Profiles of teachers’ racialized beliefs: Associations with perceptions of Black and White children’s behaviors

• In Event: The Role of Teachers in Perpetuating or Dismantling Racialized Practices/Behaviors

Abstract

Racial disparities exist in teachers’ perceptions of students’ behaviors, academic track placement decisions, and discipline practices and these differences remain even after accounting for other student and school characteristics (Nicholson-Crotty et al., 2016; Tenenbaum & Ruck, 2007). Teachers’ beliefs, particularly about causes of racial inequity, likely have a pivotal role in shaping teachers’ racialized behaviors and practices. For instance, teachers’ attributing racial inequity to deficit within Black adults are likely to view Black students more negatively and respond with more exclusionary discipline practices (Ford & Grantham, 2003). Because teachers likely hold various racial beliefs that operate together in shaping racialized practices, we used person-centered approaches to identify profiles of teachers racialized beliefs. Additionally, we explored ways these profiles relate to teachers’ perceptions of Black and White children’s behaviors.
Methods. Participants were 228 K-12th grade teachers in the Southeast. To create the profiles, teachers completed measures on their beliefs about causes of racial inequity: American Dream (e.g., “Racial minorities can achieve anything if they work hard”), Cultural Deficit (e.g., “In general, racial/ethnic minorities do not value education as much as White students”), Post-Racial (e.g., “Racial discrimination is rare in America”), and Schooling Inequity (e.g., “In general, racial/ethnic discrimination is a factor in Black kids' suspensions”) (Legette et al., 2021). To assess perceptions of misbehaviors, teachers responded to six scenarios of Black and White students and rated the behavior as hostile, aggressive, and serious as well as their empathy towards the child.
Results/Discussion. We found four profiles (Figure 1): Racism Unclear (35%), Racism Informed (23%), Racism Embedded (21%), and No Systemic Racism (21%). Racism Unclear teachers had relatively low post racial beliefs but were relatively average on other beliefs. Racism Informed teachers reported relatively low post-racial beliefs, American dream and cultural deficit beliefs, and scored highest on schooling inequities beliefs. Racism Embedded teachers held relatively high post racial beliefs and American Dream beliefs, the highest cultural deficit beliefs and average beliefs about school inequities. No Systemic Racism had the highest endorsement of post-racial and American Dream beliefs and had relatively low cultural deficit beliefs and school inequities. Teachers profiles predicted their perceptions of Black and White youth behaviors in different ways (Table1). Overall, Racism Embedded teachers seemed to have harsher responses in general, but also to have greater differences in responding to Black students by viewing their behavior as more negative relative to reports of White children and feeling less empathic relative to other teacher profiles. Racism Informed Thriving teachers appeared more lenient in responses overall compared to other teachers and to be relatively balanced in terms of difference scores by student race (reporting relatively low aggressiveness and hostility) except when it came to seriousness of the transgression. Racism Informed Thriving teachers viewed Black children’s misbehavior as more serious relative to other teacher types.

Authors

• Kamilah Legette, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Andrew Supple, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Youselene Beauplan, University of North Carolina at Greensboro