Looking at SoLD Through an Equity Lens

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Article Overview: 

Originally published online by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group: 22 May 2019

The science of learning and development (SoLD) can be a game-changer—or a trap. This article invites educators to view SoLD through an equity lens so it accelerates, rather than undermines, the intellectual growth of historically marginalized students.

Hammond traces how brain science and equity have always moved in tandem, warning that “color-blind” applications of SoLD, SEL, and “best practices” often shortchange Black and Brown learners through low-level tasks, microaggressions, and compliance-focused pedagogy. She argues that intelligence is malleable, culture shapes cognition, and students need productive struggle, rigorous scaffolds, and metastrategic agency, within genuinely safe, humanizing environments. 

The core challenge is urgent: Will SoLD expand critical pedagogy and dismantle inequity by design, or merely repackage deficit narratives? For educators ready to disrupt patterns and turn neuroscience into liberatory practice, this piece maps the way.

Zaretta Hammond (2019): Looking at SoLD through an equity lens: Will the science of learning and development be used to advance critical pedagogy or will it be used to maintain inequity by design?, Applied Developmental Science, DOI: 10.1080/10888691.2019.1609733 

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