Stereotype threat

I have been researching and trying to figure out how my last post could find an angle to draw these posts to a close, and give a concrete effect of stereotypes on student learning. I think the best way to do that is to examine the concept of stereotype threat.

Stereotype threat, according to ReducingStereotypeThreat.org refers to being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group. The idea is that the cognizance of one's potential alignment with those negative stereotypes has specific and measured effects. It turns out that these effects (to be discussed below) can and likely do effect every aspect of classroom interactions to some extent.

This video does a good job of summarizing, and gives a concrete example from an academic study:

The specific effects range from decreased performance, internalizing attributions for failure, reactance, self-handicapping, task discounting, distancing the self from the stereotyped group, disengagement and disidentification with the threatening domain and altered professional identities and aspirations. (big words, I know; look to reducingstereotypethreat.org for useful breakdowns and explanations

For brevity's sake, I'm only going to really delve into self handicapping, discussion of which lends itself to the others and all of the effects' presence schools. There is ample literature in peer-reviewed journals about the prevalence and effect of Stereotype Threat and its discrete effects should you like to investigate further.

Self-handicapping is pretty self-explanatory, no pun intended. It can be thought of as (again, according to ReducingStereotypeThreat.org) a defensive strategy in which individuals erect barriers as attributions for failure. If and when these barriers undermine performance, individuals have a ready made justification for deficiencies in ability or effort.

For instance, " Keller (2002) showed that girls who performed poorly on a math test under stereotype threat were more likely to invoke stress they had been experiencing before the taking test, and Steele and Aronson (1995) showed that African-American students under stereotype threat also tended to produce a priori excuses for possible failure (reducingstereotypethreat.org)

Several causes of that handicapping are possible; most powerful involve lowered performance expectation, reduced effort and reduce self-control. for example, studies have shown that black students who report anxious expectations of encountering racial prejudice also reported lower ability to regulate their academic behavior; stereotype threat reduced their ability to regulate attentional and behavioral resources. Minortiy students also often report that academic subjects are "meant for" or best suited to white students; minority students therefore often relegate themselves to arts, entertainment and athletics.

So what?

Studies of stereotype threat are immediately relevant in the classroom and in academe in general. If your assessments or tasks, or your predisposition towards your class, or the physical classroom or school space itself reifies stereotypes and makes students think about those stereotypes, you could be doing irreparable harm to your students as thinkers and participants in class. and with a list of effects like disengagement, high arousal, lowered expectations, and discounting the validity of the task or experience, it's easy to see how stereotype threat could be misdiagnosed and how it could really impact students' levels of achievement.

There are implications for achievement testing outlined here, starting at 5:20,,and the rest of the video is useful to help think about contexts for stereotype threat:

So what do we do?

As teachers, our responses to stereotype threat could be multiple. First is to provide or stand as role models, as members of a group who defy stereotypes and exhibit proficiency in an area where stereotypes imply they should not. This would reinforce the fact that the stereotypes that the student may be anxious about have nothing to do with him or her, and that his or her ability to achieve is strictly individual.

We could teach students to externalize attributions for difficulty, such that learn that their difficulties are not innate, but can be overcome with time and due diligence. This goes hand in hand with another possible response, and a good teaching practice in general, which is emphasizing an incremental view of intelligence.

Perhaps most difficult, we could redesign and represent our assessments, tasks, classroom spaces and behaviors such that we do not present the threat of stereotypes to students; we should be on the lookout for disparities so we can identify problems and address them effectively.

Making that list really feels like a good place to stop, because not only does it outline ways to deal with stereotype threat, but it outlines good teaching practices in general. As we enter classrooms this fall and beyond, it can only beneficial to keep those things in mind.

Ethnic Stereotypes, part one

Ethnic stereotypes, like the other forms of stereotyping that we have discussed, are rooted in assumptions about a group of people. We make those assumptions so we don't have to accommodate new information every time we encounter someone of a particular race. For brevity's sake I will focus on some stereotypes about black students in this post, and consider other ethnic groups in the next.

Many of the stereotypes we would encounter in the classroom are decades old, if not older. Stereotypes about black students in particular were a part of the American national myth, as well as a foundation of human interaction for centuries. Without even getting into specific stereotypes, we can look at the language we use to talk about everyday things for evidence of this history. White connotes purity, good, wholeness, cleanliness, positivity, whereas blackness is correlated with badness, evil, with wrongdoing, impurity, savagery, and with dirt: physical, metaphorical, and metaphysical.

I'm not here to argue whether or not those aesthetic connotations came from or created some of the racial disparities that have been playing out over the last 500 years of human history. what is important to take from this is simply the knowledge that racial stereotypes are OLD, and consequently will take (and have taken) a while to overcome.

Some specific racial stereotypes that you and/or students in your school will and have experienced have direct negative effects on their performance in school. Lets look at a few of them and their implications for students and teachers:

Black students are lazy, and don't want to work:

This stereotype has existed in the American mythos since slavery was en vogue among the founding fathers. It has made itself even more pervasive in society since the spread of welfare programs focus on many urban areas; the perception is that many urban blacks are on welfare because they are lazy and don't want to work, and it completely disregards the social and environmental issues that lead to mass joblessness in the inner city. In the classroom, it could seriously effect the way students' behaviors are received. For example: all of the students in Jon's math class are resistant to do homework. He is usually pretty laid back about it, but today he takes particular exception to two students' failure to complete the assignment. What separates them from the class? Their ethnicity. In an attempt to account for individual differences, Jon approaches them privately and says that he understands that culturally, blacks do not like to do work, but that he still has a high expectation of them, and that they need to overcome that tendency if they want to succeed in the real world, escape the ghetto, and not live on welfare.

Jon's assumption might not only alienate him from his students, but contrarily, it could cause him to stop encouraging those students to complete assignments as much as he encourages other students. When he looks back on it, his expectation that the stereotype exists would have been fulfilled. What he misses is that his expectation of the stereotype, caused the stereotype. If he had continued to encourage all of his students equally, not only might the entire class' behavior have changed, but he would have been given an example that worked to destroy that schema of stereotype for himself and for his students of any ethnicity.

Tricky, I know. lets look at another example.

Black people are criminally violent:

This stereotype is based in the idea that the African people that were brought (Stolen) to America were bestial, animalistic. It was reified by the hundreds of slave revolts through the duration of slavery in which blacks' anger and violence was unfathomable to white slaveowners. The same way every black person in the south was suspected of being a slave, he or she was also suspected of being a criminal. The stereotype is perpetuated today by simple statistics with complex origins. The high rates of crime in urban, low-SES areas are fueled and magnified in public media, as well as being incorrectly causally linked to the high number of minorities in those areas. Suzy teaches in a magnet school in Washington DC.When Suzy's class is taking a test, she suspects one of her students, a black student, is cheating, so she confronts the student. When he responds incredulously, she takes his defensiveness as a sign of guilt and tells him so. the student becomes to visibly upset, raising his voice, and demanding that she reconsider, and offer proof. She tells him to leave the room, but when he stands, he approaches her, still demonstrative, Suzy calls security and urges them to hurry, remarking that she is being threatened by the student.

Because of Suzy's expectation that her black students will be violent, she was quick to overreact to a situation about which any student would have been upset. She has disrupted the testing environment for all her students, and if any of her students are aware of the racial politics of school (as most of her students of color likely are) they have lost trust for her, suspecting that some level of racism motivated her original accusation (even if it was well founded) as well as the subsequent reaction. The student she accused has been suspended for one week, automatically failing that grading quarter. The information he missed is the information he could have used to pass the EOC; Suzy has just contributed to broadening the achievement gap. Heavy.

This video is a part of a series of lecture that encounter race. At about 3:25 the lecturer begins to address this notion of expected stereotyped violence from black students.

Both of these hypothetical situations suggest that it is not enough that we have an awareness of what cultural differences could be. We must be self reflective, seeing the intersections of our beliefs and those differences, and further, our beliefs about those differences. All of our actions have consequences. When we allow the black football player to slack in our class but give him a passing grade to keep eligibility, we are not only succumbing to stereotypes about black athleticism, we are perpetuating them, as well as creating a new generation of "dumb jocks" (another stereotype in and of itself). When we make careless comments about the eating habits of a black student (fried chicken, collard greens, chitlins and the like) we are demeaning a cultural tradition, as well as demonstrating to our classes that these behaviors and unfair, stereotyping beliefs are ok and normal. Teachers can have many ways of closing the achievement gap, and one surefire way is by not succumbing to a common stereotype that undergirds each of the stereotypes indicated above: that lower achievement is inherent and endemic to black students.

Consider other stereotypes about black students. how are they made manifest in the classroom? how can teachers' reactions to behaviors influence the perpetuation or destruction of those stereotypes? How do they affect the achievement gap?

In comments, feel free to suggest other stereotypes or stereotyped groups you would like me to address in my next post.

Stereotypes in schools: Gender Stereotyping

As we've discussed before, stereotypes can take all sorts of forms and occur in all sorts of places. One place where their presence can be particularly detrimental is in the classroom. The next three entries will focus on schools and the ways in which stereotypes and stereotyping shape the minds attitudes and very identities of the young people impelled to be there.

Today our topic is gender stereotypes. Many of the same stereotypes we have observed on a societal scale are observable in schools. indeed the dated cultural norms that pervade mass media and pop culture inform the minds of toddlers, children, and adolescents, and why should that be a surprise? After all, kids spend more time watching tv than they do IN school, anyway. http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/635134.html

A few stereotypes pop up often and can have serious effects on the way children are taught, as well as what and how effectively. The notions that boys are better at math than girls is not new, and at one point, boys did categorically outperform girls on standardized math assessments. Today however that is simply not the case. Indeed The fact remains, however that many boys and girls believe that math is "for boys" and not so for girls. http://ilabs.washington.edu/meltzoff/pdf/11Cvencek_Meltzoff_Greenwald_Gender_Math_Gender_Stereotypes_2011.pdf

At hte elementary school level, there is hardly if any difference in mathematics aptitude, in the cognitive ability of children's brains' ability to do math, yet the widespread beliefs of many children, before they even get to their multiplication tables remain skewed.

How and why can that be? It must be that images and ideas that boys and girls are surrounded with impress upon them these ideas. The people making decisions about a child's life may have those same ideas about what is "right for" each gender. the same way we paint babie girls' rooms pink and boys' rooms blue (and rarely the opposite), the same way boys get balls and girls get dolls, boys are pushed gently, but consistently, from an early age to math, athletics, and the sciences, and girls to humanities, social service and homemaking.

So What?

The issue becomes critical when parents, students and educators are unaware of the presence of this conditioning, let alone its impact on their classrooms and schools. A theoretical anecdote could help shed some light:

When Susie comes to her high school and registers for classes, a teacher or administrator mightn't ever wonder whether or not Susie has always pretended to be mediocre at math, even though it came naturally to her, so as to not stand out. They will however gladly put her in a less rigorous math track, at her request. Say Susie graduates on time, and high in her class ranks? Well the pre-calc and/or calculus she never took impacts her impression on colleges and universities and limits the kinds of professions she chooses. She was never going to do anything math-related, and was never encouraged to do so, so that will not come as a shock to anyone, not even her parents who used to buy her all those erector sets; after all toys are just toys.

Good educators are aware of the plausibility of this anecdote and they are making adjustments to account for the gap between the sexes. The issue is not dead however, and complications have made themselves manifest, including a slippage in the performance of boys in math classes, girls surpassing boys in college application, attendance, and graduate. There has recently been a large push to bring more male educators into the classroom, well trained, to not perpetuate stereotypes of any kind, and promote good learning.

Now that I've made you listen to me, this video does a great job addressing some of these issues and outlines some of the science behind it (better, more thoroughly than I do here):

Ponderings:

• What other gender specific stereotypes appear in schools and classrooms?
• Why are there more female teachers than male?
• How might this impact boys and girls differently, in different subjects?
• What stereotypes about boys impact the ways they are taught and learn?

Thanks, and happy thinking,

P

Stereotypes: A real time saver

The first step in the process of understanding stereotypes is admitting they exist. Check. The next step is trying to figure out what role they play in society. The question becomes: What work to stereotypes do? What are stereotypes for?

Comedy? They are used that way, but to assume that it's all for fun and games definitely misses a bulk of the placement and usage of stereotypes.

To hurt and belittle people? again, stereotypes can be applied such that they have that function, but I don't think that is inherent. (It is important to differentiate between "Stereotyping," "discrimination" and all the -isms-- racism, sexism, classism, ageism etc. While there are moments when they surely align, an unnecessary conflation of those terms wont help us navigate this investigation.)

No, stereotyping seems much simpler and yet much more complex than that. Stereotypes are a way for our brains to quickly make sense of information. Instead of redefining existing categories, or creating a new category for the new information (accommodation), we assimilate the new information into categories we already have, often incorrectly.

So, instead of adding new data to our definition of "woman" everytime we come across one, we rely on previous evidence which we ASSUME is still valid. Instead of asking that woman about her identity, we use stereotypes to project her likely identity onto her. If she is not a homemaker, she may likely be a teacher or nurse. If she does not have a wedding ring, she is single and childless (but if she has a child with her and no wedding ring, she's immoral, got knocked up, etc.). Is her hair short and/or is she wearing flannel? She is a lesbian. Consider seeing her in an office building, or in front of a computer. She is somebody's (some man's) secretary.

Yes, those kinds of leaps are unfounded and unfair, but we make them everyday, over and over, unconsciously just for the sake of saving time and mental strain.

http://toddanthonydirect.typepad.com/photos/funny_shots_of_the_week/stereotypes.jpg

The perpatuation of these stereotypes is carried out by the entertainment industry, ruthlessly, and with little regard for what effect they are having. They take advantage of the recognizability of these images and use them to make a profit. They reify the stereotypes, such that we don't recognize the fallacy of our assimilations

A show like "Cops" instills images of what criminals look like and do: they are poor, black or brown, violently resist arrest and possess (do) illegal drugs. These are the images that stick with us.

take a look at the following clips of gender stereotypes. at 2:10, 3:35, 4:30, 7:30 are clips that really exemplify the kind of gender stereotyping that pervades commercial media

Commercial advertisement does not hesitate to use race stereotyping either. Like gender stereotyping, racial stereotyping in ads works to indoctrinate the expected and acceptable positions and predispositions of people of different ethnicities and cultures.

Ponderings for next time:

What stereotypes are found in schools?

What are blacks supposed to be in schools? Whites? Latinos? Asians?

Who are the women in schools? Who are the men?

With this under our belts, we can move forward and explicitly examine the ways in which stereotypes are present in, and have effects on schools and schoolchildren.

An Introduction

Twenty-first Century schools are complex places in the United States. Literally hundreds of ethnicities, races, languages and dialects, religions, cultural distinctions, sexual orientations and socioeconomic factors exist among students, faculty, staff and administration. These are differences that should be embraced in a perfect world, differences that are what give public schools and institutions their greatest potential source of strength: wide and varied perspectives.

This is not a perfect world, however, and often a school's greatest source of strength is its greatest source of contention; all of these distinctions between people are sites where ignorance, misinformation and bigotry raise their ugly heads in the form of stereotypes.

stereotype

noun

1

: a plate cast from a printing surface

2

: something conforming to a fixed or general pattern; especially : a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment

— ste·reo·typ·i·cal \ˌster-ē-ə-ˈti-pi-kəl\ also ste·reo·typ·ic \-pik\ adjective

(source: Meriiam-Webster Dictionary)

Whether you are aware of them or not, stereotypes likely existed and still exist in any school environment you were in. What varies is the extent to which stereotypes make themselves manifest, and the effect stereotypes and stereotyping have on the culture and psychology of a school. These are the questions I pose (to myself, and any interested readers/responders): the "how", the "why", "to what extent", and finally "to what discernible effect." Only with these questions answered can we theorize about what, precisely, we can do about it. As a person who has both been affected by stereotypes and who has let unfair and ugly stereotypes inform my interactions with various kinds of people, I am invested in this process of self-awareness and positive change, as should be anyone who interacts with a heterogeneous group of people.

Look to your left; look to your right. You are all different, and all of you have misconceptions about those differences that inform your interactions to some extent.

Ponderings for next time:

• How long have stereotypes existed?
• Are all stereotypes negative?
• Who can be stereotyped?
• Who is stereotyped (more often than others)?
• Where do our preconceived "truths"about people come from?
• What research is there that supports/refutes the existence, prevalence and/or effects of stereotyping?
• Are stereotypes static or can they change over time?

Future posts may be a bit bulkier than this, as I intend to shed some light on the "ponderings" posed at the end of the previous post, and as we progress, questions will become harder to answer. I will support my assertions, when possible/necessary, with current and dated research, for validity, and as a glimpse into the assumptions that even the supposedly "most educated" among us have and are unaware of.

Feel free to address issues/concerns, pose further questions and comments as you see fit. I only ask that you be civil. Critical analysis is a party, and everyone is invited, but we have a bouncer, and he is one mean cuss that never hesitates to evict a rowdy customer if need be.

Since you jsut pictured a bouncer and rowdy partier, what did he (she?) look like? How do you think stereotypes influenced either of those looks like in your mind's eye? How complete and/or detailed was the picture? These are the kinds of things a critical analysis will ask you to think about, not only about yourself, but about the information and images you are inundated with on a regular basis. Almost any image presented to/in/for American culture was constructed purposefully, with particular goals in mind, and with decades of research to support their decisions. Our job is to unpack all this, and simply ask, WHY?

Here's some practice:

this video is a series of racial stereotypes from the popular TV show "Family Guy." Think about what the stereotypes are, how they are supposed to portray a race or culture, and who the intended audiences are. Even in jest, stereotypes can set a bad precedent for children who sometimes misinterpret and misapply their "humor." How plausible is it that among that audience, there is an adolescent contingent who doesn't quite grasp the absurd elements of adult humor, and carries those stereotypes onto a school bus, or into the classroom? And on a deeper level, why are these things funny to us at all?

So long, for now, and happy thinking,

P.