Content area
Full Text
This article provides insights into the experiences of working-class students in a large, public research university. Using the Student Experience in the Research University national survey, results indicate that workingclass students have less social capital, a lower sense of belonging, and less academic engagement as compared to their middle/upper-class peers. Additionally, this article suggests that social capital is positively associated with working-class students' sense of belonging and academic engagement. Implications and strategies for student affairs practitioners are discussed.
When new college students arrive on campus each year, they do not check their social class at the university gates; instead, students' social class remains an important part of their identity and informs their experiences and interactions on campus (Barratt, 2011; Mullen, 2010). In particular, working-class students may experience a sense of culture shock as they encounter the middle-class culture of higher education (Hurst, 2010). Related to this phenomenon, Borrego (2001) noted that "students who come from a working- class or poor background often describe a sense of bewilderment about the educational environment, more often related to the social codes and norms than actual coursework" (p. 31). Little is known about the factors that may place working-class students at a heightened risk for attrition and noncompletion of their college degrees (Braxton, 2000; Soria, 2012; Soria, Stebleton, & Huesman, 2013- 2014); therefore, the larger goal of this article is to learn more about the experiences of working-class students at a public research university. We aim to investigate whether working-class students experience a lesser degree of belonging, lower social capital (as acquired through connections with institutional agents), and academic engagement as compared to their middle/upper-class peers. Furthermore, in this paper we seek to determine whether social capital is associated with working-class students' sense of belonging and academic engagement on campus.
In defining "working-class" in our study, we rely upon students' self-identification as working-class within the foundation of our analysis. We acknowledge that working-class students inhabit complex intersections of socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, gender, and place; consequently, they have developed very unique perspectives that shape their expectations and experiences in higher education (Longwell-Grice & Longwell-Grice, 2007). As a result, identification as workingclass is not easily categorized as a concept that is based solely on one's occupation or income (or...