The implications for student self-esteem of ordinary differences in schools : the cases of Malta and England

Abstract

This article explores self-esteem and its relationship with achievement and difference. It is written as an ongoing narrative between the two authors, who through their autobiographical conversations try to come to terms with the effects of ordinary (i.e. unexceptional, non-deviant) differences on self-esteem. Through a critical analysis of their own experiences as students, teachers, researchers and academics, the authors try to explore how differences are discursively constructed and how they might be reconstructed. The article is in three parts. It starts with an analytic enquiry of the construction of individual self-esteem. The authors argue that current orthodoxy about self-esteem is oversimplified because it focuses on an individual’s response to personal achievement and to face-to-face social relationships. It is argued that the story must be much more complex and include issues of social justice. The second part uses qualitative data from Malta and England and autobiographical data in order to explore the relationship between self-esteem and the achievements and aspirations of students. The third and final part uses these results to construct a concept of ‘ordinary difference’ which celebrates individual and socio-political differences rather than tries to standardise them.