Soci 301 - Exam 5 Questions and Answers
Graded A+
Lehmann's Case Study - Correct answer-Focus on the experiences of students that
came from working-class backgrounds at university
Context:
- Decades of educational expansion and reform have done little to lessen this
relationship between class and educational attainment. Yet, there are also growing
numbers of working-class young people who overcome these barriers, enter high
education, and succeed in it.
Purpose:
How these young people themselves reflect on their position as working class
students and their academic success
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,- How these students feel caught between two worlds (the one in which they grew
up in, and this new university world)
Bourdieu's Theoretical Framework - Correct answer-Our dispositions are shaped in
significant ways by our social environment; in turn, leaving a social environment
in which we are comfortable to enter a new field has the potential to cause
confusion, conflict and struggle.
Bourdieu argues for a dialectical understanding of the relationship between the
material structures of social experience, and the mental structures of human agents
Habitus Dislocation (Bourdieu) - Correct answer-A painful dislocation between an
old and newly developing habitus, which are ranked hierarchically and carry
connotations of inferiority and superiority.
A system of lasting, transposable dispositions which, integrating past experiences,
functions at every moment as a matrix of perception, appreciations, and actions
and makes possible the achievement of infinitely diversified tasks
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,Habitus (Bourdieu) - Correct answer-Is an endless capacity to engender products -
thoughts, perceptions, expressions, actions - whose limits are set by the historically
and socially situated conditions of its production
(The way you grew up will have an important impact on the way you will grow up
and think) (It does not however take away your creativity or ability to think by
yourself and learn, it just shapes how you learn and understand)
(It is an non-conscious system of durable, transposable dispositions which integrate
past experiences, and orient current practices and representations)
Lehmann's Research Questions - Correct answer-1. How do successful working-
class university students describe their university experiences?
2. To what degree do they relate their success to their social background
3. Does their success at university entail a shift toward a middle-class habitus?
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, 4. Has success changed their relationship to others, such as parents and former
friends and peers?
(Looked at students who either decided to continue their education after
graduating, or secured upward mobile employment)
Lehmann's Key Findings - Correct answer-1. Success
- They were all on a remarkable path towards upward social mobility
- Working-class background can be interpreted as the reason they attended uni and
were successful
- Spoke about gaining new knowledge, but also growing personally
- Changed their outlooks on life, growing their repertoire of cultural capital and
developing new dispositions and tastes on a range of issues (politics, food, careers
ect.)
2. Transformation
- Change in the types of clothes they would wear
- Change in the type of friends they had and got along with
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Graded A+
Lehmann's Case Study - Correct answer-Focus on the experiences of students that
came from working-class backgrounds at university
Context:
- Decades of educational expansion and reform have done little to lessen this
relationship between class and educational attainment. Yet, there are also growing
numbers of working-class young people who overcome these barriers, enter high
education, and succeed in it.
Purpose:
How these young people themselves reflect on their position as working class
students and their academic success
©COPYRIGHT 2025, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1
,- How these students feel caught between two worlds (the one in which they grew
up in, and this new university world)
Bourdieu's Theoretical Framework - Correct answer-Our dispositions are shaped in
significant ways by our social environment; in turn, leaving a social environment
in which we are comfortable to enter a new field has the potential to cause
confusion, conflict and struggle.
Bourdieu argues for a dialectical understanding of the relationship between the
material structures of social experience, and the mental structures of human agents
Habitus Dislocation (Bourdieu) - Correct answer-A painful dislocation between an
old and newly developing habitus, which are ranked hierarchically and carry
connotations of inferiority and superiority.
A system of lasting, transposable dispositions which, integrating past experiences,
functions at every moment as a matrix of perception, appreciations, and actions
and makes possible the achievement of infinitely diversified tasks
©COPYRIGHT 2025, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2
,Habitus (Bourdieu) - Correct answer-Is an endless capacity to engender products -
thoughts, perceptions, expressions, actions - whose limits are set by the historically
and socially situated conditions of its production
(The way you grew up will have an important impact on the way you will grow up
and think) (It does not however take away your creativity or ability to think by
yourself and learn, it just shapes how you learn and understand)
(It is an non-conscious system of durable, transposable dispositions which integrate
past experiences, and orient current practices and representations)
Lehmann's Research Questions - Correct answer-1. How do successful working-
class university students describe their university experiences?
2. To what degree do they relate their success to their social background
3. Does their success at university entail a shift toward a middle-class habitus?
©COPYRIGHT 2025, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3
, 4. Has success changed their relationship to others, such as parents and former
friends and peers?
(Looked at students who either decided to continue their education after
graduating, or secured upward mobile employment)
Lehmann's Key Findings - Correct answer-1. Success
- They were all on a remarkable path towards upward social mobility
- Working-class background can be interpreted as the reason they attended uni and
were successful
- Spoke about gaining new knowledge, but also growing personally
- Changed their outlooks on life, growing their repertoire of cultural capital and
developing new dispositions and tastes on a range of issues (politics, food, careers
ect.)
2. Transformation
- Change in the types of clothes they would wear
- Change in the type of friends they had and got along with
©COPYRIGHT 2025, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 4
