Difference Matters: Teaching Students a Contextual Theory of Difference Can Help Them Succeed

Abstract

Today’s increasingly diverse and divided world requires the ability to understand and navigate across social-group differences. We propose that interventions that teach students about these differences can not only improve all students’ intergroup skills but also help disadvantaged students succeed in school. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, this article theorizes that teaching students a contextual understanding of difference can accomplish both of these important goals. Understanding difference as contextual means recognizing that social-group differences come from participating in and adapting to diverse sociocultural contexts. This article begins by reviewing research that highlights two distinct understandings of social-group differences—as contextual or essential—and demonstrates their consequences for intergroup outcomes. We then review research on multicultural and social justice education that highlights the potential benefits of educating students about social-group differences. We propose that these educational approaches are associated with intergroup and academic benefits for one key reason: They teach students a contextual theory of difference. Finally, to illustrate and provide causal evidence for our theory of how a contextual understanding of difference affords these benefits, this article provides an overview of the first social psychological intervention to teach students a contextual understanding of difference: difference-education.

Tackling Educational Inequalities with Social Psychology: Identities, Contexts, and Interventions

“…Difference‐education interventions are aimed at addressing mismatches between the cultural norms of low‐SES first‐year students and their new college (for background, see Stephens, Hamedani, & Townsend, 2019). Educational institutions tend to promote norms of independence, and this can make them feel unfamiliar to working‐class students, who are more interdependence‐orientated, triggering a sense of threat and identity incompatibility.…”

How Do Young Children Explain Differences in the Classroom? Implications for Achievement, Motivation, and Educational Equity

“…Given that the inherence bias in children's explanations has a range of negative effects, as detailed above, a simple way of reducing this bias is to highlight for children some of the extrinsic, contextual factors that give rise to differences among students. Indeed, research on college students has documented that teaching such a "contextual" theory of differences has positive consequences for achievement (Stephens, Hamedani, & Destin, 2014;Stephens, Hamedani, & Townsend, 2019;Stephens, Townsend, Hamedani, Destin, & Manzo, 2015). In an intervention highlighting differences related to social class, college seniors from both advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds explained to first-year students how their social background had shaped their university experience (Stephens et al, 2014).…”

Understanding Culture Clashes and Catalyzing Change: A Culture Cycle Approach

“…To help underrepresented students feel more included and empowered at the individuals level , for instance, colleges and universities can do more to value and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion as crucial components of a high-quality education for a twenty-first century workforce in their missions and institutional strategies at the ideas level (Hurtado, 2007; Gurin et al., 2013). Next, at the institutions level , colleges and universities can integrate intergroup dialogue classes and other learning experiences about diversity, equity, and inclusion into the college curriculum for all students and across all courses of study, as well as implement hiring and promotion policies that foster the diversification of faculty and administrators (Hurtado, 2005; Gurin et al., 2013; Brannon, 2018; Stephens et al., 2019). At the interactions level , colleges and universities can better support students by providing opportunities for them to expand their networks and connect with mentors and alumni that share their backgrounds and have found pathways to success (Girves et al., 2005; Harper, 2008).…”