Tag Archives: social class

Social Interactions

14th November 2022My Projectdata, higher education, imposter syndrome, research, social class, students, working class, working class studentsFelicity Roles

I was reading this article on Refinery 29 about imposter syndrome in the workplace, aptly titled Do I have imposter syndrome or am I just a working class woman? and it had a link to what I believe is a chapter from a book. The chapter is focused on social class differences in social interactions at university.

I picked out some quotes that I found especially interesting.

.. working-class students’ minority group status is more evident at university than in their prior educational settings, and this may lead them to feel out of place at university (Croizet, Austin, Goudeau, Marot, & Millet, 2019; Easterbrook, Hadden & Nieuwenhuis, 2019)

Additionally, universities are distinctly middle-class environments that include their own norms and cultural values that can clash with working class values (Rubin, Denson, Kilpatrick, Matthews, Stehlik, & Zyngier, 2014; see also Batruch, Autin & Batura, 2019). More specifically, universities embody a middle-class independent approach to learning and achievement, which is discordant with interdependent working-class values, making university more alien and difficult for working-class students (Stephens, Fryberg, Markus, Johnson, & Covarrubias, 2012)

I find this quote both interesting and confusing. Interesting because I think working class students being a minority in higher education isn’t necessarily more obvious than a student’s previous school. It all depends on where they went to school – did they get a scholarship to a private school where they were a minority? Or did they grow up in a LPN, where the majority of students were working class?
And confusing because nowhere did they define what these ‘working class values’ are. I couldn’t work out if they meant traditional, slightly old fashioned working class values or if there is a 21st century context to this phrase.

Finally, working-class students are often the first in their families to attend university. Consequently, working-class families have less experience with universities and are often unable to provide the same level of financial, informational, mentoring, and/or identity support as middle- class families do to their sons and daughters (Rubin, 2012b).

This particular quote reminds me of a conversation I had before I even started this research project. One of my friends who doesn’t study a creative subject was complaining that her family seem to think she’s too good for them now, and she was feeling out of her depth at home and at university. I think that this is a problem that a lot of working class students could experience – since starting at university now they don’t fit in with their family, or their peers at university. This could feel very isolating and a constant feeling of being an imposter.

Rubin and Wright (2015, 2017) found that (a) working- class students tended to be older than higher-class students, (b) older students tended to have more paid work and childcare commitments than younger students, (c) students with more of these commitments tended to spend less time on their university campus, and (d) students who spent less time on campus tended to be less socially integrated at university. Rubin and Wright also found that working-class students tended to be less satisfied with their finances, and that this social class difference in financial satisfaction helped to explain their lack of social integration.”

This mention of working class students tending to be older than higher-class students is very interesting to me. When I was looking at demographics of students at various arts universities, it was very hard to find out the ages, due to data not being disaggregated or being split into broad age groups eg 18-25, which personally I didn’t find very useful. The age difference between working class students and the rest of the student body could be a reason that a lot of working class students feel alone, simply because they don’t feel that they have anything in common or they feel at different stages in their lives.

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Going back to the Refinery 29 article, once again imposter syndrome is being gendered. I acknowledge that the author of the article is female so she is talking about her experience. However the other people she spoke to in her article are all female too. And yes, there is research that shows that women are more likely to have imposter syndrome in the workplace. But that isn’t to say that men don’t experience it too. And talking to some men or non-binary people would have created a more balanced article, in my opinion.

Rubin, M., Evans, O. and McGuffog, R. (2019). Social Class Differences in Social Integration at University: Implications for Academic Outcomes and Mental Health. The Social Psychology of Inequality, pp.87–102. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28856-3_6.

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Working Class Denial

30th August 2022Inspiration, My Projectclass, research, social class, working class, working class womenFelicity Roles

In a conversation with someone who is considered an expert in the context of my project, I was told that there is no class problem in universities in general, let alone in arts universities. I found this interesting because this person comes from the same town as me and is very working class. Whereas another expert I spoke to who is middle class, admitted to noticing less obviously working class students.

On further reflection, I think this actually makes sense. People who have risen from the working classes to a more eminent position are often quick to distance themselves from their background. For example, Hyacinth Bucket in the tv show Keeping Up Appearances who was desperate to avoid her working class sister and brother in law, going so far as to ignore them in public and clamber over brick garden walls to hide from them.

Quotes From Keeping Up Appearances. QuotesGram

And why wouldn’t you want to distance yourself from your working class roots when “Despite the occasional ‘rags to riches’ storyline, most media representations of working-class communities tend to focus on what these communities lack—not just financially, but also in knowledge, taste and morality. They are constantly depicted as uneducated, poorly dressed and more likely to become criminals.”

Stephanie Lawler, a British sociologist, said in 2005 that “at the heart of middle-class identity, is a feeling of disgust towards working class existence,” and I think that if one has been socially mobile and is now middle class rather than working class, there is an element of disgust towards your roots rather than pride about how far you’ve come.

Whilst there are a lot of tv shows that satirise the working classes eg Little Britain and Shameless, there are shows such as the long running Jeremy Kyle Show or Benefits Street that aim to humiliate or demonise the working classes. Instead of being actually entertaining, the public are expected to laugh at the so called misfortune of the millions of people who are working class. Jeremy Kyle in particular was a vicious show – a live studio audience laughing at families imploding and the guests being incited to violence against each other.

This is a far cry from the hardworking, working class men and women who work multiple jobs so they can feed their families and who do all the jobs that other people turn their noses up at.

But which portrayal of working class society is more memorable?

https://www.media-diversity.org/as-the-media-has-a-reckoning-on-race-and-gender-its-time-to-also-talk-aboutclass/#:~:text=Despite%20the%20occasional%20’rags%20to,more%20likely%20to%20become%20criminals.

A Conversation

10th August 2022My Projectdata, higher education, interview, my project, research, social class, stakeholder, working class, working class students, working class womenFelicity Roles

Today I met with *Jess, a student at UAl. She very kindly agreed to talk with me, on the understanding that I would change her name and not use any identifying details about her in my project.

I started off by telling Jess about my background and my life, in the hopes of establishing common ground between us. And I think it worked! After I spoke about myself, we started discussing how hard it is to be a working class student at such an elite university. Jess told me that no one knows how badly she struggles to pay rent and that when she runs out of hot water, she uses the shower at her gym. A gym that she was gifted the membership to and has no way to renew when it runs out. Jess told me that she has often googled how to sell photos of her feet to make money but has never gone through with it because it felt dirty. More than once she has downloaded dating apps in the hopes of someone buying her dinner that night.

And then we spoke about UAL.

Jess told me that her course expects her to buy a lot of materials and books, without understanding that not every student on every course has a lot of disposable income. She spoke in depth about how this has made her feel less worthy to be on her course and that she feels alone amongst her classmates. The lack of understanding from her course leaders has made her feel embarrassed about being working class and as though she is inferior to the students around her. Jess spoke about UAL as an organisation that is unfeeling and doesn’t care about the students that are underrepresented amongst the student body. When asked if she was aware of any support for students who are from lower income backgrounds, Jess just laughed. She went on to explain that she feels invisible when she is at uni and she feels ashamed of not being able to wear designer clothes every day or go to Michelin starred restaurants at the weekends.

We finished our conversation by Jess telling me that she wishes things were different, and that UAL could be inclusive to everyone. Not just to the people with big bank accounts.

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Before publishing this blog post, I sent it to Jess to make sure I hadn’t misrepresented her comments or opinions in any way and that she was happy for me to post it, which she was.

Uncomfortable Interactions

21st July 2022My Projectclass, data, higher education, research, social class, social interactions, university, working class, working class studentsFelicity Roles

Most studies focus on working-class students and the ways in which they act or do not act. Yet, the ways in which interactions with middle-class students as well as university administrators and faculty make first generation students feel uncomfortable have not gained similar attention. (Lareau & Ferguson, 2017, p. 1)

I came across this quote when it was referenced in another article and it stuck in my mind. The study it is taken from was titled Cultural exclusion of upwardly mobile college students and published in 2017 in The American Sociological Association. The interactions that my stakeholders have with their peers and university staff is something that I had not thought about. The lack of support for working class students may not just be the lack of a visible support system but in being stereotyped by the people that are meant to be teaching them, whether knowingly or unconsciously.

This is definitely something that I will be discussing with my stakeholders. I am curious how they feel about their interactions with their tutors and peers, and whether this quote is actually true or just speculation.

However, a problem with asking this question is that my stakeholders could become more self conscious about the interactions they are having with their peers. Therefore I think that I will need to do some follow up with them after asking this to see if they have become more aware of the content of their interactions or if it has limited their interactions in any way.

Later on in this article it talks about how some of the students in a study felt inferior to their more privileged peers. This stems from the perceived academic superiority of the middle and upper class students. A few of their participants spoke about being intimidated by their classmates who came from more privileged backgrounds.

“So the last thing you want to do is open your mouth, because you know that they’re going to be talking about you afterwards, saying “my god, she’s so stupid.” So you’re just so scared. And so as a result I virtually said nothing, I was really intimidated, I was really, really scared […] I didn’t want to open my mouth. And it’s that sense of “I’m the bottom of the pile. They’re so much better than me, and I can’t open my mouth because of that, because I’m so scared.” (Interview, UK, 2007, Nicole, 20 years, law student)“

From my own experience, I relate to this. The first term at CSM I was so intimidated by my cohort – I thought everyone was smarter than me and had more valid points to raise in class. I was described by one classmate as shy, because I never spoke. But the truth is, I didn’t want anyone to think I was stupid and wonder why I was there. I didn’t feel worthy to be at such a prestigious school and reading this study has made me realise how many other students across the country could potentially feel like that. It’s an awful feeling and one that isn’t conducive to good mental health.

“The students were constantly engaged in an exhausting process of self-surveillance in order to monitor their behaviour and conform to unfamiliar, and sometimes inexplicable codes of behaviour. As they struggled with a sense of not fitting in socially, of failing to find a place to belong culturally within elite higher education, the least stressful option was often to remove themselves physically from the causes of their discomfort—the privileged majority at Southern university.“

This is something I have planned to asked my stakeholders about – whether they are hyper-aware of how they act around those of their peers who are from a higher social class, and if this is having a negative affect on their university experience. I find the study that these quotes were taken from fascinating. I think that Diane Reay, Gill Crozier and John Clayton have published a study that is very different from the other research that I found about working class students in higher education and it is very thought provoking. As a working class student, now I find myself analysing how I am acting around people from my cohort and wondering if I am experiencing uncomfortable interactions with others and not realising it.

References:

Reay, D. (2021). The working classes and higher education: Meritocratic fallacies of upward mobility in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Education, 56(1). doi:10.1111/ejed.12438.

Lareau, A. and Ferguson, S., 2017. Cultural exclusion of upwardly mobile college students. American Sociological Association August, 12, p.2017.

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Class identification – Your choice or society’s?

6th July 2022My Projectclass system, higher education, research, social class, university, working class, working class studentsFelicity Roles

In the surveys I have conducted, I have asked people what social class they identify as. This was something that both Zuleika and Georges questioned me on in the last tutorial before the end of the term. I thought that maybe I had asked the wrong question and that class is something we are given and we don’t get to choose which social class we identify as.

However, I came across an article that talks about how class is experienced first through your family and then that idea of class is affirmed by societal interactions. Lubrano (2004) describes class as a ‘script, map, and guide. It tells us how to talk, how to dress, how to hold ourselves, how to eat, and how to socialize… in short, class is nearly everything about you’. The author of the article goes on to write that ‘social class identity is both subjective and complex, which means that we cannot ascribe class identity to people; rather, individuals choose how they identify’.

I feel slightly better about my choice of words in my surveys now. However I think that I still need to delve further into class, and if people consciously identify as a particular class or if they just pick one that sounds appropriate for them.

In Chavs Owen Jones talks a lot about class and how the working class has been demonised and almost blamed for everything that is wrong with society. I really enjoyed reading this book, however I think that he was the wrong person to write it. He comes from a securely middle class background and in areas of the book his bias shone through. Whilst I think that he made some good points, I don’t think that it was a purely objective book. Being a very left wing person, Jones at times relied on blaming the Conservative party for the class issues that exist in the UK. He might be right, but I don’t believe that the class system and the inequalities it creates are purely a political issue. When politics are brought into a topic, it quickly becomes divisive and contentious. If we take the politics out of the equation (if that’s possible) then it becomes an issue that society as a whole needs to tackle, no matter their political affiliations. Another problem I had with this book was that most of the people Jones quoted were from the upper or middle classes eg Boris Johnson’s sister or Simon Heffer, a prominent right-wing journalist whose children attend Eton. This book was written about how the working classes have been demonised but most of the sources used were people who demonise the working class. There’s something about this that doesn’t make sense to me.

References:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ss.20263?saml_referrer

Jones, O. (2020). Chavs. London: Verso Books.

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