The Working Classes and Higher Education : Inequality of Access, Opportunity and Outcome

Though traditional working-class jobs now demand higher levels of education, educational policies make it increasingly difficult for working-class students to afford tuition at four-year colleges and universities, placing them in low-ranking institutions with plummeting retention and completion rates. Through a sociological framework, this volume challenges the popular notion of higher education access as a means to social mobility and equal opportunity for working-class students. It highlights the successes of working-class students within the constraints and obstacles presented by the current structure of the higher education system.

Within the broader context of the global knowledge economy, wherein the "college-for-all" discourse grows more and more pervasive and systems of higher education become increasingly stratified by social class, important and timely questions emerge regarding the future social location and mobility of the working classes. Though the working classes look very different from the working classes of previous generations, the weight of a universal working-class identity/background amounts to much of the same economic vulnerability and negative cultural stereotypes, all of which continue to present obstacles for new generations of working-class youth, many of whom pursue higher education as a necessity rather than a "choice."

Using a sociological lens, contributors examine the complicated relationship between the working classes and higher education through students’ distinct experiences, challenges, and triumphs during three moments on a transitional continuum: the transition from secondary to higher education; experiences within higher education; and the transition from higher education to the workforce. In doing so, this volume challenges the popular notion of higher education as a means to equality of opportunity and social mobility for working-class students.