Employment Discrimination
Mock Scenario
Gwen, a Special Education teacher at Peach Middle School, has been seeking a promotion to Special Education Lead Teacher for three years. Each time she has applied, she has reached the interview phase, however she has never been selected for the role.
After the last round of interviews, Gwen calls the principal. As the principal and head of the interview committee, she would like some feedback on why she has not been given the opportunity to advance. The principal is very open with her in sharing that her current performance as a teacher, has raised some concerns regarding her readiness to advance. She is frequently late with submitting required paperwork and needs a lot of support to complete routine special education tasks. There is also concern regarding her knowledge of compliance, which is imperative to be a leader in this area. Upon receiving this feedback, Gwen becomes very defensive. She wants to know specific paperwork that was not submitted on time and when this occurred. She also wants to know why her “asking questions” is being used against her. Finally she wants to know who feels she is not well versed in compliance.
The principal moves to end the conversation, as she does not feel it is productive. Gwen then states, “I feel like I am being discriminated against. Only certain people get hired”. This causes the principal immediate concern. Gwen is African-American, female, and over 40 years old. While the last three teachers hired to serve in the Lead Teacher role have been females, all have been Caucasian and all have been young.
Do you feel it was appropriate for the principal in this scenario to provide Gwen with such open feedback? Why or why not? How might this feedback be used against her?
If Gwen were to file a formal claim, would it have any merit? Why? Why not?
As a school leader, what ways could/ should the principal have protected herself and the school district as you worked with Gwen?
Do you feel the laws related to employment discrimination, as discussed in the text, are applicable to our contemporary schools/ school districts? Why? Why not?
Do you feel the laws related to employment discrimination, as discussed in the text, hinder employers? Why? Why not?
What (if any) changes would you recommend to these laws to address contemporary issues? Why would you recommend these changes?
Sample Solution
Yes, it was appropriate for the principal to provide Gwen with such open feedback. Candidates should be given honest and timely feedback so they can properly assess their position, understand what is expected of them, and how to improve their performance. This allows candidates to grow professionally and provides an opportunity for employers to demonstrate respect for their employees. Feedback also helps employers maintain a positive reputation by demonstrating fairness through consistent criteria for all applicants.
However, this feedback could easily be used against Gwen in a way that may appear discriminatory or unfair. In essence, Gwen has received negative criticism without any concrete evidence or examples of her past mistakes that led to such conclusions. Additionally, the fact that she has been overlooked multiple times despite having reached the interview phase each time suggests there may have been other priorities at play during the decision process rather than just her professional qualifications. Furthermore, when Gwen states she believes discrimination is occurring based on her race and age being factors in not receiving the promotion, it brings up valid questions about whether implicit bias was present during the selection process which could be seen as discriminatory behavior by those involved (Hancock et al., 2020).
If Gwen were to file a formal claim regarding discrimination in this scenario then it is likely she would have some merit depending on further investigation into specific details of how decisions were made regarding hiring Lead Teachers at Peach Middle School over recent years (Vogler & Laney-Walker 2018). An important factor here would be if there are any patterns or trends showing differences between hiring practices for certain demographics versus others which could indicate improper favoritism being applied during personnel decisions (Cartwright & Cooper 2020). Thus while ultimately it depends on further investigation into details surrounding hiring procedures within this particular school setting before any claims can be definitively proven true or false; overall there are indications from this mock scenario suggesting potential bias at play which warrants closer examination.
