Garcia, Kathryn Lea. Teacher responses to racist accusations and their relationship with black students. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3833QF8
DescriptionBlack students’ relationships with teachers are an integral part of their academic and personal growth. How teachers handle racially salient conflict likely affects the nature of this relationship. The current study systematically examined the range of teacher responses to Black students’ accusations of racism and whether type of response was linked to the quality of Black student-teacher relationships. The research sample included 28 predominately White teachers and 35 Black freshmen and sophomores from one high school surveyed during the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years. On surveys, Black students rated the quality of their relationships with their teachers as measured by support and academic press scales. Teacher responses to accusations of racism were coded from transcripts of semi-structured teacher interviews. As hypothesized, the study found that the majority of teachers were accused of being racist by their students. Also as hypothesized, teachers responded in a variety of ways by a) dismissing the accusation entirely, b) dismissing the accusation but also asserting they treat all students fairly, or c) taking the accusation seriously by engaging the student in a discussion about the accusation. In light of these results, schools need to provide training to teachers on the presence of racism in the classroom and potential ways to respond. That said, the study did not find that the type of teacher response to accusations of racism was linked to the quality of Black student-teacher relationship, as had been hypothesized. Specifically, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) did not support the hypothesis that teachers who prevented racist accusations altogether or engaged students, compared to those teachers who were dismissive, would have higher quality relationships with their Black students—as reported on student surveys. However, given that the HLM estimates were in the expected direction, future research might detect the hypothesized association with a larger sample of teachers.