Understanding Student Evaluations of
Teaching: Perspectives from African
American Faculty
Armon R. Perry, Ph.D., MSW
Sharon E. Moore, Ph.D.
Sherri L. Wallace, Ph.D.
Agenda
• Review of the literature
• Share faculty narratives
• Discuss individual and institutional implications
• Share individual and institutional recommendations
• Engage in question and answer
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Literature Review
• Student evaluations (SEs) are the primary instruments used by
colleges to quantify the quality of instructors’ teaching
• SEs also play an important role in the promotion, tenure, and job
security of professors in colleges and universities
• Consequently, extraneous factors, such as instructors’ race, can
affect the composition and educational atmosphere at colleges and
universities
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Literature Review
• Littleford et al. (2010) found that students’ first impressions of their
professors, even when they are based solely on their instructors’
race, do influence their judgments of their professors
• Littleford et al. (2010) also found female students regardless of
race or ethnicity, generally viewed African American professors
more positively than did male students
• The most common way to express resistance is to assign low
ratings to instructors
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Literature Review
• The intersection between race and gender can also significantly
impact the ratings on SEs. Bavishi et al., (2010) found that
students who hold stereotypical views, as explained by
occupational role/status characteristics theory
• Utilizing “social role theory” as a framework, Bavishi et al. (2010)
found that women of color often face a “double stigma” or “double
jeopardy” because of students’ perceptions of their level of
competence, interpersonal skills, and legitimacy
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Implications
Individual
• Receiving SEs that are negatively influenced by one’s race can have significantly
detrimental effects on a faculty member’s development
• Given that faculty receive pressure to secure high ratings on student teaching
evaluations, the fact that one’s race can negatively influence those ratings at best is an
unfair inconvenience, and at worst, potentially disturbing, and anxiety provoking
• It is likely that for many, the role that instructors’ race plays in student evaluations forces
many faculty of color to question and second guess themselves and their abilities
• Faculty effectiveness as a teacher can be severely truncated by the threats and
punishments (e.g. unfavorable teaching evaluations, questions regarding competence
and integrity, and possible dismissal) associated with being assertive and potentially
provocative
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Implications
Institutional
• Unfavorable teaching evaluations impacted by race limit tenure and promotion
opportunities
• Having fewer tenured or tenure track African American faculty on campus means
that there may be fewer mentors for African American students at both the
undergraduate and graduate levels and could also mean that fewer students are
exposed to diverse and inclusive content to balance the disproportionate amount of
Eurocentric content that many are currently receiving
• Perceptions of African American faculty incompetence persist while the competence
of White faculty is taken for granted or presumed which serves to reinforce the
stereotypes that African American faculty are inferior to their colleagues
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Demographic Data
City of Louisville
Jefferson County, Ky
UofL Enrollment
UofL Faculty
Total
262,764
750,828
22,599
2,385
Black
84,011 (32.8%)
154,670 (20.6%)
2,273(10.06%)
129 (5.4%)
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UofL Faculty
Faculty Rank
Full Professor
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor
Instructor
No Rank
Total
19
30
42
8
30
129
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Recommendations
• Acknowledge that Othering occurs
• Develop multiple methods for assessing teaching effectiveness
• Further diversify student bodies and faculty
• Ensure that teaching centers provide services including observation, consulting, workshops, lectures on
teaching, and grants for the development of new courses
• Faculty of color should seek out and establish a trusting relationship with a senior faculty member to
provide career and psychosocial mentoring
• Use interim evaluations to secure formative information about ways to improve your teaching during
the course of the semester
• Use feedback from specific items rather than a global impression when deciding what to change
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References
Bavishi, A., Hebl, M.R., &Madera, J.M. (2010). The effect of professor ethnicity and gender on student evaluations: Judged
before met. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 3(4), 245-256.
Dubois, W.E.B. (1897). Strivings of the Negro people. The Atlantic Monthly, 80, 194-198.
Ho, A.K., Thomsen, L, & J. Sidanius. (2009). Perceived academic competence and overall job evaluations: Students’
evaluations of African American and European American professors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39(2),
389-406.
Hobson, S. M., &Talbott, D.M. (2001). Understanding student evaluations: What all faculty should know. College
Teaching, 49(1), 26-31.
Littleford, L.N., Ong, K.S., Tseng, A., Milliken, J.C., & Humy, S.L. (2010). Perceptions of European American and
African American instructors teaching race-focused courses, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 3(4),
230-
244.
University of Louisville. (2015). Just the facts. Louisville, KY: University of Louisville Office of Institutional Research and
Planning.
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Questions or Comments?
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