Educational Stigmatization as a Social Phenomenon: A Sociological Analysis

Abstract

Educational stigmatization is an under-researched topic in the sociology of education. In this paper, we address educational stigmatization in the context of current problems affecting Russian education—expanding educational inequalities, educational underperformance, and the dehumanization of educational relations. Drawing on Goffman’s theory of stigma, we define an educational stigma as a negative attitude towards individuals, groups, or organizations whose educational activity and progress do not fit “normality”, and we develop a level approach to study it. Empirically, we draw on in-depth interviews with teachers, the parents of school and university students, focus groups of school and university students, and the content of parents’ social media. We used the sociological approach, considering the social context of educational stigmatization and applied a level approach to its study. These principles made it possible to identify the features and mechanisms of the stigmatization of educational failure at the individual, organizational, and institutional levels. The article shows how, at the individual level, students form behavioral strategies aimed at overcoming a stigmatizing situation and at reducing adaptation to it. Special attention is paid to the multiple roles of teachers, psychologists, and parents in a situation of educational stigmatization, acting in some cases as stigmatizing or co-participating agents; in other situations acting as sympathetic and supportive agents. An important result of the study is the characteristic of the mechanisms of educational stigmatization at the community level in relation to groups or classes of unsuccessful schoolchildren. In this regard, group strategies of stigmatized behavior are considered—the strategy of obtaining secondary benefits, the strategy of the imitation of academic success, and the strategy of leaving. The severity of the problem of institutional stigmatization arising in relation to inefficient educational organizations, including schools and universities, is emphasized. © (2023) All Rights Reserved.