The Effects of African American Movement Styles on Teachers' Perceptions and Reactions

This study examined teachers' perceptions of African American males' aggression and achievement and the need for special education services based on African American students' cultural movement styles (i.e., walking). The participants, 136 middle school teachers, viewed a videotape and completed a questionnaire. To study interaction effects between student ethnicity and student movement and teachers' ratings of student achievement, aggression, and need for special education, a completely randomized factorial analysis of variance was employed. The results indicated that the teachers perceived students with African American culture—related movement styles as lower in achievement, higher in aggression, and more likely to need special education services than students with standard movement styles. Implications for research are discussed.