Schooled Families: Higher Education and Family Virtue

Abstract

In today’s “knowledge society,” education is understood as highly instrumentally valuable, and institutional theorists have highlighted its immense cultural importance. What escapes commentary is the nearly universal moral reverence with which education is held. Since families are increasingly expected to participate in children’s schooling, a family’s moral virtue is partially established through offspring’s school success. I explore this using in-depth interviews with two American populations on the margin of college-going: beginning community college students and adult undergraduates. I discuss how respondents present support for education as evidence of caretakers’ status as loving and responsible parents. I then elaborate on how families create moral worthiness in relation to familial educational trajectories. I locate three narratives—maintaining the tradition, the rising family, and educational redemption. What narrative families deploy seems related to their location in social space, and each tacitly reflects the deep moral valuation of education that pervades modern culture.