Teachers’ ratings of social exclusion among students : The role of situational information and the ethnic origin of the excluded student based on the example of Syrian refugees

Abstract

In the current study, we examined teachers’ ratings of social exclusion among students. 120 teachers (Mage=24.00, SD=3.71, 88% female) evaluated a hypothetical exclusion scenario in which the excluded student’s origin (German vs. Syrian refugee) was varied as well as whether participants received additional situational information about prior norm-violating behavior of the excluded student or not. Additionally, participants rated how likely they would intervene in the situation. For the evaluation of exclusion and the likelihood of intervention, there was a main effect of additional situational information, revealing that participants evaluated exclusion as less acceptable and were more likely to intervene if there was no additional situational information. Regarding the evaluation of exclusion, there was an interaction of additional situational information and the origin of the excluded student as the effect of additional situational information was bigger if the excluded student was German. For the likelihood of intervention, this interaction was not significant; but descriptively a similar pattern emerged. Results indicate that information about prior norm-violating behavior is more relevant for teachers’ reactions to social exclusion than the origin of the excluded student. However, in situations with an understandable reason for exclusion, teachers do include the origin of the excluded student in their considerations.