Teacher Deficit Thinking in Schools Serving Disadvantaged Communities: The Role of Different Leadership Practices

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Grow Your Teachers, Grow Your Schools: Improving Teacher Practice as a Means of School Reform (Table 23)

Abstract

School improvement research shows that teachers at schools serving disadvantaged communities often have a deficit-oriented perspective on their students, which can have unfavorable effects on their practice. Qualitative studies indicate that leadership is a decisive factor in addressing and changing these beliefs. This paper uses quantita-tive data to analyze the deficit thinking of teachers at 16 schools in disadvantaged are-as in Germany and how it relates to different leadership practices as well as other or-ganizational characteristics of schools. The findings indicate that deficit thinking var-ies between and within schools. The results moreover show that leadership practices focused on a safe learning environment are associated with lower deficit thinking, while high expectations for teachers are associated with higher deficit thinking.

Authors

• Hanna Bronnert-Härle, University of Duisburg-Essen

• Esther Dominique Klein, TU Dortmund University