Objective Analysis of Colorism in Educational Images (66952)
Session Chair: Lori Portzer
Sunday, January 8, 2023 (19:10)
Session: Session 4
Room: Live-Stream C
Presentation Type:Live-Stream Presentation
Colorism in school environments may have a strong influence on the lives of students. By understanding colorism, educators can address the impact implicit biases have on low self-esteem, poor anger management, depression, self-destructive behaviors. Previous analysis of a textbook using skin tone scale established by the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) determined lighter tones have greater representation (NIS 1-6). These findings precipice the inquiry for increased assessment of colorism in educational imaging. Purpose. To determine skin tone representation in educational images using objective colorism measurement. Methods: 695 images from eight health textbooks were assessed by computer analysis of image proportion and average skin tone. Frequency statistics assessed prevalence of various skin tones and ANOVA with an alpha level of 0.05 stratified data by publisher, and bivariate analysis of image/page ratio to objective scale. Results: Lighter skin tones represented a greater percentage of images [2 (16.5%), 3 (21.1%), 4 (24.8%)], skewness of 0.667, kurtosis of 1.601. No significant difference between objective scale rating and image/page ratio, [F(456,238) = 1.080, p=0.253]. Conclusion: Objective measurement yielded representations of all skin tones (NIS 1-10); the majority of skin tones represent the lightest skin colors (NIS 2-4). No significant difference in image proportion, indicating that image size in text is not influenced by skin tone representation. Results show variability, though indicate a lack of equal representation of darker skin tones. The question whether exclusion of darker skin tones is due to visibility and contrast issues versus a systemic bias in textbook development.
Authors:
Lori Portzer, Lebanon Valley College, United States
Bettie Bertram, Lebanon Valley College, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Lori Portzer is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Lebanon Valley College in United States
Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/loriportzerphd
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