Social identities and the achievement gap: Incompatibility between social class background and student identity increases student disidentification, which decreases performance and leads to higher dropout rates

Students respond positively to an instructor collecting and sharing aggregated class demographic data from a survey in a high-enrollment physiology course

The impersonal nature of high-enrollment science courses makes it difficult to build student-instructor relationships, which can negatively impact student learning and engagement, especially for members of marginalized groups. In this study, we explored whether an instructor collecting and sharing aggregated student demographics could positively impact student-instructor relationships. We surveyed students in a high-enrollment physiology course about their perceptions of their instructor 1) distributing a demographic survey, and 2) sharing aggregated survey results in class. We found that 72% of students appreciated the demographic survey, and 91% thought it helped their instructor get to know them. Further, 73% of students expressed that the instructor sharing aggregated demographic data in class positively impacted their overall course experience, and over 90% thought both the collection and sharing of demographic data were appropriate. Most students felt both parts of the intervention increased their sense of belonging in class, increased how connected they felt to their instructor, and made their instructor seem more approachable and inclusive, although the intervention also made some students feel more different from their peers. Women and nonbinary students felt the demographic survey increased instructor approachability more than men, and liberal students felt the survey increased instructor approachability more than nonliberal students. Compared to men, women and nonbinary students were more likely to report that taking the survey increased instructor inclusivity and made them feel less different from their peers. Based on these results, collecting student demographic information and sharing it in aggregate may be a practical, effective way to enhance student-instructor relationships.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study examined undergraduate student perceptions of a high-enrollment physiology instructor collecting student demographics and sharing aggregated results to promote course inclusion. Most students perceived the collection and sharing positively, with women and nonbinary students, as well as liberal students, perceiving greater benefits from the data collection than their counterparts. Our results indicate that collecting and sharing in aggregate student demographics may be an effective way to enhance student-instructor relationships in high-enrollment science courses.

The Impact of Social Support on Social Identity Development and Well-Being in International Exchange Students

International exchanges have become increasingly common. Although it is an explicit goal of exchange programs that exchange students immerse in another culture and learn to feel like a local, there is no systematic research on the development of one’s social identity during the exchange year. A longitudinal study with German high school students who spend an exchange year in the United States investigates the trajectories of social identification, identity integration of primary and secondary cultural identities, and well-being longitudinally at three measurement times (before departure, N = 556, 3 months, N = 210, and 6 months after arrival, N = 178). As social support is suggested to be an important resource, multilevel analyses tested the impact of three subcomponents of social support (i.e., emotional, instrumental, and compatibility-informational support) on the individual trajectories. It was found that social identification and identity integration increased over time, whereas well-being was high across all times. Identity integration mediated the positive effect of social identification on well-being. Moreover, emotional support was positively related to well-being and compatibility-informational support was positively related to identity integration. Instrumental support fostered early identity integration but diminished its slope when applied at later times. The present data demonstrate that an exchange year stimulates the development of the social self-concept, which is relevant for well-being. Moreover, it shows that the right kind of social support at the right time can foster this development.