This paper seeks to take advantage of the concept of emotional capital to analyse how class is lived out through a critical educational failure by referring to the experiences of 64 community-college students in Hong Kong from a longitudinal qualitative study. Arguably an analysis of the emotions of middle-class and working-class respondents and…

The American dream promised that if you worked hard, you could move up, with well-paying working-class jobs providing a gateway to an ever-growing middle class. Today, however, we have increasing inequality, not economic convergence. Technological advances are putting quality jobs out of reach for workers who lack the proper skills and training.…

This qualitative case study explored working class individuals' perceptions of social mobility in a changing the community. The explored community was traditionally a working class community. It was near a metropolitan area that was growing more prosperous. Many residents commuted to the metropolitan area and the community started turning into a…

This study examined how working-class male students perceive their experiences during the first semester at a community college in order to identify strategies they employ to overcome challenges and achieve academic success. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven working-class male students who persisted to at least a second semester…

Working-class students face many struggles in attempting to complete a college degree. Two of the most prominent struggles faced by these students are the deficiency of financial aid available for those in the working-class and the lack of these students' social capital. Social capital, which is often passed down through families, may be…

This dissertation examines the relationship between community colleges and prisons as similar institutions that absorb and manage displaced workers, economic refugees, and dispossessed adult populations. Based on interviews with adult learners in two community college settings, I discuss how these two seemingly distinctive institutions work…

This study was designed to build on the existing research on teaching and learning in community college contexts and the literature of college writing in two-year schools. The work of Pierre Bourdieu formed the primary theoretical framework and composition theory was used to position this study in the literature of the college writing discipline.…

While a class gap remains in obtaining a degree despite an expansion of higher education, a variety of second chances have become available. How class matters in receiving parental assistance for seeking a second chance is of increasing importance to understanding educational inequality in an altered context of higher education, but it is…

In this article, I offer a critical feminist theoretical reflection on my lived experiences as a working-class White woman as a challenge to some of the dominant narratives in academia. In particular, I describe my development of feminist and class-consciousness as an "organic intellectual." I discuss changes to my working-class identity and the…

This report shares the perspectives and aspirations of 17 low-income and working-class students based on interviews the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) conducted over two semesters of their college journeys. The report identifies opportunities for policymakers and institutional leaders to support all students through completion,…

Sociologists of education have explored the relationship between students' postsecondary aspirations and their propensity to get "cooled out" in community colleges. However, researchers have directed little attention to students whose aspirations remain stable over long periods of time or to the different roles that college degree goals…

Social capital, the value of a relationship that provides support and assistance in a given social situation (Stanton-Salazar, 2001), is a useful theory for understanding the experiences of low-income adolescents who are the first in their families to attend college. According to social capital theory, networks of relationships can help students…

This research study explored how White working class Appalachian males who have completed, or who were within one term of completing a program of study at one of ten community and technical colleges in West Virginia perceived academic success. It examined their definitions of academic success, the perceptions they held regarding their own past and…

A substantial amount of research has been conducted on the college choice process of students entering postsecondary education, yet little is known about this process for students transferring from two-year colleges to bachelor degree-granting institutions. The current study examines how and why community college students' perceptions shape their…

College-choice studies have long been conducted to help colleges improve their recruitment strategies (Chapman, 1981; Hossler & Gallagher, 1987; Jackson, 1982; Litten, 1982). The dominant college-choice models and studies have, however, focused solely on traditional aged students seeking to enroll in four-year colleges/universities upon high…