Study future teachers are already biased against black

Study future teachers are already biased against black

That black school children are treated more harshly than white children by teachers is no secret, as plenty of studies and painful anecdotes have repeatedly shown. But some recent research published in the journal Contemporary Educational Psychologysuggests an even more discouraging reality: The incoming generation of teachers shows bias against black kids, too.

Researchers at North Carolina State University and elsewhere recruited 40 college students (most of whom were white) who were training to become teachers. They asked the volunteers to look at pictures of 20 black and white men and women, and then to identify one of five emotions the actors were showing (happiness, anger, surprise, sadness, or fear). A previous experiment by the researchers used 20 human volunteers and facial recognition software to pinpoint the emotion shown in each photo.