Compounding (Dis)advantages: Social Reproduction in Online Learning, Throughout and Post-Pandemic

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Social Capital, Cultural Capital, and the Reproduction of Inequality (Table 11)

Abstract

Sociologists have long documented the ways that schools participate in social reproduction, or the way that differences in socio-economic status (SES) are passed from generation to generation. This study extends these theories to look at how material and structural resources were accessed by students of different SES and stream (ability group) in online environments, as well as the ways that cultural capital and habitus layered on these conditions. Based on a large-scale survey (n = 18,529), interviews with teachers, and interviews and focus groups with secondary students, this study found that online (as opposed to in-person) learning environments have the potential to strengthen relationships between SES/stream and engagement with school, offering greater options to those with greater preexisting advantages.

Author

• Christine Corso, Wilfrid Laurier University