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Racial/ethnic match and student–teacher relationships
Author(s) -
Nguyen My,
Le Kien
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
bulletin of economic research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.227
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8586
pISSN - 0307-3378
DOI - 10.1111/boer.12362
Subject(s) - ethnic group , psychology , white (mutation) , race (biology) , differential (mechanical device) , differential treatment , social psychology , developmental psychology , sociology , gender studies , biochemistry , chemistry , anthropology , engineering , gene , aerospace engineering , international trade , business
This paper explores the role of teacher race/ethnicity in the teacher‐perceived relationships with kindergarten and early elementary school students. Employing a model with both student and teacher fixed effects, we discover a positive link between the racial/ethnic match and the teacher‐reported relationships with students. Specifically, minority students tend to have closer relationships with their teachers when they are taught by a minority teacher. Our analyses also provide suggestive evidence that the effects on the teacher–student relationships could not be driven by differential racial discrimination between white and minority teachers. Particularly, white and minority teachers are not differentially biased in judging their relationships with minority students, implying that the source of the racial/ethnic interaction effects is likely to come from the role modeling of behaviors. Given the importance of the relationships between young children and nonparental adults in their early stages of life, these findings have crucial policy implications.