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Similaire à April 11th Saturday Scholars - Who Gives A Grit? Why We Should Retire Grit Before It Gains Traction by Amelia Marcetti Topper
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April 11th Saturday Scholars - Who Gives A Grit? Why We Should Retire Grit Before It Gains Traction by Amelia Marcetti Topper
- 1. Who Gives A Grit? Why We Should Retire Grit Before It Gains Traction Amelia Marcetti Topper Arizona State University Saturday Scholars Event April 2015
- 4. = perseverance + passion for long-term goals (Duckworth et al., 2007, p. 1087)
- 6. 1= not gritty 5=very gritty
- 8. Duckworth et al., 2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009; Locke & Latham, 2013; Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014; Vallerand, Houlfort, & Forest, 2014 • higher levels of education • goal attainment in the face of adversity • fewer career changes • overall success in chosen activity Grit Research
- 9. • Duckworth et al. (2007): “grittier” high-achieving undergraduate students at UPenn had higher GPAs and lower SAT scores • Strayhorn (2014): “grittier” Black, male students enrolled full-time at a predominately White southeastern research institution had higher GPAs and, when combined with background traits and other academic factors, explained 24% in college grade variance Grit Research & Higher Education
- 11. • Large-scale student survey • 40 community college students; 11 faculty/administrators • 1 community college in the American southwest • Semi-structured interviews, visual exercises, participatory ranking exercise Esperanza Community College (pseudonym) Artwork by Jorge Cristopulos
- 13. - White - Early 30s - Married - 3 children Lydia (pseudonym)
- 14. - Felon Lydia (pseudonym) - White - Early 30s - Married - 3 children
- 15. “I lived a very colorful life as a young person, so school was definitely on the back burner.” Lydia (pseudonym)
- 16. “I lived a very colorful life as a young person, so school was definitely on the back burner.” “It was just my own personal decision in going for family life education, dealing with adolescents…I think partially because I have a teenager and because I was a troubled teen, it just felt like it was fitting.” Lydia (pseudonym)
- 17. Lydia (pseudonym) “I think I always feel that way, whether it’s school or work or everyday life. It’s just something you just kind of, you feel like it’s that gray cloud that hangs over your head and keeps you from the things that everybody else can do…”
- 18. “I think I always feel that way, whether it’s school or work or everyday life. It’s just something you just kind of, you feel like it’s that gray cloud that hangs over your head and keeps you from the things that everybody else can do…” “Everybody’s extremely supportive. I get emotional just saying that. It’s been a very hard path to get me to this point.” Lydia (pseudonym)
- 19. Lydia (pseudonym) “I just didn’t ever really think that I could get back into working and all those things because I thought that the doors would just be closed...”
- 20. “I’ve talked to a couple of the counselors and because my study of choice is adolescents, I have a million hoops I have to jump through in order to recertify and go into my career choice…I felt like maybe I was doing the wrong thing. And the counselor said don’t stop, it’s worth it, this is what you want to do.” “I just didn’t ever really think that I could get back into working and all those things because I thought that the doors would just be closed...” Lydia (pseudonym)
- 21. “Going to school has really, really changed that because now I realize that I don’t have those [gray cloud] moments; it’s not this little tiny box anymore. I have this whole huge world that I can participate in. I think that if I didn’t go to school I would still feel the same way… Lydia (pseudonym)
- 22. “Going to school has really, really changed that because now I realize that I don’t have those [gray cloud] moments; it’s not this little tiny box anymore. I have this whole huge world that I can participate in. I think that if I didn’t go to school I would still feel the same way… …I kind of feel like my life was a blank coloring page before I started going to school and now it’s kind of half colored, I don’t think it’s finished.” Lydia (pseudonym)
- 25. Artwork by Ben Grosso
- 26. 3.63
Notes de l'éditeur
- Good morning. I’d like you to take a moment and think about a time in your life when you felt like you really accomplished something. What ingredients went into making it a success? Did you put in long hours? Did it require stretches of time secluded away from family and friends? Or did the makings of your success involve others – partners, teachers, colleagues, cheerleaders, mentors?
- Psychologists and, increasingly, education and higher education scholars are using “grit” – one of many non-cognitive personality traits - to explain why successful people are successful. The research I am going to share with you this morning critically examines the idea of “grit” and its application to community college students, a population that is very diverse and a sector that has seen a concentration of attention on improving student outcomes.
- How many of you have seen this TedTalk by Angela Duckworth? Duckworth, a psychologist by training, is the Director of the Duckworth Lab at the University of Pennsylvania and a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur “Genius Grant.” She has been at the forefront of grit scholarship, and her work has already begun shaping public discourse – both in the way the media talks about students and in the proliferation of interventions and programs aimed at making students grittier.
- Duckworth and her colleagues have defined grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” in the face of setbacks and adversity.
- How many of you have taken the grit survey? In a handful of rating scale questions, the survey can discern your degree of grittiness. I learned that on a scale of one (not gritty) to five (very gritty)…
- I am *kind of* gritty. I’m still not really sure how to make sense of a 3.63 grit score.
- In many ways grit is a very “American” meritocratic concept: it’s focused on what one is able to accomplish through hard work and sacrifice, glorifying the talents and commitment of the individual over the collective.
- Grit research, primarily conducted by positive psychologists, indicates that an individual’s level of “grittiness” is related to higher levels of education, goal attainment in the face of disappointment or adversity, fewer career changes, and, ultimately, overall success in their chosen activity or vocation.
- Higher education scholars in the United States have recently begun to apply the grit framework to college-age and minority student populations enrolled at a range of selective and less-selective institutions, and have found mixed results.
- However, much of the grit research still focuses on younger and homogeneous groups of students in very unique educational environments – such as the cadets at the elite West Point military academy who are academically and physically robust, participants in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and undergraduate students at prestigious selective and highly selective universities.
- My talk today is informed by my work with 40 students enrolled at one community college in the American southwest. Their experiences and voices provide a complement, extension, and critique to the existing grit literature. This study is a small part of a larger study that used a student survey, interviews with students, faculty, and administrators, and two exploratory visual exercises to better understand ideas about community college student success. While the 40 students I interviewed were highly diverse across multiple dimensions, they reflect the wide range of individuals who rely on the community college to bring about a better life for themselves and their families. Today, I am going to share one student’s story and ask you to consider whether grit adequately captures her educational experiences – both past and present.
- I’d like to introduce you to Lydia.
- Lydia is in her early 30s and is married with three children who range in age from infant to teenager. Her mom did not go to college and her dad graduated from a for-profit trade school. Lydia is the first of her siblings to enroll in higher education. While this is not her first time in college, this will be her first time completing a degree program.
- What is also important to know about Lydia is that she was in the prison system when she was younger and that has affected her ideas about what she is able to accomplish in life.
- Lydia’s family moved to the southwest from Montana when she was 12. As a young learner, Lydia was not a very gritty student. In her words, she: “lived a very colorful life as a young person, so school was definitely on the back burner.” At some point, she entered the prison system, and since being released she has been a full-time mom. Lydia’s been enrolled at ECC since 2012, taking four classes each term, and is about to earn her associate’s degree. She’s planning on transferring to a local four-year college to complete her bachelor’s degree.
- Like other older, non-traditional students, Lydia has navigated the college herself – researching what classes to take, figuring out financial aid, and choosing her major. In many ways, Lydia’s college experience could be explained by grit. She is independent, she takes a full course load, she hasn’t taken any breaks from enrollment, and she has a clear goal of what she wants to do.
- At the same time, Lydia’s future has been constrained by her youthful indiscretions. Her time in prison is a “gray cloud” over her head, potentially limiting her ability to work in her chosen field. Would she then qualify as very gritty, given her determination to persevere despite her academic and personal background?
- But, in addition to her own resolve, Lydia’s ability and passion to pursue a career working with adolescents in need is also due to the support systems at the college and the encouragement of her husband and her children.
- When applying for financial aid, Lydia accidently checked the work study box and, luckily, was awarded an on-campus job working 20 hours a week. When her financial aid award letter arrived, she was shocked – and excited – to see the work study position listed because she thought her conviction would prevent her from holding a job. It’s because of this job that the gray cloud casting a shadow over her future began to lift. This unexpected opportunity to connect with college staff and build professional relationships outside the home was extremely important to developing her self-confidence.
- Lydia also made an effort to meet with the college counselors, who encouraged her to continue with her degree goal despite the additional hoops she will have to jump through because of her conviction.
- For Lydia, it was the combination of her on campus job, the support she received from her immediate family and the college counseling staff, the acceptance of other students who have welcomed her as a fellow learner, and connections with faculty that have helped her bounce back from her own insecurities.
- Lydia now sees a future for herself, and it’s the important others in her life who are helping her make it a reality.
- So, {click} is Lydia gritty? She certainly meets the definition of grit. But, {click} as her story illustrates, she’s been able to persevere and purse her goals because of the influence of external agents. And, her ability to bounce back from the various adversities in her life has been nurtured by these important others.
- The danger, I think, of applying grit – a very masculine, vaguely Puritanical concept that is still largely untested – to highly diverse student populations and non-selective institutions (like the community college or public schools) is that it provides a skewed understanding of what helps individuals become successful. Whatever the factors that contribute to students’ ability to be successful in education, focusing on internal qualities such as grit perpetuates the false impression that students’ achievements are the products of only their own industriousness. More damaging, perhaps, is that students begin to explain their own accomplishments without recognizing that they did not – and don’t have to – go it alone. This is evident in the visual data I collected; the students, particularly the male students, had internalized this grit narrative, brining pictures and images that symbolized how they alone had made their college successes possible, even though further discussion led to the identification of other key influences, such as that one crucial faculty member or a fellow student who had taken the time to show them the ropes.
- Grit’s emphasis on the individual is also problematic because it ignores the material conditions, cultural differences, and social and political structures that students navigate on a daily basis, which makes it an inherently racist and classist concept. While the rush to embrace grit may be done with good intentions, we – as parents, teachers, researchers, and policymakers – have a responsibility to the students we serve and represent to thoroughly understand grit’s underlying assumptions about learning and success, and question its real usefulness in explaining what goes into successful student outcomes – before we apply it. **intersection of agency and structure????**
- Thinking about my own moderate grit score, one might not expect me to be on the verge of completing a doctoral degree. But, {click} like the students I have worked with and, I suspect, like you, the sum of my ability to persevere and stick to my goal is greater than my grit score. It is reflected in the people who have supported and challenged me – people in this room, people in other states, people in other countries. I think we can do better than grit to capture students’ successes, and ask you to consider: What do we gain by using a single personality trait to predict or explain students’ accomplishments? Perhaps more importantly, what do we lose?