Educational Disparities Among Marginalized Groups of Students

Abstract

Parents play a critical role in shaping their children's educational outcomes. Scholars identify parental resources, family background, and capital investments in children as factors that contribute to educational outcomes later in life. Schools also prove to be important contexts where children develop, suggesting that both families and schools are important for promoting youths' educational success. Ecological systems theory suggests the importance of considering how multiple contexts affect youths' social, cognitive, and behavioral development and maintains that socio-demographic factors, such as race and ethnicity, may affect interactions with immediate settings, such as families and schools. Therefore, drawing from this perspective, this researcher argues that perceiving one's school as unsafe and being the victim of bullying disrupts the educational process, particularly for students of color. Bullying encompasses a power dynamic between the bully and bully-victim, and the presence of bullying in schools may exacerbate unequal school environments.