ABSTRACT
This chapter explores social class as the values, beliefs, customs, norms, language, and expectations tied to one’s socioeconomic culture—rather than just income—within the contextual environment of colleges and universities. Because social class is left out of many conversations in higher education, being seen as a complex and convoluted “taboo topic” to be avoided, educators and students often have limited awareness, language, and understanding regarding social class as an identity. Utilizing Liu’s Social Class Worldview Model, Bourdieu’s Social Reproduction Theory, and Museus’s Culturally Engaged Campus Environments (CECE) Model, this chapter examines why students from poor and working-class backgrounds may engage differently or not at all in academic, co-curricular, and social spaces; in what ways campuses may be complicit in hindering engagement and replicating classist systems; and how to reimagine higher education engagement practices and environments to be more social-class conscious and inclusive.
