Constructing Minority Ethnic Middle-class Identity: An Exploratory Study with Parents, Pupils and Young Professionals

Abstract

Within the sociology of education, there is a growing interest in the middle classes and their educational practices, yet research to date has predominantly been framed within the context of the white middle classes. The article comes from a small, exploratory qualitative study exploring the identities and educational practices of the minority ethnic middle classes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in England with 36 minority ethnic, ‘middle-class’ parents (13), pupils (13) and young professionals (10) from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. This article explores the views of participants as located at the intersection between class privilege and racial subordination. The ambiguity within participants’ classed or racialized identifications is examined and the article argues that participants constructed ‘middle-classness’ in a range of ways but commonly regarded it as unattainable due to its association or conflation with ‘whiteness’.