Background and what social class you came from play a very big role in this too. While an upper class kid may feel perfectly entitled to say 'i don't understand

Background and what social class you came from play a very big role in this too. While an upper class kid may feel perfectly entitled to say 'i don't understand' in any situation, this behavior is often implicitly if not more overtly discouraged for people from lower class backgrounds. When you say 'i don't understand', the unspoken subtext is 'i don't understand: this is important, and my understanding is definitely worth whatever time it takes for you to explain it to me personally, regardless of whether anyone else is having a problem or not'. Equality among people academically and vocationally needs to be backed up by strong support and activism for greater social and economic equality. Otherwise trivial efforts to promote more participation are a farce, and nothing is ever going to change.