Promoting Elementary School-Age Children’s Understanding of Wealth, Poverty, and Civic Engagement

How children and adolescents think about, make sense of, and respond to economic inequality: Why does it matter?

“…It is my hope that the scholarship reflected in the special issue will prove useful in the development of interventions to empower marginalized youth and encourage cultivation of partnerships between researchers, practitioners, and educators dedicated to advancing social and economic justice. The findings indicate that children have the capacity to grasp concepts of equity and social exclusion surprisingly early in middle-childhood, which suggests that schools via their curricula can begin to foster children’s understanding and reasoning about economic inequality and the meaning of social justice in the primary grades (Mistry et al, 2017). Of course, there are immense social and pedagogical hurdles to overcome before such content could be introduced on any significant scale, but these barriers may recede as the threats that rising economic inequality poses to the social contract, public services for the common good, and the health and well-being of children continue to grow and become more evident.…”

“…One strategy is simple—a glaring omission of curricula content about how structural arrangements contribute to economic and racial inequality (e.g., MacLeod, 2009). Observers have noted a conspicuous paucity of curricula and opportunities for professional development regarding these topics (Mistry, Nenadal, Hazelbaker, Griffin, & White, 2017; White, Mistry, & Chow, 2013). Consequently, even teachers who believe that it is important to help their students understand the complex nature and contributors to socioeconomic diversity may sidestep or downplay these issues in the classroom because they feel unprepared to address them (White et al, 2013).…”

Children’s and adolescents’ understanding and experiences of economic inequality: An introduction to the special section.

“…Because children exhibit knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes related to wealth, poverty, and inequality at a young age, one potential mechanism for disrupting and mitigating the negative effects of social class bias is to intervene earlier in children’s lives (vs. waiting until adolescence or the college years). Developing age-appropriate curricular materials is all the more imperative in light of teachers’ reports of discomfort and unease in talking about social class differences with their students (White, Mistry, & Chow, 2013), and the current dearth of educational materials available to support teachers in having these conversations (Mistry, Nenadal, Hazelbaker, Griffin, & White, 2017). Results from recent studies—conducted with students across the K–16 educational spectrum (Mistry et al, 2012, 2016; Seider, 2011; Seider et al, 2010)—are promising for demonstrating the efficacy of using curriculum interventions to shift students’ attitudes and beliefs about poverty but also offer important cautions about unintended consequences (e.g., strengthening stereotypic beliefs and biases) and the limited magnitude of impacts and sustained effects across time.…”

Using social domain theory to seek critical consciousness with young children

“…Although societal forces like racism, sexism, and ableism are abstract and may not take on meaning until children are older, young children do understand relationships in which power is unevenly distributed and they make decisions based on these identifications. For example, Mistry et al (2017) wrote that young children attend to wealth-based cues, such as having fancy clothing or not having a house. As children get older (7-11 years), they begin to attribute wealth to causes like working hard and competence and may gradually adopt class-based stereotypes.…”