As teachers are the gatekeepers in identification procedure, it is crucial to understand how teachers’ openness and beliefs may affect the equitable identification. To be specific, we focused on how teachers’ level of religious beliefs and ethical sensitivity impact notions of fairness in the identification of gifted students, particularly those from traditionally underrepresented groups. Study participants were 46 teachers who attended a Midwestern Catholic University in the U.S. Based on the results measuring teachers’ religiosity, ethical sensitivity, and equitable identification index from vignettes, we found that there were no statistically significant score differences of religiosity and ethics level of teachers when they were divided into two groups, one showing equitable identification versus the other comparatively not. However, the majority of teachers (70%) fairly identified students regardless of their religiosity, ethical sensitivity, school experiences, confidence level serving gifted students, and current academic status when the vignettes had different students’ race and family income status information.

Popular media has become a central aspect of life for many individuals. With that exposure to media comes imagery that contains messages both covert and overt that are readily consumed by the viewers. Adolescents are especially influenced by these images because of their frequency and use of media. This study addresses the ways in which middle school students interpret and internalize stereotypical imagery found in popular culture, specifically reality television, and examines the role of the teacher and greater school community in helping students to identify and mediate stereotypical images. Through participatory literacy strategies, classrooms everywhere can become an educative, critical, thoughtful space for both students and teacher.