“All Lives Matter?”: Investigating Racial Differences on the Perception of School Climate in Brazilian Students

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Several studies point out to an expressive racial inequality in the Brazilian educational system, which can be observed even in the first stages of schooling (IBGE, 2019). This gap can be associated with the experiences that black children and adolescents have in the school environment, including differences in the quality of the relationships, policies, and practices of the institution. School climate, broadly defined as the experiences of support, disciplinary structure, and the overall quality of relations in the schools, is a core influence on student's outcomes and has a high impact on children’s development. The school climate's racial gap needs to be addressed as a frontier to enhance equity in schools (Berkowitz et al, 2017, Voight et al, 2015). However, few studies in Brazil account for racial and ethnic disparities in school climate. Therefore, the present study addresses this issue by investigating the differences in the perception of the school climate between black and non-black children. Participants were 8,518 children aged between 7 and 12 years (Mage = 10.67; SD = 1.12; 52.7% girls; 51.5% black) studying at 168 schools in Brazil. They completed self-report measures of school climate, including scales of teacher-student relations (e.g. “Teachers care about their students”, α(4)=0.72), student-student relations (e.g. “Students are friendly with each other”, α(4)=0.79), respect for diversity (e.g. “Adults who work here care about all the students, regardless of their skin color”, α(5)=0.55), the fairness of rules (e.g. “The consequences of breaking rules are fair”, α(4)=0.67), school safety (e.g. “Students feel safe”, α(3)=0.79), clarity of behavioral expectations (e.g. “Students know how they are expected to act”, α(4)=0.62), and student engagement (e.g. “Most students like this school”, α(6)=0.73). To test for differences in the perception of black and non-black students regarding the school climate, an independent samples t-test was conducted. As presented in Table 1, black children perceived lower respect for diversity (t(8248) = -3.57, p<.01), fairness (t(8244) = -3.11, p<.01), and clarity of expectations (t(8226) = -3.15, p<.01) compared to the non-black students. Teacher-student, peer relations, safety, and engagement showed no significant differences between groups. The results show that, although teacher-student and peer relations were not significantly different, black students are less likely to perceive that diversity is respected in comparison to their peers. Furthermore, the disciplinary components of the school climate are particularly perceived more negatively by black students, which may indicate inequalities in their treatment in comparison to the others. The differences in perceptions were remarkably found in the components in which the items explicitly question about unequal treatments, either by teachers, peers, or the institution and not in those that consider all the students generally. The discussion suggests that school climate evaluations should be enhanced to further incorporate specific items that may help to disentangle ethnic differences in the perception of school climate.

Authors

• Daiane da Silva Vasconselos, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)
  Presenting Author

• Vitor Yano, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Matheus do Nascimento Batista, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Josafá M. Da Cunha, Federal University of Parana
  Non-Presenting Author