Social identity in the classroom: An examination of age identification between students and instructors

Social Identity Theory (SIT) posits that individuals gain a sense of personal worth from the groups they identify with. Age group identification has been shown in the literature to have positive esteem consequences for its members. This study extends the current literature by broadening SIT to the instructional context. The results demonstrate that students who mention their instructor's age in an open-ended description of an ideal instructor are more likely to be high age-group identifiers, and are more likely to imagine a younger instructor. Students who mention their instructor's age in an open-ended description of a disfavored instructor are also more likely to be high age-group identifiers, but they are likely to imagine an older instructor.