High Achievement in Middle School: Is it a Blessing or a Curse for Adolescent Girls and Their Relationship with Themselves as Learners?

This research in progress addresses how high-achieving middle school girls' see themselves as learners in the face of the psychological paradox of high achievements and low self-belief. The purpose of this research is to provide a nuanced understanding of the tensions, pressures, and resistances at play (e.g. internal and external rewards, pressures, gender norms, racialized and ethnic cultural tensions) that shape girls' sense of self. It employs the Listening Guide method, a feminist qualitative research methodology of psychological inquiry, specialized in discovery research through listening. Preliminary research described in this paper includes multiple interviews with two high-achieving middle school girls in a large city in the northeast of the United States. The contribution of this research in progress includes specific cultural, psychological, and relational patterns across the lived experiences of high-achieving girls that show the psychological logic of how they see themselves as learners.