Introduction to the Special Issue—A Class of Our Own: Teaching Sociology by, for, and about First-Generation and Working-Class People

Abstract

Class is about people. Students and instructors are as integral to a class as the course material. Those of us from first-generation-to-college and workingclass (FGWC) backgrounds who study and work in sociology enliven our campuses and enrich our discipline (King and McPherson 2020). This is in part because individuals from FGWC backgrounds bring their experiences and perspectives to class. People from FGWC backgrounds are also more likely to represent other groups and identities that have historically been marginalized in higher education, and it is in those contexts that perspective, skills, and experience are built (Chen and Dennis 2005; Hurst and Nenga 2016; Jehangir, Stebleton, and Deenanath 2015). Substantial scholarship has analyzed and reflected on the experiences and contributions of faculty who navigate social class mobility through their careers (Grimes and Morris 1997; Łuczaj 2023b; Penney and Lovejoy 2017; Ryan and Sackrey 1996). While early research and programming for students from FGWC backgrounds often focused on deficits, more recent research makes clear that without our experience and perspective, sociology, and higher education more broadly, would be lacking (Casey 2005; Guzmán, Miles, and Youngblood 2021; King et al. 2017; Łuczaj 2023a; Roscigno et al. 2022; Warnock 2014; Yosso 2005). Meanwhile, the costs of college for FGWC students and the burdens of pursuing an academic career for faculty from FGWC backgrounds has increased amid disinvestment and neoliberalization (Basaldua 2023; Gannon 2020; Towers 2019). In 2017, the Journal of Working-Class Studies published a special issue on academic poverty (Chapple et al. 2017). Also, in 2017, Allison Hurst led an effort that moved the American Sociological Association (ASA) Council to form a Task Force on First-Generation and Working-Class Persons in Sociology. The task force was charged with studying the professional pipeline for people from FGWC backgrounds into the discipline. In the fall of 2022, the task force presented its report to the ASA Council. The report was unanimously accepted and published by the ASA on its website (Roscigno et al. 2022). Through their work together on the task force, Colby met Bob. The two of them realized they were 1178672 TSOXXX10.1177/0092055X231178672Teaching SociologyFrancis et al. research-article2023