Students' perceptions of lecturers: a further investigation into the influence of race and gender

Wernars, Tenille

Students' perceptions of lecturers: a further investigation into the influence of race and gender

Master Thesis

2014

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Organisational Psychology

Faculty

Faculty of Commerce

Abstract

Since the end of the apartheid system in 1994, particular attention has been focused on transforming the education system in South Africa, specifically in terms of the demographic composition of both students and staff. However, progress towards historically white higher education institutions becoming more representative in terms of their academic staff has been slow. Two major contributing factors to the stagnant transformation found are the unfavourable working environment experienced by black and female academic staff, and also that the majority of academic positions, especially more senior positions, continue to be dominated by white and male individuals. Students' perceptions of black and female academic staff members might be one contributing factor to the negative working environment they experience. These perceptions are influenced by commonly held racial and gender stereotypes, which are explained and explored using Social Identity Theory and Stereotype Content Theory. The eight hypotheses proposed in this study were therefore based on the assumptions of these theories, as well as previous literature, and suggested that students perceive black and female academic staff as less competent and more warm than white and male academic staff; and also that students perceive lecturers of their same racial and gender group as more favourable than lecturers belonging to other groups. The purpose of this study was to evaluate these perceptions in terms of the lecturers' competence and warmth; and additionally evaluated the influence of lecturers' academic discipline on these perceptions. A total of 1,697 South African students were asked to rate the competence and warmth of two alleged white lecturers and two alleged black lecturers presented to them in photographs using a mixed factorial research design. Students perceived both the white and black lecturers, and both the male and female lecturers, to be highly similar in competence; however were found to perceive the black and the male lecturers as warmer. The results found in this study did not support the hypotheses that students rated white and male lecturers more competent, and female lecturers as higher in warmth. They did, however, provide support for the hypothesis that students perceive black lecturers as warmer than white lecturers. The study also found that the black female lecturer was rated the lowest in terms of competence; and that students' race and gender, as well as the academic discipline of the lecturers', did not significantly influence students' perceptions. The results therefore suggest that students might not be as much of a contributing factor to creating a negative work climate for black and female lecturers as initially assumed, and that the young generation in South Africa may not be as influenced by racial and gender stereotypes as previous generations. The research makes an important theoretical contribution as it expands on limited research regarding the effects of the respondents' own racial and gender group when assessing racial and gender stereotypes; and provides important considerations for future research on racial and gender stereotypes in the context of South Africa.

Description

Includes bibliographical references.

Keywords

Organisational Psychology

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