Negotiating Opportunities
How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School
Book • 2018
In 'Negotiating Opportunities', Jessica McCrory Calarco argues that the middle class has a negotiated advantage in school.
Drawing on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, Calarco traces this negotiated advantage from its origins at home to its consequences at school.
Middle-class students learn to challenge rules and request assistance, accommodations, and attention in excess of what is fair or required, while working-class students are coached to follow rules and work through problems independently.
Teachers typically grant the requests of middle-class students, creating advantages for them.
Calarco concludes with recommendations against deficit-oriented programs that teach middle-class behaviors to working-class students, emphasizing the value of working-class students' resourcefulness, respect, and responsibility.
Drawing on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, Calarco traces this negotiated advantage from its origins at home to its consequences at school.
Middle-class students learn to challenge rules and request assistance, accommodations, and attention in excess of what is fair or required, while working-class students are coached to follow rules and work through problems independently.
Teachers typically grant the requests of middle-class students, creating advantages for them.
Calarco concludes with recommendations against deficit-oriented programs that teach middle-class behaviors to working-class students, emphasizing the value of working-class students' resourcefulness, respect, and responsibility.
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