Success in school/college is one of the most trusted institutional pathways enabling children from low social class backgrounds to gain entry into the middle class. Yet, as Bourdieu argues, school culture is a culture that affirms and rewards middle-class culture, thus making success in school a more difficult challenge for those who come from lower-class families. Interview two people from lower-class backgrounds who are currently at college or who are recent graduates, asking them about their experiences negotiating the everyday college culture – academics, extracurricular activities, the college environment as a whole.
Explore the extent to which they are/became aware of class differences, and specifically of any socio-economic class disadvantage they observed/personally experienced at college.
Assess the degree to which your findings support and/or challenge Bourdieu’s thesis concerning the autonomy of school as an institutional mechanism of equality, and its simultaneous interconnection with family background and social class
