The graduate school pipeline and first-generation/working-class inequalities
Date
2023-12-03
Authors
Hurst, Allison L.
Roscigno, Vincent J.
Jack, Anthony Abraham
McDermott, Monica
Warnock, Deborah M.
Muñoz, José A.
Johnson, Wendi
Lee, Elizabeth M.
King, Colby R.
Brady, David
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
A.L. Hurst, V.J. Roscigno, A.A. Jack, M. McDermott, D.M. Warnock, J.A. Muñoz, W. Johnson, E.M. Lee, C.R. King, D. Brady, R.D. Francis, K.J. Delaney, M.W. Vitullo. "The Graduate School Pipeline and First-Generation/Working-Class Inequalities" Sociology of Education: a journal of research in socialization and social structure. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380407231215051
Abstract
Sociological research has long been interested in inequalities generated by and within educational institutions. Although relatively rich as a literature, less analytic focus has centered on educational mobility and inequality experiences within graduate training specifically. In this article, we draw on a combination of survey and open-ended qualitative data from approximately 450 graduate students in the discipline of sociology to analyze graduate school pipeline divergences for first-generation and working-class students and the implications for inequalities in tangible resources, advising and support, and a sense of isolation. Our results point to an important connection between private undergraduate institutional enrollment and higher-status graduate program attendance—a pattern that undercuts social-class mobility in graduate training and creates notable precarities in debt, advising, and sense of belonging for first-generation and working-class graduate students. We conclude by discussing the unequal pathways revealed and their implications for merit and mobility, graduate training, and opportunity within our and other disciplines.
Description
License
Copyright American Sociological Association 2023. This article is distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.