Unequal selves in the classroom

The article I address today summarizes important research in a context in which many children are encountering much less supportive school experiences than we’d like. Brummelman & Sedikides (2023) published “Unequal selves in the classroom: Nature, origins, and consequences of socioeconomic disparities in children’s self-views” in Developmental Psychology.  Here’s the edited abstract and impact statement:

Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds often have more negative self-views than their peers. How are these self-views shaped by teacher–student interactions in the classroom, and what are the consequences of these self-views for achievement inequality? We present a developmental framework addressing these questions by bridging insights from the psychological, educational, and sociological literatures. We show that children from low-SES backgrounds perceive themselves as less intelligent, less able to grow their intelligence, less deserving, and less worthy, independent of their actual abilities and achievements. We demonstrate how negative intellectual stereotypes—expressed through daily interactions with teachers in classrooms, such as teachers’ expectations, feedback, and attention—undercut the self-views of children from low-SES backgrounds. We also show how this process can be exacerbated by institutional and cultural values reflecting a belief in meritocracy (e.g., schools that encourage competition, emphasize raw ability, and attribute achievement inequality to intrinsic factors), which are common in countries with high income inequality and rigid between-school tracking. The ensuing more negative self-views introduce psychological barriers that undermine the academic achievement of children from low-SES backgrounds, thereby reinforcing achievement inequality. This represents an enormous loss of potential and perpetuates harm into adulthood. Socioeconomic disparities in self-views can emerge early in life and widen with age, underlining the need for developmental research and timely intervention. We discuss implications for studying the nature, origins, and consequences of socioeconomic disparities in self-views, and for designing interventions to reduce achievement inequality. 

Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds often have more negative self-views than their peers. How are these self-views shaped by teacher–student interactions, and how do these self-views affect academic achievement? We show that these self-views emerge, in part, because children from low-SES backgrounds are exposed to denigrating messages about their ability, even when their achievements and abilities are equal to those of their peers. Their self-views, in turn, undermine academic achievement, reinforcing achievement inequality. 

Income equality has grown tremendously over the last several decades with clearly negative consequences for low SES students. The tragedy is compounded by beliefs in meritocracy which has returned as a positive notion in some political discourse. The vicious cycle from low SES status to negative self-views to self-fulfilling prophecies won’t be easily repaired in a world in which equitable funding for public education is not seen as a priority.