Coached for the Classroom

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Character Development ◽  
Working Class Students

Chapter 1 explores how parents coach children to use class-based strategies for managing challenges at school and how children internalize those lessons. Middle-class parents felt a deep responsibility for their children’s academic success, and they taught children to secure that success using strategies of influence. Middle-class children thereby learned that when they encountered problems at school, they should use their teachers as resources, avoid consequences, and be assertive in seeking support. Working-class parents felt primarily responsible for their children’s character development. Reflecting on their own experience in school, they worried that teachers might punish students who complained or sought special favors. Thus, working-class parents taught their children to practice strategies of deference. As a result, working-class students learned to treat teachers with respect, take responsibility for their actions, and tackle problems on their own.

scholarly journals Time and money explain social class differences in students’ social integration at university.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Working Class Students ◽  
Exclusion Effect

Working-class students tend to be less socially integrated at university than middle-class students (Rubin, 2012a). The present research investigated two potential reasons for this working-class social exclusion effect. First, working-class students may have fewer finances available to participate in social activities. Second, working-class students tend to be older than middle-class students and, consequently, they are likely to have more work and/or childcare commitments. These additional commitments may prevent them from attending campus which, in turn, reduces their opportunity for social integration. These predictions were confirmed among undergraduate students at an Australian university (N = 433) and a USA university (N = 416). Strategies for increasing working-class students’ social integration at university are discussed.

scholarly journals Social Class, Identity and the ‘Good’ Student: Negotiating University Culture

2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Pearce ◽  
Barry Down ◽  
Elizabeth Moore
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Class Identity ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
University Culture ◽  
University Experiences ◽  
Working Class Students ◽  
The University

Through the use of narrative portraits this paper discusses social class and identity, as working-class university students perceive them. With government policy encouraging wider participation rates from under-represented groups of people within the university sector, working-class students have found themselves to be the objects of much research. Working-class students are, for the most part, studied as though they are docile bodies, unable to participate in the construction of who they are, and working-class accounts of university experiences are quite often compared to the middle-class norms. This paper explores how working-class students see themselves within the university culture. Working-class students' voices and stories form the focus of this paper, in which the language of ‘disadvantage’ is dealt with and the ideologies of class identity explored.

scholarly journals Age differences explain social class differences in students’ friendship at university: Implications for transition and retention.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Working Class Students ◽  
Social Class Difference

The present research tested the hypotheses that (a) working-class students have fewer friends at university than middle-class students, and (b) this social class difference occurs because working-class students tend to be older than middle-class students. A sample of 376 first-year undergraduate students from an Australian university completed an online survey that contained measures of social class and age as well as quality and quantity of actual and desired friendship at university. Consistent with predictions, age differences significantly mediated social class differences in friendship. The Discussion focuses on potential policy implications for improving working-class students’ friendships at university in order to improve their transition and retention.

Responses and Ramifications

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Working Class Students ◽  
Problem Solving Strategies ◽  
Unequal Opportunities ◽  
Do So

Chapter 6 reveals the critical role teachers play in translating class-based problem-solving strategies into unequal opportunities in school. Teachers almost always rewarded middle-class students’ strategies of influence. They did so by granting requests for assistance, accommodations, and attention and by creating conditions in which middle-class students (but not working-class students) felt comfortable making requests. That privileging of middle-class students, however, did not seem intentional. Teachers tried to support working-class students, but time and accountability pressures made it difficult for them to recognize students’ tacit struggles, forcing teachers to rely on students to voice their own needs. Teachers also relented in granting middle-class students’ requests, even when they seemed reluctant to do so. In those moments, teachers gave in because they wanted their students to feel supported and, more problematically, because it was often easier and less time-consuming to say “yes” and much riskier to say “no.”

God’s Guardrails

2021 ◽  
pp. 88-124
Author(s):  
Ilana M. Horwitz
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Professional Class

This chapter explains why religious restraint operates differently based on teens’ social class background. It argues that what religion offers isn’t equally helpful to everyone. Working- and middle-class teens benefit from religious restraint because religion gives these kids access to social capital, which middle- and especially working-class kids can’t access elsewhere. Since boys are especially prone to getting caught up in risky behaviors that derail them from academic success, the social capital of religious communities creates crucial “godly” guardrails that help them stay on the path to college. The benefits of godly guardrails are not distributed evenly, because not everyone’s road to college looks the same. Professional-class kids don’t benefit from godly guardrails as much because they already have access to social capital through other social institutions.

Hidden Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Class

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Goudeau ◽  
Jean-Claude Croizet
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
Sixth Graders ◽  
School Contexts ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Regular Classrooms ◽  
Working Class Students

Three studies conducted among fifth and sixth graders examined how school contexts disrupt the achievement of working-class students by staging unfair comparison with their advantaged middle-class peers. In regular classrooms, differences in performance among students are usually showcased in a way that does not acknowledge the advantage (i.e., higher cultural capital) experienced by middle-class students, whose upbringing affords them more familiarity with the academic culture than their working-class peers have. Results of Study 1 revealed that rendering differences in performance visible in the classroom by having students raise their hands was enough to undermine the achievement of working-class students. In Studies 2 and 3, we manipulated students’ familiarity with an arbitrary standard as a proxy for social class. Our results suggest that classroom settings that make differences in performance visible undermine the achievement of the students who are less familiar with academic culture. In Study 3, we showed that being aware of the advantage in familiarity with a task restores the performance of the students who have less familiarity with the task.

scholarly journals Social class differences in social integration at university: Implications for academic outcomes and mental health

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Rubin ◽  
Olivia Evans ◽  
Romany McGuffog
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Academic Outcomes ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Class Environment ◽  
Working Class Students

University represents a pathway to upward social mobility for many working-class people. However, this distinctly middle-class environment also provides a number of unique social psychological challenges for working-class students. Working-class university students are often in the minority group at university, they are often the first in their families to attend university, and they often feel out of place at university. They also lack the time and money required to engage with other students on campus. Consequently, they are less likely to be as integrated into social life at university as their middle-class peers. In this chapter, we consider the potential implications of this lack of social integration for working-class students’ academic outcomes and mental health. In particular, we review recent research that shows that working-class students’ lack of integration at university is associated with poorer academic outcomes and poorer mental health. We conclude with a discussion of potential interventions to increase working-class students’ social integration at university.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Teacher Bias ◽  
Teacher Authority ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Institutional Expectations ◽  
Working Class Students ◽  
One Step ◽  
Middle Class Families ◽  
Student Problem

This chapter argues that the middle-class advantage is, at least in part, a negotiated advantage. That argument has implications for research on cultural capital, teacher bias, student resistance, and teacher authority. It also supports recommendations for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in reducing class-based inequalities in school. First, I urge teachers to be sensitive to social class differences in student problem-solving. Second, I encourage schools to alleviate the challenges teachers face in assessing and responding to students’ individual needs. Third, I call on policymakers to avoid deficit-oriented programs that teach working-class students to act like their middle-class peers. Those programs ignore the fact that working-class families are often the ones complying with institutional expectations and the fact that middle-class families are the ones demanding support in excess of what is fair or required. Thus, unless educators are willing to deny such requests, middle-class children will always stay one step ahead.

scholarly journals Schoolcraft vs. Becoming Somebody: Competing Visions of Higher Education among Working-Class College Students

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Hurst
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Occupational Interests ◽  
Working Class Students ◽  
Official View

By exploring the meanings working-class students attribute to college and academic success, this article uncovers important and surprising disjunctures between the official view of college as a pathway to social mobility and students’ own needs and aspirations. While some working-class college students do use college as a “ticket out of the working class,” others reject this view, arguing that the twin functions of college as educative and credentialing should be delinked. It is important for researchers, as well as educators and policymakers, to recognize that working-class college students are not homogenous with regard to occupational interests and expectations of social mobility.

Back to Bed

Coming Home ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 9-33
Author(s):  
Wendy Kline
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Home Birth ◽  
The Other ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
La Leche League ◽  
Hospital To Home ◽  
The City

Chapter 1, “Back to Bed: From Hospital to Home Obstetrics in the City of Chicago” analyzes the home obstetrics training practiced at the Chicago Maternity Center alongside the emergence of what would become an international breastfeeding organization, La Leche League. One focused on the inner-city’s working-class population, while the other catered more to the suburban white middle-class. Both the Chicago Maternity Center and the La Leche League relied on the promotion of home birth, but for very different reasons. Under the CMC, home birth provided essential training for obstetrical students, while under the LLL, it enabled mothers to breastfeed and bond with their babies. The different rationales underscored the extent to which race, class, and context shaped ideas about home birth. Taken together, these two examples reveal the complex origins of what would become a contested yet increasingly popular practice by the 1970s.

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