Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs

The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. Michele Lamont New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press, 2000. 391 pp.

The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration.

The moral significance of class

Annual report 1995

As the numbers of working-class students at university grow, we need to gain a better understanding of the different ways in which they consolidate their working-class habitus with the middle-class...

Habitus Transformation and Hidden Injuries: Successful Working-class University Students

In recent years, there has been an increasingly pervasive discourse regarding the need for high levels of post-secondary education for life course success in a knowledge economy. Correspondingly, most Western industrialized nations have seen a drastic increase in university enrolment. Although we do know that access to university continues to be constrained by social class, we know little about factors contributing to dropping out of university. Using qualitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews, in this paper I investigate whether first-generation student status and social class affect individuals’ university experiences and decisions to drop out. Key fi ndings suggest that fi rst-generation students are more likely to leave university early – often despite solid academic performance. Reasons for leaving university without graduating are centred around class-cultural discontinuities, such as not fi tting in, not “feeling university,” and not being able to relate to other students. These discontinuities are interpreted as a clash between an old and a newly developing habitus. Un discours de plus en plus dominant souligne l’importance de poursuivre des etudes post-secondaires pour reussir dans une economie basee sur le savoir. On note egalement une croissance drastique des inscriptions universitaires dans la plupart des pays occidentaux industrialises. Nous avons deja que l’acces aux etudes universitaires est contraint par la classe sociale, mais les facteurs contribuant au decrochage sont moins connus. Sur la base de donnees qualitatives obtenues par le biais d’entretiens semi-directifs, j’examine dans cet article le lien entre le fait d’etre le premier ou la premiere de sa famille a acceder a l’universite « premiere generation », la classe sociale et la decision de quitter l’universite. Les principaux resultats de la recherche suggerent que les etudiants dits de premiere generation sont plus susceptibles d’abandonner l’universite de maniere prematuree, souvent malgre une bonne performance universitaire. Les raisons expliquant leur depart se centrent sur des discontinuites de classe et de culture, par exemple le sentiment de ne pas etre a sa place ou de ne pas appartenir a l’universite, ainsi que des diffi cultes a entrer en relation avec les autres etudiantes et etudiants. Ces discontinuites sont interpretees comme un confl it entre un ancien habitus et un habitus en developpement.

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“I just didn’t feel like I fit in”: The role of habitus in university dropout decisions

This article analyses the expectations and experiences of a group of Canadian working-class, first-generation university students. I outline the structural disadvantages, in terms of economic, soci...

Becoming Middle Class: How Working-class University Students Draw and Transgress Moral Class Boundaries

Labor market conditions, a pervasive public discourse about the benefits of higher education, and parental hopes push many young working‐class people into university. The institutional culture and demands of university, however, often remain elusive and fraught with uncertainty. In this paper, I draw on qualitative interviews with first‐generation, working‐class students at a Canadian university to analyze the ways in which these students discuss their reasons to attend and their expectations for university, and the implications of their attitudes for their future success at university. Analysis of the interview data shows how the relatively high and risky investment of working‐class youth in education leads to strong utilitarian and vocational orientations toward university. Although a narrow focus on the career potential of university is generally perceived as problematic, I argue that it may also help working‐class students in their transition to university. Nonetheless, a critical educational process ...

University as vocational education: working‐class students’ expectations for university

Despite late modernity and risk society discourses about the decreasing influence of structural factors on educational and occupational attainment, it has also been argued that socio‐economic background and gender continue to influence individuals' school–work transitions. Comparing youth apprentices and academic high school students in Canada and Germany, I show how working‐class students planning on attending university perceive these plans as far more risky and uncertain than do their peers with highly educated parents. Similarly, working‐class youth in apprenticeships are confident about their success in these programs. While conditions of late modernity or risk society may have created tendencies toward individualization, young people continue to draw on social experiences rooted in their habitus. But rather than seeing school–work transitions as either structurally determined or largely individualized, I propose that individuals form dispositions based on a reflexive understanding of their position ...

Wolfgang Lehmann

Papers

Habitus Transformation and Hidden Injuries: Successful Working-class University Students

“I just didn’t feel like I fit in”: The role of habitus in university dropout decisions

Becoming Middle Class: How Working-class University Students Draw and Transgress Moral Class Boundaries

University as vocational education: working‐class students’ expectations for university

‘For Some Reason, I Get a Little Scared’: Structure, Agency, and Risk in School–Work Transitions