Social Class in the Contact Zone: A Content Analysis of Ivy League Class Confessions

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Utilizing Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods for Critical Examination

Abstract

Since 1998, Ivy League institutions modified their financial aid packages to provide no-loan, full-aid policies for low-income students (Alon, 2007; Hillman, 2013). Regardless of these policies, children with parents in the top one percent of income distributions attend these institutions at rates 77 times higher than the lowest quartile (Chetty, Friedman, Saez, Turner, & Yagan, 2017). This study examines the Class Confessions Facebook pages that launched at six Ivy League institutions in 2015 to examine the ways that virtual forums can provide a contact zone (Pratt, 1991) for heterogeneous student populations to engage in learning about class difference. Through content analysis, the study illuminates how students define class status, resist oppressive norms, and make meaning through peer interaction.

Authors

• Genia Bettencourt, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Cortney Johnson, University of Alabama - Birmingham