Cruel and Usual
In higher education, student evaluation of teaching (SET) has been under scrutiny for its lack of validity, weak correlation with student learning, and bias toward historically marginalized faculty. Absent from the literature are the psychological and financial implications of negative SETs. In an...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Indiana University Office of Scholarly Publishing
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning |
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| Online Access: | https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/36729 |
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| author | Mary Lourdes Silva Josephine Walwema Matt Thomas |
| author_facet | Mary Lourdes Silva Josephine Walwema Matt Thomas |
| author_sort | Mary Lourdes Silva |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
In higher education, student evaluation of teaching (SET) has been under scrutiny for its lack of validity, weak correlation with student learning, and bias toward historically marginalized faculty. Absent from the literature are the psychological and financial implications of negative SETs. In an exploratory mixed methods study of 344 instructors, our findings reveal that the majority of respondents have been impacted both psychologically and financially. Female faculty and faculty of color are disproportionately affected psychologically with female faculty reporting negative affective experiences for 5 to 20+ years. Common reasons include feelings of powerlessness, frustrations with SETs as a metric for teacher quality, and biases linked to instructors' identities. Financially, both female faculty and faculty of color were more likely to report measurable and immeasurable financial losses, ranging from denial of promotion to additional time for student care or decreased time to advance one’s career. The pressure on historically marginalized faculty to counter bias in SETs has wide-ranging psychological and financial repercussions, which underscores the labor inequities of an unjust system of assessment and the ethical implications of universities and colleges requiring faculty to review biased, and at times, abusive student comments.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-14cb595d6dcc423d9f8a77c0b77b7e8f |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1527-9316 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Indiana University Office of Scholarly Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning |
| spelling | doaj-art-14cb595d6dcc423d9f8a77c0b77b7e8f2025-08-20T03:16:46ZengIndiana University Office of Scholarly PublishingJournal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning1527-93162025-06-0125210.14434/josotl.v25i2.36729Cruel and UsualMary Lourdes Silva0https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9860-6468Josephine Walwema1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9677-9308Matt Thomas2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5331-6768Ithaca CollegeUniversity of WashingtonCornell University In higher education, student evaluation of teaching (SET) has been under scrutiny for its lack of validity, weak correlation with student learning, and bias toward historically marginalized faculty. Absent from the literature are the psychological and financial implications of negative SETs. In an exploratory mixed methods study of 344 instructors, our findings reveal that the majority of respondents have been impacted both psychologically and financially. Female faculty and faculty of color are disproportionately affected psychologically with female faculty reporting negative affective experiences for 5 to 20+ years. Common reasons include feelings of powerlessness, frustrations with SETs as a metric for teacher quality, and biases linked to instructors' identities. Financially, both female faculty and faculty of color were more likely to report measurable and immeasurable financial losses, ranging from denial of promotion to additional time for student care or decreased time to advance one’s career. The pressure on historically marginalized faculty to counter bias in SETs has wide-ranging psychological and financial repercussions, which underscores the labor inequities of an unjust system of assessment and the ethical implications of universities and colleges requiring faculty to review biased, and at times, abusive student comments. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/36729student evaluation of teachinggender biasrace biaspsychological impact |
| spellingShingle | Mary Lourdes Silva Josephine Walwema Matt Thomas Cruel and Usual Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning student evaluation of teaching gender bias race bias psychological impact |
| title | Cruel and Usual |
| title_full | Cruel and Usual |
| title_fullStr | Cruel and Usual |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cruel and Usual |
| title_short | Cruel and Usual |
| title_sort | cruel and usual |
| topic | student evaluation of teaching gender bias race bias psychological impact |
| url | https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/36729 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT marylourdessilva cruelandusual AT josephinewalwema cruelandusual AT mattthomas cruelandusual |