Exploring Teacher Perceptions of Small Boys in Kindergarten

Abstract

The authors examined the way that teachers perceive the academic abilities of young boys before the start of formal schooling. Using a 1998 nationally representative sample of 10,956 boys assessed at the start of kindergarten, the authors showed that teachers perceive young boys who are shorter than the perceived norm as less academically capable than are boys of average or above-average height. The findings help expand one's understanding of the way that children, and subsequently adults, use body image to view ability and performance.

Keywords:

• body size of boys starting kindergarten
• teacher bias
• teachers' perceptions of ability