It’s in their Feelings: Implications of Teachers Emotions on Racialized Discipline

• In Event: Examining Antiracist Educational Practices Through a Developmental Lens

Abstract

Racial disparities in school discipline consistently demonstrate that compared to White youth, Black youth are overrepresented by school expulsions and suspensions (Anyon et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2021; Skiba et al., 2014). These disparities are often initiated by racial gaps in teachers’ office discipline referrals (ODRs) for subjective factors (Legette & Anyon, 2023; Welsh, 2022; Zinsser et al., 2022). A conceptual model focused on racial disproportionality in school discipline suggests that reducing implicit bias in teachers’ discipline decisions requires attention to vulnerable decision points (McIntosh et al., 2014). Vulnerable decision points are conceptualized as contextual factors that activate bias in discipline decisions. Thus, identifying vulnerable decision points is important for providing teachers with effective strategies and practices that target their biases. Teachers’ emotional responses might be one vulnerable decision point that shapes racialized discipline decisions. Prior work examining teachers’ self-reported emotions has shown that teachers were 81% more likely to report feeling anger when they perceived the child was Black compared to White for identical behaviors and anger mediated the association between student race and discipline (Legette, Supple, Harris, et al., 2023). Black students elicited anger, and anger predicted exclusionary discipline practices. Given teachers very likely do not recognize their physiological arousal during stress and may vary in their emotional self-awareness more broadly (Herbert et al., 2011; Sze et al., 2010), psychophysiological measures are warranted to capture teachers’ biased emotions.
Methods: Teachers were recruited from five elementary schools in Denver as part of a larger study. The anticipated sample size is 50 to be collected from July-December 2024. Teachers come to the University of Denver to watch real videos of children in a classroom, with identical behaviors being demonstrated by Black and White children, and the psychophysiological data are acquired as time-linked to each video vignette to demonstrate autonomic reactivity in real time as teachers observe children’s classroom behavior.
Results: Controlling for the relevant psychophysiological index at rest during the five-minute baseline prior to watching any video vignettes, we saw the expected pattern of results: teachers experienced more stress-relevant autonomic reactivity when they watched videos in which a Black child engaged in misbehavior compared to videos in which a White child engaged in misbehavior, with effect sizes (partial eta squared) ranging from small to large. For examples, while watching videos with Black, compared to White, child misbehavior teachers exhibited lower root mean square of successive differences between normal heart beats (RMSSD), indicating less autonomic adaptability; F(1,6)=2.18, p=.20, ηp2=.30, very large effect) and greater suppression in in respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA), indicating greater physiological exertion and poorer emotion regulation (F(1, 6)=1.23, p=.31, ηp2=.17, large effect).
Discussion/Implications: Preliminary findings suggest that teachers’ emotions might indeed be a vulnerable decision point impact teachers’ biased discipline decisions. By the conference, findings will be reported on 50 teachers as well as the implications for interventions.

Author

• Kamilah B. Legette, Rutgers University - New Brunswick