Fields as Performance: Unpacking Heterogeneity in Undergraduate College-to-Career Pathways

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8. Pathways and Returns to Higher Education

Abstract

Two pivotal transition periods in students’ lives are from high school to college and college to the labor market. Students’ negotiations along these pathways have broader and long-term effects on their status attainment and overall social mobility. Given the magnitude of these decisions, the question then becomes, how do these students navigate their college-to-career pathways within and across fields of study? Through 60 in-depth interviews with undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Austin, I detail how college students navigate these pathways relative to their academic and professional motivations. Drawing from Erving Goffman’s theories of dramaturgy, frame analysis, and interaction order, I identify four student typologies: passive, proactive, persistent, and precarious performers – roles that students embody relative to their fields of study and career trajectories. These typologies are comprised of pathway strategies – decisions that students employ along their college-to-career pathway, and pathway logics – understandings associated with these decisions, both of which serve as mutually reinforcing mechanisms that serve to better position students toward their academic and professional goals. Across my sample, students both describe and embody these different performances through a host of strategies and logics, some shared and some unique. As college-going increases, so too does the competition upon entering the labor market. This creates an environment of scarce, protected resources and opportunities within and between fields of study and their related professions, forcing students to navigate their pathway with concerted calculation.

Author

• Cameron Rua-Smith, University of Texas-Austin