Clashing Classes: Working-class abitus, mobility, and trajectories of first-generation college students

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 11. Higher Education and Mobility

Abstract

Drawing on literature on habitus and class-based dispositions (Bordieu 1990); social class, occupation, and values (Kohn 1969); and parental work and home environment (Parcel and Meneghan 1994), this paper examines the relationship between parental occupation, class background, and the college aspirations of first-generation college students. Using ELS: 2002 data, I focus on how the intersection of working-class culture and gender influence college major choice. Regression analyses investigate whether the effects of parental occupation on student major selection vary by gender, social class, and first-generation status. The findings reveal significant interactions between gender and first-generation students’ field of study and relationships between parental occupation and choice of applied versus academic major. This research can inform policy around enrollment gaps and patterns of attrition by gender and among low-income working-class first-generation college students, while also speaking to broader sociological questions and issues of inequality, mobility, and status attainment trajectories.

Author

• Ashley Wright, The Ohio State University