Privileged careerists, working-class idealists
Complicating the relationship of class, college values, and curricular choices
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12905971 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mary L Scherer (0000-0002-1360-8838, Sam Houston State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 184-199 |
| Publication date | 2022-05-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Studies in Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1750-8487 • E-ISSN: 1750-8495 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17508487.2022.2052736 |
| OpenAlex | W4229065150 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 26 |
Research suggests that class-privileged students value learning for its own sake and study the liberal arts, while working-class students believe college is a means to an end. However, recent studies indicate that these associations are weakening. This paper investigates the link between class background, college values, and curricular choices, specifically course selection. In interviews with 68 working- and upper-middle-class liberal arts majors at two public universities in the northeastern U.S., nearly all students endorsed liberal education values (the belief that higher education is for personal edification) which they claimed to value above labor market outcomes. Working-class students chose courses in accordance with those values; however, upper-middle-class students chose courses for perceived career relevance or those rumored to be an ‘easy A’. Although it appears that college logics have flipped, I argue that they remain rooted in social class. I then consider implications for social reproduction: while working-class students’ adoption of traditional HE values and practices suggests some leveling of the playing field, it means little if privileged students have moved the goalposts to maintain advantage. I apply Sigal Alon’s theory of effectively expanded inequality, whereby the privileged classes adapt to increased access and competition by deploying new strategies to secure their class position
Chose · Class (philosophy · Epistemology · Higher education · Liberal arts education · Middle class · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Social class · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Working class · Critical Race Theory in Education · Higher Education Research Studies · Law · Mathematics · Social and Cultural Dynamics
Qualitative interviewing
Negotiating Opportunities
The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers
Distinction
Money, Morals, and Manners
The Dignity of Working Men
Higher Education, Social Class and Social Mobility
Amplified Advantage
Navigating the graduate labour market
Degree subject and orientations to civic responsibility
Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture
University as vocational education
From the Liberal to the Practical Arts in American Colleges and Universities
Who Studies the Arts and Sciences? Social Background and the Choice and Consequences of Undergraduate Field of Study
Rethinking the concept of acculturation
Unseen disadvantage
The Interactive Relationship Between Class Identity and the College Experience
Changing Highbrow Taste
The Evolution of Class Inequality in Higher Education
College Life through the Eyes of Students
Working-Class Participation, Middle-Class Aspiration? Value, Upward Mobility and Symbolic Indebtedness in Higher Education
Gender, Social Background, and the Choice of College Major in a Liberal Arts Context
Habitus Transformation and Hidden Injuries
Becoming Middle Class
Cultural capital in educational research
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2024 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |