Achievement inequality — where students from disadvantaged backgrounds lag behind despite equal abilities — is a pervasive global issue undermining one’s potential and perpetuating social disparity. Penn GSE’s Sharon Wolf, an expert in child development, has co-edited and contributed to a special collection published in Nature’s npj series on leveraging interdisciplinary research to understand and mitigate these inequalities.
The collection underscores how inequality manifests across multiple levels. For example, several studies show how children’s daily experiences in classrooms can lead them to develop negative academic self-views, and how children from marginalized backgrounds can be perceived and treated differently in classrooms in ways that undermine their potential. Moreover, other articles in the collection highlight how national policies like ability tracking exacerbate inequality by disproportionately placing lower socio-economic status students in vocational tracks, perpetuating negative stereotypes. These experiences influence how students perceive themselves and are perceived by others.
The special collection also features several studies that highlight interventions targeting these disparities, including ones that range from personalized learning approaches to fostering growth mindsets among teachers and students. These interventions aim to create supportive educational environments that recognize and nurture the diverse strengths of students from all backgrounds.
Looking forward, the collection advocates for interdisciplinary research that challenges deficit perspectives on achievement inequality. It calls for a shift toward inclusive methodologies that empower marginalized communities, address systemic barriers, and highlight the need for inclusive research practices in fields like neuroscience and education to ensure diverse perspectives are integrated into study designs and outcomes.
Wolf’s contributions exemplify this interdisciplinary approach, emphasizing the importance of collaboration across fields to develop holistic strategies that empower students from disadvantaged backgrounds. By integrating insights from psychology, sociology, and education, Wolf and her colleagues aim to transform educational practices and policies, fostering environments where all students can thrive regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Read more at Nature.