Chapter 3: The Student As A Developing Person In Context: Socio-Ecological Theory, Intersectionality, and Social Justice

Understanding the role of human development in education is important. Social, environmental, and interpersonal factors interact to influence developmental processes, learning opportunities, and outcomes from childhood through adulthood. Unfortunately, every student’s capacity to learn is not valued equally in the current U.S. education system. Learners from marginalized backgrounds (e.g., women, students with disabilities, LGBTQ youth, minoritized students) often encounter long-standing structural barriers that lead to roadblocks in their educational experiences and shape their identities and life trajectories (Chaney, 2014; Kuhfeld et al., 2018). Course tracking and socioeconomic status undermine intelligence and academic performance of Black and Latinx students and drive racial-ethnic achievement gaps (Bowman et al., 2018; Chambers, 2009; Kotok, 2017). This stratification in K-12 schooling persists into higher education and the U.S. labor market (Sullivan et al., 2016). Inequities in educational experiences and outcomes operate at multiple levels; stemming from broader inequalities tied to societal norms and values and influencing intimate experiences and socialization within classrooms. For example, structural inequalities create persistent experiences of marginalization and oppression for students of color and shape interpersonal relationships between educators and students (Okonofua &Eberhardt, 2015).