Racialized Horizontal Stratification in US Higher Education

Politics, Process, and Consequences

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2295901
AutoresL T Hamilton (0000-0002-0656-7185, 1Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, California, USA; email: [email protected]), Caleb E Dawson (0000-0001-8710-1450, 1Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, California, USA; email: [email protected]), E A Armstrong (0000-0003-3860-8743, 2Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA), Aya Waller-Bey (2Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA)
Año2024
Volumen50
Número1
Páginas475-499
Fecha de publicación2024-08-12
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnnual Review of Sociology (BOOK_SERIES)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0360-0572 • E-ISSN: 1545-2115
EditorialAnnual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1146/annurev-soc-083123-035938
OpenAlexW4396566452
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas89

In this review, we integrate three bodies of scholarship-education stratification research, political-historical sociology of higher education, and sociological theories of race and racism-to understand the production of 'separate and unequal' postsecondary experiences for racially marginalized college students in the United States. We argue that the US postsecondary system is plural, heterogeneous, and stratified partly as a result of hundreds of years of contested efforts to deploy higher education in the service of white supremacy and capital accumulation. Organizational stratification of higher education along racial lines leads to horizontal stratification in individual experiences within the same level of schooling, and even within the same university. We review literature on racialized sorting between schools, which channels racially marginalized students to different parts of the postsecondary system relative to their racially advantaged peers. We also describe stratification within schools, as students are tracked, often by race, into divergent academic and social pathways internal to a single university. Both types of sorting have racial consequences for students' career trajectories, economic security, and well-being. Finally, we detail recent efforts to challenge horizontal stratification, responses to those efforts, and avenues for future research

Higher education · Political science · Politics · Racism · Scholarship · Social science · Social stratification · Sociology · Stratification (seeds · Critical Race Theory in Education · Higher Education Research Studies · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research · Gender Studies · Law