We are looking for a PhD candidate to study the psychological consequences of unequal treatment in the elementary school classroom.

Inequality is on the rise globally. And this is visible in the classroom. Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) or immigration backgrounds underperform in school relative to their high-SES or non-immigrant peers, even when they are equally competent.

Teachers often seek to reduce such achievement inequality by tailoring education to the needs of individual children (also known as within-school differentiation). One approach is formal differentiation, which involves assigning children to different ability groups (e.g., low ability groups receive additional instruction, high ability groups more challenging tasks). Another approach is informal differentiation, which involves teachers adapting their teaching practices to children from different backgrounds, often unknowingly and unintentionally (e.g., setting higher expectations, providing more praise).

Although these formal and information differentiation practices can be beneficial, they might also have adverse effects (e.g., children in low ability groups develop negative self-views). In this PhD project you will examine the psychological impact of differentiation practices on children (6-12 years) and whether it can inadvertently contribute to unequal opportunities.

The overarching project consist of two research projects.

• Project 1 takes place at the Kids in Context Lab (https://kidsincontext.com), part of the Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University. This project focuses on formal differentiation, such as ability grouping. The vacancy for this project (Project 1) can be found on the website of Utrecht University.
• Project 2 takes place at KiDLAB (https://kidlab.nl/), part of the Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam. This project focuses on informal differentiation (e.g., setting higher expectations or providing more encouragement to children). The current vacancy is for this project (Project 2).

If you are interested in both projects, please apply for both. If you have a preference for one project over the other, please indicate this in your letter.

Although the projects take place at different institutions, they are part of the same research program and involve close collaboration between the PhD candidates. The PhD candidates will conduct their own studies, but they will collaborate with each other to conduct a longitudinal study in a socioeconomically diverse sample. The goal is to examine how differentiation practices shape interpersonal (e.g., friendships) and intrapersonal (e.g., self-views) outcomes over time. 

Both project are supervised by Jellie Sierksma (Utrecht University) and Eddie Brummelman (University of Amsterdam). Stefanie Nelemans (Utrecht University) will co-supervise Research Project 1. We are an interdisciplinary team, combining insights from developmental, educational, and social psychology, as well as adjacent disciplines such as sociology.