Scholars typically view class socialization as an implicit process. This study instead shows how parents actively transmit class-based cultures to children and how these lessons reproduce inequalities. Through observations and interviews with children, parents, and teachers, I found that middle- and working-class parents expressed contrasting beliefs about appropriate classroom behavior, beliefs that shaped parents’ cultural coaching efforts. These efforts led children to activate class-based problem-solving strategies, which generated stratified profits at school. By showing how these processes vary along social class lines, this study reveals a key source of children’s class-based behaviors and highlights the efforts by which parents and children together reproduce inequalities.
ArnettJeffrey Jensen. 1995. “Broad and Narrow Socialization: The Family in the Context of a Cultural Theory.” Journal of Marriage and Family57(3):617–28.
2.
AschaffenburgKarenMaasIneke. 1997. “Cultural and Educational Careers: The Dynamics of Social Reproduction.” American Sociological Review62(4):573–87.
3.
BernsteinBasil B.1990. Class, Codes, and Control. London, UK: Routledge.
4.
BourdieuPierre. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
5.
BrantlingerEllen. 2003. Dividing Classes: How the Middle Class Negotiates and Rationalizes School Advantage. New York: Routledge.
6.
CalarcoJessica M.2011. “‘I Need Help!’ Social Class and Children’s Help-Seeking in Elementary School.” American Sociological Review76(6):862–82.
7.
CarterPrudence L.2005. Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White. New York: Oxford University Press.
8.
ChinTiffaniPhillipsMeredith. 2004. “Social Reproduction and Child-Rearing Practices: Social Class, Children’s Agency, and the Summer Activity Gap.” Sociology of Education77(3):185–210.
9.
CondronDennis J.2009. “Social Class, School and Non-School Environments, and Black/White Inequalities in Children’s Learning.” American Sociological Review74(5):685–708.
10.
CorsaroWilliam A.1994. “Discussion, Debate, and Friendship Processes: Peer Discourse in U.S. and Italian Nursery Schools.” Sociology of Education67(1):1–26.
11.
CucchiaraMaiaHorvatErin McNamara. 2008. “Perils and Promises: Middle-Class Parental Involvement in Urban Schools.” American Educational Research Journal46(4):974–1004.
12.
DiamondJared B.1999. “Beyond Social Class: Cultural Resources and Educational Participation among Low-Income Black Parents.” Berkeley Journal of Sociology44(1999–2000):15–54.
13.
DiMaggioPaul J.1997. “Culture and Cognition.” Annual Review of Sociology23:263–87.
14.
EdwardsMargie L. Kiter. 2004. “We’re Decent People: Constructing and Managing Family Identity in Rural Working-Class Communities.” Journal of Marriage and Family66(2):515–29.
15.
ElderGlen H.1974. Children of the Great Depression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
16.
EmersonRobert M.FretzRachel L.ShawLinda L.1995. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
17.
FarkasGeorge. 1996. Human Capital or Cultural Capital? Ethnicity and Poverty in an Urban School District. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
18.
FoleyDouglas E.1990. Learning Capitalist Culture: Deep in the Heart of Tejas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
19.
HammersleyMartynAtkinsonPaul. 1995. Ethnography: Principles in Practice. New York: Routledge.
20.
HardingDavid J.2007. “Cultural Context, Sexual Behavior, and Romantic Relationships in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods.” American Sociological Review72(3):341–64.
21.
HeathShirley Brice. 1983. Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
22.
JenningsJennifer L.DiPreteThomas A.2010. “Teacher Effects on Social and Behavioral Skills in Early Elementary School.” Sociology of Education83(2):135–59.
23.
KarabenickStuart A.1998. Strategic Help Seeking: Implications for Learning and Teaching. New York: Routledge.
24.
KhanShamus Rahman. 2010. Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
25.
KohnMelvin L.1969. Class and Conformity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
26.
LamontMichèle. 1992. Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
27.
LamontMichèle. 2009. The Dignity of Working Men. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
28.
LareauAnnette. 2000. Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
29.
LareauAnnette. 2011. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
30.
LareauAnnetteConleyDalton. 2008. Social Class: How Does It Work?New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
31.
LareauAnnetteWeiningerElliot B.2003. “Cultural Capital in Educational Research: A Critical Assessment.” Theory and Society32(5/6):567–606.
32.
LubienskiSarah Theule. 2000. “A Clash of Social Class Cultures? Students’ Experiences in a Discussion-Intensive Seventh-Grade Mathematics Classroom.” The Elementary School Journal100(4):377–403.
MehanHugh. 1980. “The Competent Student.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly11(3):131–52.
35.
MilesMatthew B.HubermanA. Michael. 1994. Qualitative Data Analysis, 2nd ed.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
36.
MojaverianTaranehS. KimHeejung. 2013. “Interpreting a Helping Hand: Cultural Variation in the Effectiveness of Solicited and Unsolicited Social Support.” Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin39(1):88–99.
37.
NelsonMargaret K.2010. Parenting Out of Control: Anxious Parents in Uncertain Times. New York: NYU Press.
38.
NelsonMargaret K.SchutzRebecca. 2007. “Day Care Differences and the Reproduction of Social Class.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography36(3):281–317.
39.
PughAllison J.2009. Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
40.
RubinLillian B.1976. Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working-Class Family. New York: Basic Books.
41.
SmallMario L.2004. Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
42.
SmallMario L.HardingDavid J.LamontMichèle. 2010. “Reconsidering Culture and Poverty.” ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science629(1):6–27.
43.
Stanton-SalazarRicardo D.1997. “A Social Capital Framework for Understanding the Socialization of Racial Minority Children and Youth.” Harvard Educational Review67(1):1–41.
44.
StreibJessi. 2011. “Class Reproduction by Four Year Olds.” Qualitative Sociology34(2):337–52.
45.
StuberJenny M.2012. Inside the College Gates: How Class and Culture Matter in Higher Education. Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books.
46.
SwidlerAnn. 1986. “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies.” American Sociological Review51(2):273–86.
47.
TachLaura MarieFarkasGeorge. 2006. “Learning-Realted Behaviors, Cognitive Skills, and Ability Grouping When School Begins.” Social Science Research35(4):1048–79.
48.
ThorneBarrie. 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
49.
WrenDavid J.1999. “School Culture: Exploring the Hidden Curriculum.” Adolescence34(135):593–96.
50.
ZelizerViviana. 2002. “Kids and Commerce.” Childhood9(4):375–96.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
