Cultural Capital Needed For Gain Upward Social Mobility

As a student from a working-class background, I did not have access to the type of cultural capital needed to gain upward social mobility. For example, I come from a family that has had no formal education beyond high school and so I was without the knowledge of how to gain access into the realm of higher education. My family had never gone through the application process and so they did not know how to access and utilize the college help that my school provided. Also, my high school only had fourteen counselors available to provide assistance to the 4,263 students that attended the school (Illinois Report Card 2010). This counselor-to-student ration meant that not much time could be devoted to each student to give them the help they needed to navigate the complex college application system (Civil Rights Data 2009, Illinois Report Card 2010). During my time in high school, I never actually spoke to any of the counselors about college plans and I was not even aware that they could hel p in that area. In the following sections I detail how the cultural capital borrowed or learned from scholarship programs and cultural mentors ultimately impact a student’s upward mobility most. Exclusive scholarship programs can act as a tool that helps move a working-class student beyond the achievement levels of their parents. These programs do so by exposing students to privileged knowledge, skills, and strategies that they would not access to otherwise. Lareau and Horvat define these typesShow MoreRelatedThe American Dream938 Words   |  4 Pagessociety where upward mobility is possible for everyone† (â€Å"American Dream Definition,† 2013). Additionally, the American Dream can be achieved through persistence and hard work. In my opinion, the Investopedia definition is one of the most accurate available, because it takes into account that America is a stratified country. The more I learn about the struggles of the working and lower class, the more I feel the American Dream is harder to obtain. I would consider my social class to be middleRead MoreIs The American Meritocracy Necessary? An Elite Selection Mechanism?2392 Words   |  10 Pagesopportunity to achieve upward mobility as long as they put their head down and work hard. The American Dream was created to serve all people. The American meritocracy was not. When considering who the American meritocracy serves, its is imperative to reflect on how it was created. The modern meritocracy began forming in the early twentieth century with the rise of standardized testing. Headed by the Henry Chauncey and James Bryant Conant, a new method of determining social position was growing inRead MoreA Look at Working Women: The Beginning and the Road Blocks Essays1557 Words   |  7 Pagesdue to the need of two incomes or the freedom to put off childbirth until later, the door to employment for women in the job market was open for acceptance. Another social phenomena came to the forefront. Divorced women, who were single parents and now needed to financially support themselves and their children. These women needed to enter the workforce (p.9). Since women were largely kept out of higher education opportunities, meant they were relegated to low-wage, low education entry level positionsRead MoreEssay on Theoretical Perspective on Education2216 Word s   |  9 Pagesthat the educational structure does not offer females the equal sort of opportunities for upward mobility, the same as it does for males. This is a form of sex inequity being applied in the education system affect women both for the duration of and after their educational practices Social stratification Theory First of all it is important to understand that in the whole world Gender is the basis of social stratification. We can see gender difference is all spheres of society (Huber 1990) .PeopleRead MorePoverty3270 Words   |  14 Pagesmotivation level. A large section of poor children do not go to school. Even if they go they become drop outs and fail to complete education Gender Discrimination Women and men are equally important for the growth and development of individual and social lives. The women play the important role as mother and the same makes it unique. However, careful analysis of Indian society indicates that the situation is not good for women folk. The sex ratio of male and female in the India population has beenRead MoreSocial Media Industry Analysis4065 Words   |  17 Pagesthe world’s third largest wireless telecommunications company, Global Organization Telecommunications (GOT). GOT provides wireless voice and data services to millions of customers worldwide and ranks third in terms of market share behind ATamp;T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. Global Organization purchased GOT in 1993 at which time, the company’s primary business was based in landline telecommunications. Three years later, Global Organization sold the company’s landline division after significantRead More AfricanAmerican Entrepreneurship Essay2471 Words   |  10 Pagesproblems are categorized by environmental factors, opportunity factors, and issues related to capital. The purpose of this paper is to provide sociological, and economical insight to the plight of African-American entrepreneurs. There is an effort to trace the development of African-American entrepreneurship throughout American history, in the post-reconstruction era to the present, in relationship to social conditions of discrimination. Uniquely, African-American entrepreneurs are involved in theRead MoreThe Global Context of Hrm and Hrd5106 Words   |  21 Pageson the labour market – having experienced net emigration for decades, Ireland is now the recipient of si gnificant immigration in relative terms. Furthermore, Ireland is highly networked into global capital markets, through significant flows of foreign direct investment and other forms of financial capital.’ (Lane.P) Ireland has enjoyed the successes of being a nation state since its break away from the then British colonies in 1922. Until then Ireland led a life of protectionism, which made workingRead MoreGlobalization or Glocalisation? Networks, Territories and Rescaling12782 Words   |  52 PagesAbstract This paper argues that the alleged process of globalisation should be recast as a process of ‘glocalisation’. ‘Glocalisation’ refers to the twin process whereby, ï ¬ rstly, institutional/regulatory arrangements shift from the national scale both upwards to supra-national or global scales and downwards to the scale of the individual body or to local, urban or regional conï ¬ gurations and, secondly, economic activities and inter-ï ¬ rm networks are becoming simultaneously more localised/regionalised and