The self-concept and academic achievement of high school students in a working class environment.

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce this study of the relationship between the self-concept and academic achievement of high school students in a working class environment. This includes the background, statement of the problem, the aim and motivation for the study. The procedure and an overview of the chapters are also presented.

In today's world education plays an important part in the life of any human being. An essential function of education in development and learning is to help the growing child to understand himself and develop healthy attitudes of self-acceptance (Silvernail, 1985; Woods, 1990). Therefore the self-concept is a critically important factor in the educational and social adjustment of children.

Numerous studies (Gergen, l97l; Spears & Deese, 7973; Mboya, 1989) which have attempted to determine the relationship between self-concept and academic achievement have been inconclusive, mainly due to an inability to have a clear, concise, universally accepted operational definition of self-concept. Another problem with definitions of selfconcept has been vagueness and imprecision (Hamachek, 1995). A detailed survey and discussion about definitions of the self-concept follows in Chapter 2.