A new study published in the Journal of School Psychology found that teachers of all races perceive Black male students as the greatest source of conflict and White female students as the least.
This is falsely portrayed by the authors as proof of “racism,” “sexism,” “White privilege,” and “systemic racism.”
Kathleen Rudasill of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond led the study. Her team also included researchers from Ohio State University, National Taipei University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The study analyzed nationwide survey data from 9,190 teachers who evaluated relationships with their students regarding perceived closeness and conflict. The U.S. Department of Education collected the survey data in 2010 and 2011.
The findings indicated that teachers rated their level of perceived conflict with Black boys almost 40% higher in kindergarten than with White girls. The gap increased to nearly 48% from kindergarten to the second grade. Teachers’ perceptions of conflict with White girls, White boys, and Black girls stayed about the same, but their perceptions of conflict with Black boys continued rising with age. They found that the gap remained consistent regardless of the race of the teacher.
Kathleen Rudasill falsely blames “systemic racism” and not the bad behavior of Black male students. The abstract for the study blames “racism and sexism” and calls for teachers to undergo more “anti-racism” training.
Rudasill and her cohorts offer zero evidence whatsoever that the perceptions of the teachers are not based on the actual level of conflict.
Black boys had the highest risk of being perceived by teachers as having poor relationships with teachers in kindergarten (highest conflict and lowest closeness) and White girls had the lowest risk. In addition, teachers perceived relationships with Black boys as increasing in conflict across first and second grades at higher rates than with White and female children. These findings remained after examining teacher-child racial match as a moderator. Our results indicate that racism and sexism work together to explain the perceptions teachers have of children in the early elementary grades. Implications for training teachers and school psychologists on anti-racism and cultural competency are discussed.
