Affiliation:
1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2. University of Utah
3. George Mason University
4. University of Denver
5. North Carolina State University
Abstract
This study explores preservice teacher attributions to children’s behaviors portrayed in specific emotion-laden school scenarios. Participants included 178 preservice teachers from three universities. The preservice teachers viewed video vignettes of Black and White child actors in six different school scenarios. Our team constructed two themes from the preservice teachers’ narratives about what they saw: (a) context matters (i.e., different scenarios activate different preservice teacher attributions), and (b) racialization evolves (i.e., preservice teachers make different attributions about Black and White boys engaged in the same behaviors). Findings underscore the importance of teacher education and professional development for novice teachers that address racial bias in attributions of student behaviors.
Funder
William T. Grant Foundation
Publisher
American Educational Research Association (AERA)