Does School Racial Composition Matter to Teachers: Examining Racial Differences in Teachers’ Perceptions of Student Problems

Abstract

This study investigates how teachers’ perceptions of student problems are affected by school-level student/teacher racial compositions. Utilizing the full spectrum of student/teacher racial compositions, results from nonlinear models show that students, regardless of their individual racial background, will be evaluated partially on the racial composition of the school they attend. This conclusion holds irrespective of individual teacher race, although teacher racial identity influences the extent to which school composition matters. Findings suggest that White, but not Black or Hispanic, teachers are affected by teacher racial composition when making judgments about the severity of student problems.

Socioemotional competence in context: Black adolescent boys' socioemotional competence, neighborhood‐school racial (in)congruence, and social adjustment

“…White teachers were 69% of the teacher sample in our current study, which limited our ability to adequately test main effects beyond comparing White teachers to non‐White teachers or interactive effects that would reveal how teacher race may moderate associations between racial (in)congruence across contexts and teacher‐reported outcomes. Recent research suggests that teachers' perceptions of student behaviors vary according to not only to the race of the student but also how their own racial group membership is associated with the racial composition of their schools and the racial composition of the school more broadly (Martinez, 2020). Such differential perceptions and expectations are often recognized by Black students and have implications for their behaviors and academic outcomes (e.g., Pringle et al, 2010).…”

The Effects of Neighborhood and Parental Educational Expectations on Teacher Judgments of Children in the Fifth and Sixth Grades of Primary School

“…It is through this embeddedness of the school in their geographical surroundings that internal school processes are influenced by the neighborhood. The influence of the neighborhood on internal school processes (including, for example, on the teacher judgments of pupils) occurs by influencing the school (see also Martinez, 2018). Among other variables such as the cognitive ability of pupils and academic achievement, this has an effect on the opinions that teachers hold about their students.…”

“…These ideas might also influence the teaching practices of the school personnel (see Agirdag et al, 2013;Owens, 2010;Van Maele & Van Houtte, 2009). The opinions and teaching practices of school personnel matter because these personnel are significant others and influential (Martinez, 2018). We hypothesize the following:…”

Understanding Teacher Self-Efficacy to Address Students’ Social-Emotional Needs in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…However, his original conceptualization did not fully consider how racial congruence between teachers and students might influence their self-efficacy ( Milner & Woolfolk Hoy, 2003 ; Siwatu et al, 2011 ). Teacher-student racial congruence refers to students’ racial and ethnic composition in relation to the teacher's own race/ethnicity ( McCarthy et al, 2020 ). Racial congruence has been associated with teacher perceptions of student behavior and teacher classroom management self-efficacy ( Geerlings et al, 2018 ; Kunemund et al., 2020 ).…”