Student Teachers’ Judgments of Students’ Academic and Social Characteristics: Exploring the Roles of Teaching Motivation and Students’ Socioeconomic Status

We explored preservice teachers’ judgments of students from various socioeconomic backgrounds and the relationships between these judgments and preservice teachers’ motivation for becoming teachers. In an experimental vignette study, preservice teachers judged a welfare student less favorable than students with low and high socioeconomic status (SES), respectively. Four motivational profiles emerged—most preservice teachers were highly motivated, balanced, or altruistic, whereas a few were extrinsically motivated. Altruistic, balanced, and extrinsically motivated teachers judged the academic performance of high-SES student most favorably, whereas most extrinsically motivated teachers judged welfare students unfavorable in general.. However, the altruistic and intrinsic profiles did not support the ratings of welfare students.