Starting this Spring quarter, PhD Candidate Stephanie Patton from the School of Sociology will be conducting a research project at Lab School focused on social inequity. Intermediate and Upper students (8-12 years old) will be the subjects of the study, which will examine how children learn about social inequality in school. The project goal is to explore how administrators, teachers, and chilchildren define social inequality and how educators introduce this topic to their students. Results of this study may help researchers better understand how children learn about complex topics that affect their lives and developing worldviews. The researcher will observe teachers and children in Intermediate and Upper classrooms, seeing how, when, and in which contexts conversations related to social inequality arise. Student classroom work related to this topic will be collected, and classrooms will also participate in one-on-one qualitative interviews. As this research is part of the planned curriculum, any parent/students who wish to opt out of the study would still learn and participate in the classroom without any data being collected. Participation in this study is voluntary and will remain confidential. If you have any questions, or wish to opt out, please contact researcher Stephanie Patton or the UCLA Faculty Study Sponsor, Dr. Todd Franke.
