Unequal Opportunities From the Start: Socioeconomic Disparities in Classroom Participation in Preschool

• In Event: Social Class in Education: Children’s Beliefs About who is Smart, Hardworking, and Praiseworthy

Abstract

Why do socioeconomic disparities in achievement emerge so early in life? Previous answers to this question have generally focused on the perceived deficits of parents from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g., deficits in childrearing knowledge or practices). Here, we instead focus on the structure of early childhood education and argue that early schooling contexts provide unequal opportunities for engagement to children of higher vs. lower socioeconomic status (SES). Because engagement is a strong longitudinal predictor of achievement, early SES disparities in engagement could serve to maintain or even exacerbate SES disparities in achievement. In a first study, we assessed and analyzed preschool students’ engagement through extensive video-recordings of whole-class discussions (1236 video-recorded observations from 98 children)—a core aspect of early childhood education. These measures revealed stark differences between low-SES students and their middle- and high-SES peers in the amount they contribute to class discussions (all ps < .001): Low-SES children were less likely to be called on by the teacher and to “take the floor” (i.e., speak without being asked to or interrupt). Moreover, when low-SES students spoke, they spoke for a shorter time than their middle- and high-SES peers. Consistent with the claim of unequal opportunities for engagement, these differences were not accounted for by SES differences in language proficiency. In other words, low-SES students do not contribute less because they are somehow less competent—instead, preschool settings seem to be depriving low-SES children of opportunities to contribute to whole-class discussions, putting them at a disadvantage. Because a student’s engagement in school is shaped to a considerable extent by their peers’ attitudes, we also examined peer perceptions (Study 2, N = 94). Based on the patterns observed in Study 1, we developed two scenarios that illustrate typical middle- and high-SES patterns of participation in whole-class discussions. The first scenario focused on the frequency of solicited oral participation and described a situation in which the teacher calls on a fictional child more often than other children. The second scenario focused on the duration of solicited oral participation and described a situation in which a fictional child speaks for longer than other children. After each scenario, children were asked to explain the protagonist’s behavior. Results reveled that children used significantly more intrinsic than extrinsic factors to explain differences in oral participation (all ps < .001). We also found that students who show high levels of engagement during whole-class discussions are perceived by their preschool peers as possessing more positive qualities (e.g., as smarter). Given that higher-SES students are afforded more opportunities to be engaged in the first place (see Study 1), these positive peer perceptions may accrue to them as well, further boosting their engagement. Our results suggest that aspects of early childhood education should be redesigned to foster engagement among all students, regardless of their SES.

Authors

• Sébastien Goudeau, University of Poitiers
  Presenting Author

• Frédérique Autin

• Camille Sanrey

• Nicole Stephens

• Hazel Rose Markus, Stanford University

• Jean-Claude Croizet

• Andrei Cimpian, New York University