Psychological Meanings of Social Class in the Context of Education

Joan M. Ostrove completed her B.A. at Williams College, her Ph.D. in personality psychology and a certificate in women's studies at the University of Michigan, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. She is currently an assistant professor in the psychology department at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her work focuses on the connections between psychology and social structure, and she has published in the areas of social class background and the college experience, social class and health, interpersonal implications of the social representation of disability, and women's midlife personality development. Elizabeth R. Cole received her Ph.D. in personality psychology from the University of Michigan, where she currently is an associate professor in the Women's Studies Program and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. Her research addresses teh ways that individuals' sense of themselves as connected to social groups is related to their attitudes toward public policy, the roles that they choose to play in the political sphere and how they experience their social environments. She employes both qualitative and quantitative methods. Cole has published in the areas of political participation among women who graduated from college during the late 1960s, and the role of identity and social class in women's attitudes towards abortion. Her most recent work addresses the relationship between ethnic identity and adjustment and academic achievement among African American students.

• Part I: Introduction:. 1. Privileging Class: Toward a Critical Psychology of Social Class in the Context of Education: Joan M. Ostrove (Macalester College), Elizabeth R. Cole (University of Michigan).Part II: Understanding Class: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Attributions:.2. Scaling the Socioeconomic Ladder: Low-Income Women's Perceptions of Class Status and Opportunity: Heather E. Bullock (University of California, Santa Cruz), Wendy M. Limbert (University of California, Santa Cruz).3. Social Class and Adolescents' Beliefs About Justice in Different Social Orders: Constance A. Flanagan (Pennsylvania State University), Bernadette Campbell (Substance Abuse Research Group, Westat).4. Essentialism, Culture and Power: Representations of Class: Ramaswami Mahalingam (University of Michigan).Part III: Transitions and Traditions: Class Mobility and Maintenance Through Education:.5. Boys of Class, Boys of Color: Negotiating the Academic and Social Geography of an Elite Independent School: Peter Kuriloff (University of Pennsylvania), Michael Reichert (Center for the Study of Boys' Lives).6. Belonging and Wanting: Meanings of Social Class Background for Women's Constructions of their College Experiences: Joan M. Ostrove (Macalester College).7. Race, Class, and the Dilemmas of Upward Mobility for African Americans: Elizabeth R. Cole (University of Michigan), Safiya R. Omari (Jackson State University).8. Complex Subjectivities: Class, Ethnicity, and Race in Women's Narratives of Upward Mobility: Sandra J. Jones (Brandeis University).Part IV: Transforming Practice and Policy in Public Schools and in Psychology:.9. Social Class in Public Schools: Jennifer L. Hochschild (Harvard University).10. Class Notes: Toward a Critical Psychology of Class and Schooling: Michelle Fine (City University of New York), April Burns (City University of New York)