Translating Identity-Based Motivation to Intervention: Pathways to Success from School to Jobs and Life

In this chapter I describe the school-to-jobs intervention, a brief inter¬vention that translates the components of identity-based motivation (IBM) into a testable, usable, feasible, and scalable intervention for use in schools and other settings to improve academic outcomes. To develop the intervention, I took the core IBM principles and translated them into a framework and set of activities that have coherence and meaning. These core principles, as detailed in Chapter 1, are that identities, strategies, and interpretations of difficulty matter when they come to mind and seem relevant to the situation at hand. Because thinking is for doing, context matters, and identities, strategies, and interpretations of difficulty can be dynamically constructed given situational constraints and affordances. Therefore the framework and set of activities I developed were sensitive to the context in which education and educational success or failure occurs, the processes by which children succeed or fail to attain their school-success goals, and the action children need to take if they are to succeed. The intervention was fully tested twice (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006; Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee, 2002), using random assignment to control (school as usual) and intervention conditions so that it would be possible to know whether the effects were due to the intervention and not to other differences in the children themselves. Importantly, the tested intervention was manualized and fidelity to both manual and underlying theorized process was also tested. In these ways, the intervention stands as a model for development. STJ is currently being used in England and in Singapore. Each country gives the intervention its own name to fit the context. This chapter is divided into three parts. In the first part, I outline the choices I made in developing the intervention. In the second part, I outline the sequenced activities that constitute the intervention (they are detailed in the manual that forms Chapter 4). In the third part, I describe the evidence that the intervention succeeded in changing academic outcomes and that changes occurred through the process predicted by IBM.

Identity-Based Motivation

People experience themselves across time—recalling who they were and imagining who they will become. This consciousness of the self over time (Tulving, 1985; Wheeler, Stuss, & Tulving, 1997) and the ability to mentally “time travel” is a general human capacity (Epstude & Peetz, 2012) that develops by about age five (Atance, 2008; Atance & Jackson, 2009; Atance & Meltzoff, 2005; Russell, Alexis, & Clayton, 2010). For this reason, the future self can play a role in current choices from an early age. Indeed, when asked, people report imagining their future selves; they can describe both positive and negative possible identities their future selves might have (Dalley & Buunk, 2011; Norman & Aron, 2003). People say they care about whether they are making progress toward attaining their positive and avoiding their negative future identities (Vignoles, Manzi, Regalia, Jemmolo, & Scabini, 2008). They even report that their future selves are truer versions of themselves than their present selves, which are limited by the demands of everyday life (Wakslak, Nussbaum, Liberman, & Trope, 2008). Given all that, it might seem unnecessary to test whether people’s current actions are influenced by their future identities. Surely it has to be the case that future identities matter. Yet uncovering the circumstances in which the future self and other aspects of identity matter for behavior has turned out to be difficult. It is not always apparent that identities matter in spite of people’s feelings that they must. Figuring out the underlying process is critical to reducing the gap between aspirations and attainments and is the focus of this book. Does the future self really make such a difference in behavior? In the next sections, I provide a perspective and research evidence to answer the question. While often used interchangeably, the terms self, self-esteem, and identity are based on different concepts (Oyserman, Elmore, & Smith, 2012). Self-esteem is the positive or negative regard one has for oneself. Identities are descriptors (e.g., homeowner, middle-aged), personal traits (e.g., shy, outgoing), and social roles (e.g., mother, daughter) and the content that goes with these traits, descriptors, and roles (e.g., proud, worried).

A Focus on Educucation

American students aspireto getgood grades and succeed in college (Rosenbaum, Deil-Amen, & Person 2006; Trusty, 2000). This is true across the socioeconomic spectrum (for a review, see Oyserman, 2013). American parents share these goals. They have high educational aspirations and expectations for their children even if their own educational and economic attainments are low (Entwisle et al., 2005; Kim, Sherraden, & Clancy, 2012; Madeira, 2009). Parental. In this paper I do not distinguish between aspirations and expectations. This is in contrast to other researchers who find it useful to make that distinction, with an aspiration involving hopes and dreams (e.g., “if you could be anything at all, what would you most hope and want to be?”) and an expectation involving subjective estimation of what is actually possible (e.g., “if you had to bet money on it, what will you be?”). Logically, the two are different. Hopes will be higher than expectations, since expectations imply that one could really do it and hopes imply only that one would want it to transpire. Researchers also assume that expectations are more likely to be linked to behavior than hopes, in part because expectations involve predictions of one’s own competence. An expectation is something one believes one has the skills and competence to attain; in that sense it is akin to how the term efficacy, or self-efficacy, is used. In education, expectancy-value theories (e.g., Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) predict that people will take action to attain valued school outcomes if they expect that they have the skills to attain these outcomes. Because aspirations are not defined as being linked to skills, within a value-expectancy framework, they are less central. Although all of these arguments are compelling, as I outline next, the parents and children who respond to surveys and are of interest to us here do not seem to be following this logic. The way that data on aspirations and expectations are collected in survey research is typically to ask children and their parents, first, how far they would ideally like to go in school and, second, how far they realistically expect to go in school.

School-to-Jobs Implementation Manual: Including Fidelity and Outcome Measures

Greet participants as they enter and take attendance in a notebook—noting if on time, late, or absent. This ensures that you will quickly learn all participants’ names. Knowing names allows you to refer to participants by name, which is very positively reinforcing and increases engagement. If you need help learning names, photograph participants in Session 1; make photo nametags with names large enough for you to read and have participants pick them up at the beginning of each session (and leave them behind). Repeat names each time a person participates. This enormously increases engagement. Pay attention to the flow so that time will be adequate. Stick to the session theme by eliciting discussion focused on theme and weaving focus back to theme. This is not counseling or therapy. Do not delve deeply into a student’s life, problems, or issues. Do not go off on tangents about other information. This is not career counseling or academic guidance. Positively reinforce both speakers and listeners. Positive reinforcement is task oriented. It is specific and helps participants behave in ways that will help them stay in school. Positive reinforcement is not simply saying “good” or “great job!” or “interesting comment.” Positive reinforcement is specific; this means saying what was good or interesting about the job or comment. Examples would be (Session 1) “That was a good introduction; you gave a skill John has to succeed in next year in school.” Or (Session 10) “Great! Your group came up with questions instead of jumping right in with a solution.” Use the outline agenda as a structure guide for participants. Hang the agenda prior to the start of each session. Bring newsprint and writing material to each training session. Write participant responses on newsprint so their work in the session is visible. The newsprint serves to structure the flow and highlight themes. Responses that focus on themes relevant to the session should be organized physically on the page by placing content about a theme together without labeling and later labeling each theme as part of the connecting discussion.