Privileging Class: Toward a Critical Psychology of Social Class in the Context of Education

Abstract

This issue of the Journal of Social Issues explores psychological meanings of social class in the context of education. In this article we propose an outline for a critical psychology of social class and discuss why education is a useful context for examining relations between class and individual psychology. We consider how research and theory in the study of race and gender can and cannot inform a psychology of social class. We introduce three themes that organize the issue and the articles that illustrate them. The articles in this issue address all levels of education, include data from within and outside of the United States, and investigate perspectives of individuals from a range of social class groups."What I remember most about school was that if you were poor you got no respect and no encouragement. I mean if you didn't have cute ringlets, an ironed new uniform, starched shirts, and a mother and father who gave money to the church, you weren't a teacher's pet and that meant you weren't encouraged." -a working-class woman respondent interviewed in Luttrell, 1993

Active and Democratic Citizenship Education and its Challenges in Social Studies Classrooms

“…This result was completely different from that of Van den Hooff et al (2004), who showed that participants' emotional intelligence presented a highly significant relationship to team performance. In this study, faculty members' backgrounds of high academic achievement and elites' socio-economic status--which were approved to promote team identity (Ostrove & Cole, 2003)--might miscarry the direct effects of emotional intelligence on team performance. In other words, the emotional intelligence of university faculty members could only create negative effects on the knowledge-sharing mechanism but not on team performance directly (rather, indirectly).…”

Social Class and Belonging: Implications for College Adjustment

“…Recent media attention and recent academic scholarship suggest that college is a useful context in which to discuss social class and belonging (see, for example, Leonhardt, 2005;Ostrove & Cole, 2003;Reay, Davies, David, & Ball, 2001;Wentworth & Peterson, 2001). For example, a cover story in the Wall Street Journal (Kaufman, 2001) described how a "culture of money highlights [the] class divide" at elite universities, where meal plans, dorm rooms, and access to computers and cell phones are increasingly visible indicators of who has and who has not (p. A1).…”

The Role of Language & Discourse in the Investigation of Privilege: Using Participatory Action Research to Discuss Theory, Develop Methodology, & Interrupt Power

“…The most privileged, those who are given accumulated and intersectional assets (e.g. ablebodied, wealthy, American, White, heterosexual, male), are more likely to profit from the prevailing institutional structures because of the frequency with which their identities (separately or in combination) become socio-contextually prominent, beneficial, or useful (Harvey 1999;Ostrove and Cole 2003).…”