Reformed American Dreams

Welfare Mothers, Higher Education, and Activism

Sheila M. Katz

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780813594347
  9780813594354
• eBook ISBN:
  9780813594361
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Higher Education
• Index: Social Sciences

Reformed American Dreams explores the experiences of low-income single mothers who pursued higher education while on welfare after the 1996 welfare reforms. This research occurred in an area where grassroots activism by and for mothers on welfare in higher education was directly able to affect the implementation of public policy. Half of the participants in Sheila M. Katz's research were activists with the grassroots welfare rights organization, LIFETIME, trying to change welfare policy and to advocate for better access to higher education. Reformed American Dreams takes up their struggle to raise families, attend school, and become student activists, all while trying to escape poverty. Katz highlights mothers' experiences as they pursued higher education on welfare and became grassroots activists during the Great Recession.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Introduction
• 1. Reforming the American Dream
• 2. Pathways onto Welfare and into College
• 3. Reformed Grassroots Activism
• 4. Survival through College
• 5. My Education Means Everything to Me
• 6. Hope and Fear during the Great Recession
• 7. Graduating into the Great Recession
• 8. An American Dream for All
• Afterword: Evolution of the American Dream
• Appendix A: Methods Appendix
• Appendix B: Profiles of Interview Participants in 2006
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author