Poster #110 - A Teacher Like Me: Whiteness, teacher-child racial/ethnic match, and opportunity gaps

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

The impact of teacher-child racial/ethnic match has been examined in the literature as both a potentially positive and negative feature of children’s educational experiences. Although findings have been mixed, there is some evidence to suggest that racial/ethnic matching between teachers and students may be beneficial for both Black and Latine children’s academic and socioemotional outcomes (Dee, 2001; Dee, 2004; Redding, 2019). Yet, there are still several unknown factors regarding why racial/ethnic match may be important as well as for whom and under what conditions. Match has primarily been examined in K-12 contexts, as a binary indicator for whole samples rather than pairings for specific racial/ethnic groups (e.g., a Black child with Latine teacher; Redding, 2019), and without the context of other teacher/classroom factors (i.e., teacher-child ratio, teacher mental health, and classroom quality). Further, language match is thought to be particularly important for Latine children who speak Spanish (Downer et al., 2016). This leaves gaps in the literature in regard to how match pairings function in early childhood and what potential impact it may have on key school readiness characteristics such as children’s approaches to learning. In this study, we address the following questions:
1. Does match significantly predict children’s approaches to learning over and above classroom quality for Black, Latine, and White children?
2. What is the relation between teacher-child racial/ethnic match pairings and children’s approaches to learning for Black, Latine, and White children?
Participants were drawn from the Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 cohort and consisted of 493 White children, 789 Black children, and 1002 Latine children (49.8% Female; M = 3.81 years-old) and 160 White, 131 Black, and 88 Latine teachers. Descriptive statistics were examined of all study variables. We used MPlus version 7 to conduct a multigroup analysis to examine this relation for three matching groups (child race/ethnicity with Black, Latine, and White teachers) as predictors of children’s approaches to learning. We found that over and above classroom quality, match significantly predicted White children’s approaches to learning, but not for Black or Latine children (see Table 1). Next, we examined specific match pairings and accounted for teacher characteristics including teacher-child ratio and teacher depression. We found again that match significantly positively predicted approaches to learning for White children. Match and mismatch did not significantly predict approaches to learning for Black or Latine children. These findings suggest that White Head Start children experienced a benefit from sharing a racial/ethnic background with their teacher on their approaches to learning, whereas (mis)matching did not significantly affect Black or Latine children’s approaches to learning. This highlights the importance of understanding the full implications of match and how this may be creating or exacerbating opportunity gaps by privileging White children in their first educational experiences.

Authors

• Brittany Alexander, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Darielle S Blevins, Arizona State University

• Evandra Catherine, Arizona State University

• Shantel Meek, Children's Equity Project, Arizona State University