"We Know How It Feels on Both Sides": Adolescents From Contrasting Socioeconomic Backgrounds Narrate Injustice

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 70
  In Roundtable Session: Equity by Design: STEM, Narrative, and Assessment

Abstract

This paper explores how different socioeconomic circumstances shape adolescents’ sense-making about fairness and their capacity to relate to different actors in a social situation involving injustice. The study involved 40 adolescents (M=17.2), recruited from contrasting socioeconomic backgrounds of New York City. Narrative was used as the data collection/production and analysis approach. Youth's narratives (n=160) were elicited as responses to a vignette they read, depicting an ambiguous social situation in which occurrences of deception and exclusion have occurred. Participants were invited to retell the story from the three perspectives: that of the self, object, and subject of injustice. Youth from less privileged backgrounds showed greater flexibility in adjusting their experience, knowledge, and communicative styles to different others they addressed.

Author

• Svetlana Jovic, Pratt Institute