Students' attitudes toward teachers' ethnicity, bilinguality, and gender

Elementary middle, and high school student attitudes toward reacher ethnicity, bilinguality, and gender were assessed by means of student ratings of 12 hypothetical teachers The sample consisted of 186 mostly Latino and African American students ranging in age between 9 and 17 years old and attending either English-only or bilingual and English-language-development classrooms in six inner-city schools. ANOVA revealed significant main effects but no interactions between any of the three within-subject variables. Students rated African American, bilingual, and female teachers highest. A number of between-subject variables were also found to have significant main effects on student attitudes, including language of response, length of U.S. residency, and current teacher's bilinguality. Evidence was found of student preference for same ethnicity teachers but only partial evidence of student preference for same bilinguality teachers. No evidence of student preference for same gender teachers was found practice and research implications of these findings am discussed.