In
Whistling Vivaldi
, psychologist Claude Steele details the concept of stereotype threat and argues that
achievement gaps
between different groups of students can sometimes be accounted for by the subtle influence of identity contingencies that have nothing to do with academic abilities. For example, women are often stereotyped as poor students of math. Given this stereotype, a woman with high mathematical abilities and aspirations may have to work twice as hard just to prove the stereotype does not apply to her, even though she does not believe the stereotype is true.
Carefully controlled experiments have revealed stereotype threat can cripple the performance of individuals in any identity category if the conditions are right: White athletes on the basketball court as much as Black students in the college classroom.
Fortunately, the research also suggests simple and powerful ways to completely eradicate the negative effects of stereotype threat.
Since stereotype threat often works on a subconscious level, students are not typically aware they are burdened by it (and thus are tempted to believe the stereotype is actually true if their performance is lacking),
reframing certain features of the learning environment is crucial to countering stereotype threat
. In many of the experiments detailed by Steele, contextualizing an intellectual exercise as a puzzle or game rather than an intelligence test or exam was enough to eliminate the effects of stereotype threat altogether.
The values affirmation exercise above can be easily modified for
various academic contexts
. Given this evidence, it is worth asking: Are there populations of students in your classes that might be vulnerable to such threats? What messages are the cues in the learning environment sending?
