"Just to Be Content": Exploring Middle-Class Aspirational Fields at a Rural Regional University

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Division J Poster Session: Society, Culture, and Change

Abstract

Despite postsecondary education being a nearly universal aspiration among students from varying backgrounds, students do not have equal access to forms of capital that facilitate movement toward dominant notions of educational or occupational success. Further, latent narratives about what constitutes “success” within postsecondary pathways fosters a mutually constitutive relation between student aspirations and behaviors; that is, these aspirational norms typically elevate certain types of postsecondary experiences over others. This paper argues that students’ aspirations are formed within “aspirational fields,” which are marked by deeply entrenched structural inequalities. Drawing upon critical renderings of Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, we present qualitative findings on the aspirations of students from rural (predominantly white) and urban (predominantly Black) backgrounds attending one rural, predominantly white institution (PWI).

Authors

• Amy Elizabeth Stich, University of Georgia

• Andrew Crain, University of Georgia - Athens