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Teachers’ Race and Gender Biases in the Classroom

Teacher pointing at white board with multipilication tables and students in desks, two are raising their hands

In 2023, Dr. Joseph Cimpian and colleagues recently published a paper titled “Teachers’ race and gender biases and the moderating effects of their beliefs and dispositions” in the International Journal of STEM Education. This paper reports on a pre-registered experiment of teachers' gender and race biases. When teachers randomly saw a female name associated with a non-fully correct math solution, they rated the student as less capable than when the same work was associated with a male name. Interestingly, teachers who more strongly reported responses that gender equality had been achieved in society were more likely to underestimate the math ability of girls. 

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