ERIC Number: EJ1393727
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0046-1520
EISSN: EISSN-1532-6985
The Model of Threat-Infused Intergroup Feedback: Why, When, and How Feedback to Ethnic Minority Learners Is Positively Biased
Educational Psychologist, v58 n3 p162-177 2023
This article concerns the positive feedback bias, which occurs when White instructors supply selectively more praise and less criticism to ethnic minority learners relative to White learners. The positive bias is reliable and enduring and affects feedback to various ethnic groups in North America and in Europe. The model of threat-infused intergroup feedback (MOTIIF) is introduced to explain the positive bias. MOTIIF integrates research on feedback practices, interracial dynamics, self-image maintenance, and psychosocial resources to explain why and when the bias is expressed. According to MOTIIF the positive bias is driven mainly by racial anxiety, the concern of many White people that they will reveal self-compromising prejudices, to others or to themselves, when engaging with ethnic minority persons. Inflated praise and muted criticism to ethnic minority learners serve, per MOTIIF, to quell racial anxiety. The article reviews evidence of the positive bias and relates it to the MOTIIF framework. It also discusses how the positive bias can affect ethnic minority learners; how it diminishes their trust in feedback, erodes their self-esteem, increases their stress, and potentially, undermines their learning. The article draws on MOTIIF to consider potential solutions to the positive bias and to recommend future research.
Descriptors: Group Dynamics, Feedback (Response), Minority Group Students, Racism, Racial Differences, Anxiety, Teacher Attitudes, White Teachers, Teacher Characteristics, Self Concept, Positive Reinforcement
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A