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[johnslat]

Non-traditional names linked to teacher discrimination
Published: 18 Sep 09 16:24 CET

Charlotte or Chantal? From the moment they first read the school register, teachers could already be unfairly prejudiced against certain children, a new study from the University of Oldenberg revealed this week.

According to the study released this week, which is based on an extensive online questionnaire, the great majority of teachers make assumptions about the academic performance and behaviour of children based merely on their first names.

Around 2,000 elementary school (Grundschule) teachers throughout Germany were anonymously questioned � with disheartening results.

The study reveals that the names traditional names such as Charlotte, Sophie, Marie, Hannah, Alexander, Maximilian, Simon, Lukas and Jakob are consistently linked to strong performance and good behaviour. Non-traditional names such as Chantal, Mandy, Angelina, Kevin, Justin and Maurice, on the other hand, are associated with weak performance and bad behaviour.

�These prejudices undoubtedly widen a pre-existing class divide,� pedagogical expert Professor Astrid Kaiser, who led the research project, told The Local.

According to Kaiser, it is no coincidence that almost all of the �positive� names mentioned above are also in the �top ten� list of names given to newborn boys and girls in Germany, as published in The Statistical Yearbook 2008 for the Federal Republic of Germany.

�The names with positive connotations are all traditional German ones,� she said. �What this shows is that children from a working class or immigrant background are clearly being discriminated against.�

In some cases, the strength of the prejudices connected with names was surprising.

The name Kevin was perceived as being linked to especially poor behaviour and performance, with one study participant even writing that, �Kevin is not a name � it�s a diagnosis!�

Kaiser told The Local that the inspiration behind her study came in part from similar research carried out in the United States.

One study in particular showed that in a group of children deemed to be equal intelligence level taught by the same teachers for two years, the performance of children with African-American names worsened considerably.

�I truly believe that expectation is the mother of all achievement,� Kaiser said. �Just as it has been shown that if a coach does not believe in the potential of an athlete, that athlete�s performance will drop, I believe that if teachers do not believe in the potential of their pupils then the pupils� performances will plummet.�

The effect of such prejudices is particularly significant coming from elementary school teachers because it is widely acknowledged that younger children are more responsive to encouragement.

Such prejudices could have a drastic impact upon children�s future success, particularly in a school system where children are separated into different schools according to intellectual potential at the age of just 10.

Statistics show that once a child has been placed in the less academic Realschule or Hauptschule, it is very rare for them to transfer to the university preparatory Gymnasium.

Professor Kaiser called for the necessity to �educate teachers in the dangers of such prejudices.�

Of the teachers questioned, the overwhelming majority associated personal traits with first names without a second thought. Only a very small percentage of those who answered the survey said that they tried to maintain a critical distance between such prejudices and their pupils� names.
Zofia K Stanley ([email protected])

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090918-22019.html

[Ariadne]

I'm in China and the students here are encouraged to take an English name for use during English classes. It makes it easier for the FTs and the students learn how to identify (hear, say) Eng names. Lots of teachers may disagree with the policy, but that's the way it is at this school. Students choose some very strange names like Zero, Messy, and God. I often ask them to change their names if the name isn't recognizable as a name. They can be 'Caca' somewhere else, but I'm not going to say that word in my class. 'Somebody' can be somebody without that particular moniker.

I just can't take 'Grubby' seriously, so I ask for a change. Arbitrary, yes, but they need to learn about words used as names just as they do other vocabulary.

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[rusmeister]

I would offer a different perspective on the question (mainly to John) - thinking about what 'prejudice' is, and the concept of postjudice.

I'd start by saying that of course it is wrong to treat a child unfairly for something that is no fault of its own - how parents choose to name their children. That is a given.

However, I think that what the modern world calls prejudice is the kicking back of the common man against the deliberate abandonment of tradition so embraced by conventional wisdom today. If 200 (or 600) years ago people chose the names of established saints and the concept of a name-day was a real thing, the name of a person was determined by what saints were honored in the Church (be it Catholic, Anglican or whatever) on that day, and the modern "birthday" was actually founded on the idea, then the confusion today, the rejection of strange names that have little or no meaning or connection to anything held as meaningful is actually a natural thing. IOW, the instinct may be right, although the reaction may be wrong.
If the Greek name of Sophia (meaning 'wisdom') or the English names of Faith, Hope and Charity had specific meaning, or were transmitted by tradition even if the meaning was lost, then the name has a meaningful connection. It is the modern (ie fashionable) abandonment of tradition (that which generation after generation of our ancestors found valuable and worthy of passing on) that is highly suspect.

Obviously, none of that touches on unfair treatment of students, but it does force one to think more carefully on what we offhandedly call "prejudice". There are some things where a person may have thoroughly examined and thought a matter through - in which case there is no "pre" in the "judice", and postjudice is the only appropriate term.

[denise]

Sad study, but believable, I suppose. I hope that we wouldn't see similar results in EFL surroundings, where WE are the foreigners and our students' names are usually perfectly normal. If EFL teachers are prejudiced, then... they are really in the wrong job! The names here are all foreign to me, so I couldn't even begin to distinguish them even if I wanted to. I do have trouble pronouncing some of them, but they all mispronounce my name, so we're even!

d

[80daze]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that "educated" people would be so stupid as to discriminate on the basis of a childs name! I have never heard of anything so stupid!

They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves and start looking for a new career as teaching definetly is not in the interests of the students they teach.

[spiral78]

I don't teach children, and I've got so many students in some periods that names are really moot.

However, in the classroom, I've had some students with names that stand out. I don't think this makes me think more/less highly of them as students, but I can't help but notice, for example, the guy whose name is Man de Man (no joke, he really was - first Man short for Manfred - and he actually wore the name well, with a bit of humour).

[rusmeister]