Change yourself

Stereotypes play a significant role in society, influencing our perceptions and daily interactions. In the world of education, teachers play a crucial role in shaping students' school experiences. However, sometimes, stereotypes can influence how teachers themselves evaluate and treat students, especially those from minority or immigrant groups.

So what effect do teachers' stereotypes have on the evaluation of the school performance of immigrant students? And what happens if teachers are informed about their stereotypes towards the latter?

A study published in the prestigious economic journal American Economic Review examined how teachers' stereotypes can influence the performance of immigrant students in Italy. Immigrants often face unique challenges in the school environment, including prejudice and negative expectations from teachers. The study sought to better understand this phenomenon and evaluate the effectiveness of some interventions aimed at mitigating the effects of stereotypes on students.

The experiment focused on the use of a test called the Implicit Association Test (iat) to evaluate teachers' stereotypes towards immigrant students. The iat measures the speed with which teachers associate positive or negative concepts with the names of native students and immigrant students. The IAT results provide a measure of teachers' implicit preferences or prejudices towards immigrant students.

This test was administered to a sample of 1,300 teachers of Italian middle schools, mainly from northern Italy. The sample was subsequently divided into "experimental" groups and "control" groups. The experimental groups received personalized feedback about their stereotypes, while the control groups received no information about them.

The results of the study revealed that teachers with more negative stereotypes tend to evaluate immigrant students more harshly than native students. However, when teachers were given feedback on their stereotypes, they showed a tendency to narrow the gap in grades between immigrant and native-born students.
This suggests that awareness of stereotypes can influence teachers' behavior and, consequently, students' academic performance. Furthermore, teachers with strongly negative stereotypes reacted positively to personalized feedback about their stereotypes, while those who received only general information about prejudices in society showed no significant change in behavior.

Revealing and addressing teacher stereotypes can, therefore, help create a more equitable and inclusive school environment, where all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential. The first step towards a more inclusive society therefore presupposes individual change, which passes through self-knowledge, as the ancient Greeks already suggested (γνῶθι σεαυτόν, "know thyself").


Pierluigi Conzo
NP April 2024