Choices of Degree or Degrees of Choice? Class, ‘Race’ and the Higher Education Choice Process

Reay, Diane; Davies, Jacqueline; David, Miriam; Ball, Stephen J.

doi:10.1017/s0038038501008550

Cited by 201 publications

(304 citation statements)

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“…We learn through her narrative that she has excellent matriculation grades. Her horizons appear to be constrained by the expectations of her family (Reay et al 2001). We note the primary influences on her choices are the male members of her family, and her narration places her female relations in terms of social activities.…”

Section: Belonging and Familymentioning

confidence: 88%

Commuting, transitions and belonging: the experiences of students living at home in their first year at university

2016

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In this study, our cross-case analysis of students' lives challenges the conventional home-university model of transition and highlights the importance of acknowledging the influence of this complex symbiotic relationship for students who attend university and live at home. We argue that as with stay-at-home holidays, or ''staycations'', which are of such crucial importance to the tourism industry, so stay-at-home students or commuter students are vital to higher education and the term utilised here is ''stayeducation''. Through the narratives of ''stayeducation'' students, we see how family and community aspects of students' lives are far more significant than previously realised, and our study suggests that these heavily influence the development of a student sense of belonging. Drawing upon biographical narrative method, this paper introduces three firstyear Business and Economics students enrolled at different universities in London and explores their journeys through their transition through home, school and early university life. Ways in which key themes play out in the transition stories of our students and the challenges and obstacles for the individual are drawn out through the cross-case analysis. Findings support the existing literature around gender, class and identity; however, new insights into the importance, for these students, of family, friendships and community are presented. Our work has implications for academic staff, those writing institutional policies, and argues for the creation of different spaces within which students can integrate into their new environment.

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Section: Belonging and Familymentioning

confidence: 88%

Commuting, transitions and belonging: the experiences of students living at home in their first year at university

2016

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“…The material and social conditions common in working-class contexts tend to require and ultimately promote this model (Grossmann & Vamum, 2011;Stephens et al, 2011;Stephens et al, 2007). Specifically, working-class contexts are characterized by limited economic capital, environmental constraints and uncertainty, and few opportunities for choice, control, and infiuence (Chen & Matthews, 2001;Lachman & Weaver, 1998;Reay, Davies, David, & Ball, 2001).…”

Section: Models Of Self: Cultural Norms At Both the Individual And Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unseen disadvantage: How American universities' focus on independence undermines the academic performance of first-generation college students.

Stephens

Fryberg

Markus

et al. 2012

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

917

1,178

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American universities increasingly admit first-generation college students whose parents do not have 4-year degrees. Once admitted, these students tend to struggle academically, compared with continuing-generation students--students who have at least 1 parent with a 4-year degree. We propose a cultural mismatch theory that identifies 1 important source of this social class achievement gap. Four studies test the hypothesis that first-generation students underperform because interdependent norms from their mostly working-class backgrounds constitute a mismatch with middle-class independent norms prevalent in universities. First, assessing university cultural norms, surveys of university administrators revealed that American universities focus primarily on norms of independence. Second, identifying the hypothesized cultural mismatch, a longitudinal survey revealed that universities' focus on independence does not match first-generation students' relatively interdependent motives for attending college and that this cultural mismatch is associated with lower grades. Finally, 2 experiments at both private and public universities created a match or mismatch for first-generation students and examined the performance consequences. Together these studies revealed that representing the university culture in terms of independence (i.e., paving one's own paths) rendered academic tasks difficult and, thereby, undermined first-generation students' performance. Conversely, representing the university culture in terms of interdependence (i.e., being part of a community) reduced this sense of difficulty and eliminated the performance gap without adverse consequences for continuing-generation students. These studies address the urgent need to recognize cultural obstacles that contribute to the social class achievement gap and to develop interventions to address them.

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“…One possible channel is the inter-generational transmission of motivation towards the choice of field of study. As Reay et al (2001) point out, students' beliefs on what is suitable for them to study are influenced by social origin. As a result, students from highincome families tend to choose high wage premium subjects more frequently, coherently with the greater importance they assign to the expected earning returns of their choice (Davies et al 2013).…”

Section: Previous Studies and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family background and educational path of Italian graduates

Vergolini¹,

Vlach

2016

High Educ

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In this paper, we analyse social inequalities along the horizontal dimension of education in Italy. More precisely, we focus on the role of family background in completing specific fields of study at both secondary and tertiary levels of education. To mitigate the limitations of the traditional sequential model, we construct a typology of educational paths based on two axes: the prestige of one's choice of high school track (academic or vocational) and the labour market returns of the university field of study in terms of monthly net income (high or low). We identify four paths: academic-high, academic-low, vocational-high, and vocational-low. We investigate the influence of social inequalities on educational path using data from the Istat ''Survey on the transition to work of University graduates'' regarding cohorts of university graduates in 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007. Results obtained from multinomial logistic regressions confirm predictions based on rational action theory. We find that family background, defined in terms of parental education, is positively and significantly associated with the completion of the most advantageous educational path. Moreover, we find that high-performing students from lower socio-economic backgrounds show a higher probability of completing the vocational-high path. This result suggests that a vocational upper secondary degree could be perceived as a sort of safety option for students from less wealthy families, which allows them to invest in the most lucrative and risky fields at university.

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Choices of Degree or Degrees of Choice? Class, ‘Race’ and the Higher Education Choice Process

Cited by 201 publications

References 0 publications

Commuting, transitions and belonging: the experiences of students living at home in their first year at university

Commuting, transitions and belonging: the experiences of students living at home in their first year at university

Unseen disadvantage: How American universities' focus on independence undermines the academic performance of first-generation college students.

Family background and educational path of Italian graduates

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