Teachers’ perceptions of hate speech in schools is an issue that should be increasingly relevant, given the prevalence of hate speech among adolescents and the need for educational responses. While teachers are expected to address hate speech as part of their professional role, little is known about the beliefs that shape their early perceptions and intervention decisions, which can be crucial in the quality of their approach.
For this reason, this study investigates the associations between teachers’ social dominance orientation, pluralist attitudes, and their perception of hate speech in school.
Empirical data was collected through a self-report survey of 471 secondary school teachers from Germany and Switzerland, and matched with data from 3,560 students in grades 7 to 9 to control for students’ perceptions of hate speech. Fixed-effects multilevel regression analyses were conducted, accounting for demographic variables and student perceptions.
Study results show that teachers perceive offline hate speech as more frequent than online hate speech. Contrary to expectations, higher social dominance orientation was positively associated with both offline and online hate speech perception. As hypothesized, teachers’ pluralist attitudes were also positively linked to their perception of hate speech in both contexts.
Nonetheless, the study concludes by emphasizing the need for further research on how teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of hate speech relate to other dimensions of professional competence in educational settings.
Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1432013
Reference
Kansok-Dusche, J., Wettstein, A., Fischer, S. M., Wachs, S., & Bilz, L. (2024). Associations between teachers’ beliefs and their perception of hate speech in school: A study in Germany and Switzerland. Frontiers in Education, 9