Identity, Intersectionality, and the Myth of the Average Student

Recently, I’ve been reflecting on identity, intersectionality, learner variability, and the persistent myth of the “average” student in education. The following excerpts are adapted from a longer essay inspired in part by themes explored in Learning to Relearn by Kwame Sarfo-Mensah and connect closely to my work in culturally responsive education and Universal Design for Learning.

The Myth of the “Average” Student

A few years ago, I watched a video about the design of airplane cockpits. Engineers designed cockpit seats based on the measurements of the “average” pilot’s arm and torso length, height, and other dimensions. But when they went back and looked at the data, they discovered something surprising: not a single pilot was actually average across all measurements.

That wasn’t a pilot problem. It was a design problem.

Education has a similar dilemma. We design schools, curriculum, schedules, and definitions of success around the idea of an “average” student. But when we look at our classrooms through the lens of identity and intersectionality, the idea of an average student quickly falls apart. Our students bring multiple identities into the classroom at the same time: culture, language, race, disability, mental health, socioeconomic status, family responsibilities, and prior educational experiences. Variability is not the exception in our classrooms; it is the reality.

“That Was a Design Problem”

I really began to understand this when I was a special education administrator at a high-poverty urban high school where the vast majority of students were students of color and more than half did not speak English as their first language. Around that time, I was asked to start a program for students returning from psychiatric hospitalization for depression and suicidal ideation. At the same time, I was overseeing a program for students with autism.

While supporting faculty teaching these students in inclusive classes, a teacher said to me, “I really want to help all these students. But I have students with learning disabilities, ADHD, students learning English, students with food and housing insecurity, and now students with autism and mental health needs. I’m drowning in accommodations. I can’t keep track of it all.”

That wasn’t a teacher problem. That was a design problem.

When Participation Is Cultural

In many classrooms, participation is defined as speaking during a whole-class discussion, asking questions, or respectfully disagreeing with ideas. But participation is also cultural.

I remember a group of Somali girls at our school who were very quiet during class discussions. Some teachers were concerned that they were not participating or not demonstrating critical thinking. But when we spoke with students and their families, we learned they had been taught from a very young age that it was disrespectful to speak out in class, to challenge a teacher, or to publicly disagree with others.

In their cultural context, listening carefully, reflecting before speaking, and showing respect for the authority of the teacher were signs of being a good student.

Designing for Variability

If culturally responsive teaching asks us to affirm identity, then Universal Design for Learning asks us to design for it.

UDL offers a different way to think about this problem. Instead of starting with the idea of an average student and then differentiating for those who don’t fit, Universal Design for Learning starts with the assumption that variability is the norm. UDL allows us to design for diverse learners in advance, rather than waiting for students to struggle before we respond. In that way, UDL allows us to be responsive by design, not just responsive by reaction.

The lesson from cockpit design is simple: when you design for the average, you often fit no one well. Our classrooms are filled with students whose identities, languages, cultures, abilities, and experiences intersect in ways that make each learner variable, not average. Designing for that variability is not just good instructional practice. It is a matter of equity.

© Janet Ferone / Ferone Educational Consulting. Content may not be reproduced without permission.