Sticks and Stones: Stereotype Threats and Why They Hurt
By . . . Marcy Weber (1st grade teacher) and
Katherine Sprengelmeyer (middle school teacher)
Katherine Sprengelmeyer (middle school teacher)
Stereotype Threats and Excellence Gaps
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Torres, G. (n.d.).
[Black Pencil among White Pencils].
Retrieved July 26, 2018,
from https://pixabay.com/en/pencil-
black-white-difference-1385100/
Creative Commons CC0
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Stereotype threats play a role in the existence of excellence gaps among non-majority students. Claude M. Steele (2010) gave many examples of this in his book, Whistling Vivaldi. In it, he talks about different studies amongst black and white students as well as between male and female students. He found that when a stereotype was mentioned before an activity or study, the group of people the stereotype pertained to usually performed more poorly than when the stereotype was never mentioned. This tells us that growing up with or having a stereotype or stigma on the mind can affect a performance outcome.
Students who feel a stigma about their social identity will absolutely have a harder time being successful. All students need to feel welcomed and cared about by their teachers and peers. Without this acceptance from those around us, it makes it harder to learn and be our best in the classroom. Those not feeling cared about may stop caring about their education and may give up and move on to something else. This a reason for excellence gaps. Teachers need to have high expectations for all their students, regardless of color, gender, or economic status.
Why Stereotype Threats Matter
Stereotype threats also matter when considering gifted students and the programs in which they participate. According to The National Association for Gifted Children's website, “gifted children in poverty and from minority groups are 2.5 times less likely to be identified for, and in, gifted and talented programs in schools.” When standardized tests scores are influenced by stereotype threats, underrepresentation of minorities may occur in gifted programming, widening the existing excellence gap and reinforcing minority stereotypes. This makes properly identifying minority gifted students, using multiple criteria and considering high potential as well as high achievement, critical. For further information on the National Association for Gifted Children’s campaign, “Giftedness Knows No Boundaries,” check out the link below.
In Whistling Vivaldi, social psychologist Claude M. Steele argues that stereotype threats also may affect the way a student interacts with teachers and students and could influence the professions and educational paths students select. Furthermore, stereotype threats that affect society’s perception of a minority group’s academic ability permeate the lives of students every day as these students navigate the daily pressures of succeeding in educational environments. With many colleges and universities reporting small numbers of minority student enrollment, these students may find it difficult to perform in an environment that feels uncomfortable and fraught with pressure to overcome existing stereotypes. Gifted students who care deeply about stereotype threats, ironically, are more likely to feel pressure and underachieve (Steele, 2010). This creates a domino affect. Fewer high-achieving students from minority populations attend post-secondary schools. Those minority students who do attend post-secondary schools may underachieve as they find themselves in an uncomfortable environment saturated with stereotype threats. Some of those students may leave those settings, reducing an already low population of minority students.
Stereotype Threats: A First Grade Teacher’s Perspective
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Pixabay. (n.d.). [Math Workbook and Calculator].
Retrieved July 26, 2018, from
https://pixabay.com/en/calculator-math-
mathematics-988017/ Creative Commons CC0
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Reading these chapters in Whistling Vivaldi made sense to me. Any time I’ve ever felt that I was not good at something or just got in my own head about it, I typically did worse than what I could have done. For example, I am able to relate to the math stereotypes that were mentioned in the first chapter. I always enjoyed math growing up and at some point in high school, I remember it getting harder. My younger brother was in advanced math classes and already above where I was. When math got hard, I accepted that I must not be a math person. My mom told me she was not good at math in school and so I must be like her. My dad, however, was great in math, and my brother must have taken after him. So right there, I had the stereotype of girls aren’t good at math and boys are. When I started to think this way about myself and math, I didn’t try as hard. I kind of gave up and did what was required. Looking back, I know I could have done more, and I don’t want my own daughters to ever feel like that.
As a first grade teacher, I’ve always done my best to treat my students with respect. The readings in this course have really opened my eyes to the stigmas and stereotypes associated with minority students. Knowing the backgrounds and pressures some of our students are feeling and living with makes me realize how important it is to create a safe learning environment for all my students. Having this information will help me to understand a little more about minority students and what I can do to help them be successful in school.
Stereotype Threats: A Middle School Teacher’s Perspective
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Vašek, J. (n.d.). [Girl Biting Pencil]. Retrieved July 26, 2018, from
https://pixabay.com/en/laptop-woman-education-study-young-3087585/
Creative Commons CCO
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Middle school students are excellent at detecting and responding to stereotypes. Students in these grades seem to have a heightened sense of identity and any threats to that identity. If you ask a middle school student to list stereotypes, he/she can easily identify numerous stereotypes and discuss each one at length. Boys, I am told, should never cry. If a middle school boy signs up for choir in high school, kids might think he is gay. Girls should be quiet and good at school. It is acceptable to care about grades . . . but not too much. Too much concern over grades means you are a “try hard.” My gifted students often complain that they feel pressure-- and a lot of it -- to
score well on everything. They feel the need to prove over and over again that they are intelligent, and any deviation from an ‘A’ grade might show that they aren’t so intelligent after all. You might think that gifted students would be relaxed before taking standardized tests. After all, they are gifted! Many, however, feel palpable pressure on test day. It makes sense, then, that students belonging to minority groups would feel the added pressure of stereotype threats when trying to perform academically in middle school. They have a double “burden” to carry, the burden to prove themselves as gifted students and the burden to prove a stereotype threat wrong. All of this must be done in a way that makes them acceptable to their middle school peers as well.
My own middle school days were spent dodging stereotypes. I attended a school outside of my school district and was from an even smaller, more rural town than the town in which I attended school. Silly as it sounds as an adult, there was a hierarchy of towns, and I was from the town at the bottom of the list. When I got off the bus on the first day of school, my classmates were standing in tight circles, grouped by towns. I distinctly remember hearing another girl’s disgust when I got off the bus. The circles were closed for me. What happened to my grades? They plummeted. Fitting in was an all-consuming task, and I could only focus on survival.
As an adult, some of these feelings still rush back when I feel judged for my rural background. In college, I felt distinctly the tendency of those above me to want to “enlighten” me, and that chafed. To be enlightened academically was one thing, to have my background judged was another. I came from an intelligent family that valued education, but I didn’t always feel represented. Even seemingly trivial things, like the lack of working class professions listed on a survey of parents’ occupations made me feel out of place early in my college career. Years later, I remember the feeling of mortification when I was called in by a supervisor. She wanted to tell me how shocked and pleased she was that I was intelligent and performing well. I wondered which of my identities caused the shock -- my rural background, my lowly BA degree??? Once again, I felt like I was standing outside of those middle school circles. What helped me overcome those awkward feelings was to find others, especially mentors, that valued my skills and helped me pursue my goals regardless of my identity. As a teacher in the classroom, I strive to be that mentor for my students.
References
National Association for Gifted Children. (n.d.). Giftedness Knows No Boundaries. Retrieved July 25, 2018, from http://www.giftednessknowsnoboundaries.org/welcome/
Steele, C. (2011). Whistling Vivaldi: And other clues to how stereotypes affect us. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
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