Teacher Expectations in Education

Christine Rubie-Davies

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351243872
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Psychologie de l'éducation

The influence of teacher expectations on student outcomes is routinely explored by professors, administrators, teachers, researchers, journalists, and scholars. Written by a leading expert on teacher expectations, this book situates the topic within the broader context of educational psychology research and theory, and brings it to a wider audience. With chapters on the history of the teacher expectation field, student perceptions of teacher expectations, and implications for practice, this concise volume is designed for use in educational psychology courses and any education course that includes social-psychological aspects of classrooms in the curriculum. It will be indispensable for student researchers and both pre- and in-service teachers alike.

Three
Student Characteristics as Precursors to Differential Teacher Expectations

In the first chapter, I described the seminal work in the teacher expectation field, Pygmalion. I also explained some of the political and social context that contributed to a background for the study, the fact that children of poverty had little chance of success within the education system, the civil unrest of the 1960s, and the deeply ingrained racism towards African Americans. Because Pygmalion appeared to show that positively-biased teacher expectations could influence student outcomes, questions arose as to whether or not low teacher expectations could have negative influences on student outcomes. Given the political situation, whether student characteristics could influence teachers’ expectations negatively, and, in turn, affect student outcomes became of interest. Questions began to be asked such as, do teachers form differential expectations for different types of students? If student characteristics lead teachers to form low expectations for some students and high for others, what stereotypes, criteria, or information might teachers use when developing their expectations?

Over many years now, a host of student characteristics have been explored as potentially influencing teacher expectations. Most of the focus in this area has been on exploring teacher expectations in relation to ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and student labelling. However, many other student characteristics have also been explored, including the influence of giftedness, student language, names, family circumstances, and student personality factors.

Although not strictly a student characteristic per se, the portfolio information that teachers are given for each child can influence teachers’ expectations for their students, at times before they have even met the students. Some teachers studiously read all the information that they receive on each student before the school year begins. Unfortunately, this can bias teachers’ perceptions. They form expectations for some students at that point. I was once on a research project investigating how teachers set up their classrooms for the new academic year and was surprised to find that many teachers had placed students into within-class ability groups in reading and mathematics before the year had even begun. Those who spent time with their students before making any decisions about appropriate learning experiences were actually in the minority. I was shocked because, in most classes, the students were labeled before the year had even begun. Hence, both formal portfolio information and informal teacher comments about students passed on from teacher to teacher are strong predictors of teachers’ expectations. Nevertheless, a huge focus of teacher expectation research has aimed to explore how specific student characteristics become precursors to teachers’ expectations. In the remainder of this chapter, I will be discussing student characteristics and how they can both positively and negatively bias teacher expectations. I will begin by talking about the big four: Ethnicity, social class, gender, and labeling students as having special needs of some sort. These are the four student characteristics that have most often been investigated and which most is known about. The remainder have been explored in fewer studies but nevertheless have interesting findings.

Ethnicity

Most Western societies are diverse. Many accommodate what can be termed “voluntary minorities” (those who have moved from another country to their new host country), for example, Turkish students in Germany, and some include minorities who are either indigenous, for example, Inuit Indians in Canada, or who were forced to live in a particular country at some time in history, for example, African Americans. In almost all Western countries, minority groups such as those listed above achieve at levels lower than those of their majority peers. Education is seen as a vehicle by which minority groups can gain the privileges of the White middle class; immigrant parents often cite getting a better education for their children as one motivator for moving to a new country. However, if education is to enable everyone to succeed, then the system needs to be fair and should provide equal opportunities for all. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Minority students may be offered a curriculum that does not enable them to move into college later in their educational career. This may be due to tracking or simply that the schools they attend do not offer the curriculum needed in order to advance to college. Minority students may not have the best teachers in front of them. In some systems, teachers working in low socioeconomic communities are paid less than their counterparts working in middle class areas. Minority group students may have parents unfamiliar with the education system and who are unsure how to negotiate it either because they left school early themselves or if they are immigrant parents, they may not understand the system in their new country as well as those born in the host country. Whatever the explanation, teacher expectations have often been seen as one vehicle by which students’ life chances might be restricted.

There is a long history of the examination of teacher expectations of minority groups and whether or not these affect students. Mostly, the evidence does point to minority status as biasing teachers’ expectations negatively¹ but there has been the occasional exception, mostly in European studies², where minority students have received higher expectations from teachers than the majority. Nevertheless, a mostly consistent pattern is the finding that expectations tend to be lower for ethnic minority groups, even when achievement is taken into account.^1–3 Depending on the context, expectations are lower for different groups.

The United States. In the United States, expectations tend to be lower for African American,¹ Hispanic,⁴ Appalachian,⁵ and Native American students.⁶ Further, although they tend to be more successful in school than other minority groups, Asian students have experienced discrimination when entering some high schools, and particularly at the university level⁷ where they may be refused entry to prestigious colleges even though they meet the required standards.

Several studies have shown that even when there is no difference in student achievement, teachers have lower expectations for African American students than they do for White students.^{4, 8} More recently, a synthesis of several studies¹ of the effects of ethnicity on teacher expectations showed that teachers did favor White students over both African American and Latino/a students. Across several studies, it was also shown that teachers were more positive in their interactions with White students than they were with the other two groups. Although investigated less frequently, as with African American students, teacher expectations also tend to be lower for Latino/a students than for white students.⁴ Further, teachers may rate ethnic minority students lower on a range of characteristics. For example, Latino/a students have been rated lower for learning, motivational, creativity, and leadership characteristics than White students.⁹ Further, teachers tend to have higher expectations for Latino/a students that they judge to be more acculturated than they do for their counterparts who are more recent immigrants.⁹ In the United States, Native Americans and Appalachians^{5, 6} may also be the subject of low teacher expectations. It is thought that because Native Americans tend to achieve at fairly low levels and have high dropout rates, that it is likely that teachers would generalize low expectations to all members of the Native American group without careful consideration of individuals. Similarly, because of the cultural isolation of Appalachians and their particular dialect, there is a perception that they lack intelligence. Again, this is likely to lead to low teacher expectations.

Canada. In Canada, expectations for Canadian Native Indians have been found to be lower than for White Canadians.^{10, 11} In an experimental study,¹⁰ preservice teachers were given descriptions of students and their achievement. Half the descriptions were ascribed to Native Canadians whereas the other half supposedly pertained to White students. The preservice teachers then made placement recommendations for the students. Even though the descriptions of the fictitious students did not vary, the preservice teachers consistently recommended lower placements for the Native Canadian students. Practicing teachers have also been found to be biased and to similarly recommend Native Canadian students for remedial programs even when grades do not indicate remedial assignment should be considered.¹¹ Interestingly, however, teachers assigned high achieving Native Canadians correctly. They reported that this was because they noticed such students when they did well because they did not expect them to be achieving at high levels.

Israel. In Israel, findings are similar.¹² Psychology students were given an essay supposedly written by either a gifted or remedial Israeli versus Moroccan student. The differences in grades assigned to the remedial versus the gifted Israeli student were not nearly as large as the differences in grades assigned to gifted versus remedial Moroccan students. So, it seems that when students come from a low status group and yet achieve at high levels, teachers may pay more attention to them and, hopefully encourage and support them more than their White peers. On the other hand, those achieving at lower levels are likely to be subjected to even lower expectations than they deserve and consequent reduced opportunities to learn.

United Kingdom. The United Kingdom, and specifically England, has a very diverse population. This is partly the result of the British Empire when many countries were colonies of Great Britain and therefore the citizens of those various countries were entitled to live and work in the United Kingdom. The diversity of the population is also the result of Britain’s former membership of the European Union which meant that anyone whose country was also a member could immigrate to the United Kingdom, if they so wished.

In the 1950s and 1960s, as in some other Western countries, overt racism signals were ever-present in the United Kingdom. Blacks and people of color were barred from many venues such as shops and restaurants. Those overt signs have long gone, and it might be hoped that racist attitudes have similarly declined. Hence, it is interesting to reflect on the fact that a central focus of the 2010 General Election was anti-immigrant policy, resulting in stricter language tests for new immigrants, and very recently England’s exit from the European Union appears to have been racially based. It is perhaps not surprising then that teacher expectations for some students in the United Kingdom appear to suggest teacher bias.

Pakistani students are one group for whom teachers appear to have low expectations.^{13, 14} In one school, Pakistani students were achieving at lower levels than White students.¹⁴ Teachers explained that this was partly because the parents showed that they were not interested in their children’s education by not attending parent interviews. When the parents were approached, it was found that school notices were sent home in English and many of the Pakistani parents did not speak English. Once the newsletters were translated, there was an immediate increase in parental attendance at interviews. One teacher of the younger students sent reading books home with her students so that they could practice with their parents. However, she did not allow Pakistani students to take books home. The teacher argued that the students would not read the books anyway nor would they return them. Thus, the students’ opportunities to learn were being constrained. Such views appear to be pervasive because interviews in a different part of the country also revealed low teacher expectations for both Pakistani and Bangladeshi students.¹³ Again, teachers reported that parent aspirations for their children were low, especially for girls, but when parents were interviewed, they expressed aspirations that their children would go to university, and they had similarly high aspirations for both genders.

Another group for whom teachers in the United Kingdom have been reported to have low expectations are Afro-Caribbean students.¹⁵ Even when achievement is controlled, at the secondary school level, Afro-Caribbean students are less likely to be recommended for higher tier (more advanced) mathematics and science tests which would enable them to take courses in those fields at university. For every three White students with the same achievement as their Afro-Caribbean peers who complete higher tier tests, only two Afro-Caribbean students are allowed to sit the same tests. It is also interesting to note that, overall, the gap between Afro-Caribbean and White students is largest in mathematics and science, curriculum areas which have tiered tests, and much smaller in English, which does not have tiered tests. Entry into a tiered testing system makes teacher expectations explicit to students and may have demotivating effects on Afro-Caribbean students achieving at high levels but not recommended for the higher tier. Placement in lower tiers also has the long-term effect of potentially limiting students’ opportunities for higher education.

Even for Afro-Caribbean and other Black students who succeed in educatio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• One: The Beginnings and Development of the Teacher Expectation Paradigm
• Two: Teacher Expectations, Teacher Interactions, and Student Perceptions
• Three: Student Characteristics as Precursors to Differential Teacher Expectations
• Four: Teacher Differences in Propensity for Expectation Effects
• Five: What Has Been Learned and Where To Next?
• Glossary
• Index