Students' Attitudes Toward Teachers' Ethnicity, Bilinguality, and Gender

Abstract

Elementary, middle, and high school student attitudes toward teacher ethnicity, bilinguality, and gender were assessed by means of student ratings of 12 hypothetical teachers. The sample consisted of 186 mostly Latino and African American students, ranging in age between 9 and 17years oldandattending eitherEnglish-only orbilingual and English-language-development classrooms in six inner-city schools. ANOVA revealed significant main effects but no interactions between any of the three within-subject variables. Students rated African American, bilingual, andfemale teachers highest. A number of between-subject variables were alsofound to have significant main effects on student attitudes, including language of response, length of U.S. residency, and current teacher's bilinguality. Evidence was found of student preference for same ethnicity teachers but only partial evidence of student preference for same bilinguality teachers. No evidence of student preference for same gender teachers was found. Practice and research implications of these findings are discussed.