Meritocracy, deficit thinking and the invisibility of the system: Discourses on educational success and failure

Abstract

Socio-ethnic stratification and segregation processes present in Flemish society are reflected in the everyday school environment. Pupils with a different socio-ethnic background than the dominant majority and middle class seem to be confronted with a lot of difficulties in this school system. The dominant meritocratic discourse frequently applies a deficit thinking perspective to frame educational success and failure, focusing on deficiencies originating outside of the school. In this paper we analyse newly collected survey data (N = 11,015 pupils) and a large amount of qualitative data (from pupils, parents, teachers, principals) to answer our two main research questions: (i) how is educational success/failure defined, and (ii) how is educational success/failure explained? The factor analyses as well as the qualitative analyses illustrate how the idea of meritocracy relates to individualistic features such as effort, merit and competence. However, the findings also reveal that this individualistic approach goes hand-in-hand with a focus on the family environment and 'culture' which seems to limit individual agency to a large extent. In these discourses, pupils, parents and even teachers are presented as being largely determined by their direct social environment with almost no regard for social inequalities within the educational system. The paper ends with a discussion on how processes of victimization and the denial of systemic bias, influence educational trajectories and proposes a different approach to multiculturalism and the appreciation of cultural background and specific family resources as positive elements in these trajectories.

How Meritocracy is Defined Today?: Contemporary Aspects of Meritocracy

“…However, according to Reynolds and Xian (2014), there are two hidden categories in a meritocratic society: meritocratic elements (e.g., hard work, ambition, having a good education) and non-meritocratic elements (e.g., family wealth, family background, knowing the right people) for the purpose of getting ahead in life. Clycq, Ward Nouwen, and Vandenbroucke (2014), Warikoo andFuhr (2014), andZhang (2015) also supported this view. In other words, the way people perceive the hidden non-meritocratic elements may be important for maintaining transparent meritocracy, which is strongly endorsed by "equality of opportunity".…”

“…Although meritocracy rejects nepotism, patronage, and corruption, the findings of most of the selected studies mirror the reality of today's society. A number of studies (Reynolds & Xian, 2014;Clycq et al, 2014;Zhang, 2015) have argued that it is a matter of not only social context, but also people's way of life or culture. Such a reality has both helped and hindered the creation of an equal opportunity society.…”

Class composition as a frame of reference for teachers? The influence of class context on teacher recommendations

“…Furthermore, classes differ with regard to their composition in terms of pupils' ethnic and social background, but also regarding their ability composition. In Europe's cities, school and class compositions are rapidly changing as increasing shares of the school-going population have an immigration background (Clycq et al, 2014). The few studies that have so far investigated the influence of contextual variables have suffered from suboptimal operationalisations (e.g.…”

School counsellors’ beliefs regarding collaboration with parents of students with special educational needs in Flanders: Parents as partners or opposites?

“…Indeed, previous research points to a deficit view among school professionals towards SEN students’ parents in general and particularly towards ethnic minority and low SES SEN students’ parents (Hess et al ., ), here all considered as ‘disadvantaged parents’ . Deficit theory describes school professionals’ interpretations of the differences between the dominant habits, values and norms in education and the non‐dominant counterparts in disadvantaged families as deficits inherent in disadvantaged families (Clycq et al ., ). School professionals with a deficit view are convinced that the education system is democratic and meritocratic, and reason that an individual's success is dependent on personal characteristics and earnings.…”