It is nothing new: students from families with more difficult socio-economic conditions often have greater difficulties in progressing the educational pathway. The question is to what extent we consciously or unconsciously feed this trend, anticipating (and transmitting) from the very beginning it will be.

Several teachers are asked to evaluate the writings of 1,717 students and to express their expectations. When evaluating, they highlighted that two factors influence the research: on the one hand, the student's attitude in the classroom. The teachers tend to place a lower grade than the student with an inadequate attitude in the classroom, which facilitates the relationship with children of migratory origin and with unfavorable socioeconomic conditions. Interestingly, the study has also detected that they have been more benign when it comes to noting students of migratory origin, since they conclude that they may have difficulties to adapt to language. Another prejudice that influences the note is the cultural capital: “If in the writing the student mentions a reality TV show, he will receive a lower score than if he mentions a box of Coins, and that is worrisome”, the authors of the study say in the evaluation Prejudices of the faculty, according to the status associated with the student.

The objective of the study is to discuss how and according to what is evaluated and what is the influence of existing prejudices in society and also of teachers.

Asked about prospective expectations, it is concluded that teachers see fewer chances of academic success in students of migratory origin and in those with a difficult socioeconomic situation at home.

Pigmalion effect: expectations met

It is known that the great impact of expectations on students is also a success within the expectations we place in each and, therefore, it is important to analyze our discourses, how we express the expectations and what we expect of students in the face of “good” and “bad” roles.

As for the motivation of the child to learn, “it is clear that the student who is considered bad will not have any motivation to learn. That is why it is very important for teachers to know how it affects us, because professors make an expectation that is often fulfilled with students we consider good and bad. It seems magic, but it is proven that if the teacher has good expectations towards the student, they will be fulfilled, and the same with bad expectation”, stressed Professor Irene López in this article of ARGIA.

Education reproducing social cracks?

The reality is that the backpack some students bring home is not the same, but does the educational system try to balance these backpacks or reproduces the oppression and problems that occur in society? “Today, more than years ago, the school maintains the privileges and oppression of children with oppression of privileged children. We discursively all say that school is the function of balancing and revolutionizing this situation, but I would say that with our tasks in many cases we maintain the situation and that children who have no privileges have more insecurity in school, because their needs are not so easy to assume”, said Professor Agurtzane Martinez at ARGIA.

In short, beyond meritocracy and expectations, “behind a note many economic conditions hide: what is the situation of the house, if you can pay private classes, what are the infrastructures of your people… Receive the help of your parents, have resources, have access to extracurricular activities and maintain stable affective relationships, be integrated… All this will positively influence the educational process and the notes of the student, and vice versa