Class Incorporated: Stratified Patterns of Academic Engagement at a Highly Selective University

Publication Date

6-1-2022

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Sociological Research Online

Volume

27

Issue

2

DOI

10.1177/13607804211013822

First Page

415

Last Page

433

Abstract

This research examines the influence of social class stratification on students’ self-reported academic engagement. Drawing from 44 interviews with students from the three major class groups at an elite university, we show how social class patterns academic engagement. We analyze academic engagement along the following four domains: strategies for academic achievement, beliefs in personal ability, connections to academics, and the alignments between academic activities and career plans (Wang and Castenada-Sound, 2008). Counterintuitively, compared to both upper class and students from the lower class, middle-class students reported the lowest levels of academic engagement. We discuss possible explanations for these non-linear findings. We conclude by recommending that our traditional conceptions of academic engagement need to take social class into account, and further, that policy makers consider scaffolding for all non-upper class students within elite spaces.

Keywords

academic engagement, higher education, social class

Department

Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

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