Social Class and Classism

Social class and classism is an important and relevant topic for educational psychologists because extensive research shows that children and adolescents are affected by their social class and experiences with classism. Although the research sometimes has problems conceptualizing and measuring social class in consistent and meaningful ways, nevertheless, the body of evidence suggests that educational psychologists need to consider the student's social class context. For educational psychologists, the “tip of the iceberg” is the student in the classroom. Beneath the manifest student is the latent weight of the student's social class. He or she brings into the classroom the affects of family, peer, and environmental social class. Educational psychologists need to consider how poverty, for instance, is related to physical growth, cognitive stimulation, and intellectual ...