Valentina presents at the 2023 Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies Annual Conference

Visual identity for the BSA 2023 conference

On 9th October, Valentina presented at the 2023 Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (SLLS) Annual Conference – Life Courses in Times of Uncertainty held in Munich, Germany.

At the 2023 SLLS Conference, Valentina presented preliminary results for a work-in-progress BIPE paper investigating ethnic biases in English state primary schools. The paper explores to what extent teacher perceptions of students’ school effort are in agreement with students’ own reported school effort. First, it considers whether any discrepancies between the two are systematically linked to the student ethnic background, then it investigates the impact of the school ethnic composition on these patterns of ethnic teacher biases.

Preliminary empirical evidence shows that teacher perceptions of students’ school effort are not entirely in agreement with students’ own reports: indeed, they appear to be biased based on the ethnic background of the student in question. We also find evidence that the more contact a teacher has with students of a certain ethnicity, the less their perception of students of that specific ethnicity will be negatively biased.

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

Workshop at the Summer Conference of the Cabot Learning Federation

Logo of the Cabot Learning Federation

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

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

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.