| Summary: | The field of gender bias indicates that teachers are a significant
source of gender-role socialization for students. This study focuses on
post hoc recollections of college students' perceptions of gender bias
exhibited by their high school teachers. Specifically, this study asks
students to define sex discrimination, as well as describe instances of
sex discrimination they experienced or observed exhibited by their high
school teachers. Several unanswered questions emerged from a review of
the literature: (1) students' reports of the extent to which they
experience sex discrimination exhibited by their teachers; (2) students'
observations of sex discrimination exhibited toward students of the same
sex, as well as toward students of the opposite sex; (3) students' reports
of the sex of teacher involved in the sexually discriminative instances
they describe; (4) students' definitions of sex discrimination; and (5)
students' descriptions of their own experiences of sex discrimination.
Consequently, one hypothesis and five research questions are posed to
investigate these unanswered questions in the literature. A survey
instrument incorporating both closed and open-ended questions explores
the hypothesis and research questions. Participants for this study
include 149 undergraduate students (63 females, 86 males) in
introductory communication and psychology courses at a western
university. Results of the survey are analyzed using both qualitative and
quantitative methodologies. The closed-ended questions reveal that male
and female students experienced and observed sex discrimination
exhibited by their teachers with similar frequency (in this case 'Very
Rarely'). The open-ended questions indicate that males and females
experienced and observed their teachers exhibiting different types of
sexually discriminative behaviors toward male and female students (e.g.,
females described being treated as if they were unintelligent; males
described being disciplined more strictly than females). Both male and
female students' definitions of sex discrimination are very similar. In
addition, the sex of the teacher described exhibiting sex discrimination
appears to make a difference. Although previous research seems to
suggest that male and female teachers are equally biased in their display
of sexually discriminative behavior toward male and female students,
this study's results show that both male and female students perceived
male teachers to be more biased toward female students than female
teachers. === Graduation date: 1995
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