"Don't worry, you can still be a flight attendant." Examining implicit and explicit gender bias in the classroom, teacher-student relationships, and their effect on student math achievement.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discover how students perceive gender bias and the teacher-student relationships in the math classrooms surveyed, to determine if the teachers involved in the study are aware of any implicit or explicit gender biases, and to ascertain if the teachers who possess the gender biases realize how the biases impact the teacher-student relationships. This pilot study examined the teacher-student relationship, in terms of conflict, contact, closeness, and trust, teacher implicit gender biases, and explicit gender biases. There were three methods of data collection: teacher surveys, student surveys, and teacher focus groups. The data was collected in a middle-class suburban Massachusetts school district in the third and fourth grades. By collecting three different types of data, the researcher was able to examine teacher-student relationships and implicit and explicit gender biases from both the student and the teacher perspectives. Results revealed that explicit biases are less predominant, but that teachers still need to be cautious of implicit biases in math instruction.