Microaggressions in School: Applying Lessons from Microaggression Research to Peer Interactions

• In Event: 153 - Section on Children and Youth Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Peers and Peer Conflict

Abstract

High-profile school shootings and teen suicides since the late 1990s have led to an increased focus on peer interactions by researchers and the national media. Much of this work focuses on bullying, which excludes many negative interactions between peers and can be difficult to determine due to the difficulty of measuring intentions and power imbalances. In contrast to research on bullying, research on microaggressions emphasizes the effects of negative interactions on victims whether or not the negativity was intentional. Frequently studied in terms of race, gender, or sexuality, microaggressions are brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership (Sue 2010). Like bullying, the cumulative nature of microaggressions can have major long-term consequences for victims (McCabe 2009; Sue 2010). Microaggressions are often discussed in terms of race, gender, and sexuality, but are above all a reflection of the marginality of the recipients. In this paper I combine insights from the literature on microaggressions with data from an ethnographic study combining interviews with 53 students and 10 adults and over 430 hours of participant observation with fifth grade students at two rural elementary schools. By examining peer interactions through the lens of microaggressions, I bridge the gap between research on bullying and microaggressions, highlighting the insights that research on microaggressions can provide for schools as well as expanding our understanding of microaggressions to include those who are marginalized in schools as a result of other differences.

Author

• Brent Harger, Gettysburg College