Scholarship on adult education throughout the life course focuses on the relationship between education and upward mobility. Scholars rarely examine how adults’ educational aspirations or trajectories are affected by downward mobility or an increasingly precarious labor market. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 21 job seekers in the post–Great Recession labor market in the United States, this article advances the concept of educational downgrading: returning to school in pursuit of a credential lower than the highest level of education one previously sought or attained. We explore three pathways to downgrading connected to downward mobility: occupational dead ends, career reversals, and educational inflation. In the process, we highlight how individuals adjust their practical educational aspirations as they navigate a contemporary economy in which careers are unstable and credentials are needed for many kinds of jobs across the occupational hierarchy.

在整个生命过程中，成人教育奖学金的重点是教育与向上流动性之间的关系。学者很少研究向下的流动性或日益不稳定的劳动力市场如何影响成年人的教育愿望或轨迹。本文通过对美国大萧条后劳动力市场中21位求职者的深入定性访谈，提出了教育降级的概念：重返学校，追求的学历低于先前寻求或获得的最高学历。我们探索了与向下流动相关的降级的三种途径：职业僵局，职业逆转和教育通货膨胀。在此过程中，我们重点介绍了个人如何驾驭现代经济，即他们的职业不稳定并且在整个职业体系中从事多种工作都需要证书，他们如何调整自己的实践教育愿望。