Exploring relationships between a teacher’s race-ethnicity and gender and student teaching expectations

ABSTRACT

Research shows that despite well-deserved advances and achievements to diversifying and gaining access to higher education institutions in the United States (U.S.), such progress has failed to reduce student perceptions of inferiority and mediocrity towards female teachers and teachers of colour. Most higher education research in the U.S., focusing on teacher race-ethnicity and gender, occurs at the four-year university level. Less research examines the relationship between a teacher’s race-ethnicity, gender, and student teaching expectations at the two-year community college level. This study explores student teaching expectations using original survey data collected from a convenience sample of students enrolled in a large, predominately white two-year higher education institution in the U.S. referred to as community colleges. Overall, results show statistically significant positive relationships between a teacher’s race-ethnicity and students’ teaching expectations. Teacher gender is significantly associated with student teaching expectations, but only as it is intersectionally examined in association with the teacher’s race-ethnicity. More research focused on teaching expectations, the intersectionality of race-ethnicity and gender, course evaluations, and classroom climate is needed at the two-year community college level to understand how students frame their teaching expectations and the impact on women and women of colour faculty.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• race-ethnicity
• gender
• intersectionality
• teaching expectations

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Pam Gaiter, Professor of Sociology, for her participation in data collection for this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Terms such as teacher, instructor, and faculty are used interchangeably to describe academic personnel employed by an institution of higher education in the U.S. such as a college, university, or community college whose primary responsibilities are teaching and/or research.

2. Community college students were surveyed during the 2012–2013 academic school year.

3. A total of 28 teachers volunteered their classes to participate in the research project. Of the 28 teachers, 22 teachers were female, and 6 were male. Students classified 22 teachers as White, and 6 teachers as Non-White.

4. This study does not include insignificant results found when analysing student teaching expectations and teacher gender.