Bias In Primary Education Project – Page 2

Valentina presents at the 2023 XX ISA World Congress of Sociology

Posted on 12th July 202312th July 2023 by lucy.haslam

On 30th June, Valentina presented at the International Sociological Association (ISA) XX World Congress of Sociology – Resurgent Authoritarianism: The Sociology of New Entanglements of Religions, Politics, and Economies held in Melbourne, Australia.

At the 2023 ISA Conference, Valentina presented preliminary results for a work-in-progress BIPE paper investigating the socio-economic gradient in teacher biased perceptions of students’ academic abilities in England, Scotland, and Germany. The paper explores to what extent teacher assessments of students’ language skills are inaccurate – i.e., biased – and whether this inaccuracy is (partially) mediated by student behaviour in the classroom, student academic attitudes, and parental involvement in children’s education.

In all three countries, preliminary empirical evidence shows how teacher perceptions are not entirely accurate, indeed they appear to be biased based on the socio-economic background of the student in question. In England, this bias appears to be mediated mostly by student behaviour; in Scotland by both student behaviour and student academic attitudes; in Germany by parental involvement in children’s education.

Slides from the presentation can be viewed on our ‘Materials and publications’ page.

Workshop at the Summer Conference of the Cabot Learning Federation

Posted on 12th July 202312th July 2023 by lucy.haslam

On Friday 7th July, we had the opportunity to run our teacher workshop ‘Inequalities and bias in schools: reasons, research and reactions’ at the Summer Conference of the Cabot Learning Federation.

The conference was held at City Academy Bristol and attended by more than 1,200 teaching staff. Our workshop participants came from different subject areas and had different school roles. Their discussions on reasons for discrepancies between teachers’ and students’ perceptions of students’ attitudes to school were extremely insightful and will help us interpret our results.

Katherin presents at the South-West Anti Racist Education Forum

Posted on 12th July 202312th July 2023 by lucy.haslam

A seated crowd watches a performance of Breathing Fire with Ruth Pitter

On 23rd June, Katherin presented our findings on teacher perceptions of students’ academic attitudes at the South-West Anti Racist Education Forum, University of Bristol.

In an interactive session attended by teachers, head teachers, inclusion leads, teacher educators, and charity representatives, the project findings were discussed and evaluated in relation to specific situations in classrooms and schools. The project will greatly benefit from the views and experiences attendees shared in this workshop.

Image is of the Playback Theatre performance ‘Breathing Fire’ with Ruth Pitter

Valentina presents at the 2023 British Sociological Association Annual Conference

Posted on 19th April 202312th July 2023 by lucy.haslam

Visual identity for the BSA 2023 conference

On 14th April, Valentina presented at the British Sociological Association (BSA) 2023 Annual Conference – Sociological Voices in Public Discourse hosted by the University of Manchester.

At the 2023 BSA Conference, Valentina presented preliminary results for a work-in-progress BIPE paper investigating the socio-economic gradient in teacher-student relationship in England and Scotland. The paper explores teacher-student relationships by focusing on the accuracy of teacher perceptions of student’s attitudes towards school and learning. In both England and Scotland, preliminary empirical evidence shows how teacher perceptions are not entirely accurate, indeed they appear to be biased based on the socio-economic background of the student in question.

Slides from the presentation can be viewed on our ‘Materials and publications’ page.

Katherin presents at the University of Bamberg

Posted on 13th March 202313th March 2023 by lucy.haslam

Katherin presented initial results of the project at the Oberseminar of the Chair for Sociology (Social Stratification) of Professor Cornelia Kristen at the University of Bamberg. The title of the presentation was ‘Social and ethnic biases in primary school: Preliminary results from a study of teacher perceptions of students’ academic attitudes’.

The abstract for the presentation was as follows:

This study aims to investigate socioeconomic and ethnic biases in teachers’ perceptions of students’ attitudes to school. Here, we define a social or ethnic bias in teacher perceptions of the student’s attitudes as discrepancy between a teacher report of a student’s attitude (e.g., how much student finds school interesting, enjoys school, etc.) and the student’s own report that is systematically linked to the student’s socioeconomic status or ethnic background.

This talk presents results from a study using large-scale secondary data for England – the British Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). In a first step, a residual method was applied to estimate the discrepancies between teacher and student perceptions, and in a second step, the residuals were regressed on student socioeconomic and ethnic background, as well as a number of confounding and mediating variables. Preliminary results show important socioeconomic and ethnic biases in the teacher perceptions.

The study will be extended by corresponding analyses for Scotland (Growing Up in Scotland) and Germany (National Education Panel Study). The multi-country approach will enable us to explore how “macro-level factors” such as education policy and teacher training influence teacher bias. In this talk, theoretical assumptions on the possible impacts of such “macro-level factors” will be discussed.

First Federation Trust workshop

Posted on 13th March 202313th March 2023 by lucy.haslam

On 25th January, Katherin and the BIPE team gave a workshop on biases in primary education to school leaders and teachers from the First Federation Trust.

The First Federation Trust is a multi-academy trust and education charity linking 19 primary schools located across Devon and into Dorset. The aim of the trust is to enhance the provision of the schools, whilst enabling them to maintain their individual identities and the freedom to shape and deliver a curriculum that reflects their school’s values and the aspirations of the children they serve.

Participant feedback was very positive highlighting the importance and impact of such activities. Participants said, for example, that the seminar motivates teachers to:

Extend our curriculum further, to include opportunities to challenge bias thoughts, to support both children and staff on views and openly discuss their views.

If you are interested in hearing more about our teacher workshops, further information can be found on our flyer, on our ‘Teaching materials’ page.

Katherin presents at the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE) of the University of Bristol

Posted on 13th March 202313th March 2023 by lucy.haslam

On the 6th of December, Katherin presented at an internal CIRE meeting, a forum intended for faculty and PGRs to share research ideas and ongoing projects in order to receive feedback from faculty and PGRs with different research interest and areas of expertise in the field of educational research.

Katherin presented some preliminary results of the BIPE project focusing on social and ethnic biases in primary school in England.

Slides from the presentation can be viewed on our ‘Materials and publications’ page.

Valentina presents at the 2022 International Conference of the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies

Posted on 31st October 202212th July 2023 by lucy.haslam

On 24th October, Valentina presented a published study on biased teacher assessment at the 2022 11th Annual International Conference of the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (SLLS) – Growing Up and Growing Older Across Societies: Harnessing the Power of Comparative Research.

The study, titled “Teacher judgements, student social background, and student progress in primary school: a cross-country perspective,” was conducted as part of the Open Research Area-funded project DICE (Development of Inequalities in Child Educational Achievement: A Six Country Study) on which Valentina worked on between September 2020 and June 2021. At the 2022 SLLS Conference, Valentina presented the paper as part of a symposium dedicated to the DICE project alongside three other papers – presented by three other project members – investigating different aspects of educational inequalities.

Slides from the presentation can be viewed on our ‘Materials and publications’ page.

Welcome to our new Senior Research Associate

Posted on 3rd July 202227th July 2022 by lucy.haslam

We are delighted to have a new member on the project team!

Valentina Perinetti Casoni has joined us as Senior Research Associate and will be working with us on data analysis, writing up of publications and impact activities.

We are now getting started with a paper on discrepancies between teacher, parent and children’s perceptions of learning and teaching. We are curious to find out whether such discrepancies vary by student, social and ethnic background, and what their impacts on further educational pathways are.

Jurassic Coast Teacher Network

Posted on 1st July 202213th March 2023 by lucy.haslam

Scenic photo of the Jurassic Coast, featuring a blue sea, cliffs and sand dunes

On 30th June, Katherin gave a workshop on unconscious bias to teachers in the Jurassic Coast Teacher Network. This network, which is led by Woodroffe School in Lyme Regis, connects teachers across schools in West Dorset, South Devon and Somerset.

Participant feedback was very positive and shows the workshop will have impact on practice:

It was very thought provoking and produced many conversations about what we do or don’t do, and what we might need to think about…it will help inform our work next year on feedback and marking.

If you are interested in hearing more about our teacher workshops, further information can be found on our flyer, on our ‘Teaching materials’ page.