Marcy Weber and Katherine Sprengelmeyer Post #3

Cobras, Cat Folders, Contingencies, and Other Environmental Hazards

By . . . Marcy Weber (1st grade teacher) and

Katherine Sprengelmeyer (middle school teacher)

How Do Stereotypes Threats Happen?

Marcin. (2018). Science Session Pictograph [Image].
Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/session-
science-pictogram-fatigue-1989711/
Creative Commons CC0

Stereotype threat happens when an individual feels pressure not only to perform well, but to break the stigma of his/her social identity group when taking a test or performing a task.  A stereotype threat can occur in many different groups according to social psychologist Claude M. Steele (2010). In Steele’s book, Whistling Vivaldi, he found that a stereotype threat occurred in many of his test participants when they were told prior to taking a test that the test would be measuring something that reflected a stigma for the ethnic, cultural, or social group to which the individual belonged. For example, Steele explored the effects of the stereotype of black students that they are somehow lower achievers and/or have lower intelligence. Researchers told a group of black and white participants that the test they were taking would measure their verbal abilities. When given this information, black students did not perform as well as white students nor as well as black students who had not been given this information.  Steele believed the black students who had been told the test measured verbal ability had felt the stereotype threat and the pressure of disproving this stereotype. This pressure prevented these students from doing well on the test. When a different group of black and white students took the same test but were told it would measure general problem solving, the black and white students performed similarly. There was not a stigma addressed prior to the test.  The black students did not feel a stereotype threat and thus did not feel the pressure to defeat a stereotype when taking the test (Steele, 2010).

The Reality of Stereotype Threats for High Ability/Highly Invested Students

It is interesting to note that in Chapter 3 of Whistling Vivaldi, more testing was done comparing students who cared a lot about school to those that did not care that much about school.  Doing the same type of testing as before, it was found that students who cared more about school did worse on tests when given a stereotype threat than students who did not care that much about school (Steele, 2010).  This makes sense to me because I feel that students who really care about their education and how they are viewed want to fight off stereotypes and disprove them.  The stereotype threat is real in my opinion, and I feel it happens more often with students who care about their education than with those who are complacent.  Students who highly value education do not want to be a part of any stereotype that insinuates that they lack ability. They are trying to carve their own path and do it their way.  They want to be looked at as individuals and not lumped together in a stereotype. These are the students that have high ambitions and want to make a difference.

The Role of the Environment in Our Identity

Garter Snake Forest. (2018). [Image].
Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/garter-
snake-forest-macro-crawl-3546237
Creative Commons CC0

At about 18 months, my daughter fell in love with snakes.  Not the plush, cute, cuddly variety, but the realistic looking rubber snakes you find at museum gift shops.  Coral snakes, water moccasins, and cobras dangled out of her crib. It unnerved visitors. It repulsed the babysitter.  It concerned the grandparents.  You could say my daughter has her

own . . . style. I thought her first real identity issue, naturally, would be about something profound.  But no, it came at the back-to-school section of our local big box store . . . over a cat folder. My now eight-year-old wanted to sacrifice buying the cat folder she wanted for a dog folder that she felt would earn her the acceptance of her dog-loving elementary school peers.   “People judge, Mom!  People judge!”

What had changed about my daughter? Was it her personality, her inner qualities, or her values? No, what had changed was her awareness of and response to her environment.

Our environments and the negative identity contingencies they generate can cause us more strongly to adhere to a particular identity while letting other identities subside, particularly when an identity is threatened.  As social psychologist Claude M. Steele states, “This threat makes the identity to which it is directed, of all the person’s social identities, the one that dominates emotion, thinking, the one that, for that time ‘invades the person’s whole identity’” (2010). Imagine, then, that you are the one black child in the classroom during a discussion of the Civil Rights Movement.  The teacher makes a point, and the class turns to you to see if you agree. You might be the most intelligent, eloquent student in the classroom, but in that moment, you may think only about how you are the only black student in the classroom. No one verbally said anything overtly racist, but your environment just unfairly made you the unofficial spokesperson of your race, and the pressure is on!

In Whistling Vivaldi, Steele uses the example of “passing,” presenting oneself as belonging to another racial or ethnic group that differs from one’s actual group, to show how environment influences our response to stereotype threats.  Using the example of black author Anatole Broyard, Steele describes how Broyard changed his opportunities for literary, financial, and social success by manipulating the contingencies of his environment. By passing as white, Broyard changed where he could live, the resources he had access to, and the people he interacted with each day (Steele, 2010).  By manipulating how his environment affected him, Broyard changed the trajectory of his life albeit at a heavy price.

Where Do We Go from Here?  A First Grade Teacher’s Perspective

Altmann, G. (2018). Town Sign [Image].
Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/town-sign-place-name-sign-success-1148092/
Creative Commons CC0

What we can do as educators to help decrease stereotype threats is to get to know our students and their families.  We have students coming to us with different backgrounds, income levels, and home lives. As teachers, we need to be sensitive to stereotypes and do our best to treat each student with respect.  We are role models for our students, and it is vital for us to teach our students how to interact appropriately with one another. Educators need to create a safe, welcoming learning environment where all students feel accepted and cared for.

Where Do We Go from Here?  A Middle School Teacher’s Perspective

So, what can I do as a middle school teacher to protect our students from stereotype threats and from an environment that threatens their identity? I think one essential quality of any teacher is the ability to make a classroom feel safe. Students need the opportunity to discuss issues that affect their identity. As an English teacher, I need to remember to give students time to make connections between literature and their lives and take time for teachable moments rather than simply focus on the skill-driven standards of the Common Core. In Whistling Vivaldi (2010), Steele discusses the need to foster group conversations among diverse groups of students and the need to be careful about the ways that we give feedback to minority students.  As teachers, we must foster students’ identities so that they are comfortable expressing themselves in our classrooms. Steele also warns that many of us may feel tempted to avoid discussing issues like race because we feel we should be moving into a “postracial society” where race is no longer an issue, but one look at recent headlines should tell us that we are not there yet and that critical conversations about how we handle diversity are desperately needed.

References

Southern Poverty Law Center. (1991-2018). Diversity, Equity And Justice. Retrieved July 31, 2018, from https://www.tolerance.org/

Steele, C. (2011). Whistling Vivaldi: And other clues to how stereotypes affect us. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.