Racialized reprimands: A mobile eye-tracking study on teachers’ responses to students’ norm-violating behaviors

Abstract

With mobile eye tracking, we recorded in 46 classrooms how often teachers focused on each student during a regular classroom period. We matched data with video footage identifying student behaviors that violated classroom norms. We found different profiles of behavior by student gender and race and differences in teacher responses based on the type of norm violation and teacher expertise. Teachers did not focus on one gender more than another, but they looked at Black students more often than at White students. Teachers observe Black students violating norms more often than White students, but only for infractions that indicate active participation. This corroborates Black students’ perception that teachers scrutinize their behavior more. While this could indicate a sensitivity to pedagogical needs, we interpret it as teacher bias with potentially drastic downstream effects.