A blue-collar scholar or blue-collar academic is a person who comes from a family or background of blue-collar workers who enters into the study and training of higher education as an undergraduate student [1] or is an academician doing scholarly work to make their professional living.
A common term used in understanding student who come from working class, or blue-collar families, is a first-generation college student. These students are the first in their immediate family to attend a college or university. There are social impacts and struggles for students in higher-education who come from working-class families. [2]
In the case of blue-collar scholars who are professors, these people may have had previous careers that were defined by working-class principles or their parents have careers as blue-collar workers. The majority of academic faculty do not come from blue-collar backgrounds, and in a survey of over 7,000 professors across disciplines, one study found that the median family childhood income of these faculty is ~23% greater than the general population. In comparison to the general public, the study found that faculty are also 25 times more likely to have a parent who has a PhD, and 50 times more likely at elite universities. [3]
Ivy league schools, such as Harvard University, have mechanisms in place to attract and retain diverse students, and these include students from working-class families and first-generation college students. [4] The University of Alabama has a program referred to Coca-Cola Scholars that provides financial support, mentorship, and organized curriculum to sustain and retain first-generation students. [5]
Johnny Saldaña, a blue-collar qualitative scholar, wrote his "redneck manifesto" to illustrate the value of taking a blue-collar perspective on scholarly activity. [6] In his manuscript Saldaña examines how labels, methods, theories, questions, and "bein' ethical" can all be viewed from one's blue collar roots. [6] Saldaña's self-described "rant" argues that traditional scholars, those coming from the ivory tower, should "bring it down a notch".
Research has found that first-generation college students are more likely to experience imposter syndrome than peers, [7] and it is likely that graduate students and professors who stem from blue-collar roots may experience relevant insecurities in their work. One view is that those from blue-collar families may have lacked the encouragement for their goals because those ambitions did not align with family expectations. [8] Blue-collars' positionality and perspectives stem from their upbringing and having parents who earned a living working in blue-collar or pink-collar type jobs. These may include parents who were police officers, engravers, post office workers, truck drivers, electricians, plumbers, school teachers, etc. The views and values of these professions do not always align with those views learned by blue-collar scholars that come from the ivory tower.
Some blue-collar scholars argue their goal is to develop scholarly research that can be utilized to improve the lives of everyday people. One form of this work has been categorized as community engaged scholarship or community-based participatory research (CBPR), where partnerships are made with the participants of studies who can inform and guide the research through the entire process, and the findings of studies done by scholars will ultimately benefit the groups who were studied. Some forms of research that takes place in real-world settings has been dubbed, applied research, however the types of study designs and research published by applied research scholars, though practically based, does not always tap into the philosophies and belief systems of the working classes.
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference, comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term Ivy League is typically used outside sports to refer to the eight schools as a group of elite colleges with connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism. Its members are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. The conference headquarters are in Princeton, New Jersey.
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard College.
A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor or skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, carpentry, electricity generation and power plant operations, electrical construction and maintenance, custodial work, farming, commercial fishing, logging, landscaping, pest control, food processing, oil field work, waste collection and disposal, recycling, construction, maintenance, shipping, driving, trucking, and many other types of physical work. Blue-collar work often involves something being physically built or maintained.
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard College is Harvard University's traditional undergraduate program, offering AB and SB degrees. It is highly selective, with fewer than four percent of applicants being offered admission as of 2022.
The Doctor of Education is a research or professional doctoral degree that focuses on the field of education. It prepares the holder for academic, research, administrative, clinical, or professional positions in educational, civil, private organizations, or public institutions. Considerable differences exist in structure, content and aims between regions.
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, and professions. It is the successor institution to the former Radcliffe College, originally a women's college connected with Harvard.
Upward Bound is a federally funded educational program within the United States. The program is one of a cluster of programs now referred to as TRiO, all of which owe their existence to the federal Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and the Higher Education Act of 1965. Upward Bound programs are implemented and monitored by the United States Department of Education. The goal of Upward Bound is to provide certain categories of high school students better opportunities for attending college. The categories of greatest concern are those with low income, those with parents who did not attend college, and those living in rural areas. The program works through individual grants, each of which covers a restricted geographic area and provides services to approximately 59,000 students annually. The program focuses on academic and nonacademic resources and activities like visits to museums or tutoring for school work. Students are encouraged to be involved in Upward Bound for the entire academic year and a 6-week long summer program. Many students who are also granted access into the Upward Bound program are labeled as first generation college students, who are students that are the first in their family to attend college. This program is set in place for students who come from low income families as well as underrepresented schools and gives them an opportunity to excel in college.
Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United States. Its yield rate of 87% is also consistently the highest of any law school in the United States.
Jewish studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history, Middle Eastern studies, Asian studies, Oriental studies, religious studies, archeology, sociology, languages, political science, area studies, women's studies, and ethnic studies. Jewish studies as a distinct field is mainly present at colleges and universities in North America.
Academic dishonesty, academic misconduct, academic fraud and academic integrity are related concepts that refer to various actions on the part of students that go against the expected norms of a school, university or other learning institution. Definitions of academic misconduct are usually outlined in institutional policies. Therefore, academic dishonesty consists of many different categories of behaviour, as opposed to being a singular concept.
Sidney Verba was an American political scientist, librarian and library administrator. His academic interests were mainly American and comparative politics. He was the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard University and also served Harvard as the director of the Harvard University Library from 1984 to 2007.
The Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) at Columbia University is a community of scholars affiliated with Columbia's schools, bringing together over 50 full-time faculty, a diverse group of visiting scholars and professionals, and students from the United States and abroad. Its mission is to train new generations of experts on East Asian topics in the humanities, social sciences, and the professions and to enhance understanding of East Asia in the wider community. Since its establishment in 1949 as the East Asian Institute, the WEAI has been the center for modern and contemporary East Asia research, studies, and publication at Columbia, covering China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, and, increasingly, the countries of Southeast Asia.
William Boyd Allison Davis was an American educator, anthropologist, writer, researcher, and scholar who became the second African American to hold a full faculty position at a major white university when he joined the staff of the University of Chicago in 1942, after only Dr. Julian H. Lewis, where he served for the balance of his academic life. He was considered one of the most promising black scholars of his generation.
Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" is often used to refer to anyone who teaches at a college of university level at any academic rank. This usage differs from the predominant usage of the word professor in other countries, where the unqualified word "professor" only refers to "full professors". Other tenure-track faculty positions include assistant professor and associate professor (mid-level). Other teaching-focused positions that use the term "professor" include Clinical Professor, Professor of Practice, and Teaching Professor. Most faculty with titles of "Lecturer" and "Instructor" in the U.S. are not eligible for tenure, though they are still often referred to as "professors" in a general sense and as a courtesy form of address. Non-tenure-track positions may be full or part time, although the qualifier "adjunct" always denotes part-time.
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Its influence, wealth, and rankings have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Educational inequality is the unequal distribution of academic resources, including but not limited to school funding, qualified and experienced teachers, books, and technologies, to socially excluded communities. These communities tend to be historically disadvantaged and oppressed. Individuals belonging to these marginalized groups are often denied access to schools with adequate resources. Inequality leads to major differences in the educational success or efficiency of these individuals and ultimately suppresses social and economic mobility. Inequality in education is broken down into different types: regional inequality, inequality by sex, inequality by social stratification, inequality by parental income, inequality by parent occupation, and many more.
Leadership studies is a multidisciplinary academic field of study that focuses on leadership in organizational contexts and in human life. Leadership studies has origins in the social sciences, in humanities, as well as in professional and applied fields of study. The field of leadership studies is closely linked to the field of organizational studies.
Reynol ("Rey") Junco is an American psychologist and education and social media researcher. He is known for his pioneering work on using social technologies in higher education. Rey is also known for his statistics, data science, and analytics skills. He is a former fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is currently in private practice in Concord, Massachusetts.
Susan Zaeske is Professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture in the Department of Communication Arts and Arts and was formerly Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities in the College of Letters & Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
First-generation college students in the United States are college students whose parents did not complete a baccalaureate degree. Although research has revealed that completion of a baccalaureate degree is significant in terms of upward socioeconomic mobility in the United States, a considerable body of research indicates that these students face significant systemic barriers to postsecondary education access, academic success once enrolled, and degree completion. Many of these obstacles result from systemic racial, cultural, social, and economic inequities.