Perceived stereotype threat in preservice teachers and its consequences: A comparison between Germany and Finland

Seifried, ES (Eva), Menz, CM (Cordelia), Spinath, BS (Birgit)

 

Submission type

Oral only

Scheduled

Jacobzaal, 26-09-2019, 11:00 - 12:00

Keywords

comparison between countries, educational psychology, preservice teachers, stereotype threat

Summary

Although university education aims for evidence-based thinking and acting in preservice teachers, research indicates that this does often not transfer to teachers’ everyday thinking and behaviour (e.g., Hetmanek et al., 2015). Furthermore, a perceived threat of one’s worldview can cause the rejection of scientific findings (Lewandowsky & Oberauer, 2016), and stereotype threat effects have been shown for German preservice teachers (Ihme & Möller, 2015). Because the teaching profession has a diverging reputation in different countries, we hypothesized German preservice teachers a) to perceive more stereotype threat than Finnish preservice teachers and that this would lead German preservice teachers b) to accept scientific findings from educational psychology to a lesser extent and c) to experience less study satisfaction. Further, we hypothesized that the differences in acceptance and study satisfaction would be mediated through perceived stereotype threat. In an online survey with N = 1.141 preservice teachers (nGermany = 836; nFinland = 305), we found results in accordance with these hypotheses. We conclude that preservice teachers in Germany not only perceive stereotype threat but that this might also explain unpleasant outcomes that stand in contrast to the goals of teacher education. We will discuss implications for practice and ideas for future research.

Auteurs