Disentangling the confounding effects of students’ ethnicity and socioeconomic background on preservice teachers’ judgments

Abstract

Ethnic disparities in educational systems are often discussed to be a result of the low socioeconomic status (SES) of the family rather than students’ ethnicity. In Germany, it is particularly the students with a Turkish background whose families are associated with low SES. In addition, large-scale studies have consistently shown only small or no effects of ethnicity when controlling for students’ SES. However, a correlational field design does not allow researchers to draw stringent conclusions about the superordinate impact of family SES. In the current study, we experimentally varied the SES and ethnicity of a student’s family as described in a vignette, resulting in a fully crossed design. A sample of preservice teachers read one of four student descriptions and judged the students’ mathematical achievement and German language proficiency. The results showed that ethnicity had a stronger influence than family SES and that a male ethnic minority student was judged to be less competent in German language proficiency, independent of his family’s SES. Our study implies that ethnicity should not be neglected or reduced to effects of SES in research on ethnic disparities in education.