Schoolcraft vs. Becoming Somebody: Competing Visions of Higher Education among Working-Class College Students

By exploring the meanings working-class students attribute to college and academic success, this article uncovers important and surprising disjunctures between the official view of college as a pathway to social mobility and students’ own needs and aspirations. While some working-class college students do use college as a “ticket out of the working class,” others reject this view, arguing that the twin functions of college as educative and credentialing should be delinked. It is important for researchers, as well as educators and policymakers, to recognize that working-class college students are not homogenous with regard to occupational interests and expectations of social mobility.