Merit and meritocracy are two terms that in recent years have been increasingly seen as synonymous of fairness and justice. But is it really so? In the course of history, they have been analyzed from the philosophical, juridical, political, economic, pedagogical point of view, but from whatever point of view we analyze them, it is evident that concepts like merit and meritocracy present some criticalities. Through an examination of some of the main and most recent studies published at national and international level, this proposal wants to share a pedagogical reading of these two concepts that can account for the different theories, paradigms and concrete declinations that have concerned these two terms since the publication of Michael Young's book "The rise of the meritocracy" (1958).

1. Merit and Meritocracy
between Educational Poverty and
Training Opportunities.
A Pedagogical Perspective
ECER 2022, Yerevan and ECER plus
Education in a changing world:
the impact of global realities
on the prospects and
experiences of educational
reserach
Speakers:
Prof. Francesco Magni
Dott.ssa Virginia Capriotti

2. Research questions
- Are merit, meritocracy and talents synonymous?
- What declination of meritocracy and talents do
we find in schools (secondary)?
- And in secondary vocational training instead?
- How does the evaluation of learning contribute to
an enhancement of the merit and talents of all
and not to a mere selection of the best?

3. Where the term "meritocracy" was born
Merit and meritocracy are two terms that in recent years have been
increasingly seen as synonymous of fairness and justice.
But is it really so?
This proposal wants to share a pedagogical reading of these two
concepts that can account for the different theories, paradigms and
concrete declinations that have concerned these two terms since the
publication of Michael Young's book "The rise of the meritocracy"
(1958).

4. The meritocracy trap
The students who achieve the best results are those who, at
the same time, start from a position of advantage, which is
first and foremost socio-economic and, consequently, of
training and educational opportunities (Bertagna 2020, Ostry &
Berg &Tsangarides 2014).
The research aims to analyse which
– conceptions of merit and meritocracy apply in today's
school systems
- which effects the application of such a meritocratic system
can generate in schools in terms of educational poverty,
school drop-out, growth and educational opportunities.

5. Elite and middle-class investments in the education of children by age - D. Markovits, The
meritocracy trap. How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle
the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite, Penguin Pr, UK, 2019, p. 326.
The Figure shows the difference between the typical
investment of the richest 1% and the typical middle-class
investment in human capital in each year of a child's life.
Dollar values are not assigned to neonatal stress in poorer
neighborhoods or privileged neighborhoods or at the same
time to the education that wealthy parents provide to their
children, for example, or to the peer effects of being
surrounded by other trained children, or to the distinctive
ability and effectiveness that rich and educated parents can
bring to the education of their children.
To cite examples...

6. A field study
Scholars John Owens and Tania de St Croix conducted
research, interested in the experiences of teachers and
students about their meritocratic expectations in a context
of highly unequal social conditions.
J. Owens e T. de St Croix: Engines of social mobility? Navigating meritocratic education discourse in an unequal society, British Journal of
Educational Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00071005.2019.1708863, 2020 p. 403-424
After the first series of interviews, participating students were
asked to use a disposable camera to take photographs of things –
both at school and outside – that they believe positively or
negatively affect their educational opportunities, this allowed for a
more detailed discussion of students' lives outside of school.

7. Eni's photograph of its home studio space shows a room
with four bunk beds to house its three younger siblings
and reported that it had to visit local libraries in order to
study.
Stella's photograph of her study space away from the school shows an alley
near the school gates where she said she studied because she had no other
quiet and safe place, either at home or elsewhere where she could
concentrate.

8. A myriad of factors affect students' abilities. Educational opportunities can be shaped by a complex of combination of overlapping causal
mechanisms, including:
personal (e.g. talents, dispositions, habits, efforts; mental and physical illnesses);
material (e.g. poverty, domestic insecurity, conditions in local neighbourhoods);
and social (including family roles and commitments, cultures of discrimination, relationships at school, at home and within the local
community).
Meritocratic discourse tends to emphasize the role that personal factors alone can influence student success by suggesting that the
negative effects of social and material disadvantage can be transcended through hard work and good education.

9. What will be analysed in this
research
Pedagogical
point of view
Comparison
of scientific
research
Anthropological
and pedagogical
paradigm
Reinterpretation
of the category of
merit

10. A new feeling:
Meritocratic hubris
This book, published in 2021, evokes in the
title what lies behind the phenomenology of
merit: tyranny.
Merit and its implementation in the
meritocratic mechanism, is not always the
bearer of advantages, both for those who
praise it and for those who claim it and from
here the reflection of Michael J. Sandel,
American philosopher and Professor of
GovernmentTheory at Harvard.

11. What are we deserving of?
Is this not meritocracy, to earn something by one's own
strength alone and to have the right to feel proud?
Sandel offers the reader another point of view:
if it is true that their [of the students who access without help]
without help] admission reflects dedication and hard work, in
hard work, in reality it cannot be said that it is only thanks to
thanks to their own actions. What about the parents and
parents and teachers who helped them on their journey? Of
journey? Of the talent and talents that are not only their work?
their work? And the luck of living in a society that cultivates
cultivates and rewards the talents that they happened to
happened to have? (p. 20)

12. There is nothing wrong with hiring on merit.
"If I need a plumber to fix my bathroom or a dentist to treat a tooth, I try to find the best person for that job" (p.
38).
If then hiring or selecting on the basis of merit is a good and right thing, what was it that triggered that
mechanism of resentment that generates hubris?

13. When did merit become toxic?
Rewarding on merit is attractive for three reasons:
- for the idea of efficiency and fairness;
- it is attractive with regard to aspiration, thus emphasizing that we are the proponents of our destiny.
But "the principle of merit can take a tyrannical turn not only when societies fail to respect it, but also – indeed, above
all – when they respect it. The dark side of the meritocratic ideal is contained in its most seductive promise: the
promise to be masters of oneself and to make oneself" (p.80).
It is one thing to hold ourselves responsible for our actions from a moral point of view, another to hold ourselves
completely responsible for our fate.

14. But is there an alternative to all this?
No, to date, but there may be in the future.
If equality of opportunity has been found not to work, equality of results could be used, but it would be sterile and
oppressive.
The solution is an equality of conditions that allows those who do not obtain great wealth or positions considered
prestigious, to live a life that is respectable, worthy and above all dignified.
Perfectionism is the emblematic meritocratic illness.

15. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used
- Quanti-qualitative research
- Secondary schools in the territory of Bergamo
province (high schools, technical and vocational
institutes, regional vocational training centres).
- Anonymous questionnaires to school leaders,
teachers and students of the first and last years
- In the qualitative part of the survey, through
semi-structured interviews, we will try to further
deepen the first results that emerged from the
quantitative analysis.
- The ultimate aim is to come up with a
pedagogical paradigm that overcomes
educational inequalities in order to ensure better
educational opportunities for all.
To see the complete questionnaire template
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GYwclY_9dEmQAQtPh1MR-
HLiHI7gzwvTO3kc7KSNClE/prefill
Students Teachers School Leaders
Introduction:
- Institute and year of enrolment
Introduction:
- Institute where he teaches
- What subject of study
- How many years he has been teaching
Introduction:
- Institute of which he is director
- For how many years
- What subject of study he taught
- To what meanings do you refer the term
"meritocracy"? Can you associate it with 3 words?
- How (and if) do you see it concretely applied in your
institution? Can you give some concrete examples?
- At school you feel deserving for .... ?
- To what meanings does the term "meritocracy"
refer? Can you associate it with 3 words?
- How (and if) do you see it concretely applied in your
institution? Can you give some concrete examples?
- How is a student's merit measured?
- What role does the teacher play, in your point of
view, in attributing merit? Is it just an objective
evaluator of tests that measure the student's
knowledge?
- In your opinion, what is the relationship between
evaluation and merit?
- To what meanings does the term "meritocracy"
refer? Can you associate it with 3 words?
- In your view, does your institute have a meritocratic
system? How so? Can you give some concrete
examples?
- How is the principle of "equal opportunities"
respected for everyone and for everyone?
- How to pursue excellence and at the same time,
leave no one behind?
- Do you think your talents and commitment are
valued? How so? And when not?
- How is the student's personal commitment and
talents valued?
- Are these taken into account beyond the grade
attributed to them in the verification tests? What
idea of the evaluation emerges in relation to this
issue?
- Are particular disadvantaged conditions of
departure of students taken into account, and how?
Are there any special support actions in this regard?
- How did the average grades obtained in lower
secondary school affect the choice of high school?
(to be asked of both first and fifth year students)
- On a social level, in public opinion among relatives
and friends, how did you experience the choice of
the course of study?
- What were the other reasons that led you to this
choice?
- And what guides you in the future professional and /
or university choice (for final year students)
- Have you ever had to change your teaching and/or
evaluation method according to the student you
were facing and according to your specific needs?
- What are the priorities of a new school policy that
you think should be relaunched?
To be requested in particular from technical and vocational institutes and regional cfp
- In particular in the Italian context, the choice of a
higher technical and professional path does not
enjoy a particular social esteem, what do you think
about it?
- What do you think is the formative value of work?
- What do you think of the prejudice, still widespread,
which sees school and the world of work separated
from each other?
- How do you believe that work and its educational
value can affect the singularity of the student?
- As a school principal, what future do you see for
your institution?

16. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings
We expect to demonstrate how the meritocratic ideal does
not really reflect what we should expect from meritocracy:
opportunity, equality, redemption.
Instead, we need to return to a broader pedagogical
paradigm, capable of enhancing the talents of each
individual for the good and growth of all.
Individual's social
position is
determined solely
by his or her IQ
and objectively
measurable
results.
Even the place
where you are
born and can
afford to live
affects your
performance

17. References
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