Scholarship on adult education throughout the life course focuses on the relationship between education and upward mobility. Scholars rarely examine how adults’ educational aspirations or trajectories are affected by downward mobility or an increasingly precarious labor market. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 21 job seekers in the post–Great Recession labor market in the United States, this article advances the concept of educational downgrading: returning to school in pursuit of a credential lower than the highest level of education one previously sought or attained. We explore three pathways to downgrading connected to downward mobility: occupational dead ends, career reversals, and educational inflation. In the process, we highlight how individuals adjust their practical educational aspirations as they navigate a contemporary economy in which careers are unstable and credentials are needed for many kinds of jobs across the occupational hierarchy.
BlauPeter M.DuncanOtis Dudley. 1967. The American Occupational Structure. New York: Wiley.
2.
BlossfeldHans-PeterKilpi-JakonenElinaVono de VilhenaDanielaBucholzSandra, eds. 2014. Adult Learning in Modern Societies: An International Comparison from a Life-Course Perspective. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
3.
BolThijsWeedenKim A.2015. “Occupational Closure and Wage Inequality in Germany and the United Kingdom.” European Sociology Review31(3):354–69.
4.
BoylanRebecca L.2019. “Predicting Postsecondary Pathways: The Effect of Social Background and Academic Factors on Routes through School.” Socius6:1–25.
5.
BurawoyMichael. 1998. “The Extended Case Method.” Sociological Theory16:4–33.
6.
ChildressHerb. 2019. The Adjust Underclass: How America’s Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students, and Their Mission. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
CollinsRandall. 1979. The Credential Society. New York: Columbia University Press.
9.
CottomTressie McMillan. 2017. Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy. New York: New Press.
10.
DeterdingNicole M.2015. “Instrumental and Expressive Education: College Planning in the Face of Poverty.” Sociology of Education88(4):284–301.
11.
GiudiciFrancescoPallasAaron M.2014. “Social Origins and Post-High School Institutional Pathways: A Cumulative Dis/advantage Approach.” Social Science Research44:103–13.
12.
Goldrick-RabSara. 2006. “Following Their Every Move: An Investigation of Social-Class Differences in College Pathways.” Sociology of Education79(1):67–79.
13.
Goldrick-RabSaraPfefferFabian T.2009. “Beyond Access: Explaining Socioeconomic Differences in College Transfer.” Sociology of Education82(9):101–25.
14.
GoyetteKimberly A.2008. “College for Some to College for All: Social Background, Occupational Expectations, and Educational Expectations over Time.” Social Science Research37(2):461–84.
15.
HollandMegan M.DeLucaStefanie. 2016. “Why Wait Years to Become Something? Low-Income African American Youth and the Costly Career Search in For-Profit Trade Schools.” Sociology of Education89(4):261–78.
16.
HoutMichael. 2012. “Social and Economic Returns to College Education in the United States.” Annual Review of Sociology38:379–400.
17.
KallebergArne L.2007. The Mismatched Worker. New York: Norton.
18.
KallebergArne L.2011. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s-2000s. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
19.
KletzerLori. 1998. “Job Displacement.” Journal of Economic Perspectives12:115–36.
20.
KodrzyckiYolanda. 1997. “Training Programs for Displaced Workers: What Do They Accomplish?”New England Economic Review1:39–57.
21.
KosyakovaYuliyaGerberTheodore P.2019. “Adult Education, Stratification, and Regime Change: Upgrading and Sidestepping in Russia, 1965-2005.” Sociology of Education92(2):124–49.
22.
LaneCarrie. 2011. A Company of One: Insecurity, Independence, and the New World of White-Collar Unemployment. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
23.
LeanaCarrie R.FeldmanDavid C.1990. “Individual Responses to Job Loss: Empirical Findings from Two Field Studies.” Human Relations. 43(11):1155–81.
24.
MokKa-HoWongLindaLeeGrace O. M.2002. “The Challenges of Global Capitalism: Unemployment and State Workers’ Reactions and Responses in Post-Reform China.” International Journal of Human Resource Management13(3):399–415.
25.
National Center for Education Statistics. 2016. Digest of Education Statistics, 2014 (NCES 2016-006). Washington, DC: Author.
26.
NewmanKatherine. 1999. Falling from Grace: Downward Mobility in the Age of Affluence. Berkeley: University of California Press.
27.
NielsenKelly. 2015. “Fake It ’til You Make It”: Why Community College Students’ Aspirations “Hold Steady.” Sociology of Education88(4):265–83.
28.
PechCorey. 2017. “Dealing with Downsizing: New Organizational Careers in Financial Services after the Great Recession.” Research in the Sociology of Work30:33–57.
29.
RaginCharles C.2000. Fuzzy-Set Social Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
30.
RinaldoRachelGuhinJeffrey. Forthcoming. “How and Why Interviews Work: Ethnographic Interviews and Meso-level Public Culture.” Sociological Methods and Research.
31.
RenzulliLindaBarrAshley B.2017. “Adapting to Family Setbacks: Malleability of Students’ and Parents’ Educational Expectations.” Social Problems64(3):351–72.
32.
ReynoldsJohnStewartMichaelMacdonaldRyanSischoLacey. 2006. “Have Adolescents Become Too Ambitious? High School Seniors’ Educational and Occupational Plans, 1976 to 2000.” Social Problems53(2):186–206.
33.
RosenbaumJames E.2001. Beyond College for All: Career Paths for the Forgotten Half. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
34.
Ross-GordonJovita M.2011. “Research on Adult Learners: Supporting the Needs of a Student Population That Is No Longer Nontraditional.” Peer Review13(1):26–31.
35.
WeissRobert S.1994. Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies. New York: Simon and Schuster.
