Secondary science and mathematics teachers and gender equity: Attitudes and attempted interventions

Although the literature documents the potential impact of teachers on the achievement of young women in science and math, few studies investigate teacher attitudes and the use of teacher interventions. A survey containing both fixed-response and open-ended questions was administered to 56 teachers from eight high schools. Open-ended questions were content analyzed, and log-linear modeling and chi-square tests of independence were used to analyze relationships between categorical variables representing demographic characteristics, teacher attitudes, and teacher use of interventions. Results provide evidence that teachers, regardless of demographic characteristics, are concerned about gender inequity in their classrooms, although they are generally not familiar with the wide range of possible causes (including their own actions). Reported interventions are consistent with those recommended in the literature, although teachers are not familiar with the effectiveness of their interventions, and numerous teachers feel that attempting interventions is a form of reverse discrimination. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Influence of Direct and Overheard Messages on Children's Attitudes Toward Novel Social Groups

Individuals often develop negative biases toward unfamiliar or denigrated groups. Two experimental studies were conducted to investigate the extent to which brief negative messages about novel social groups influence children's (4- to 9-year-olds'; N = 153) intergroup attitudes. The studies examined the relative influence of messages that are provided directly to children versus messages that are overheard and examined whether the force of these messages varies with children's age. According to implicit and explicit measures of children's intergroup attitudes, children rapidly internalized messages demeaning novel groups, thus forming negative attitudes toward outgroups merely on the basis of hearsay. These effects were generally stronger among older children, and were particularly pronounced when the message was provided directly to children.