Background: Past studies on mindsets have mostly examined them as an individual difference variable. However, the mindset-by-context framework argues that mindsets do not occur within a vacuum, and their successful implementation depends on the social context. One of the most important social contexts for students is the socioeconomic conditions…

There is a heated debate about the efficacy of growth mindsets in predicting achievement and other key learning-related outcomes with some studies supporting and others failing to find evidence of growth mindset's adaptive effects. Moreover, past studies on mindsets have mostly examined it as a psychological variable with little attention to how…

The author met Jerome when he was a senior in a psychology class taught by the author. He stood out from the rest of the class not only in his academic performance, but also in the ways he approached class--always prepared, asking good questions, going above and beyond in his assignments. He was the dream student--hard working, curious, passionate…

When preparing college-age teacher candidates to teach in diverse contexts, knowing how they reconcile knowledge, self-author, and negotiate social relationships can enhance pedagogy and inform program design. In this article, the authors use a developmental framework they created to examine how teacher candidates' visual metaphors about White…

Constructivism and intersectionality are used to explore one lesbian college student's multiple identities. These frameworks reveal how meaning-making contributes to power's influence on identity, while power shapes meaning-making. For this student, lesbian identity is a product of social class, dominant and subordinate norms, and interactions…

Elite schools around the world aspire to produce perfect students and yet there are always obstacles to this perfection being achieved. In this paper, we suggest that this process of perfectionism and obstruction can best be understood using a methodology that looks to the creative arts, rather than the usual social science orthodoxies. Our focus…