Bureaucratic representation may lead to less discriminatory outcomes for American Indian and Two Spirit youth: Evidence from an online experiment on school criminalization

This exploratory online experimental study examines the role of implicit racial and gender biases in school discipline disparities impacting American Indian and Two Spirit youth. Utilizing a mixed factorial design, the research investigates public perceptions regarding the justifiability of school disciplinary actions involving hypothetical scenarios of preschool student misbehavior. Participants, oversampled to include American Indian individuals, evaluated incidents varying by the student's race (American Indian vs. White American) and gender identity (Two Spirit vs. cisgender). Contrary to expectations, no significant differences were found in the evaluations of school personnel performance, perceived threat level of students, or perceived prejudice across conditions. These findings suggest the potential mitigating impact of bureaucratic representation, wherein demographic alignment between school personnel and students may reduce discriminatory outcomes. Implications emphasize the importance of enhancing representative bureaucracy in educational institutions to address systemic biases and reduce the school criminalization of marginalized populations, underscoring the need for further research on structural interventions

本探索性在线实验研究旨在考察内隐种族与性别偏见在影响美洲印第安与双灵（Two Spirit）青年的学校纪律处分差异中的作用。研究采用混合因子设计，通过学龄前儿童不当行为的假设情境，探究公众对学校纪律处分行为合理性的认知。参与者中特意过采样纳入美洲印第安人，他们对因学生种族（美洲印第安人 vs. 白人美国人）和性别认同（双灵 vs. 顺性别（cisgender））不同而变化的事件进行评估。与预期相反，在不同条件下，对学校工作人员表现的评价、学生感知威胁程度或感知偏见方面均未发现显著差异。这些发现表明官僚代表性具有潜在的缓解效应——即学校工作人员与学生之间的人口统计学一致性可能减少歧视性结果。本研究的启示强调，在教育机构中加强代表性官僚制对于解决系统性偏见、减少边缘化群体的学校刑事化至关重要，同时也凸显了对结构性干预措施开展进一步研究的必要性。