This research snapshot provides an overview of a project led by Jason Okonofua, funded through the SERN K-12 Teachers and Classrooms Research Portfolio. The study employs a randomized placebo-controlled field experiment to test whether an intervention focused on teachers' empathic-mindset – valuing students’ perspectives and prioritizing the maintenance of positive teacher-student relationships – reduces and mitigates racial disparities in suspension rates.
Student Experience Research Network, (2021).
There are large racial disparities in school discipline in the United States, which, for Black students, not only contribute to school failure but also can lay a path toward incarceration. Although the disparities have been well documented, the psychological mechanisms underlying them are unclear. The authors argue that race not only can influence how perceivers interpret a specific behavior, but also can enhance perceivers’ detection of behavioral patterns across time.
Okonofua, J. A., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2015). Two Strikes: Race and the Disciplining of Young Students. Psychological Science, 26(5) 617–624.
