The conflicted language of interracial feedback.

Abstract

How is the natural language of feedback affected when instructors are White and learners are minorities? The present research addressed this question using a website called Feedback Forward through which White undergraduates provided extensive open-ended responses on a poorly written essay supposedly drafted by either a Black or a White fellow student. Results revealed a dissociation between the substance and style of feedback to the Black writer. The Black writer received selectively more overt praise for his or her writing and writing skills, and more encouragement to pursue a writing-related career, replicating past studies of the positive bias. However, this positively biased feedback was conveyed in a selectively more "lenient" style, marked by a simpler and less analytic vocabulary, more personal pronouns, more positive emotion words, and syntax that more closely mimicked that of the poorly written essay. Discomfort supplying feedback moderated these effects. Increased discomfort was associated with more substantive criticism to the White writer, and with a more lenient style to the Black writer. In sum, minority learners may be receiving open-ended feedback that is a perplexing blend of explicit praise conveyed in an implicitly diminishing manner. Additional results showed that manipulated self-image concerns produced positively biased copyedits to the Black writer, replicating Harber, Stafford, and Kennedy (2010). Direct queries from the fictive writer-in the form of rating-based questions-also favored the Black writer, whose essay, ability, and prospects were rated higher than those of the White writer. Educational Impact and Implications StatementThis research showed a marked dissociation between the content of White instructors' feedback to Black learners and the style in which this feedback is conveyed. Instructors, especially if uncomfortable supplying feedback, gave Black learners selectively more overt praise for their talents and for their work. However, they expressed these more positive evaluations in less sophisticated and more accommodating language. This dissociation between what White instructors said to Black learners and how they said it suggests that Black learners receive mixed messages about their performances and abilities. Secondary findings reconfirm and extend past research on the positive feedback bias.

Non-communicated judgements of, versus feedback on, students’ essays: Is feedback inflation larger for students with a migration background?

“…In the feedback condition, the results found by Harber and colleagues (Croft & Schmader, 2012;Harber, 1998Harber, , 2004Harber et al, 2010Harber et al, , 2012Harber et al, , 2019 were replicated with regards to German teacher students without a migration background addressing students with a Turkish migration background. While teacher students gave more positive feedback on overall assessments (e.g., grade) and in their comments to students with a Turkish migration background, they did not give different feedback to students with and without a migration background regarding the style and mechanics of the essay.…”

“…Based on stereotypes, varying expectations for different groups emerge, and expectations are sometimes even defined as an integral part of stereotypes (American Psychological Association, 2020; Pendry, 2014). If there exists a negative stereotype regarding academic abilities, students belonging to this negatively stereotyped group can be judged more negatively (e.g., Anderson-Clark et al, 2008;Bonefeld & Dickhäuser, 2018;Quinn, 2020) while at the same time being given more positive feedback than their peers not belonging to a negatively stereotyped group (Croft & Schmader, 2012;Harber, 1998Harber, , 2004Harber et al, 2010Harber et al, , 2012Harber et al, , 2019. If either or both of these effects come into play, a greater difference between feedback and judgments is expected for negatively stereotyped students.…”

“…In a series of experiments, Harber and colleagues compared feedback given to Black and Latinx students to feedback given to White students in the US (Harber, 1998(Harber, , 2004Harber et al, 2010Harber et al, , 2012Harber et al, , 2019. In these experiments, university students received an essay supposedly written by a fellow student who was portrayed as either Black or White.…”

“…In the US, teachers are concerned with being and/or appearing to be prejudiced towards these students (Bentley-Edwards et al, 2020;Marshall, 1996). This concern may explain the more lenient feedback for Black and Latinx students that has been found in extensive research by Harber and colleagues (positive feedback bias; Croft & Schmader, 2012;Harber, 1998Harber, , 2004Harber et al, 2010Harber et al, , 2012Harber et al, , 2019. While feedback towards ethnic minority students may be more positive, research shows a consistent negative bias in judgments of students' written material submitted to third parties (e.g., Bonefeld & Dickhäuser, 2018;Holder & Kessels, 2017;Glock, 2016;Parks & Kennedy, 2007) as well as in expectations more generally (e.g., Malouff & Thorsteinsson, 2016;Wang et al, 2018).…”

Beyond students: how teacher psychology shapes educational inequality

“…Teachers called on students from marginalized groups less often and asked these students simpler questions that did not push them to deepen their thought process [57,58]. Teachers provided less critical, substantive, and sophisticated essay feedback to Black, Latinx, and Aboriginal students (versus White students), restricting their opportunities to learn from errors and refine their writing skills [59][60][61]. Teachers were less responsive to attempts to engage in extracurricular educational experiences by students of color and White women (versus White men) in an audit study [62].…”