13.7 Going Deeper
Elizabeth B. Pearce
Having looked at education from birth through adulthood, as well as at paid and unpaid employment, this section has some additional resources for you.
First, there are some resources that the authors used but could not fit into the chapter. If there was something that really piqued your interest and made you want to learn more, it may be listed in this table. This is also a resource for students who may have an assignment to research a particular topic or who need to identify a topic for a final project. Scan through “Want to Learn More?” if you are interested.
Next, you will see a set of reflective questions. You may be assigned these questions as a chapter review, or perhaps you will be using them as discussion questions in class. These questions are designed to help you apply the chapter concepts, develop your sociological imagination, reflect, and use an equity lens. Look over the “Reflective Questions” if you’d like to explore your own thinking more thoroughly.
After that, you will see the same list of key terms that appeared at the start of the chapter. They may help you with your additional exploration or research.
Finally, some chapters include activities that the instructor may use in the classroom.
Want to Learn More?
- To review the most comprehensive study of childcare in the United States to date, see the NICHD Study of Early Childhood and Youth Development.
- If you’d like to understand more about how public schools reinforce generational poverty, watch this video: “How America’s Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty” with educator Kandice Sumner.
- Curious about pandemic parenting? Look at these two studies:
- To read the full article by Lise Nelson about undocumented immigrant labor, check it out here.
Reflective Questions
- How does the “childcare trilemma” affect equity for families? Consider both families who work in childcare as well as families who use childcare.
- Reflect on the choices families make in order to secure childcare and K–12 education that is desirable. What other parts of their lives may be affected by these decisions? What challenges do they face?
- When you read the section about post-secondary education, what parts did you connect with the most? What else affects your family that was not mentioned?
- Reflect on your reading as well as your personal experience. How does student debt affect family decisions and family life?
- How do gender and parenting overlap to create advantage and disadvantage in the workforce?
- When you reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic, in what ways did it affect your familial relationships (especially as connected to education and work)?
- If you were writing the laws and regulations around taxes and social security related to union formations and kinship groups, what would they look like?
Key Terms
- Achievement gap: significant and persistent disparity in academic performance or educational attainment between different groups of students.
- Care work: the daily work that keeps a household running and the adults and children within it well cared for.
- Childcare: usually used to refer to non-parental care of a young child, often in a paid provider’s home or in a childcare center.
- Childcare trilemma: the acknowledgment that it is difficult to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality care without some kind of subsidy or support.
- Educational debt: the cumulative impact of fewer resources and other harm directed at students of color.
- Emotional labor: the regulation or hiding of emotions as a part of a work role.
- Glass ceiling: an artificial, unseen, and often unacknowledged discriminatory barrier that prevents otherwise qualified people, such as women and minorities, from rising to positions of leadership and power, particularly within a corporation.
- Glass cliff: purposeful promotion of women into positions with high risk for failure.
- Glass escalator: quick movement from entry-level to power-holding, higher-paying leadership jobs.
- Kin-keeping: effort to build and maintain relationships between family members.
- Public school: maintained through public funds to educate children living in that community or district without cost to families.
- Student debt: a loan taken to attend college that has not yet been repaid.
- Voucher: supplied by the government or other public entity for families to use to offset the cost of a private school.
Activity: Helping College Students
As you are likely aware, the process of applying for and paying for a college education is difficult and complex in the United States. Watch the video “U.S. College Students Need Help” in figure 13.24 and consider how your experience might differ from students of different cultures, geographic areas, disability status, and other social locations.
Discussion Questions
- What are the main points of this short video? What is your reaction to the video?
- This video launched three channels. Choose one channel and explore it by reviewing the playlists and the video titles and watching one or more short videos. Describe what is featured on the channel and how it could help college students.
- Do these videos consider college students who have caregiving responsibilities, such as family care? How might care work impact someone’s college funding and application process?
Licenses and Attributions for Going Deeper
Open Content, Original
“Going Deeper” by Elizabeth B. Pearce. License: CC BY 4.0.
All Rights Reserved Content
Figure 13.24. “U.S. College Students Need Help” by vlogbrothers. License: Standard YouTube License.
a systematic investigation into a particular topic, examining materials, sources, and/or behaviors.
ensuring that people have what they need in order to have a healthy, successful life that is equal to others. Different from equality in that some may receive more help than others in order to be at the same level of success.
usually used to refer to non-parental care of a young child, often in a paid provider’s home or in a childcare center.
the acknowledgement that it is difficult to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality care without some kind of subsidy or support.
a loan taken to attend college that has not yet been repaid.
a socially constructed expression of a person’s sexual identity which influences the status, roles, and norms for their behavior.
the social structure that ties people together (whether by blood, marriage, legal processes, or other agreements) and includes family relationships.
the act of providing support or watching over a person.
the daily work that keeps a household running and the adults and children within it well cared for.