Dual pathway of prejudice in education teachers’ paternalistic and hostile prejudice affecting minority girls

The current research focused on paternalism towards ethnic minority girls in the context of education. We aimed to contrast teachers’ paternalistic prejudice with hostile prejudice and identify their unique associations with educational outcomes. Focusing on Roma girls in Hungary, we proposed a dual pathway of prejudice, comprising a ‘cold path’ and a ‘warm path’. We surveyed Hungarian teachers (n = 142) and, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we predicted and found that competence-related paternalism towards Roma girls (including competence perceptions and paternalistic educational attitudes, such as “they don’t know what’s good for them”) was associated with unfavorable academic evaluations, such as track placement recommendation (‘cold path’). Conversely, warmth-related hostility (including warm perceptions and hostile educational attitude, such as “they need firm discipline”) was associated with reduced inclusiveness, reflected by a reluctance to welcome the student into the class (‘warm path’). Our research advocates for educational integration efforts that acknowledge the complex nature of prejudice towards minority girls.