A culture of despair? Inequality and expectations of educational success

Abstract

A culture of despair represents a negative feedback loop, where perceptions of high economic inequality result in declines in expectations of future success and, in turn, lower probabilities of favorable outcomes. We focus on the first link in that proposed causal chain, the relationship between economic inequality and expectations. Using a panel of youths and geographic variation in inequality, we find a link between inequality and expectations regarding educational outcomes. Our findings show that youth of low socioeconomic status (SES) are negatively affected by inequality. In short, we find support for the theory of a culture of despair.

Insights from a Catholic school’s transition to distance learning during Covid-19

“…In this direction, this article joins the body of work investigating the importance of digital equity in a context of crisis. Failing to ensure such equity may result in critical learning losses (Dhawan, 2020;Kuhfeld et al, 2020), cognitive losses (Murat & Bonacini, 2020), aspirations failure (Khattab, 2015), aspirations frustration (Boxer et al, 2010;Brunstein, 1993;DeBacker & Routon, 2021) and multiple other negative consequences. We find a lack of qualitative evidence on how the transition to distance learning during COVID-19 was experienced by students who lacked adequate digital tools, and contribute to filling this gap by conducting semi-structured interviews with 15 teachers at a Catholic school in the British city of Hull.…”