Does a teacher’s race matter?: The effect of teacher race on student perceptions in low-income schools

Brown, B.M (2017) Does a teacher’s race matter?: The effect of teacher race on student perceptions in low-income schools. In: BERA: Bridging the Global Educational Gap, 22 - 23 June 2017, University of Worcester, Worcester, UK.

Official URL: https://www.bera.ac.uk/event/bridging-the-global-e...

Abstract

Does a teacher’s race matter? This pilot study with students and teachers in a low-income area of the United States will assess student perceptions of their teachers on several key attributes of quality teaching. The aim of the study is to see if students and classrooms of students with similar races to that of their teacher perceive their teachers differently. More directly, do students share more favourable perceptions of their teachers if they are of the same racial background? In an increasingly ‘global’ world, the diversity of students in our classrooms seem to be ever increasing. Along with this comes an increasing number of issues and queries around race and education. The ideas surrounding how race impacts the education of students have been shrouded in controversy given the sensitive nature of the topic and its troubled past in some countries. Many education programs, policies and interventions more recently have been reasserting the ways that addressing issues with race in schools can be a positive change, specifically seeking to diversify teacher recruitment and match teachers or mentors with groups of students based on race to serve as built-in role models. Indeed, our increased awareness of teacher recruitment practices and the need for a more diverse teaching force is based on some of those assumptions that student/teacher race matching is and can be a positive thing. This pilot study seeks to examine these assumptions by looking at how race may actually affect teacher student relationships.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects: L Education > L Education (General)
L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools
L Education > LD Individual institutions (United States)
Divisions: School of Education
Related URLs:
Date Deposited: 28 Jun 2017 15:58
Last Modified: 15 Aug 2021 09:46
URI / Page ID: https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/9502
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