Children's evaluations of teacher racial preferences in the classroom

Little is known about children's judgments of teacher biases. US 8-14-year-olds (N = 303, Mage = 11.49, 51% female, 47.5% Black, 36.9% White, 15.5% Asian) viewed vignettes in 2023-2024 of a teacher allocating academic recognition to only Asian, Black, or White students. With age, children evaluated the teacher's bias more negatively (ηp2=.066 = -.19). Participants evaluated the teacher's biased allocation as more wrong than an equal allocation when the teacher preferred Asian or White students, but not when the teacher preferred Black students (ηp2=.066). Children who perceived themselves to be in the ethnic-racial minority at school evaluated the teacher's biased recognition more negatively ( β = .24) and showed a stronger preference to rectify it (β = -.12).