Students’ Perceptions of Professors in Nontraditional Teaching Roles

University students participated in 4 focus groups (Caucasian males, Caucasian females, ethnic minority males, and ethnic minority females). Participants were asked to discuss 3 classroom scenarios: (a) a White male teaching a race relations course, (b) a male teaching a women’s studies course, and (c) a young, childless female teaching a child psychology course. Most participants preferred an ethnic minority professor for the race relations course, a female professor for the women’s studies course, and showed a slight preference for a married female professor for the child psychology course.