Farm Kids Versus Lake Kids: A Situated Study of Social Class in a Rural/Suburban School

• In Event: 16.056 - Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: 16.056-7 - Examining Class and Identity Across Social Contexts

Abstract

This paper examines the operation of social class marginalization in a white Midwest rural/suburban high school where sprawling “country lake” estates have increasingly overtaken farmland, creating two populations of students in the high school – the “lake kids,” who dominate the school’s culture, and the marginalized “farm kids.” This situated qualitative study asks, “How does inequality get constructed and maintained among these two distinct populations of white students in this suburban setting?” It explores the interaction of external economic forces, school practices, and student identity in the construction of social class inequality.

Authors

• Jason M Curtis

• Cynthia M Ellwood, Marquette University