Category Archives: Class and Education

Paying the Poorly Educated

Posted on April 25, 2022 by jackmetz1

Joe Biden was right to propose free Pre-K education for 3- and 4-year-olds and free community college in his initial legislative package, rather than pushing for free public university education and the cancellation of college debt.  All four progressive education … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

The Power of Recognizing Higher Ed Faculty as Working-Class

Posted on February 21, 2022 by Working-Class Perspectives

Just over 20 years ago, Michael Zweig published The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret. At that year’s How Class Works conference at SUNY Stony Brook, academics from history, political science, labor and industrial relations, and other fields debated … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Labor and Community Activism | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

What bell hooks meant to me

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Working-Class Perspectives

In the final month of a horrible year of many tragedies and too many deaths, we lost bell hooks, a writer, scholar, and activist whose work has had a profound influence on many of us. I want to add my … Continue reading →

Posted in Allison L. Hurst, Class and Education, Class at the Intersections, Contributors, Issues | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Working-Class Scholars and Activists Bringing Change

Posted on January 24, 2022 by sarahattfield

At the beginning of 2021, I asked whether life for working-class people would get any better now that everyone understood that working-class people keep societies running. I wasn’t very optimistic about bosses or governments doing much to stem job insecurity … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Sarah Attfield, Understanding Class | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Toxic Class Encounters

Posted on November 30, 2020 by deindustrial

It’s thirty years this autumn since I began my undergraduate degree at Durham University in the North East of England. To tell you the truth I didn’t know much about the city before I applied there.  My visit for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Tim Strangleman | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

The Hidden Price of an Education: Black and Working-Class in Academe

Posted on August 17, 2020 by Working-Class Perspectives

In August 2004, I entered a doctoral program at Carnegie Mellon University. My family is from Braddock, Pennsylvania, a largely black neighborhood with working-class roots, and they were ecstatic that I would be their first doctor. I did not know … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Class at the Intersections, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Essential Work: The 2020 WCSA Awards

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Working-Class Perspectives

At the center of all the chaos and turmoil of 2020 has been the essential worker on the front lines—from healthcare workers treating those infected with COVID-19 to service workers of all kinds who have kept us fed, supplied, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Class and the Media, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy, Working-Class Culture | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Class System of Higher Ed Goes Online

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Working-Class Perspectives

Most American colleges and universities moved courses online over the last week. That shift highlights the class disparities of higher education. For example, at Georgetown, by the time the University President announced that classes were moving online, more than 30 … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Sherry Linkon | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

A Punishment with No End: The Journey of a Working-Class Criminal into Academia

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Working-Class Perspectives

We call ourselves the flower pot kids after the floral themed street names the local council assigned in a vain if well-meaning attempt to brighten up an otherwise dreary area. The council-owned social housing consisted of tattered prefabricated buildings from … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Understanding Class | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Amplified Advantage: Why Education Is Not the Answer to Our Class Problems

Posted on December 2, 2019 by Working-Class Perspectives

Thirty years ago, after having dropped out of college after just one term, unable to pay for my dorm room, I was unsure if I would ever leave the working class.  Two years later I was a student at Barnard … Continue reading →

Posted in Allison L. Hurst, Class and Education, Contributors, Issues | Tagged , , | 4 Comments