Sometimes Too Hungry to Concentrate: Nontraditional and Traditional First-Generation Students’ Educational Food Practices
Abstract
In the long-valued narrative of meritocracy in the United States, ‘Pulling oneself up by the bootstraps’ is a myth which has been enacted to undermine the structural, even intentional, reality of the inequity between people. Literature on low rates of educational success of marginalized students tend to focus on how to greater prioritize the role of ‘student’. Most literature identifies individualistic methods to increase educational success of marginalized students. To counter this, I apply an intersectional approach to Bourdieu’s theory of practice to investigate how differential hazards and barriers negatively influence food experiences in higher education. I do this by collecting survey data on two different marginalized groups’ (nontraditional and first-generation students) food practices at the higher education institution of study. I use logistic regression to analyze how work affects campus meal skipping while controlling for appropriate variables by student label. I then use logistic regression to identify propensity to use alternative food networks controlling for appropriate variables by student label. From this analysis I illuminate how efforts to obtain food in a field of institutional foodscape, varies by differential barriers and burdens within higher education putting strain on educational access and success. These barriers and burdens are dictated by the individual’s personal and socio-historical interactions with said institution. This navigation is further affected by the interaction of capital; not only to the development of the individual’s habitus but also ability to interact and take full advantage of access and hurdles of said foodscape barriers and burdens.
Citation
Cisneros, Marissa R. (2020). Sometimes Too Hungry to Concentrate: Nontraditional and Traditional First-Generation Students’ Educational Food Practices. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /191599.