Gender-biased evaluation or actual differences? Fairness in the evaluation of faculty teaching

How do we know if a faculty teaching evaluation is biased? Biasing factors studies are an influential source of evidence for arguing about biased teaching evaluations. These studies examine existing evaluation data and compare the results by gender, race, or ethnicity, interpreting a significant difference between subgroups as evidence of bias. However, only a difference explained by irrelevant aspects embedded in the evaluation would compromise its fairness. The study aims to amend how practitioners and researchers address gender bias concerns in faculty teaching evaluations by defining fairness, disparate impact, and statistical bias from an educational measurement standpoint. The study illustrates the use of differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, a strategy to examine whether the meaning of an item changes depending on the gender of the instructor. The study examines instructor’s gender bias using responses to a course evaluation questionnaire from education graduate students from two academic departments within the same institution. In one of the departments, the analysis suggested a fair evaluation and no gender gap. In the other department, four of the eight items in the rating scale were easier for women than men with similar teaching ability, and women achieved better evaluations than men. The discussion addresses the conceptual and methodological advantages of adopting an educational measurement perspective on fairness in faculty teaching evaluation. Findings encourage practitioners and administrators to use the best available tools to strengthen the credibility of faculty teaching evaluations and prevent unfair personnel decisions affecting underrepresented subgroups in academia by gender, race, or ethnicity.