Teaching across the FGWC Terrain: Reflections of Sociology Educators

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the college teaching experiences of four first-generation and working-class (FGWC) sociology educators with varying social locations. We used collaborative autoethnography to compare our backgrounds and university navigational strategies employed and shared with our students and mentees. Using an intersectional lens, we find our experiences reflect both commonalities and divergences in the FGWC experience, including disclosure of our FG and/or WC origin status to students and our perceptions of how race, gender, and parental status shape our teaching of sociology across differing institutional settings. We end by using insights gleaned from comparing our experiences to provide recommendations for creating more inclusive classroom and institutional environments.