Project description
Understanding how stereotypes affect student success
In schools, social inequalities often grow due to stereotypes. These stereotypes can lead to biased treatment of minority students, affecting their academic success. Teachers are not the only influence; peers also play an important role in shaping how students feel and perform. How students judge each other can impact their motivation and relationships, but it is unclear how stereotypes affect these judgements. With this in mind, the ERC-funded STERN project will introduce the idea of ‘applied stereotypes’. This concept looks at how students perceive each other based on traits like warmth and competence. By studying peer networks in schools, STERN aims to understand how these perceptions influence student outcomes and contribute to social inequalities.
Objective
Social inequalities are reinforced within the education system. Stereotypes may have a major role in this, since they may lead to differential treatment of minority students, resulting in self-fulfilling prophecies that hinder their academic outcomes. Beyond the obvious role of teachers, that of peers is also crucial, as they are important parts of students socialisation: how they are perceived by peers could affect their motivation, interests, achievements, and relationships. However, it is not clear how much students apply stereotypes to their peers, given the wealth of individuating information they have about them.
This project introduces the new concept of applied stereotypes: this expresses how an individual perceives another along stereotype-related dimensions, such as warmth and competence. I propose that applied stereotypes develop jointly with peer networks of school communities. For example, the application of stereotypes could be mitigated by friendships (judging ones friends more positively) or by accepting the established personal reputation of specific peers as warm or competent instead of judging them based on stereotypes. Such peer-based processes of stereotype application, combined with the effect of applied stereotypes on outcomes, are crucial to understand, as students educational trajectories emerge gradually in school, surrounded by peers.
The project investigates social mechanisms that explain the dynamic interplay between stereotypes, applied stereotypes, and outcomes. As there is no established way to measure applied stereotypes, I develop a novel dyadic measure that captures who perceives whom in what way and collect detailed data in ten English secondary schools. I conduct empirical analyses by using and extending cutting-edge methods of social network analysis. By taking a so-far neglected level of applied stereotypes into account, this project has the potential for a ground-breaking impact on the study of social inequalities.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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CO4 3SQ Colchester
United Kingdom
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