Who is your favorite student? Playing favorites in the classroom.

Image source:
http://growingwiththetans.com/2014/07/18/the-problem-with-favouritism-of-jacob-and-esau/

Most teachers believe they are above favoritism. Regrettably, not all of them adhere to basic ethical principles of teaching profession such as equality, fairness and objectivity. It is in human nature to play favorites. As a result, many students learn too early what favoritism is. Just like the privileged students sense it in the encouragement to respond and invitation to help after the lesson, the ordinary students can feel it in halfhearted smiles and barely a glance on the lessons. Different attitude to students, either overt or subtle, never goes unnoticed. The aims of this post are threefold: to identify who teachers are most likely to favor, to discuss the dangers of favoritism and to provide recommendations on how to avoid it in the classroom.

Favoritism is usually understood as an inclination in favor of some people based not on their abilities or knowledge, but on characteristics they possess or merely out of personal preferences (Employee favoritism, n.d.). A regional study completed in Turkey by Aydogan (2008) found that several categories of students are more likely to be benefitted by teachers. Those, whose parents or relatives are personally familiar with a teacher as well as those, who hold similar political or religious views with a teacher, have more chances to be noticed. The nepotism in education is especially common in Eastern countries (Aydogan, 2008). As can be expected, the students coming from more advantaged socioeconomic strata are likely get more attention as soon as a teacher becomes aware of their background. Another interesting aspect is the gender issue. As a rule, female teachers demonstrate their preference to male students, whereas the opposite tendency is traced among male teachers. In any case, consciously or not, most of the teachers dedicate a lot of their time and attention to boys. Finally, this study found the teachers perceive physically attractive students as more academically capable and intelligent.   

This, of course, does not leave teacher instruction, behavior, relationship, assessment and communication unaffected. Discriminatory behavior is reflected in the way the teachers evaluate student knowledge. More precisely, this means that bringing undue advantages to those who do not necessarily deserve them eradicates fairness and equality of assessment process (Aydogan, 2008). The system built on student differences may lead to conflicts among students fighting for teacher’s love and attention. It will cause no surprise that favoritism not only creates the atmosphere negative for learning new information, but also undermines teacher influence and weakens student confidence. Sense of identity and belonging might be suppressed in classrooms, where the division into “simple” and “special” is practiced. Such practices definitely impact difficult students who become even more alienated from learning.  Later, the children excluded from educational process commonly have less motivation to study, which results in lower achievement (Bank, 1987).

Of course, most of the teachers practicing favoritism have no clue they are unintentionally involved in it. Nevertheless, favoritism, even unconscious, can be effectively dealt with in several simple steps. First of all, it is crucial for teachers to establish own system of rules and rigorously follow it (Roy & Roy, 2004). This includes allocation of time to different students in equal shares, involvement of quiet students in learning and randomly assigning students to different tasks and minor activities, such as helping with teacher’s stuff after the lesson and cleaning the whiteboard. Also, teachers need to pay attention to the walls that may contain too much praise to their “pets” and sitting arrangement so that to bring the “average” students forward. Another key point is that any teachers, regardless of their experience, may refer to external help (Bank, 1987). For example, they may invite colleagues to their lessons, so that they acted as “favoritism keepers”. Fellow teachers can help to overcome the problems associated with grading and assessment. As a result, they may come up with own rubrics and other evaluation systems promoting fairness and honesty. Finally, if teachers find it hard to treat their favorites as everyone else in the classroom, they may try treating all the rest like their favorites. For that, they need to find something special about all students and praise them regularly. All of those recommendations are easier said that done. However, the students need for teachers to be fair. Student segregation is unfair in itself, and therefore it can and should be overcome.

As always, I am eager to read your opinions. Have you ever become a victim of favoritism at school? Who do you tend to favor and why? What are personal strategies for overcoming favoritism?

References:      

Aydogan, I. (2008). Favoritism in the classroom: A study on Turkish schools.Journal of Instructional Psychology, 35(2), 159.

Bank, S (1987). Favoritism. Journal of Children in Contemporary Society, 19(374), 77-89.

Employee favoritism. (n .d). Retrieved from http://wvfcav.anonymousemployee. com/csssite/sidelinks/employeefavoritism.php.
Roy, M. H., & Roy, F. C. (2004). An empirical analysis of favoritism during business training. Industrial and Commercial Training, 36(6), 238-242