Is There a Place for Me? Role Models and Academic Identity among White Students and Students of Color

By Sabrina Zirkel. Teachers College Record, 2002

322 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Role models have long been thought to play an important role in young peoples’ development. The present study explores the ways that race- and gender-matched role models can provide young people with a greater sense of the opportunities available to them in the world. A longitudinal study of young adolescents (N = 80) revealed that students who reported having at least one race- and gender-matched role model at the beginning of the study performed better academically up to 24 months later, reported more achievement-oriented goals, enjoyed achievement-relevant activities to a greater degree, thought more about their futures, and looked up to adults rather than peers more often than did students without a race- and gender-matched role model. These effects held only for race- and gender-matched role models—not for non-matched role models. Finally, the results held irrespective of the educational achievements of the specific role model. Data are discussed in terms of their implications for our understanding of the ways that young people become invested in academic pursuits and the means by which we might be able to assist goal development among young people.

Subfields: Education, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e77438522b83b1730f97b9b37216af0e6c42922d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Education

In Safety Research

Citations in the corpus

Examining the cognitive processes used by adolescent girls and women scientists in identifying science role models: A feminist approach (2008, background): “…to enter a profession when they are able to identify a role model in that occupation (Betz, 1994; Hackett & Betz, 1981; Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1994; Zirkel, 2002); however, this research does not further our understanding of the cognitive process students use in identifying a person as a role…”
A Teacher Like Me: A Review of the Effect of Student–Teacher Racial/Ethnic Matching on Teacher Perceptions of Students and Student Academic and Behavioral Outcomes (2019, background): “Zirkel (2002) argues that adolescents’ identity development is critical in the identification of extrafamilial role models, with co-racial or co-ethnic role models being of particularly importance to Black and Latino/a students’ educational aspirations.”
Sources of Inspiration: The role of significant persons in young people's choice of science in higher education (2012, background): “Eccles, 2009; McIntyre, Paulson, & Lord, 2003) and role model characteristics (e.g. Lockwood, Jordan, & Kunda, 2002; Zirkel, 2002), with an emphasis on gender issues (e.”
Feeling at Home in College: Fortifying School‐Relevant Selves to Reduce Social Class Disparities in Higher Education (2015, background): “These profiles could include current students and alumni from a variety of career paths and thereby provide prospective and current students with potential role models (e.g., Marx & Roman, 2002; Zirkel, 2002).”
The Effects of Teacher Match on Students’ Academic Perceptions and Attitudes (2017, background): “…interactions tend to focus on the psychological and social effects that may occur when students are better able to view their teachers as role models (Boser, 2011; Evans, 1992; Zirkel, 2002), or when negatively biasing stereotypes of student– teacher interactions are abated (Ferguson, 1998).”
Race and Belonging in School: How Anticipated and Experienced Belonging Affect Choice, Persistence, and Performance (2015, background): “Efforts to change those social representations—including the availability of race-matched role models (Zirkel, 2002), mentoring programs, identity-based clubs and organizations (e.”
Profoundly Multicultural Questions. (2003, background): “Another study found that having same race and gender role models was “significantly and consistently predic- tive of a greater investment in achievement concerns” on the part of young people (Zirkel, 2002, p. 371).”