Educationism: The Hidden Bias We Often Ignore教育歧視：人們經(jīng)常忽視的隱性偏見

A subtle form of discrimination exists towards those who are less educated and it divides society in a number of ways.

人們對(duì)受教育程度低的人群抱有隱性歧視，這種歧視以多種方式分化著社會(huì)。

The first time Lance Fusarelli set foot on a university campus， he felt surrounded by people who seemed to know more than him—about society， social graces and “everything that was different”.

蘭斯·富薩雷利剛上大學(xué)時(shí)，他覺得自己周圍人的知識(shí)面似乎都比他更廣——他們對(duì)社會(huì)、社交禮儀以及所有“與眾不同的事物”比他更為了解。

He attributes these differences to his upbringing. While he didn’t grow up poor， it was in a working-class town in a small rural area in Avella， Pennsylvania. He was the first in his family to go to university—his mother got pregnant and had to drop out of school， while his father went to work in a coal mine in his mid-teens. He lived in an environment where few stayed in education beyond high school.

他認(rèn)為與同學(xué)的這些差距都是他所處的成長(zhǎng)環(huán)境所致。他家算不上窮困，但住在賓州阿韋拉鄉(xiāng)間的一座工薪階層小鎮(zhèn)上，他是在那里長(zhǎng)大的。他是家中第一位大學(xué)生——母親懷孕后不得不輟學(xué)，而父親十五六歲時(shí)就開始在煤礦工作。他的生活環(huán)境里，周圍沒幾個(gè)人有高中以上的學(xué)歷。

It worked out well for him. Fusarelli is now highly educated and a professor and director of graduate programmes at North Carolina State University. Occasionally he’s reminded of how he felt in those early days， when a colleague innocently corrected his imperfect grammar. “He wasn’t being mean， we were good friends， he just grew up in a different environment，” he says." “Sometimes I will not always talk like an academic. I tend to use more colourful language.”

即使是這樣，他的生活還算順利。富薩雷利現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)接受過高等教育，并且是北卡羅來納州立大學(xué)的教授和研究生項(xiàng)目主任。但偶然間的一次，一位同事無意中糾正了他的語法錯(cuò)誤，這讓他回想起了自己早年的感受。“他并不是針對(duì)我，我們是非常要好的朋友，只是他的成長(zhǎng)環(huán)境和我不同。”他說：“我不總是用學(xué)術(shù)語言進(jìn)行交談，我更喜歡使用生動(dòng)的語言。”

While Fusarelli has risen through the ranks of academia， his experiences have highlighted the social divide that can exist in education. For those who are less educated due to their disadvantaged background， they face a subtle but pervasive bias. A report in 2017 in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology named the term “educationism”： educated people are implicitly biased against the less educated. And this has unfortunate， unintended consequences that often stem from the gap between the rich and poor.

雖然富薩雷利在學(xué)術(shù)界已經(jīng)有所成就，但他的經(jīng)歷卻揭示了教育中可能存在的社會(huì)分化。對(duì)于那些由于貧困而沒有受到良好教育的人來說，他們面臨著一種普遍的隱性歧視。《實(shí)驗(yàn)社會(huì)心理學(xué)雜志》2017年的某篇文章提出了“教育歧視”一詞，并將其解釋為：受過良好教育的人對(duì)受教育程度較低的人存在隱性偏見。這種偏見會(huì)無意中帶來某些不好的后果，而這些后果往往源于貧富差距。

It’s a “societal level” issue that creates a significant divide， says Toon Kuppens of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands， part of the team who coined the term.

荷蘭格羅寧根大學(xué)的圖恩·庫彭斯是提出該詞的團(tuán)隊(duì)成員之一。他說，這是一個(gè)“社會(huì)層面”的問題，并且造成了嚴(yán)重的社會(huì)分化。

The idea that people are biased against the less educated is not a new one. In the 1980s the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called it the “racism of intelligence… of the dominant class”， which serves to justify their position in society. Bourdieu pointed to the fact that the education system was invented by the ruling classes， with middle-class knowledge and questions appearing in tests.

人們對(duì)受教育程度較低的人持有偏見，這并不是什么新鮮事兒。20世紀(jì)80年代，法國社會(huì)學(xué)家皮埃爾·布爾迪厄稱之為“統(tǒng)治階級(jí)的……智力種族主義”，這有助于證明統(tǒng)治階級(jí)在社會(huì)中地位的正當(dāng)性。布爾迪厄指出，教育制度是由統(tǒng)治階級(jí)創(chuàng)建的，考試中也就出現(xiàn)了中產(chǎn)階級(jí)的知識(shí)和考題。

Education also appears to divide society in many ways. Higher levels of educational attainment are linked to greater income， better health， improved well-being and elevated levels of employment. Educational status also reveals political divides. Those with lower qualifications were more likely to vote for Britain to leave the European Union， for example. One report even found that education level played a bigger role in the Brexit vote than age， sex or income.

教育似乎在許多方面都造成了社會(huì)分化。高水平教育往往與更可觀的收入、更健康的身體、更高的幸福感和更高水平的就業(yè)存在關(guān)聯(lián)。教育狀況也能揭示政治分歧。例如，低學(xué)歷人群更有可能投票支持英國退出歐盟。一份報(bào)告甚至發(fā)現(xiàn)，與年齡、性別或收入等其他因素相比，人們的受教育程度更能影響英國的脫歐公投。

To address this， Kuppens and colleagues set up several experiments to understand attitudes towards education. They asked subjects outright how positive and warm they felt about others， but they also asked indirectly by describing several individuals’ jobs and education background， which participants then had to evaluate positively or negatively.

為了弄清這個(gè)問題，庫彭斯和同事們?cè)O(shè)計(jì)了幾個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)來了解人們對(duì)教育的態(tài)度。他們既直接詢問受試者是否認(rèn)可和喜歡他人，也通過描述他人的工作和教育背景進(jìn)行間接詢問，然后讓受試者給出或好或壞的評(píng)價(jià)。

The results were clear—individuals who attained higher levels of education were liked more， both by high and lower-educated subjects. Participants who were more highly educated were clearly not “inherently more tolerant” than the lower-educated， as is commonly believed， says Kuppens.

實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果顯而易見：無論是高學(xué)歷人群還是低學(xué)歷人群都更喜歡受教育程度更高的人。庫彭斯表示，受教育程度較高的參與者顯然并不像人們普遍認(rèn)為的那樣，比受教育程度較低的參與者“天生更寬容”。

What’s more， he says that one of the reasons the bias exists is that education level is somehow perceived to be something people can control. “We are evaluating people—giving them negative attitudes—even though we know that in reality they cannot be blamed for their low education.”

此外，他說，這種偏見存在的原因之一是，教育水平不知怎么被視作可以人為掌控的。“盡管我們知道學(xué)歷低不是他們的錯(cuò)，但我們?nèi)詫?duì)他人作出評(píng)價(jià)，并對(duì)他們持否定態(tài)度。”

The reason people cannot be blamed for low levels of education is due to its link to poverty. Those from poor backgrounds quickly fall behind their classmates at school and fewer teens from disadvantaged backgrounds go to university.

受教育水平低與貧困有關(guān)，所以人不應(yīng)因低學(xué)歷而受到指責(zé)。家境貧寒的學(xué)生很快在學(xué)業(yè)上落后于同學(xué)，來自貧困家庭的青少年上大學(xué)的就更少了。

Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington of the London School of Economics， says that a lack of resources adds a sense of stigma and shame that creates low self-esteem， a pattern she says is more likely in societies with meritocratic ideologies， where an individual’s achievement is seen as being based largely upon intelligence and hard-work.

倫敦經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院的詹妮弗·希伊-斯凱芬頓表示，社會(huì)資源的缺乏會(huì)帶給人們羞恥感，進(jìn)而產(chǎn)生自卑感。這種模式在精英主義意識(shí)形態(tài)的社會(huì)中更有可能出現(xiàn)，在這些社會(huì)中，個(gè)人的成就被認(rèn)為主要是智力和努力的結(jié)果。

Poverty even affects decision making. “The cognitive skills you need in order to make good financial decisions aren’t readily available when you’re facing the stress of realising you’re doing worse than others，” says Sheehy-Skeffington in one revealing study. It’s not that their mental processes shut down， but rather that individuals were more focussed on the present threat to their status rather than concentrating on tasks at hand.

貧窮甚至?xí)绊懭藗兊臎Q策能力。希伊-斯凱芬頓在一項(xiàng)發(fā)人深省的研究中指出：“當(dāng)你意識(shí)到自己境況比別人差時(shí)，你會(huì)產(chǎn)生某種壓力，而這種壓力會(huì)影響到做出正確財(cái)務(wù)決策所需的認(rèn)知能力。”這并不是說他們的大腦失去了思考能力，而是在這樣的壓力之下，這些個(gè)體更專注于當(dāng)前對(duì)自身地位的威脅，而無法集中精力完成眼前任務(wù)。

And even if individuals from the working-class do reach higher education， they often have to “discard the original parts of their identity in order to become socially mobile”， explains Erica Southgate from the University of Newcastle in Australia. She has studied the stigmas faced by individuals who are the first in their family to reach higher education. She found that in subjects such as medicine， there’s a prevailing assumption from classmates that everyone comes from a similar social background. “It wasn’t so much overt stigma， but the hidden injuries of social class that kept emerging—people kept having to explain themselves.”

澳大利亞紐卡斯?fàn)柎髮W(xué)的埃麗卡·索思蓋特解釋說，即使來自工薪階層的人接受了高等教育，他們也常常不得不“拋棄自己最初的身份，以便實(shí)現(xiàn)社會(huì)的階層流動(dòng)”。她研究了家中第一個(gè)接受高等教育的人在社會(huì)上所面臨的歧視。她發(fā)現(xiàn)，在醫(yī)學(xué)等學(xué)科中，同學(xué)們普遍認(rèn)為每個(gè)人都來自相似的社會(huì)背景。“這與其說是明顯的恥辱印記，不如說是不斷出現(xiàn)的社會(huì)階級(jí)隱性創(chuàng)傷——人們只得不斷解釋。”

So， what could help overcome the education divide？ One view is that different ways of scoring tests could help even the playing field. If detailed feedback on how to improve is given instead of simple graded scores， it helps “focus on assessment as a tool for education” rather than assessment for selection， Butera argues. In other words， children learn to further their knowledge， rather than learn to do well on tests.

那么，怎樣才能幫助克服教育的差距呢？有一種觀點(diǎn)指出，不同的考試評(píng)分方式或許有助于實(shí)現(xiàn)公平競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。布特拉認(rèn)為，如果反饋意見能給出詳細(xì)建議，告訴學(xué)生如何提升自己，而不是只打個(gè)分，將有助于“將成績(jī)?cè)u(píng)定專門用作一種教育手段”，而不是為了選拔而評(píng)分。換句話說，孩子們應(yīng)該學(xué)習(xí)如何拓展他們的知識(shí)面，而不是學(xué)習(xí)如何在考試中取得好成績(jī)。

“Our team has shown that one viable solution is to create a classroom environment where assessment is part of the learning process，” says Butera. “This appears to reduce social class and gender inequalities， and promote a culture of solidarity and cooperation.”

布特拉說：“我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)證明，一個(gè)可行的解決方案是營造一種課堂氛圍，讓評(píng)估成為學(xué)習(xí)的一部分。這樣似乎可以減少社會(huì)階級(jí)和性別的不平等，也可以弘揚(yáng)團(tuán)結(jié)合作的文化。”

For Fusarelli， the most important thing is for both parents and teachers to expect the best from children at a young age to reinforce the idea that “they can do this and succeed”.

富薩雷利認(rèn)為，最重要的是父母和老師都要在孩子小時(shí)候就對(duì)他們充滿信心，認(rèn)為他們出類拔萃，不斷增強(qiáng)“他們可以做到，他們可以成功”的心理暗示。

“If you have low expectations of the kids they’ll sink to the level of expectations，” he says. That’s why he tells prospective low-income students to “trust your ability and believe you belong”.

他說：“如果你對(duì)孩子的期望很低，那么他們就會(huì)降到你所期望的低水平。”這就是為什么他告訴那些有潛力的低收入家庭學(xué)生要“相信自己的能力，相信自己能有更好的未來”。

Of course， biases in the education system won’t go away overnight. What’s worse is that most of us don’t realise that these biases exist. The meritocratic attitude that hard workers will succeed is still pervasive， despite evidence to show that many factors beyond an individual’s control can hinder potential.

當(dāng)然，教育制度中的偏見不會(huì)在一夜之間消失。更可怕的是，我們大多數(shù)人都沒有意識(shí)到這些偏見的存在。盡管有證據(jù)表明，許多個(gè)人無法掌控的因素會(huì)阻礙潛能的發(fā)揮，但認(rèn)為只要勤奮努力就能成功的精英主義意識(shí)仍然普遍存在。

And unfortunately， it is those who are better educated， and who should be sensitive to discrimination， who can benefit—often unknowingly—from the very inequality they helped to create.

遺憾的是，正是那些受過良好教育的人，那些應(yīng)該對(duì)歧視敏感的人，往往在不知不覺中從他們助長(zhǎng)的不平等中受益。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)撸?/p>