Project to examine stereotypes in schools secures EU funding

How stereotypes are applied to students by their peers in school and how they can avoid harmful stereotypes being applied to them, is the focus of a new research project.

Dr Zsofia Boda, from the Department Sociology and Criminology, is among 494 young academics from across Europe to have secured a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.

The ERC funding - totalling nearly €780 million - supports cutting-edge research in a wide range of fields, from life sciences and physics to social sciences and humanities. The funding is part of the EU Horizon Europe programme.

Focusing on ten English secondary schools, Dr Boda’s €1.5m project will investigate how students apply stereotypes to their peers and how those stereotypes affect an individual and, ultimately, have the potential to conserve social inequalities.

“Stereotypes can lead to minority students being treated differently, with the knock-on effect of self-fulfilling prophecies that hinder their academic success,” explained Dr Boda.

“By looking at how stereotypes are applied and how people can avoid harmful stereotypes being applied to them will help us better understand why some minority students succeed against the odds. We are also hoping to identify contexts in which students are more likely to be judged based on their individual characteristics rather than wide-spread stereotypes.”

She added: “Beyond the obvious role of teachers, peers are crucial as they are an important part of students’ socialisation. How they are perceived by their peers can affect their motivation, interests, achievements, and relationships.”

The project will pioneer research on applied stereotypes of peers and self-fulfilling prophecies, creating crucial new knowledge that will add to the current understanding of the reproduction of social inequalities.

Announcing the Starting Grants, President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, said: “Empowering researchers early on in their careers is at the heart of the mission of the ERC. I am particularly pleased to welcome UK researchers back to the ERC. They have been sorely missed over the past years. With 50 grants awarded to researchers based in the UK, this influx is good for the research community overall.”

EU Research Commissioner, Iliana Ivanova added: “The European Commission is proud to support the curiosity and passion of our early-career talent under our Horizon Europe programme. The new ERC Starting Grants winners aim to deepen our understanding of the world. Their creativity is vital to finding solutions to some of the most pressing societal challenges. In this call, I am happy to see one of the highest shares of female grantees to date, a trend that I hope will continue. Congratulations to all.”