I woke up today thinking about cultural capital in elite educational settings. I'm always inspired by
@tony_jack's work, but today I was thinking about grad school/law school context. If you're 1st-gen, chances of branding as dumb, lazy, or "gunner" are high. #FirstGen 1/11
@tony_jack's work, but today I was thinking about grad school/law school context. If you're 1st-gen, chances of branding as dumb, lazy, or "gunner" are high. #FirstGen 1/11
One of the unspoken rules of elite graduate education is that you're supposed to work very hard, but never appear to be working hard. That is how you establish a reputation as "naturally brilliant." 2/11
Meanwhile, all the unfamiliar and uninitiated see is their classmates spending a lot of time having fun outside of class, while also seeming extremely knowledgeable in class. That's one additional place where the fix comes in. 3/11
First-gens often react in 3 ways. (1) Work hard anyway, visibly, and gain the stigmatized rep of "gunner" or braggart. (2) Decide they aren't so smart and re-channel their energy into goals they see as requiring competence, not brilliance. (3) Check out completely. 4/11
In my own case, I reacted with a combo of checking out and focusing elsewhere -- plus a sense of loss and regret that lasted for years. I frankly didn't learn much about law during law school because I started to believe the lie that I couldn't. 5/11
Now as a prof, I fight this. Some of the world's most brilliant minds--often (but not only) those who arrived here without trust funds and family dinners discussing Hegel or Habermas--tell me they feel "dumb" or "confused" regularly. It enrages me. 6/11
So what can those of us in a position of relative power do? Let's start with being honest. I'm about to spend most of this weekend working. I often spend my weekends working. I know many of my colleagues near and far do too, across background types. 7/11
We can stop rewarding only the students who seem most "naturally brilliant"--those who are most verbally fluent in class, those who never ask for help, those who usually seem happy with us. None of those traits are criteria for intellect or academic value. 8/11
When we see a student who doesn't seem to be putting forth much effort, we can ask them and ourselves, "Why?" We can stop assuming they don't care or are just not very smart. We can build a healthier and more honest learning environment. We can do our job and *teach.* 9/11
Reform on 1st-gen access often tackles issues like finances or academic preparedness or so-called "soft skills." But there are other big obstacles: Toxic elite cultural scripts about merit that even the most "progressive" people espouse. We must build new scripts. 10/11
Apparently yesterday was #FirstGenDay. First Gen Day should be everyday for institutions that, for so long, have been insufficiently attentive to the myriad and complex ways that socioeconomic inequity exists within them, including the one in which I work /end
Alas, there was an embarrassing typo in the first Tweet of the first version of this thread. Like many #firstgen types concerned about perceptions of belongingness, I couldn't leave the Tweet up looking like that 💁🏿♀️
