Social Class and Habitus at the End of College: Cultural Similarity and Difference among Graduating Seniors

ABSTRACT

Existing research offers a range of perspectives on the impact of the college experience on culture. While some scholars claim that higher education leads to cultural convergence or homogenization among students, others emphasize the durability of class-based cultural differences during college. This article seeks to understand the degree to which students from across class backgrounds leave college with a similar habitus. Drawing from interviews with 62 graduating seniors from three distinct class backgrounds, I examine cultural similarities and differences at two layers of habitus as students look toward life after college. Findings demonstrate that while students’ specific aspirations for graduate study and careers are similar, their general cultural schemas—evidenced by students’ perceptions of what constitutes success and failure after graduation—and sense of self diverge along class lines. In other words, these interviews provide evidence that college seniors across class backgrounds are comparable in their secondary habitus but differ at the level of their primary habitus. These findings have implications for the way we conceive of social mobility through higher education as well as our understanding of multiple layers of habitus.     

Adolescent Behavioral,Emotional, and Cognitive Engagement Trajectories in School and Their Differential Relations to Educational Success

The current study used a multidimensional approach to examine developmental trajectories of three dimension of school engagement (school participation, sense of school belonging, and self‐regulated learning) from grades 7 to 11 and their relationships to changes in adolescents’ academic outcomes over time. The sample includes 1,148 African American and European American adolescents (52% females, 56% black, 34% white, and 10% others). As expected, the downward trajectories of change in school participation, sense of belonging to school, and self‐regulated learning differed as did their predictive relationships with academic performance and educational aspiration, with school belonging declining most markedly, but being least predictive of changes in grade point average.     

Kindergarten teachers promote the participation experience of African Asylum-Seeker families

African asylum seekers live in Israel in the realities of poverty, racism, and personal insecurity. From a sociological point of view, Participation is taking part in social processes, interacting with people, texts and technologies and it may affect all areas of life. This is a qualitative-interpretive study that examines through interviews the participation experience from the perspective of eight African couples and six Israeli kindergarten teachers. The findings indicate: (1) Increasing the parents' sense of belonging, (2) Increasing the cultural participation, (3) Increasing community cohesion. Findings reveal a tension between the parents' desire to be involved and my reality of poverty and working around the clock that prevents their presence in educational activities. Under such complex conditions, kindergarten teachers worked to establish a positive personal relationship, strengthen the parents' sense of ability, overcome language barriers, and cultivate a sense of belonging from a perception that increasing participation would help them deal with integration challenges and livelihoods social rejection. The study has a theoretical and practical contribution, and its findings may be used by educators and policymakers regarding principles for action to promote the experience of participation and involvement of parents in educational settings.     

Higher education students as political actors: evidence from England and Ireland

Higher education (HE) students have often been viewed as important political actors in wider society, stemming largely from their activities in the 1960s. Nevertheless, like much of the literature on youth political participation, research has rarely explored the extent to which student political participation varies across nation-states. This article begins to redress this gap by drawing upon data collected from focus groups with undergraduate students in England and Ireland, alongside an analysis of relevant policy documents from both countries. Overall, we argue that, whilst English and Irish students expressed similar desires to be politically active, they differed in the extent to which they felt empowered to take up such roles and the perceived scope of their influence. Similar differences were evident, to some extent, in the way in which students’ political activity was seen by policymakers. These cross-national differences are explained with reference to contextual factors and, in particular, variation in the degree of HE marketisation in the two countries. There is also evidence to suggest that students are sensitive to the way in which they are constructed in policy, which affects their sense of themselves as political actors.     

Master status or intersectional identity? Undocumented students’ sense of belonging on a college campus

ABSTRACT

Research on undocumented students in the United States often focuses on the challenges they face navigating postsecondary education, rooted in their precarious legal status. The observed influence of legal status on undocumented students’ sense of belonging and academic progress provides compelling evidence that being undocumented functions as a master status – a salient identity that conditions students’ educational incorporation. Yet, this research tends to highlight legal status while deemphasizing or excluding other identities. Our study takes an intersectional approach. Using focus group data with undocumented students at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, we show that students rarely identify legal status in isolation or implicate it as the sole source of adversity. Instead, students’ reveal a sense of belonging rooted in multiple dimensions of identity including ethnicity and class. This study reconsiders the utility of the master status concept in favour of an intersectional one for a comprehensive picture of undocumented students’ educational incorporation.     

少数民族大学生宗教信仰研究

在京就读的少数民族大学生来自祖国的四面八方,具有不同的宗教文化背景。通过问卷调查和个案访谈发现、信教的少数民族大学生的可以归纳为七种类型,分别是：传统有神类;抗阻型怀疑论类;情境性宗教类;文化认同类;世俗——人本主义类型;道德救赎类;时代个性的需要。同时也研究也显示,少数民族大学生蕴藏在其生活中的关于信仰与生活的精神流动的曲线。在新形势下,需要从组织、参与与教学三大机制方面对少数民族大学的信仰进行有效地引导,提高信仰教育的针对性和时效性。     

Safaris into Subjectivity: White Locals,Black Tourists,and the Politics of Belonging in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

The elite safari lodges in Botswana's Okavango Delta provide an intriguing site through which to explore processes of identity construction, as people from vastly different backgrounds meet and explore ontological possibilities through and against each other. Drawing on a dinner table dispute between an African American tourist and his white Motswana guide, I explore contested notions of what constitutes African identities. The encounter shows that colonial histories and the racialization of space continue to be central to African identity politics, and I describe how white citizens' claims to belonging are challenged on these grounds. In response to such challenges, white Batswana assert a strongly nationalistic identity, distancing themselves from other southern African white populations and their colonial histories. They staunchly defend their claims to belonging through mobilising a partial view of Botswana's history and contemporary sociopolitical conditions, which has made possible a deep sense of emplacement within the social and natural environments of the Okavango.     

Participation of non-dominant students in argumentation in the mathematics classroom

This article focuses on argumentation in mathematics classrooms in two different geographic contexts, the US and New Zealand. Drawing on data from a case with immigrant students (Pāsifika) in NZ and a case with Mexican American students in the US, we argue for the need to study the concept of argumentation through a cultural and language lens. Our analysis across the two cases points to common features that supported students’ engagement in argumentation. Building relationships and encouraging and supporting students to be themselves are seen as resources for argumentation. The similarities across two very different contexts are striking. As we think of how to develop environments that support non-dominant students’ participation in mathematical argumentation, we may want to learn from and build on students’ cultural ways of being.     

Embracing inclusive excellence: Asian and Asian American college students

ABSTRACT

This study aims to understand the importance of embracing and promoting inclusiveness in higher education as a path to academic excellence. As student populations become increasingly diverse and higher education faces significant challenges at home and abroad, cultural competence – understanding the specific culture, language, social, and economic status of people-, becomes more important than ever before because a sense of belonging is essential for students. This study is to re-envision diversity and practice our commitment to inclusive excellence-both preparing students with a quality learning opportunity and facilitating a sense of belonging by providing an embracing environment on campus.     

Challenging western hegemony through systematic study of cultural diversity: an undergraduate course on child development and culture

Traditional courses in developmental psychology treat the development of white, middle‐class European American children as normative. This approach offers an inaccurate representation of child development, displays a lack of sensitivity towards the cultural diversity of students, and fails to meet these students’ intellectual needs. This paper describes an attempt at rectifying this ethical, paradigmatic error in an undergraduate course on child development and culture. Key concepts at the interface of culture and development in cultural geographical zones that contrasted with the European‐American tradition were systematically treated, employing varied instructional strategies. The experience suggests that synthesizing a multicultural classroom with a multicultural syllabus compels students to confront their own intellectual ethnocentrism, diversifies intellectual experience and, for minority students, addresses an intellectual lacuna that they may not yet have articulated.     

Birth,blood and belonging: identity claims in post‐devolution Scotland1

Scotland is often seen as a good example of a civic/territorial rather than an ethnic/cultural form of nationalism. From the 1970s the campaign for a Scottish parliament stressed an inclusive, residence based, civic sense of being Scottish, and more recently, Scotland's political elites have seen the new parliament as an endorsement of territorial belonging. How valid are these assumptions? To what extent is political ideology at odds with people's sense of their national identity? Using a qualitative approach, we explore different identity claims currently being made in post‐devolution Scotland – those based on blood, birth and belonging. We argue that these are better conceptual tools for the purpose of unravelling the complexities of identity politics in this context than the contrast between civic and ethnic. Our data come from the Scottish part of a study in England and Scotland, and focus on three sets of respondents: English migrants to Scotland making blood or birth claims to Englishness and/or Britishness; English migrants making belonging claims to Scottishness; and Scottish nationals making claims for themselves as well as assessing migrants’ claims. We also explore the significance of constitutional change in the context of respondents’ identity negotiations, and examine whether it has affected their understandings of Scottishness.     

Discussing school celebrations from an intercultural perspective – a study in the Finnish context

The increased diversity in pupils’ cultural and ethnic backgrounds in schools creates urgent demands for the organization of school celebrations in many countries. Celebrations represent the cultural values of the society and it is important to find out how various traditions are expressed in them. This study examines teachers’ and other educational staff members’ perceptions of Finnish culture, Lutheran religiosity, and intercultural education relating to Christmas, Independence Day, and end-of-term celebrations in Finnish schools. The data of this paper consists of 12 thematic interviews, and participation in two school festivals. The interview data were analyzed qualitatively using content analysis. The analysis of this study shows that festivals are perceived as important parts of education and they can help to create a sense of national or cultural community. However, the intercultural potential of school celebrations is often not put to its full use. There exists an urgent need to create new ways of carrying out celebrations in multicultural school communities so that they would be meaningful for all students.     

A Rock and a Hard Place:

This paper discusses the importance of fieldwork in preparing students for practice with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds and the difficulties encountered in rural, culturally homogenous settings. A survey of undergraduate fieldwork coordinators provided information about how minority content is integrated into field seminars and the fieldwork experience. The findings indicated that a variety of methods are used in the seminar and field experience. A discussion of the limitations of these methods and recommendations for alternative approaches are provided.     

Cultural Underpinnings of Special Education: Implications for Professional Interactions with Culturally Diverse Families

This article identifies certain cultural assumptions that underlie special education policy and practice in the United States, and argues that unawareness of cultural relativity contributes to considerable cross-cultural dissonance in working with families from diverse backgrounds. With regard to policy, the article argues that, despite an ideal of parental participation, the medical note on which the law is based frequently results in misunderstanding between professionals and parents who do not share the same value system. Three aspects of such misunderstandings are explored: The way disability is defined, the power accorded to professional expertise, and the commitment to the decontextualized language of objective science. With regard to practice, the article further identifies four areas of parent-professional dissonance: Beliefs about parenting styles, education goals, family and community concerns, and the pragmatics of communication. Explicit awareness of cultural relativity is recommended as an essential step towards reciprocal relationships with families from diverse backgrounds.     

Class, Culture, and Participation in the Collegiate Extra-Curriculum

With larger percentages of high school students entering higher education, it becomes increasingly important to look at how processes occurring on college campuses contribute to social stratification. Using in‐depth interviews with 61 students, I ask: How does social class structure students’ participation in the collegiate extra‐curriculum? I argue that the collegiate extra‐curriculum is an important site for stratification because it is there that students gain access to social and cultural resources valued by the privileged classes. I find that upper‐middle‐class students arrive on campus with cultural resources that motivate their participation and social resources that facilitate their involvement. Among working‐class students, limited financial factors constrain their involvement, while social and cultural resources further curtail their interest in such activities. These findings contribute to theories of social and cultural reproduction by showing that those who have more valued social and cultural resources at the outset are in a better position to gain additional such resources throughout their college careers. Moreover, these analyses show that symbolic and cultural hierarchies are sustained by the interdependent relationship between social and cultural capital.     

Inclusive schooling: fostering citizenship among immigrant students in Europe

Growing ethnic and cultural diversity within Europe has brought increased attention to the impact and inclusion of immigrant populations and has also presented societies with valuable opportunities for intercultural learning between diverse groups. Using the International Civic and Citizenship Study data from 24 European education systems, in this paper we explore whether fostering an atmosphere of inclusion in schools relates to select attitudes and behaviours typically associated with an inclusive society, particularly among immigrant students. Our study is able to tease out some of the differences related to social class among immigrant students, opening up important avenues for discussion and future research. According to our findings, first generation immigrant students from higher socio-economic status backgrounds tended to have significantly more negative attitudes toward their resident country. Findings also collectively suggest that local-level practices, such as improving immigrant student participation in schools and positive relations between immigrant students and teachers, could be significant factors in fostering an inclusive society. Based on these results, we describe several education policies and practices that can promote greater inclusion, such as encouraging increased civic participation within the school and community, and providing a forum where students can contribute to school governance.     

Forms of Capital and Habitus in the Decision to Go on Academic Exchange

Although Canadian universities have made internationalization a strategic priority, only few Canadian students currently participate in any international study opportunities. Drawing on interviews with Canadian students who were about to spend some of their undergraduate education abroad as exchange students, or had recently returned from a study exchange, we argue that despite the importance of relatively high costs associated with international study experiences, cultural factors play a more important role in enabling the decision to study abroad. Being habitually exposed to travel in one's family, and having been encouraged to travel independently as a teenager or young adult emerge as important precursors to our participants’ decision to take part in study exchanges. Although one needs to engage critically with university administrators’ current preoccupation with internationalization, being exposed to an extended time abroad has shown to have positive effects, especially for otherwise underprivileged students. Given the exploratory nature of this study, we conclude with suggestions for further research aimed at confirming our findings and developing policy.     

Decrypting cultural nuances: using drama techniques from the theatre of the oppressed to strengthen cross cultural communication in social work students

ABSTRACT

Despite widening participation in social work education in the UK, social work students from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds can find that they have less positive experiences on social work courses than their counterparts. This can happen when courses do not equip students to navigate the subtle rules of communication with service users that are premised on dominant UK values. As a consequence BME students can be assessed as having poor interpersonal skills and poor skills in engaging service users. However, the issue is often more one of cultural differences and high expectations of cultural integration than one of incompetence.

This paper reports on a drama workshop using techniques from the Theatre of the Oppressed to foster awareness of the complexities of cross cultural communication that BME students may face. The workshop facilitates insight into the nuances of culturally informed values that differ from dominant UK values.

Drawing on student workshop evaluations, the authors highlight the positive use of techniques from the Theatre of the Oppressed as a pro-active pedagogical approach to equipping BME students with insight and skill to circumnavigate cross cultural communication in practice and develop awareness of empowering strategies to combat negative paradigms about BME cultures.     

SCHOOL RACIAL COMPOSITION AND BIRACIAL ADOLESCENTS' SCHOOL ATTACHMENT

Despite extensive research on multiracial youth in recent years, to date, no empirical studies have analyzed how racial context may affect biracial adolescents' sense of belonging in a social institution beyond families. In this study, we examine how the racial makeup of the student body affects self-identified biracial adolescents' school attachment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we find that the proportions of white or black students in school significantly affect the school attachment of Hispanic/black, Asian/black, and American Indian/black biracial adolescents, but school racial composition in general has little influence on biracial adolescents with a partial-white identification (i.e., black/white, Hispanic/white, Asian/white, and American Indian/white). Our analyses also show that on average, students of most biracial groups display lower school attachment than their corresponding monoracial groups, but the differences from the monoracial groups with the lower school attachment are generally small. We discuss the implications of our findings for biracial adolescents' perceived racial boundaries and contemporary American race relations.     

Educational equity in ethnically diverse group work

Educational research in cooperative learning suggests that inequity based on perceived status may be an issue with heterogeneous cooperative learning groups. This paper explores issues of status based on race, ethnicity and cultural background in the New Zealand tertiary classroom where there is a diverse mix of domestic and international students. A four-year research project examined attitudes and perceptions of both domestic and international tertiary students towards cooperative learning. The findings of the research project indicate that initial assumptions of relative status and ability of group members have a major effect on the outcomes of the group. These assumptions, demonstrated by both domestic and international students, may be based on expectations of language ability and familiarity with the pedagogical environment, including the assumed norms and behavioural patterns of the host educational setting, and may disadvantage students from different cultural backgrounds. This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy limiting the effective interaction and participation in the group by international students and other students perceived to be of low status, and the development of trust and reciprocal interdependence among group members. Strategies to weaken the effects of status, promote more equitable interaction and foster productive group outcomes are proposed.