In this article the authors explore the notion of 'common good' in relation to adult education. They do this by drawing upon the experiences of working-class family members who were both social learners and autodidacts, and who engaged in learning for their own sake and for what they believed to be the common good. The authors use diaries, letters…

Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction, the article examines whether international student mobility (ISM) is still a distinctive educational strategy of upper-milieu students in the 21st century. As a result of the Bologna process, ISM has become widespread in Europe. Does this also mean that international mobility loses its…

This chapter examines the barriers that prohibit poor and working-class students from accessing and engaging in leadership development experiences. Suggestions to inventory these costs and reshape leadership education to be more inclusive to students from poor or working-class backgrounds are included.

Many view populist tendencies among youth with concern because adolescence is a formative period for political development. Of the many factors that shape young people's populist attitudes, experiences in school deserve attention since young people spend time in educational settings and schools share the goal of educating students to become…

This quantitative study examined the material hardships experiences of LGBTQ students at research universities. Using a series of regression analyses, we find relationships between students' sexual identity and experiencing material hardship, including differential relationships when disaggregating by sexual orientation. These results identify…

This paper examines attitudes to classism in Irish education using a thematic analysis of social media conversations about social class between 2018 and 2022. Previous research indicates that Irish education systems are designed by and favour the dominant and ruling classes. However, few studies use the voice of the lived experience to explore the…

First-generation students often feel alone on college campuses. These students can find themselves excluded from organizations, traditions, and spaces that require financial, social, and cultural capital they may not have. In my Sociology of Work course, I use a family work history project to center and validate their experiences. Using census…

Background: Cultural dissonance and exclusion in schools persevere because of a lack of response to diversity. In South Africa, coloniality manifests itself in teaching and learning practices through promoting and privileging selective cultural norms in schools, often to the detriment of poor black children. Aim: Despite the availability of…

Despite efforts to foster a more equitable gender representation, Australia's higher education sector and workforce continue to be highly segregated. This article focusses on the gendered experiences of first-in-family (FIF) students--many who are from low-socioeconomic communities--transitioning to Australian universities. In terms of the…

This qualitative, phenomenological study explored the rhetoric that low-income, first-generation college students in the United States use to describe and understand their social class and class-based experiences. We focused on the rhetoric associated with these descriptions given the complexity in naming and situating class-based experiences…

This qualitative study applied a college readiness framework to address the academic needs of urban students and to better understand the individualized college-readiness experiences of students of color. The study's aim was to provide a voice to the voiceless and to discuss ways to close the college-readiness gap for urban students. With a focus…

This qualitative case study provides an analysis of the structuring of middle-class aspirations at one rural university in the United States. Using a Bourdieusian framework offered by Zipin and colleagues, findings suggest that although student participants in our study are similarly positioned relative to social class background, those from…

This study examines how first-generation (FG) college students make meaning of their social class during their first-year of college. As a method, photovoice allowed for the creation of a rich set of data using student photos and accompanying narratives, through which three key themes were derived: (a) broken American dream, (b) honoring family…

Given the critical role of mentoring in the success of African American males in college, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of how mentoring programs can best support African American male students and what elements contribute to their success (Henry, 2021). Recognizing that mentoring significantly influences the retention, academic…

Research on inequality in higher education (HE) is often dominated by class-based assumptions about traditional and non-traditional students. This binary distinction emphasising students' socio-economic status tends to oversimplify the complexity of educational inequality, neglecting crucial factors which affect the perception of social position.…