Given the importance of education and the role educators play on the outcomes of their students, the current research investigates implicit attitudes among a sample of mathematics educators. Implicit attitude measures are ones which investigate automatic associations between a target social group and a positive or negative feeling. These attitudes are important because they predict behaviors toward members of the target social group (e.g., Cameron, Brown- Iannuzzi, & Payne, 2012; Greenwald, Poehlman, Uhlmann, & Banaji, 2009). The current research also extends beyond previous research by investigating the association between educators’ implicit racial attitudes toward black and white people and students’ trust and respect for their educator. If educators’ implicit attitudes are associated with how they interact with their students, it may be that we can uncover this relationship by asking students about their attitudes toward their educators. To analyze these questions, this study leverages data from the National Study of Learning Mindsets (NSLM), the largest-ever randomized controlled trial of a growth mindset program in the U.S. in K-12 settings, in which a brief online growth mindset program was administered to 9th grade students during the 2015-2016 academic year. The results suggest that educators have a more implicit positive reaction to women than men, and slightly more implicit positivity toward black men than white men. These implicit associations, however, are unrelated to students’ trust and respect for their educator. The findings and implications are discussed.
Parents’ perspectives on the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity in K-12 schooling: results from an Australian national study
