Teachers' Evaluations of Creative Work by Children: Sexism in Australia

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine whether teachers would exhibit the same prejudice against girls as that obtained in some studies of adults' prejudice against women. Paintings and poems by children were shown to 274 teachers and teacher-trainees. The works were supposedly either winners or losers in the competition for which they had entered and were attributed to either boys or girls. Results indicate that both male and female teachers utilized the same pattern of evaluations. No simple anti-feminine bias was found; instead the works of girls were rated more favourably than those of boys for one of the five measures used. Consistent differences involving the manipulation of sex of child with winner/loser outcome emerged. Winning boys were judged more favourably than girls, while the opposite was true for losers. It was suggested that teachers were influenced by sex-role stereotypes in subtle ways in evaluating children's achievements.