2.4 Teacher student congruence as a predictor of performance
2.4.1 Congruence and academic performance- a scan of international research
in studying the match/mismatch hypothesis, with more than one hundred research articles and dissertations appearing in a scan of international literature on the subject. Interest in the subject is motivated by the belief that matching teacher and student in terms of various characteristics such as thinking and learning style enhances the learning experience and produces performance improvements. Zhang distinguishes between two themes in this literature, viz. the effects of match/mismatch on student performance and the effect of match/mismatch on interpersonal attraction (or affinity) between teacher and student. An alternative view, however, is that these are variations of the same theme, since improvement in the sense of affinity between teacher and student has been shown to lead to improved performance (Alexander et al., 1987, Jussim et al., 1996, Ferguson, 1998).
As Zhang points out, results for this type of research relating to the impact of matching thinking styles for teachers and students are somewhat contradictory. A number of studies provide evidence that congruence between teacher and student thinking styles significantly improves academic performance across a variety of subjects (Block, 1981, Cafferty, 1981, Grout, 1991). Other studies, however, suggest the match/mismatch aspect is less important (or entirely insignificant) and that if any factor related to thinking style is relevant, it is the cognitive style of the teacher, regardless of whether this matches that of the student (Saracho and Dayton, 1980, Foley, 1999).
Zhang’s own research at a large comprehensive university in Shanghai, China, found that results varied by subject (Zhang, 2006). Mathematics students, for example, failed to show a significant correlation between teacher student thinking style match and performance. However, for Public Administration and Physics there was evidence that teacher student match is a predictor of
performance. Furthermore, Zhang showed that it was not just in terms of subject matter that variations were found, but also at the level of academic discipline (Zhang, 2006).
The value of matching teacher and student in terms of ethnicity has received considerable attention in the United States, particularly since the formal desegregation of schools. Desegregation by definition encourages a mingling of cultures and, more specifically, different races. It is interesting that in education, despite the popularity of the notion, desegregation has been seen as problematic precisely because it results in putting people with different cultures and learning preferences together.
The literature reports on a number of studies conducted in the United States and elsewhere that examine the impact on learning of matching teacher and student in terms of ethnicity. The results are not conclusive, with some data suggesting that matching teacher and student in terms of ethnicity, culture and other characteristics can positively impact learning achievement (Jussim et al., 1996, Oates, 2003, Stroter, 2008, Horsford, 2010, Denny and Maharaj, 2011), while others show no significant impact (Brewer et al., 1994, Pigott and Cowen, 2000).
Much of the research on teacher student congruence focuses on student perceptions and attitudes rather than academic achievement. For example, Galguera (1998) investigated students' attitudes toward teachers' ethnicity, bilinguality and gender, finding that students appeared to prefer teachers of the same ethnicity, had partial preference for bilingual teachers, and preferred female teachers (although there was no indication of student preference for same gender teachers). African American and Latino students demonstrated a higher than expected preference for teachers of the same ethnicity and students generally preferred teachers who spoke the same language. Of the various congruence factors considered, ethnicity and language were more significant than gender. This study is particularly interesting in terms of its findings on the impact of ‘length of US residency’ among immigrant students in the sample. It was found, for example, that the longer students had been resident in the United States, the more significant their attention to race factors and the more negative their perceptions towards teachers in general. Galguera (1998) is of the opinion that the history of racial tension in the United States has created a general sense of tension around this subject and that this environment of ‘racial awareness’ in education tends to impact the attitudes of people who are part of it. Perhaps controversially, Galguera (1998) further suggests that the findings of his study argue for a review of teacher recruitment policy to accommodate teachers of specific ethnicities, languages and genders depending on the preferences of students in the schools or districts in which they are being employed.
More recently, Reid (2010) examined race and gender biases among students from a variety of liberal arts colleges in the United States in respect of their professors. The study found that Black and Asian
(minority) faculty were rated lower by students on overall quality, helpfulness and clarity than White faculty and that Black or Asian professors were more likely to be rated as being ‘among the very worst instructors, while their White counterparts were more likely to be rated as being ‘among the very best instructors’ by students. No significant differences related to gender were identified in this study.
While Galguera’s study (Galguera, 1998) is similar to those of a number of other authors who focus on congruence factors as they pertain to student perceptions and attitudes (Hendriks, 1997, McCroskey, 2002, 2003, Wilson, 2006, Schrodt et al., 2009, Reid, 2010), other studies investigate the impact of teacher student congruence on academic achievement and cognitive test performance.
Stroter (2008), for example, examined the effect of teacher student racial congruence among 1,576 seventh grade students in middle school Texas on mathematics test scores. The 92 teachers involved in the study spanned a variety of ethnic groups, as did the students, across 76 schools in 8 Texas regions. Most of the teachers in the study were White (76.1%) and 23.9% were Hispanic, while among the students 44.4% were Hispanic, 41.4% were White and 4.2% were African-American. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Stroter found that student performance improved significantly when teacher and student were matched in terms of ethnicity. This was true in equal measure for minority and White students. Unlike other studies that attempt to explain the positive impact of teacher student racial congruence by referring to teacher perception of minority students (Oates, 2003), Stroter found no significant evidence in her study to suggest that teacher perceptions and expectations of student performance aligns with their actual performance for marginalised students when there is a match of teacher and student by ethnicity.
In Stroter’s interpretation of her results, she alludes to the implications for the American educational system of identifying a significant relationship between student performance and teacher student ethnicity match and points out that despite a groundswell of empirical evidence, the United States Supreme Court has recently ruled as unconstitutional any idea of assigning students to classrooms or teachers on the basis of ethnicity (Stroter, 2008).
Interestingly, Stroter uses performance improvement (based on the difference between a post and pre- test score) as the dependent variable in her study. This is a deviation from the method adopted by a number of researchers who have done similar studies and have used a single post training test score as the dependent variable. Stroter’s use of performance improvement as the dependent variable for analysis (rather than a single test score) allows for isolation of the impact of teacher training on student performance and the elimination of potentially confounding variables, such as student educational history prior to the training intervention being investigated.
Horsford (2010) refers to the false sense of optimism that prevailed following the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education court case of 1954 which served as a catalyst for school desegregation in the United States. This case was intended to uphold the 14th Amendment and ensure equal education for all races in America. This would be achieved through eliminating legislated inequities among races in education, such as ensuring that traditionally Black schools received the same attention in terms of government investment in teacher training and infrastructure as the more affluent state schools, but it also led naturally to a conscious effort to desegregate. Horsford points out that educational research in the United States has subsequently presented a case to suggest that the very desegregation that was achieved created problems of its own, related in main to teacher student mismatch in terms of culture.
Simply put: Black students were taught by White teachers who did not share a sense of affinity with the Black students or were downright discriminatory. Importantly, although Horsford believes the insights provided by her research into the positives of the ‘valued segregated schools’ can help educators improve the quality of the educational services they provide, she is at pains to point out that she is not suggesting a return to segregation or excusing the deplorable inequities that prevailed during periods of legislated segregation in the United States. Horsford’s (2010) objective is for the positive aspects of segregated schools to inform the reform of currently desegregated schools with a view to closing the racial performance gap.
Obiakor (2004) similarly explores the Brown case and the subsequent failures of the American education system to bring the ideals of that case to fruition and refers to ‘the new racism’ that has prevailed in education since then. Both Obiakor and Horsford refer to the fact that the majority of teachers in the United States are Anglo American and that in a desegregated educational environment there is still a sense of cultural disconnection between White teacher and Black student. Obiakor quotes Diaz (1992) to make the point that learning is affected by cultural issues and so this mismatch in teacher and student culture threatens to perpetuate the racial performance gap- an unfortunate side effect of mismanaged desegregation. Obiakor suggests a variety of strategies to counter the effects of cultural mismatch in desegregated schools, such as cultural sensitivity training for urban teachers and continuous re-assessment of educational programmes to address multicultural requirements. Horsford takes it a step further and cites numerous researchers who endorse her findings (largely qualitative in nature and based on narratives of African Americans who attended pre-Brown segregated schools) that good segregated schools were remembered fondly by alumni for their ‘community support, cultural affirmation, community, caring, and interdependency among African American constituencies’, rather than the poor resources (Dempsey and Noblit, 1993, Foster, 1997, Bell, 2004).
Horsford therefore suggests that recreating that sense of affinity, community and cultural affirmation that characterised segregated schools will contribute to addressing the challenge of the racial
performance gap that seems to be perpetuated in the desegregated systems, but is not definite on how that might be achieved.
The relevance of the foregoing research by the likes of Obiakor and Horsford for this thesis is twofold:
1. culture and ethnicity related issues are shown to be relevant in terms of student learning and performance;
2. it is demonstrated that improvements in learning based performance can be achieved by considering cultural issues (such a teacher student ethnicity match) in learning strategies.
In attempting to explain the impact on learning of culture and ethnicity factors discussed above, including teacher student ethnicity match, various authors refer to the concepts of ‘immediacy’ and
‘affinity’ (Rucker and Gendrin (2003), Jussim et al., 1996, Sanders and Wiseman, 1990). The following section explores the role of immediacy and affinity in teacher student interaction and academic performance, with specific reference to the influence of cultural factors.
2.4.2 Immediacy, affinity and cultural consonance