Eventos

O Ispa – Instituto Universitário recebe Timo Van Canegem, investigador em Sociologia na Universidade de Ghent e formador na Vrije Universiteit Brussel, para uma conferência que desafia a refletir sobre como a retenção escolar contribui para a reprodução das desigualdades sociais. Com o tema “How is social inequality reproduced by grade retention? Examining implicit bias among teachers”, a sessão integra o Ciclo de Conferências da instituição e acontecerá no dia 17 de dezembro, às 17h30. A entrada é livre e aberta ao público, uma oportunidade para um olhar crítico sobre o papel dos professores no sistema educativo.

Grade retention has been criticized because it reproduces existing social inequalities. Students with an ethnic minority status and/or an underprivileged socioeconomic background have a higher chance of being retained in comparison to their counterparts with similar school achievements. Grade retention can be problematic for the future academic career, as retainees have three to seven times less chance to obtain a degree in secondary education when accounting for school performance. It is still unclear, however, how sociodemographic factors such as socioeconomic status and ethnicity relate to teacher attitudes during the retention decision-making process. In our research project, we study whether teachers suffer from an implicit bias during this decision. An implicit bias occurs when gatekeepers unintentionally hold prejudices or stereotypes about people within certain categories, which leads to unequal outcomes because the bias alters the gatekeepers’ judgments and decisions. Flanders is an interesting case study for this topic, as it combines high retention rates with a lot of teacher autonomy. Hence, the Flemish educational system is particularly vulnerable to a potential bias of gatekeepers. The study uses a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative video vignettes with qualitative in-depth interviews of teachers.

Sobre o conferecista