presentation – BIPE Project

ESRI Dublin

Posted on 9th July 20249th July 2024 by lucy.haslam

On 5th of June, Katherin gave a talk titled How accurate are teacher perceptions of student academic attitudes, and do student social background and ethnicity matter? Evidence from England and Scotland at the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRI) in Dublin, Ireland.

Katherin presented two studies from the BIPE project that used large-scale secondary data for England and Scotland – respectively the Millennium Cohort Study and Growing Up in Scotland – to investigate discrepancies between teacher and student perceptions of student academic attitudes.

Both studies estimated such discrepancies using a residual method to then focus on whether socioeconomic or ethnic background of the students were systematically associated with larger or smaller discrepancies.

The first study explored to what extent discrepancies in teacher and student perceptions of student academic effort and enjoyment are linked to students’ socioeconomic background. The second study explored to what extent discrepancies in teacher and student perceptions of student misbehaviour in school are linked to students’ ethnic background and whether socioeconomic or ethnic school composition affect such link.

Slides from the workshop can be found on our ‘Teaching materials’ page.

University of Bristol, School of Education (SoE) Research Celebration Day

Posted on 9th July 20249th July 2024 by lucy.haslam

Teal background featuring an image of the SoE - a beige stone building with green trees in front.

On the 17th of May, Katherin and Valentina presented findings from the BIPE project at the University of Bristol, School of Education (SoE) Research Celebration Day.

Katherin and Valentina presented preliminary results from the BIPE project investigating how students’ demographic, socioeconomic, and ethnic background influences teachers’ perceptions of the school performance and academic attitudes of primary school students in England, Scotland, and Germany using three large-scale longitudinal survey: the Millennium Cohort Study, Growing Up in Scotland, and the National Educational Panel Study.

The presentation started with preliminary findings exploring the associations between student background and discrepancies between teacher perceptions of student academic attitudes (or abilities) and the students’ own reports of these attitudes (or cognitive assessment of these abilities). It then focused on three different studies that used multivariate analysis to investigate, respectively, social class & discrepancies in perceptions of student effort and enjoyment, ethnicity & discrepancies in perceptions of student misbehaviour, and socioeconomic status & teacher biased perceptions of students’ language skills.

Slides from the workshop can be found on our ‘Teaching materials’ page.

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

Posted on 17th October 202317th October 2023 by lucy.haslam

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.

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

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.

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.