Overcoming Stereotypes in the Classroom: Teacher Strategies

Introduction

One of the harsh realities of the human condition is that everyone, including students and teachers, holds stereotypical views about other people that influence the way they think and behave. When stereotypes enter the classroom, they can adversely affect the learning environment in ways that detract from the educational experience for all students. Beyond traditional gender-based stereotypes, the increasingly multicultural nature of American society has produced a wide range of new stereotypes in today's classrooms. To determine what can be done, this paper describes different approaches that teachers can use to eliminate stereotypes from their classrooms. A summary of the research and important findings is provided in the conclusion.

Impact of Stereotypes on Learning

Beginning in the early 1990s, social psychologists first identified the cognitive processes that activated negative stereotypes in the minds of students who were taking important academic tests, and found that these activated stereotypes adversely affected academic performance (Herboth & Mason, 2012). In this regard, Herboth and Mason cite the example of "a girl who is asked to indicate her gender before taking an important math test (such as the SAT) may be reminded that people of her gender are not expected to do particularly well on math tests, or an African-American student who is asked to indicate his race before taking an achievement test is reminded of the stereotype that Blacks have poor academic ability" (2012, p. 121).

In response to these powerful stereotypes, minority students develop fears that they will fail, thereby reinforcing such stereotypes. These fears contribute to an additional cognitive burden that can further harm academic performance — a cognitive process termed "stereotype threat" (Herboth & Mason, 2012). According to Herboth and Mason, "Stereotype threat is a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals underperform on academic tasks when subtly or subconsciously reminded of their group membership before beginning the activity" (2012, p. 121).

Stereotypical threats operate by reinforcing the preconceived notion that individuals belonging to certain groups tend to behave in a specific fashion, or that their capabilities are inferior or superior to those of the general American public (Herboth & Mason, 2012). For instance, Reyna (2000) points out that "stereotypes also provide ready-made explanations for individual acts performed by stereotyped group members. The same stereotypes listed above could also be used to rationalize an African-American who loses his job, a girl who fails on a math test, [or] a Japanese student who gets into a good college" (p. 87). When educators apply these stereotypes in the classroom, affected students may respond with even greater fear of failure. Herboth and Mason add that "it appears that reminding a person that they belong to a group about which society holds negative stereotypes (such as girls in math or African-Americans in academic settings in general) creates extra pressure on the individual to disconfirm these stereotypes" (2012, p. 122). Therefore, the use of classroom instructional materials that focus on ethnicity or race could result in evoking stereotype threats among minority students (Herboth & Mason, 2012).

The insidious nature of many types of stereotypes can have far-reaching negative effects, even outside the classroom. According to Reyna (2000), "Stereotypes play [a role] in imposing obstacles to success for stigmatized children inside and outside of the classroom" (p. 85). Moreover, stereotypes learned early in life tend to remain salient in later adult years. Reyna points out that "stereotypes convey explanatory information about groups — such as 'blacks are lazy,' 'girls are bad at math,' and so forth — that may be used as attributions for performance by adults as well as the children themselves" (2000, p. 85). Such stereotypes become self-fulfilling in the classroom when teachers and students accept them wholesale. Reyna emphasizes that "in the classroom, African-American students are given less attention and are ignored more than their Caucasian counterparts, regardless of the former's academic performance or gifted status" (2000, p. 86). In addition, African-American students have been found to receive more negative feedback and mixed messages than their white counterparts (Reyna, 2000). Likewise, female students tend to receive less overall feedback from teachers compared to their male counterparts, particularly in subjects traditionally viewed as male-oriented, such as math and science (Reyna, 2000). As Reyna concludes, "Teacher expectations not only affect the way teachers treat students, but also strongly affect the academic self-image as well as the scholastic performance of students" (2000, p. 86).

Even "positive stereotypes" can be damaging for students in and out of the classroom. Billings-Harris (2014) points out that "there is no such thing as a 'good' stereotype. All stereotypical beliefs lead to inaccurate assumptions about individuals, whether the belief is a positive one or not" (para. 2). As an example, Billings-Harris cites the stereotype of Asian students in the United States as being intelligent and particularly strong in subjects such as science and math. According to Billings-Harris, "It is true that many Asian-American children test well in these subjects. However, they were not born smarter than other people. Their ability, as it relates to these two subjects, is a result of their environment" (para. 3). While many Asian-Americans do in fact perform well academically in these subjects, it is reasonable to suggest that students from other backgrounds could do equally well if they were raised in homes that placed a high value on these goals (Billings-Harris, 2014).

Moreover, stereotypes are self-reinforcing: whenever a situation occurs that conforms to a stereotype, the stereotype is strengthened, but when events occur that defy stereotypes, they are simply dismissed as anomalous. Billings-Harris (2014) emphasizes that "stereotypical beliefs do come from some degree of truth, however. There is probably someone in the group who fits the stereotype. The challenge is to acknowledge people as individuals without generalizing that individual's behaviors or characteristics" (para. 2). This challenge is especially difficult because stereotypes provide a ready-made explanation for many important issues in American society. Reyna (2000) maintains that "stereotypes provide the cause of a particular state of affairs regarding a group. For example, the stereotype that 'Blacks are lazy' is not just a putative description of African-Americans, but it is an explanation of why African-Americans are not successful in our society" (p. 88). Indeed, stereotypes pervade American society, and it is little wonder that most young learners enter the classroom with ready-made explanations for why others act the way they do. Reyna points out that "'Women are not good at math' is a stereotype often invoked to explain why women are less likely than men to pursue math-oriented careers. 'Japanese are hard-working' is one interpretation for Japan's economic success" (2000, p. 87).

Conclusion

Stereotypes are like many of the other intractable mental constructs that people use to navigate the world around them every day. When an elderly driver leaves his left blinker on and drives 50 miles per hour in the fast lane, it convinces people that their firmly held beliefs about the quality of driving among this age group are accurate and that all elderly drivers behave in this fashion. When elderly drivers are observed driving well, those episodes are ignored or discounted as exceptions to the rule. Similarly, stereotypes about people in the classroom can profoundly affect how teachers perceive their students' abilities in ways that become self-fulfilling — unless considerable effort is made to recognize these stereotypes and develop curricular offerings that avoid invoking stereotype threat among minority students.