Beyond the "class defector": Plural socialization in first-generation higher education student narratives

Abstract

Long-lived educational trajectories of people from lower classes are frequent objects of sociological reflection. Relevant research has allowed for knowledge advances concerning practices that favor the emergence of some of these unlikely cases. This article addresses this theme based on data obtained through in-depth interviews with 25 people presenting popular origins, who represent the first generation of their families to attend higher education. The aim is to problematize the image commonly attributed to these trajectories, which usually focuses on the suffering, the feeling of not belonging and the cultural rupture with the original working class environment. It is argued herein that the concept of such an image is influenced by the mobilization of the concept of class defector. Through an empirical analysis, this article criticizes the application of such a concept in favor of interpretations that consider not only the diverse cultural references to which these individuals are potentially subject to, but also those that consider them competent social actors for the reading of different social contexts.