Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Refugees Predict Their Evaluations of Students’ Bullying of Ethnic Minority Arab Peers

• In Event: Peers' and Teachers' Responses to Inter-Ethnic Bullying: Attitudes, Contact, and School Climate

Abstract

Introduction. Teachers are expected to handle inter-ethnic bullying by peer exclusion targeted at ethnic minority students. As proposed by the social reasoning developmental framework (Rutland, Killen, & Abrams, 2010) evaluations of intergroup social exclusion often involve negative attitudes that stem from perceptions of others as members of outgroups. Unfortunately, these views challenge efforts to promote inclusion. In many areas in the U.S. and Europe, for example, individuals of Arab descent often experience exclusion and unfair treatment due to the perception that they are members of an outgroup. Little attention has been devoted to the question of whether teachers’ attitudes toward refugees are associated with their evaluations of inter-ethnic bullying targeted at ethnic minority Arab students. This was the goal of the current study.
Hypotheses. It was expected that evaluating inter-ethnic bullying targeted at ethnic minority Arab students as wrong, recognizing its negative outcomes, and being willing to intervene would be associated negatively with viewing refugees as a source of threats and positively with viewing refugees as a source of benefits.
Study population. The study population were teachers of early and middle adolescents in an EU country Czech Republic. Teachers (N = 373; 77% female; mean age = 44 years) from 106 schools participated in the study. The vast majority of participants were ethnic majority Czechs (98%). The sample represented the population regarding gender, age, and ethnicity.
Methods. The participants filled an online survey. They reported their attitudes toward refugees in the Threats-Benefits Inventory (Tartakovsky & Walsh, 2016) and indicated their evaluations of inter-ethnic bullying in response to a hypothetical scenario of bullying by peer exclusion (Kollerová & Killen, 2019). In the scenario, ethnic majority Czech students bullied an ethnic minority Arab student by excluding him/her from a team during class. Gender of the students was counterbalanced.
Results. On average, teachers viewed the inter-ethnic bullying targeted at ethnic minority Arab student as not right at all, were highly willing to intervene into the bullying, and evaluated the outcomes of the bullying as rather negative. Results of SEM, controlling for gender, age, and contact with refugees, showed no significant effects of attitudes toward refugees on evaluation of wrongfulness of bullying and on willingness to intervene, but indicated that teachers’ attitudes toward refugees predicted their evaluation of negative outcomes of the bullying. Specifically, confirming our hypotheses, viewing refugees as a source of threats associated negatively with recognizing negative outcomes of inter-ethnic bullying targeted at youth of Arab descent. Further, viewing refugees as a source of benefits associated positively with recognizing negative outcomes of the bullying.
Conclusions. Teachers were aware of the wrongfulness of inter-ethnic bullying targeted at youth of Arab descent and acknowledged the important role of teacher intervention but failed to fully recognize the negative outcomes of the bullying, which was related to attitudes toward refugees. Teacher education should foster an awareness that attitudes towards refugees may be associated with teachers’ capacity to handle inter-ethnic bullying targeted at ethnic minority students. Promoting teacher preparedness will help to reduce inter-ethnic bullying in classrooms.

Authors

• Lenka Kollerova, Institute of Psychology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
  Presenting Author

• Petr Soukup, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dagmar Strohmeier, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria
  Non-Presenting Author

• Simona Carla Silvia Caravita, University of Stavanger (Norway)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Melanie A. Killen, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author