ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief review of the literature on social class in higher education and several theoretical models. When poor and working-class individuals gain access to the academy, there are challenges with navigating the system and an expectation to assimilate to the middle-and upper class milieu. As educators, we believe in and enjoy extolling the benefits of higher education—and there are many, particularly for poor and working-class students. For those from poor and working-class backgrounds who remain in the academy postgraduation as faculty members and/or administrators, social class remains influential. The chapter also provides an overview of four theoretical models or concepts: Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural and social capital; Yosso’s community cultural wealth model; Liu, and colleagues’ social class worldview model; and Hurst’s social class concepts. Recognizing that higher education was set up to be classist from its origins helps people conceive why individuals from poor and working-class backgrounds face barriers in accessing in the academy.
