El rol de la clase social en el aprendizaje estudiantilUn análisis bibliográfico

Resum

The study of the psychosocial effects of social class -or socioeconomic status- is gaining growing importance in a global context determined by the increase in social inequalities, including the educational context. Social class is a social category composed of objective and subjective dimensions. At the objective level, it is defined in terms of economic resources (e.g., income), educational attainment, or occupational status; At a subjective level, it includes people’s perception of their position within the social hierarchy compared to others. There is evidence that these indicators of social class not only influence identity or psychological well-being, but also various students’ learning outcomes in the educational context. However, prior studies have shown certain inconsistencies in the connection of social class with learning outcomes. Therefore, the current work, through a bibliographic analysis of the specialized literature, is aimed at elucidating the role of social class in academic performance. It also intends to review the potential moderating role of a number of theoretically relevant variables. A positive relationship is observed between social class and academic performance. That is, upper-class students, relative to lower-class students, were more likely to show better academic performance. It is also important to mention that, although the various objective indicators of social class are positively associated with academic performance (with parental occupation showing greater effect sizes), the role of subjective social class has received relatively less attention. It is also observed that the positive association found seems to increase over the years and be of greater magnitude in the case of mathematics and science. In conclusion, this work reveals that social class is a relevant variable when explaining students’ academic performance and provides keys of interest for the development of educational policies aimed at reducing levels of inequality in this area.