The Phenomenology of Social Class on Campus

Will Barratt, PhD
Adventurer and Professor Emeritus 

Phenomenology, used here, is concerned with our individual experience and meaning making of the world around us. I have written elsewhere about social class identity: that we all have a social class of origin (where we come from), a current felt social class (what we think of ourselves now), and an attributed social class (what others think of us). I want to focus here on our social class of origin and how the college experience might change that.

College is not a level playing field

My colleagues who are thinking, researching, and writing about first generation students on campus (Sonja Ardoin, Becki Elkins, and Krista Soria are among my favorites) foreground the campus experiences of non-typical students, in these authors' cases first generation students. They all note articulately that the four-year college is not a level playing field, and among other factors social class is responsible for the tilt.

The percent of first generation students on campus varies by campus, two-year and four-year institutions have very different demographics. According to PNPI "Only 39% of first-generation students attended four-year institutions". The Center for First Generation Student Success notes that either 24% or 56% of students on campus are first generation, depending on definitions. That is a lot of people. Social class ranks high in the demographics of diversity.

First generation students are at a cultural disadvantage on a four-year campus in that they do not know the normative expectations extant in the college environment. First Generation students do not have what Bourdieu calls Cultural Capital. This is not a deficit, Cultural Capital refers to the cultural knowledge and skills of upper middle class. First generation students on campus have moved into a different culture and need to learn (assimilate) the normative expectations in this new to them social class culture. Soria has written eloquently about this topic in Bridging the Divide.

For social class non-normative students college can be a transformative experience, a conversion experience as they learn to negotiate the normative expectations of the upper middle class / ruling class environment. This is very hard, especially without supports along this journey. This identity transition is a major life change.

Upper middle class / ruling class students come to campus with an advantage - their social class of origin matches the social class environment normative expectations of the campus. For social class normative students college is a confirmation experience of their world view and they slip easily into the greased grooves of the campus environment that was created for them by people like them. These students have their social class of origin world view (what they see and how they see it) confirmed and not challenged. And I assert that this is a bad thing.

 Phenomenology

We all have a way of perceiving the world that is based on our personal experiences. What we see and how we see things are driven by our brains in interesting ways. The philosophy of phenomenology occupies the space trying to understand this process of perception and meaning making.

Example: I lived in Roi Et, Thailand for 3 years as part of my becoming an adventurer (adventuring is sometimes about being and sometimes about becoming). My wife and I were 2 of the 4 Europeans living and working on the Roi Et Rajabhat University campus.  My perceptual set, what I saw and the meaning I made of it, slowly changed as Thai faces became normative. Traveling to Bangkok became an adventure because European faces stood out, were foregrounded by my perception, didn't look normal, which was meaning made by my brain. So what does this have to do with the phenomenology of social class on campus?

Our social class of origin defines who we are, and the experiences of that identity shapes what you see and how you see it. On campus differences are foregrounded for the non-normative people. This foregrounding of difference and contrast is troubling, exhausting, and can lead people to leave their new environment.  And people wonder why minorities (non-normative individuals) don't persist on campus?

One of the persistent and troubling problems is that majority / normative students on campus experience sameness, and the issues of non-normative students get backgrounded as the familiar is foregrounded. 

Issues of social class and first generation students are intertwined in the systems of post secondary education. This systemic classism is an emerging topic in the literature. "An Open Letter to Ninth Graders" and "Social Class and College Readiness" are excellent examples of this emerging discussion.

Foregrounding, Backgrounding, and Learning

Our experiences get integrated into our conscious and unconscious minds and drive what we see and how we make meaning of the world. According to the Rock Man in the "The Point" "You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear." According to Qui-Gon Jinn "Your focus determines your reality".

Imagine the different pre-college experiences of a first generation student and a fourth generation student. The relationship between parental education, parental income, home environment, and pre-college test scores is well established. The explanation of score differences is not about money or education, but about the experiences of pre-college student provided by money and educated parents. 

We experience the world around us. If my world is different than yours then my experiences will be different than yours and my perceptions and meaning making will be different than yours. In a not-so-subtle classist way the phrases 'cultural enrichment', 'cultural advantage' and 'cultural disadvantage' are used to describe the experiences of people in these two social class groups in the USA.  Everyone has a culture of origin, and one culture is believed to have more prestige. "All animals are equal, some are more equal than others" (George Orwell in Animal Farm).

Systemic classism is the direct result of the mental models of reality based on the early experiences that help shape our social class of origin (read also gender of origin, ethnicity of origin, or whatever other identity is important to you). The people who did well in college perpetuate the system in which they did well - for some writers this is about the reproduction of social class. 

Immigrants, members of a minority group moving into a majority culture, are keenly aware of the systemic issues that they confront. How we deal with strangers, with the other, says a lot about us as individuals and as a culture. Do we accommodate or assimilate minorities on our campuses?

But what of social class majority members on campus? Their experiences in the formation of their social class of origin are harmonious with the campus social class environment. There are no contrasts in cultures for them, no microaggressions, no systemic issues that they confront. College is a confirmation experience of their social class of origin identity. This is a bad thing. The unexamined life is not worth living, according to Socrates.

A Whack on the Side of the Head

How do we point out water to a fish? 

How do we change the perceptual set of the majority social class student (or faculty, or staff, or administrators) on campus? 

How do we help colleagues to become social class 'woke'?

How do we help colleagues who are immersed in a social class environment on campus that reproduces and reinforces their world view, that foregrounds what they see and the meaning they make and backgrounds the world views and experiences of social class minority students?

How do we change what our colleagues see and what meaning they make of what they see? 

I'll not go into the literature on change here. Awareness is the first step. Helping our colleagues to see social class, social class advantage/privilege, systemic social class discrimination, and the myriad and sundry echos of social class on campus is a good first step.

 

 tl;dr - your experiences shape your perceptions, your perceptions shape how make meaning, your meaning making creates social, cultural, and organizational systems.

(As an aside, my life as an intentional adventurer has put me into many different social, cultural, and regional, environments, often international, so I know from personal experience how difficult these transitions to a new environment can be and how they have affected my identities. I have come to know a lot about what I think of as 'systems entry', and have always had the advantage of choosing a new system to enter and knowing what that entails. Sometimes I have had a guide, sometimes I have had a buffer such as a familiar hotel experience, and sometimes I have had no backup. The first few international system entries in my life, Salzburg, and Burssels, were not easy but I was buffered and assisted by my wife. Much of my adventuring now is about being in an unknown environment or culture.)