the psychology of educational inequality

social inequality

• The state of not being equal, especially in: status, rights and access to opportunities

• Eg women’s healthcare - if from lower ses/ethnic minority, treated dif when pregnant 

examples of where social inequality can arise

• gender, lack of education, quality of education (teachers aren’t as good, less resources), ethnicity etc Housing (eg clean air, access to green spaces), Social class, Income, Employment, Low pay, Disabilities and health, Age 

why are psychologists concerned about inequality

• Results in lower self-esteem, lack of belonging, frustrated, angry, sad, disappointed

• Gender - 80% UG psychologists are women, most professors are men, why

• Autism - if ethnic minority less likely to access services - what are the barriers 

• Education - educational healthcare plans for SEN students, way document is enacted isnt legally enacted, even though it should be. Also could be in a type of school not app for child’s needs

impact on areas of psychology

• affects the five pillars

• bio, cog, dev, social and personality, mental and physical health

Further psychological impact of inequality 

• Negative emotional consequences of inequality 

• Stigmatization

• Perceived injustice, not fair, how do you react to when its unfair

• Lower self esteem 

• Lower health—(linked to emotions and self), if not feeling good emotionally, affects you physically 

data surrounding inequality in education

• may want to compare groups in performance and developmental milestones

• evaluate educational programmes, come up with recommendations etc

data for educational inequality across the world

• pos correlation between gdp and education index

• gapminder used

• can see dif continents, population etc

• Nations with high levels of education result in people earning lots of money, or nations with more money can invest in education

• allows us to see the interaction

Distribution of education levels across the globe

• our world in data

• can use a map to portray the different levels by using colours

• europe = lots of time in education

• africa etc much less time

gender gap in fear of failure

• most countries very unequal

• If someone is concerned about failure, may not take risks which are necessary for growth, how they engage with school etc

• In the UK gender gap is quite large - could be because girls are more open about it or there could be a real gender gap

Gender gap in attitudes towards competition

• Boys are much happier to compete than girls, impacts how you engage in other aspects of life 

  • If young girls less happy to compete and more fearful of failure, will they put themselves forward to apply for competitive places at uni/jobs/promotions

  • most countries are unequal

  • most boys are more happier to compete

What can be done to reduce educational inequality?

• contextual offers

• free school meals

• stormzy + hsbc, getting black students into cambridge where there is a big underrepresentation

Public spending on education

• schools only get 5.5% of the budget (2014)

education, inequality and money

• Not simple to put forward interventions as have to think about where the money is coming from

• So want to support interventions with best success rate and most research

• So psychologists may test two interventions for supporting students with dyslexia, cheap vs expensive, similarish impact but the more expensive one is better, will probably suggest cheaper one

• So best interventions cant always be delivered

spending compared to other countries

Spend a similar amount to other countries which may have very dif outcomes

structural inequality

• A social structure that has inequality already “built in”. Eg education, police - racism misogyny etc is institutionalised

• Hierarchical differences between people that affects access to resources (unequal opportunities).

• Structural inequality lies in the way in which the dimensions interact one with another.

impacts of education and inequality

• If experience some of these inequalities early on, can impact how much you earn, life expectancy and other things shown in the diagram

• Education also influence health and life expectancy through indirect channels

• Stereotypes we have may impact the way toddlers play, stem subject access, ethnicities treated differently

Why is there education inequality in the UK

• economic disadvantage, 

• ethnicity, 

• gender, 

• whether a child has been in care, 

• or has special educational needs and disability (SEND). 

• There is also regional variation in the average size of the disadvantage gap - eg access to health services in rural vs built up areas 

factors relating to inequality which affect each other

• life expectancy 

• mental health 

• levels of violence 

• drug abuse 

• the educational performance of school children

• the strength of community life

income inequalities

• The more unequal a society is, the more ill health and social problems it has.

• We measure how unequal a society is using the gini index

• The greater the number, the more unequal a society is 

• uk is quite unequal

how has inequality changed in the uk

• gap has widened

associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and brain development

• If have lower income, poorer education, more stressful environment 

• May not have access to play, linguistic differences not exposed to rich language 

• May impact brain development 

inequality impact on childhood education

• By age three, being in poverty makes a difference equivalent to nine months’ development in school readiness. (behind by 9 months), relates to social abilities etc eg still in nappies

• During their years at school, children in receipt of free school meals (a key indicator of poverty) do progressively worse on average at school than their peers.

• Children who do badly at primary school are less likely to improve at secondary school if they are poor.

further education and inequality

• Children from poor families are more likely to have poor qualifications.

• Young people with parents in manual occupations are far less likely than others to go to university and only 1 in 6 of students at top universities come from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

• The school a child attends makes a difference of between 10 and 20% between pupils’ academic results. Source: Centre for Economic and Social.

program to help reduce education inequality

• Surestart - located in poorer areas, supported families with accessing health, education (including outside of the school system), parenting skills 

gcse performance and ses

- the poorer an area the pupil comes from, the worse their GCSE performance, but the picture is dif in london 

- eg poorer do better in gcses 

• area impacts it
  

intersectionality

• gender, ses and ethnicity influence gcse scores

• how these come together is what intersectionality is

examples of neurodevelopmental conditions

adhd statistics

• Overall prevalence 3% to 10% in school-aged children

• Diagnosed in boys 3 to 4 times more often than in girls, diagnostic criteria is very male eurocentric, women often misdiagnosed with bipolar, anxiety 

• Now seeing more adults being diagnosed, more women, some of the ways it might manifest in women may be different, not just a childhood condition

• Persists in 30% to 50%  into adolescence and adulthood (symptom profile may change)

aetiology of adhd

• Strong genetic component (approx. 76% - Faraone et al., 2005 )

• Perinatal factors – some evidence

• Neurobiological deficits – growing evidence

• Deprivation and family factors – important for course and outcome, if already have genetic propensity, how does that intersect. what are the outcomes of those symptoms 

• The idea of epigenetics 

impact of adhd on other factors at dif stages

ADHD and economic disadvantage 

• Link between social and economic status and childhood attention deficit disorder (ADHD) in the UK.

• Children with ADHD came from families below the poverty line with average family income at £324 per week, compared to £391 for those whose child did not have ADHD. - difference could be due to it being harder to look after child so its harder to keep a job

• The study found the odds of parents in social housing having a child with ADHD was roughly three times greater than for those who owned their own homes.

• millenium cohort study

ADHD and educational disadvantage 

• At least one in five students with ADHD receive no school services despite experiencing significant academic and social difficulties 

Most evident for 

• Adolescents

• youth from non-English-speaking

•  and/or lower-income families

• Affects some groups more than others

• Can exacerbate inequality 

double disadvantage