Equalizing or Reproducing Class: Education

Readings - Anyon, Gorski, Laureau, Engel.
Consider your own experiences as you read this week. Pick a quote and / or main idea from two texts as a way to examine and consider your own educational experiences from a class lens. This reflection on your own schooling should not be a telling of stories but a substantive discussion.

Individualism or Socioeconomic Structures?

Check your email for a slight change in readings! 2 texts are moved to later in the sem. 2 added for Tuesday. Send me your ideas for the first assignment.

The topic for this week is the debate on the origins of class position, or the factors at play in mobility and opportunities. Is class position determined by Individualism or Socioeconomic Structures and Policies? We've already talked about this in relation to earlier topics but I'd like to directly name and discuss the very different arguments in the debate about the presence of class. And name the different policies.

For this week's draw on a quote or two - brief! not a full paragraph - that struck you in relation to this topic and use it to begin a discussion.

What is the value of a class analysis? 9/20

For this week's post, pull a quote or two from the articles and use that to discuss the value of a class analysis. Why should we bother with looking at the world, history, our disciplines, through a class lens? What do we see differently? Is that important? How does this change your thinking? These should be substantive and draw on the texts.

Readings for this - Chang, Zweig, Zandy (which you read for last week) and 2 new additions -
http://monthlyreview.org/2006/07/01/hurricane-katrina-the-race-and-class-debate. I will email you another article on New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. Note: these last replace the Simpson article which is no longer available online. Thanks to Sara for figuring that out.

Our next class will tackle this subject and 'consequences of inequality'. DeFreitas, Tilly, Life Chances are the readings for that

Remember that I will collect your reading guides on all the articles at the end of class. They are intended to better prepare you for discussion. They should include main idea and argument but also things you like, don't, don't get, want to argue about.......

Your posts have been thought provoking. The rest of you should look at those of your peers.

Redefining Cultural Capital

I did a terrible job tonight explaining cultural capital. It is an important concept that we will carry through the semester. Here is a better explanation. Does this make more sense?

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, working with various colleagues, developed the concept of cultural capital in the early 1960s in order to help address a particular empirical problem—namely, the fact that “[e]conomic obstacles are not sufficient to explain” disparities in the educational attainment of children from different social classes (Bourdieu & Passeron 1979 [1964], 8). Bourdieu argued that, above and beyond economic factors, “cultural habits and…dispositions inherited from” the family are fundamentally important to school success (Bourdieu & Passeron 1979 [1964],14). ... Bourdieu maintained that culture shares many of the properties that are characteristic of economic capital. In particular, he asserted that cultural “habits and dispositions” comprise a resource capable of generating “profits”; they are potentially subject to monopolization by individuals and groups; and, under appropriate conditions, they can be transmitted from one generation to the next (Lareau and Weininger 2003).
http://www.brockport.edu/sociology/faculty/Cultural_Capital.pdf [italics, bold are mine]

Prep for 9/13 class.

Our topic this week is what is class and why is it not visible.

The readings by Zweig, Bourdieu and Zandy redefine the nature of class and while
Mantios and Zandy touch on these they also continue the conversation to how class is cloaked.

Since it's Saturday it seems like very short notice to ask you to blog on these. I will expect you to email the reading guides you have done on these texts. Also, when you have a moment (I can hear you all screaming!) check out the left hand menu Class Matters in the News. There are several charts on economics that you will find interesting.

Zweig, Ch 1 (ER); Zweig – 6 reasons (ER) http://www.monthlyreview.org/0706zweig.htm (not #3, 4); Mantsios “Media Magic” (ER); Bourdieu “Cultural Capital” (ER); Zandy, “Decloaking Class” p 119-125, handout

Your first post assignment is to find something from today's news (text or video) that addresses the consequences of inequality. Post it and add your comments.