Does classroom diversity increase equality?
It’s a myth that mixed classrooms always lead to better outcomes
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Swiss Education Evidence Lab
Most education systems, especially at the primary and lower secondary levels, strive to achieve classroom diversity. Classrooms with students of diverse abilities and social backgrounds are thought to prevent segregation and allow students to benefit from a wide variety of classmates. The underlying belief is that mixed classrooms foster inclusion and cooperation, while also reducing educational inequality. Despite the popularity of this notion, the reality is more nuanced.
How classroom composition impacts students
For decades, many European classrooms were segregated by gender, socioeconomic background, or academic ability, which often led to unequal learning opportunities. In the aftermath of World War II, and with a growing emphasis on freedom and civil rights, education policies increasingly sought to promote socioeconomic and ability diversity within schools.
“Classroom diversity does not automatically reduce inequality.”
Some studies do in fact find that classmates from higher socioeconomic backgrounds boost the learning outcomes of students from less advantaged backgrounds. This may be because parents of higher socioeconomic status tend to have resources that allow them to be more engaged, to monitor teaching quality, and to exchange useful educational information with other parents.
But classroom diversity does not automatically reduce inequality. Despite the common assumption that lower-achieving students will naturally become more similar to their higher achieving peers in both behaviour and performance, some studies suggest that being around more able classmates can actually lower students’ self-esteem and ultimately lead to poorer academic achievement and less ambitious educational choices.
Recent research in Italian lower secondary schools has shown a similar pattern. Having classmates with well-educated or affluent parents had a consistently positive effect on the outcomes of students from both higher and lower socioeconomic backgrounds. At the same time, however, there was a negative effect of having high ability peers in class: Students tend to compare themselves with one another, which may cause disadvantaged students to view themselves as less capable and lead them to choose less ambitious upper-secondary tracks.
“We need to acknowledge and manage the unintended consequences when students compare themselves with their peers.”
Maintaining diversity while supporting students
This does not mean we should abandon the effort to create classrooms of diverse abilities and social backgrounds. Overall, the impact of diversity is positive. However, we need to acknowledge and manage the unintended consequences when students compare themselves with their peers. Teachers need to be given the tools to counteract negative comparisons and ensure that classroom diversity truly translates into educational equity, rather than creating hidden hierarchies. One way to do so is to adopt teaching practices that place less emphasis on performance and competition and more on individual growth, progress, and personal development.
Author
Partner
Swiss Education Evidence Lab
Footnotes
This piece is an edited version of an article written by Emanuele Fedeli in a series called EdLab Myth Check, produced and published by the Swiss EdLab at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, which takes a closer look at widely held beliefs in educational and developmental research, putting them to the test with scientific evidence.