Limiting Mind-Sets: Conceptualizing the Impact of Structure on Individual Attitudes About Learning

• In Event: Students and Schools: Race, Class, and Gender Issues

Abstract

The salience and prominence of cultural perspectives to explain disparities in academic achievement is evident within academia and the broader society. Simply changing individual behaviors and actions does not equate to systemic change and changing structural limitations on one’s life and life outcomes. Although substantive evidence points to the limits of the cultural arguments to account for the persistence of academic underperformance and minimal social mobility of marginalized groups the idea of students and communities of color not being motivated continues to dominate educational narratives especially in the social sciences. This conceptual paper uses the lens of Critical Race Theory to push the boundaries of scholarship in psychology through an examination of implicit theories and achievement motivation.

Authors

• Daniella Ann Cook, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Katherine Marie Caves, ETH Zurich