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Jayanti Owens

  • Teachers See Misbehavior from Black Students as More Blameworthy

    In order to isolate the role of race in teacher-student interactions, Prof. Jayanti Owens created videos using actors to depict misbehavior. She found that teachers are more likely to describe an incident with “blaming” language if the actor playing the misbehaving students is Black.

    Students of various races in a classroom
  • Black Boys Face Double Jeopardy at School

    Teachers tend to blame Black boys more than White boys for identical misbehaviors, finds Yale SOM’s Jayanti Owens. Black and Latino boys also receive harsher punishment because the schools they attend tend to have more punitive cultures.

    A teacher with two boys, one Black and one White