Full Description
College Aspirations and Access in Working Class Rural Communities: The Mixed Signals, Challenges, and New Language First-Generation Students Encounter explores how a working class, rural environment influences rural students' opportunities to pursue higher education and engage in the college choice process. Based on a case study with accounts from rural high school students and counselors, this book examines how these communities perceive higher education and what challenges arise for both rural students and counselors. The book addresses how college knowledge and university jargon illustrate the gap between rural cultural capital and higher education cultural capital. Insights about approaches to reduce barriers created by college knowledge and university jargon are shared and strategies for offering rural students pathways to learn academic language and navigate higher education are presented for both secondary and higher education institutions.
Contents
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Author's Note
Introduction. Rural Research Reasoning
Chapter 1. Rural Representation
Chapter 2. The College Access Gap for Rural Students
Chapter 3. Putting the Pieces Together: Connections between a College Choice Model, Cultural Capital, and College Access, Knowledge, and Jargon
Chapter 4. "More Trouble Than It's Worth or Path to a 'Better Life'?": Rural Attitudes About College
Chapter 5. "I Know What B.S. Means, Just Not In Those Terms": Rural Students' Encounters With College Knowledge
Chapter 6. "I Have More to Do Than I Can Possibly Do Well": Rural Counselors' Challenges with College Counseling
Chapter 7. Aspirations and Access Assignments For Everyone In Education: Strategies For Rural, Public High Schools, Rural Communities, Higher Education, And Policymakers
References
Appendices
A. USDA ERS Nonmetropolitan Map
B. USDA ERS Changing Metro Status Map
C. USDA ERS Rural Areas Map
D. 2015 U.S. Census Data on MapDot
E. USDA ERS Low Education Counties Map
F. USDA ERS Persistent Poverty Counties Map
G. College and University Jargon List
About the Author
