(Hiding) In Plain Sight: How Income Status Matters Differently Among Low-Income Students in Suburban Schools

• In Event: 038 - Regular Session. Sociology of Education: Disadvantaged Students in Advantaged Contexts

Abstract

Using qualitative methods, this study investigates the integration of low-income students in two predominantly middle-class suburban schools, and finds that low-income students’ experiences vary depending on the salience and meaning of their low-income status. Low-income students’ integration is a result of processes occurring at two levels. At the interpersonal level, students engage in boundary formation and maintenance as they negotiate hierarchies through humor, friendship groupings, and other day-to-day activities. At one school, where income is “marked” by minority racial status and income is a stratifying agent, low-income minorities engage in stigma management while low-income whites are able to “pass” as higher-income. At the other school, where income is less visibly marked, the salience of a low-income status is low, and income status does not act as a stratifier. At the organizational level, the spatial layout of campus, curricular tracking, and collective school identity facilitate the status quo. This study has implications for future work on low-income students in higher-income school settings and stresses the importance of further exploring how race, income, and context interact to contribute to the heterogeneity among low-income students in higher-income schools.

Author

• Queenie X. Zhu, Harvard University