AERA Online Paper Repository Viewer

Continuing Paper Access to AERA Annual Meetings
and other Conventions

  
InformationContents
Owner: Magnus Persson
Owner Email: magnus.x.persson@lnu.se
Paper Title: From Social Origin to Academia: Types of Social Desynchronization Among Swedish Higher Education Students
Session Title: Strategies, Struggles, and Structures of Social Mobilities: Schooling, Higher Education, and International Education
Paper Type: Place-Based Paper
Presentation Date: 4/25/2025
Presentation Location: Denver, CO
Descriptors: Higher Education, Social Processes/Development
Methodology: Qualitative
Author(s): Magnus Persson, Linnaeus University
Unit: SIG-Bourdieu in Educational Research
Abstract: By using Bourdieu’s concepts of hysteresis and cleft habitus this study explores the process of social desynchronization that Swedish higher education (HE) students experience in relation to their social origin when pursuing HE. The longitudinal study follows ten students over five years, identifying three types of desynchronizations. Immediate desynchronization occurs when students quickly distance from their origins with support. Gradual desynchronization involves a slow shift, with students initially struggling but eventually integrating into academia at the cost of distancing from their origins. Interrupted desynchronization is marked by students failing to adapt and compromising their goals. The findings emphasize the need to understand the student's cultural and educational capital in relation to their education's social position within the hierarchical HE-field.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/2185264