Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, Vol 9(4), Dec 2023, 357-372; doi:10.1037/stl0000376
In an experimental study, we examined effects of a “mindful” teaching style on anticipated classroom experiences of Black and White students. College students (118 Black students; 127 White students) were randomly assigned to read a transcript of a Cognitive Science class session and to answer questions about their perceptions of potentially taking the course. Transcripts varied in whether the instructor taught “mindfully” (e.g., oriented in the present, alert to distinctions; Langer, 1989) or “mindlessly” and was Black or White, as denoted by pretested names. We then assessed the extent to which participants anticipated feeling valued in the class. We predicted that Black students would feel less valued and respected by White, versus Black, instructors (Boysen et al., 2009; Chesler, 1997; Hurtado et al., 2015), but that this difference would no longer be significant when instructors taught mindfully. Based on the prior research on factors associated with positive classroom experiences (Kawakami et al., 2000; Kunstman et al., 2022), we also assessed perceptions of instructors’ genuineness/trustworthiness, predicting that this perception would mediate positive effects of mindful teaching for Black students. Neither teaching style nor professor race impacted White students’ assessments. However, there was a significant interaction of teaching style and professor race for Black students, who anticipated feeling less valued by White than Black instructors when instructors taught mindlessly, but not when they taught mindfully. Perceived instructor genuineness/trustworthiness fully mediated this effect. Implementing a mindful teaching style may be one-way White instructors can create more welcoming, affirming classroom environments for Black students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)