Belief in school meritocracy as an ideological barrier to the promotion of equality

In the educational system, social inequalities are reproduced and legitimated. As a consequence, the implementation of interventions that reduce the SES achievement gap in education may face important ideological barriers. The purpose of the present article is to test the belief in school meritocracy as one of these barriers. In three studies, participants' willingness to see an equalizing pedagogical intervention implemented in one's own university (Study 1) or in one's own children's school (Studies 2 and 3) and their intention to engage in this implementation were measured. Results indicated that a higher belief in school meritocracy (but not meritocracy endorsement, Study 1) predicted lower engagement in the implementation of an equalizing method. This is not observed for inequality‐maintaining interventions (Studies 2 and 3), sustaining the role of descriptive school meritocracy in the perpetuation of social inequalities within education.