Abstract
Researchers and culturally diverse, under-resourced youth in Newham and Pimlico, including vulnerable children in care and participants in Pimlico Foundation’s mentoring programme, co-create a Growth Mindset Intervention (GMI) combining virtual reality and live performance. Youth step into VR to voice role models they choose themselves, from Nelson Mandela to influencers, fostering growth mindset development. Grounded in Interacting Cognitive Subsystems theory, the intervention overcomes limitations of typical classroom GMIs by activating cognitive, emotional, and embodied learning, promoting deep engagement, self-reflection, and internalised perseverance (see pilot findings with Newham Council’s Youth Empowerment Service: https://cordap.uel.ac.uk/dataset/east-london-heroes-pilot-empowering-newham-youth-using-ethnoacting-in-vr-for-growth-mindset). This trial supports optimisation and rigorous evaluation.
Building on the latest systematic review of Growth Mindset Interventions (Jiang, 2024: 268), our project addresses key gaps:
Impact on young people
1. Does Ethnoacting in VR increase growth-mindset scores, reflecting the belief that intelligence and social circumstances can develop?
2. How does it affect resilience, self-reflexivity, and willingness to embrace challenge or failure?
3. Are wellbeing indicators, such as anxiety about failure, reduced?
4. Are improvements sustained at follow-up?
Intervention design
5. How do VR immersion and ethnoacting interact to boost motivation and perspective-taking?
6. Which elements, role models, cultural relevance, interactive VR, most drive engagement?
7. How can experiential VR elements complement typical classroom methods?
Cultural relevance and equity
8. Does co-design with diverse youth enhance belonging and identification with role models?
9. How does it support equitable educational and career aspirations?
Implementation and scalability
10. What practical factors affect fidelity, accessibility, and sustainability?
11. Can it be adapted for other regions, age groups, or one-to-one mentoring?
Mixed-method evaluation, pre/post surveys, focus groups, and observations, will provide a robust evidence base.
Clinical psychology shows that a growth mindset improves youth outcomes beyond academics, reducing psychological distress and strengthening self-regulation (Burnette et al., 2020; 2023). Growth Mindset Interventions (GMIs) can also narrow poverty-related achievement gaps (Claro et al., 2016). It is therefore crucial to examine how GMIs support social and emotional wellbeing in under-resourced, culturally diverse settings.
Newham, one of the UK’s youngest, most diverse, and migrant-populated boroughs, illustrates this need. Over 40% of its residents identify as Asian and 18% as Black, figures far above the national averages, while many neighbourhoods experience high levels of deprivation. Pimlico, in the City of Westminster, combines areas of significant wealth with pockets of deprivation, where schools often require additional support for vulnerable youth. Culturally relevant and racially diverse interventions improve life chances and address structural disadvantage, while also enhancing welfare and protecting young people from involvement in crime.
This project will co-develop a GMI with young people at Newham Council’s Youth Empowerment Service, combining virtual reality and performance for the first time. Co-creation empowers participants and fills research gaps by:
1. focusing on challenged populations,
2. integrating youth feedback through mixed methods, and
3. advancing experiential approaches (Jiang 2024).
This work enhances Newham’s growth mindset curriculum (2023: 27) with embodied, digital, and participatory elements; supports Newham Council’s youth health and wellbeing strategy (2024); reinforces Pimlico Foundation’s youth empowerment initiatives in collaboration with Westminster Council, local schools, and the police (https://pimlicofoundation.co.uk); aligns with the National Youth Strategy’s call to strengthen local services (DCMS, 2024); and follows the National Youth Agency’s Curriculum Framework (2024), offering scalable practices for racially diverse communities across the UK.