile, as were children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Next steps include adding individual, relational, and contextual factors to identify additional predictors of profile membership.

The contributions of this study are twofold. First, we find discrepant patterns in teacher-parent perspectives on Black girls’ SEL, which may inhibit development in kindergarten (Garcia Coll et al., 1996). Additionally, teacher gender and race, and family structural factors predicted discrepancies suggesting an opportunity gap for Black girls. White women teachers may see Black girls’ behaviors in stereotypical ways leading to negative perceptions of their behaviors and divergences from parents’ views. This gap likely reduces teachers’ and parents’ ability to work together to create supportive contexts that mitigate Black girls’ problem behaviors and cultivate their strengths.

Authors

• Naila A. Smith, University of Virginia

• Allison Rae Ward-Seidel, University of Virginia

• Raven Ross, University of Virginia