Social class matters: class identities and discourses in educational contexts

Abstract

In this conceptual literature review, the authors analyze research from the last 20 years to explore how social class discourses are reproduced, resisted, and appropriated within Kindergarten through Grade 12 classrooms in the United States. The findings challenge commonly held deficit discourses about students and families from economically disadvantaged communities and highlight how discourses are sustained and reproduced in schools through educators’ class-based assumptions, high-stakes assessment practices, and class-biased curriculum. Findings also highlight the unique and varied ways that students negotiate dominant discourses of social class as they perform hybrid class identities, resist deficit discourses, and explore class status and relations. The authors offer a rationale for considering social class more prominently within social justice-oriented teaching and research and provide suggestions for educators to engage with issues of social class in schools.