Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School

• In Event: New Approaches to Studying Cultural Capital

Abstract

We know that the middle and upper-middle classes enjoy significant advantages in our society, and especially in institutions like schools. But how does the middle class secure those advantages? One particularly popular answer to that question derives from research on cultural capital (Bourdieu 1984; Lareau 2011). From that perspective, institutions set expectations and reward those who comply. The middle class has the knowledge and resources to meet those expectations, so they reap more rewards. Despite those arguments, we know that the middle class does not always comply with institutional expectations. Rather, as research on parents and schools has shown, the middle class is willing to challenge institutions to better meet their individual needs (Cucchiara 2014; Lewis-McCoy 2014; Lewis and Diamond 2015). Given those findings, it seems possible that the middle class might secure advantages just by complying with institutional expectations, but also by trying to change or exempt themselves from those standards.

Drawing on longitudinal observations and interviews with students, parents, and teachers in one socioeconomically diverse public school, I find that the middle-class advantage is, at least in part, a negotiated advantage. The middle-class students reaped rewards not just by complying with school expectations, but also by requesting assistance, accommodations, and attention in excess of what was fair or required. Those requests, however, did not secure advantages on their own. Rather, those requests mattered only because teachers felt pressured—by the possibility of pushback from middle-class students and parents—to say “yes,” even when they were initially inclined to say “no.”

By highlighting middle-class students’ negotiated advantage, this paperbook reveals how children, parents, and teachers contribute to the stratification process. Parents coached children to see and react to the world using class-based strategies of influence and deference. Children internalized parents’ lessons and activated those class-based strategies in school. Teachers responded to those class-based strategies and translated them into stratified profits. Because of those interactions, middle-class children received the bulk of teachers’ assistance, accommodations, and positive attention, and they also reaped the profits associated with that extra support, including correct answers on tests, more time to complete assignments, more opportunities for creativity, and more recognition for their ideas.
I conclude that teaching working-class student to act like their middle-class peers will never be enough to alleviate inequalities, as middle-class families will find ways to negotiate advantages that keep them one step ahead.

References
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique on the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge.
Cucchiara, Maia Bloomfield. 2013. Marketing Schools, Marketing Cities: Who Wins and Who Loses When Schools Become Urban Amenities. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Lareau, Annette. 2011. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Lewis, Amanda E. and John B. Diamond. 2015. Despite the Best Intentions: Why Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lewis-McCoy, R. L’Heureux. 2014. Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban Schooling. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Author

• Jessica Calarco, Indiana University - Bloomington