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Children’s awareness of stereotypes about school pathways 

10 April 2025

Interview Learning & Education Development Society Education systems Diversity Equity Individual differences Learning environments Mental health Psychology Teaching methods Learning variability

How do children think others view their path through school, and why does it matter?

Photo by wavebreakmedia from shutterstock.com

Interviewee:

Lisa Bardach

Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Giessen

Interview by:

Annie Brookman-Byrne

Deputy Editor BOLD

Partner

npj Science of Learning

npj Science of Learning is a fully open-access journal that aims to provide a forum for research at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and education theory. It publishes high-quality research on all aspects of learning and memory – from the genetic, cellular and molecular basis, to understanding how children and adults learn through experience and formal education practice. npj Science of Learning is pleased to host a Collection uniting the social and behavioural sciences to address achievement inequality.

Having been a student in an educational system with early secondary school tracking – in which children were grouped based on their abilities into different schools –  Lisa Bardach wondered whether and how tracking might make educational inequalities worse. As Lisa tells Annie Brookman-Byrne, that led to her recent research on children’s perceptions of stereotypes about school tracks.

Annie Brookman-Byrne: How did your school experiences influence your research on school tracks? 
Lisa Bardach: In Austria, children leave elementary school after four years to attend different secondary school tracks, and these decisions are informed by students’ performance, but also by teachers’ perceptions of their abilities, among other factors. I have always been very interested in the effects of tracking, including how it can exacerbate educational inequalities. For example, there is the potential for bias against students from lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds in tracking recommendations, despite teachers’ best intentions to make fair judgements. I also wondered about the influence of students’ perceptions of stereotypes regarding their own school track, which is precisely what my colleagues and I explored in our recent study. 

ABB: Can you tell me more about that study? 
LB: Separating students into school tracks at an early age can lead to educational inequalities. We chose to study one possible contributing factor among many: stereotypes about school tracks. Might students in lower-ranked tracks become aware of negative stereotypes about their track, with detrimental effects on their confidence and academic success?  

“Separating students into school tracks at an early age can lead to educational inequalities.”

To test this idea, we studied nearly 4,000 German secondary school students from three different tracks over four years, when they were in Grades 5 to 8. Students in the lowest track were more aware of negative stereotypes about their own track than were those in higher tracks. Stereotype awareness also increased over time for all students. However, contrary to what we expected, awareness of stereotypes was no more strongly linked to academic outcomes for students in the lowest track than for those in other tracks. 

ABB: What are the implications of your findings?  
LB: Given the heightened awareness of negative stereotypes among students from lower-track schools, it seems important to challenge those stereotypes – for example by making changes in how adults interact with students and in the media. Such efforts should not focus only on specific tracks, but target any students who believe that negative stereotypes are attached to their track. Ultimately, I hope we can not only change perceptions of different tracks, but also improve the real-life opportunities and experiences of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

“Given the heightened awareness of negative stereotypes among students from lower-track schools, it seems important to challenge those stereotypes.”

ABB: How do you plan to follow up on this study? 
LB: This research has sparked my interest in further exploring social inequalities in education, and in particular examining the role of psychological factors in this process. I was surprised that we did not find support for our assumption that negative stereotypes would be more strongly linked to negative outcomes in the lowest academic track than in other tracks. I plan to continue my research into social inequality in education, while remaining open to the possibility that factors other than negative stereotypes may play a more important role.