Blog#3- Research Question & Sources

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Research Question:


Recent series of college-admissions scandals have exposed the false meritocracy of the American Dream. In fact, the emphasis on one’s merit has produced unfair admissions competitions in which students from less privileged backgrounds are highly disadvantaged. Why has admission to elite universities become such a fierce competition? Is the meritocratic system itself the biggest obstacle to creating a fair society? Can a fair meritocracy ever exist?



Academic Sources:

  • Liu, Amy. “Unraveling the Myth of Meritocracy Within the Context of US Higher Education.” Higher Education, vol. 62, no. 4, Springer, 2011, pp. 383–97, doi:10.1007/s10734-010-9394-7.
  • Mads Meier Jæger. “Equal Access but Unequal Outcomes: Cultural Capital and Educational Choice in a Meritocratic Society.” Social Forces, vol. 87, no. 4, University of North Carolina Press, 2009, pp. 1943–71, doi:10.1353/sof.0.0192
  • Nahai, Rebekah N. “Is Meritocracy Fair? A Qualitative Case Study of Admissions at the University of Oxford.” Oxford Review of Education, vol. 39, no. 5, 1 Jan. 2013, pp. 681–701. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1023322&site=ehost-live.
  • Warikoo, Natasha. “What Meritocracy Means to Its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in the United States and Britain.” Social Sciences (Basel), vol. 7, no. 8, MDPI AG, 2018, p. 131–, doi:10.3390/socsci7080131.

Comments

  1. Michael GoellerFebruary 15, 2021 at 4:58 PM

    Alphabetize!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael GoellerFebruary 15, 2021 at 5:12 PM

      Having gotten that out of my system....
      The topic of meritocracy is suddenly very hot as our society is increasingly shown to be completely unequal. Two interesting books are:
      The Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel.
      https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Merit-Whats-Become-Common/dp/0374289980

      The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite by Daniel Markovits
      https://www.amazon.com/Meritocracy-Trap-Foundational-Inequality-Dismantles/dp/0735222010/

      The book The Chosen by Jerome Karabel, though older, is also interesting, mostly for a relatively short section of this enormous book on meritocracy -- near the end of the book. I think you can get the book from the Rutgers libraries if you are able to visit them for pickup.
      https://rutgers.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991023097079704646&context=L&vid=01RUT_INST:01RUT&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI_2&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything_except_research&query=any,contains,the%20chosen%20karabel&mode=basic


      Delete

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