Examining gender bias in student evaluations of music teacher educators

ABSTRACT

Through a randomised controlled experimental design, the purpose of this study was to determine whether the gender of a music teacher educator influenced student perceptions of professional and interpersonal teaching skills. Participants (N = 146) completed a student evaluation questionnaire after viewing five-minute teaching videos of a professor leading a lecture and mentoring a student teacher. The teaching videos were scripted and directed by the researchers. The female professor in this experiment scored significantly higher than the male professor on interpersonal measures (p < .001), however there was no significant difference between the male and female professor on professional quantitative measures. The male professor received a greater proportion of positive comments in the open response section of the questionnaire (p < .05) and significantly more positive comments related to professional traits (p < .05) than the female professor. These results suggest students may perceive professional and interpersonal teaching qualities differently in male and female music teacher educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• bias
• student evaluations
• tenure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Geolocation information

Ithaca, NY, USA, 42.4440° N, 76.5019° W.

Additional information

Funding

This research was not supported by a grant or any other funding award.

Notes on contributors

Beatrice B. Olesko

Beatrice Olesko is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Ithaca College where she serves as the coordinator of the junior student teaching programme and teaches elementary music methods courses. Dr Olesko’s research interests include democratic teaching practices, culturally responsive teaching, creative music activities, and elementary music pedagogy.

Matthew Clauhs

Matthew Clauhs is an Associate Professor of music education at Ithaca College. Dr Clauhs serves on the editorial review board of the Music Educators Journal, is chair of the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Research Committee and frequently presents at national and international music conferences, including the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Conference, the Symposium on Music Teacher Education (SMTE), and the World Conference for the International Society for Music Education (ISME).