'Detours, dead-ends and blocked roads': inner-city, working-class adults' access to higher education
Louise Archer, University of North London, UK
Paper presented at SCUTREA, 31st Annual Conference, 3-5 July 2001, University of East London
WIDENING participation remains a key concern within British higher educational policy. The transformation from an 'elite' to a 'mass' HE system has done little to effect low participation levels among particular, disadvantaged social groups, and recruitment of 'working class' students is especially low. These concerns have intertwined with drives to increase the numbers of mature students in HE. Indeed, proportions of mature students have increased dramatically, but, it has been argued, these figures do not necessarily imply diversification because they represent the aggregation of different populations (Webb, 1997). The often assumed synchrony between 'mature' and 'working class' students is not borne out, with middle class mature students vastly outnumbering their working class counterparts in universities (Connor et al., 1999) and within access routes (Wakeford, 1993).
The relationship between 'mature' and 'working class' learners has gained further prominence through recent government emphasis on 'lifelong learning' and the 'learning society', within which HE is positioned as a key means for achieving social inclusion. This paper raises critical issues for such policies, drawing on data from working class respondents, including mature students and adults who could be said to occupy various positions within/outside the 'learning society'. Attention is drawn to respondents' non-linear, diverse educational 'journeys' and routes.
The data are taken from a larger study that explored educational experiences and constructions of HE among working class groups. This paper draws only upon discussion group and interview data collected from 118 'non participants' and 85 HE students, but focuses in detail on the stories of eight selected adult respondents (detailed below). Four were first year students at a post-1992 university and four were not then undertaking any form of education. All respondents lived in London. Pseudonyms are used.
Men 'Non-participants 'Students Darius (black Caribbean) Fela (black African) Dererk (white British) Neil (white British) Women Joan (black Caribbean) Violet (black Carib.) Jodie (white British) Sarah (white British)
Diverse routes, diverse positions
'Social Exclusion' has been a central concern embraced by New Labour, but the way it has been conceptualised has been criticised in numerous ways. For example, 'social exclusion' rhetoric can tend to naturalise unjust practices, emphasising working class 'failure' whilst ignoring middle class self-exclusions (e.g. from mainstream education into elite private education). Notions of social exclusion also normalise middle class values and trajectories through assumptions about what Others 'should' be doing, and the focus upon 'culture' (exclusion from social norms) detracts from analysis of inequalities. 'Social exclusion' can also appear to reflect a static, homogenised position, ignoring multiple inequalities and relationships, positions and forms of participation. Respondents' stories in this research pointed to a diversity of routes in and out of educational sites and showed clearly that there were few who could be unambiguously positioned as either permanently 'included' or 'excluded' from education. All, except Jodie, appeared to move/have moved in and out of forms of post-compulsory education.
Derek is a labourer in his thirties. He left school unqualified before the age of 16. Following time spent at a young offenders' institute, he has moved between periods of casual employment and unemployment. This initial description might place Derek in the category of the socially 'excluded' working class men that government and others are aiming initiatives at (McGivney, 1999). However, his biography also reveals movement in and out of adult learning and training. Derek's educational participation might better be classed as opportunistic/circumstantial and occasional, as it largely derives from courses offered by his job centre whilst claiming benefits.
Similarly, Joan stated that she had 'done all her studying a long time ago' but revealed a strategy of 'keeping herself in education': At school, she achieved four CSEs and O Level Art. She stayed on (but called it a 'waste of time') to get a couple more CSEs. After school she took a secretarial course, but said she did not get much advice about going to college.
She did not actually want to be a secretary and while doing the secretarial course she also studied for A level Art, her real passion. She started an Art foundation course, but could not afford to continue, which suggests that her 'exclusion' from learning relates more to structural issues than a problem of 'attitude', value or lack of aspiration. Through her current administrative job with the council she participates on other courses, paid for by the LEA. Although these are often not subjects she wants to study, she uses them as a way to keep herself in education, echoing Mirza's (1992) findings regarding young black women's use of strategic 'back door' routes into education.
The four students (Sarah, Fela, Violet and Neil) reported educational histories that appeared to be geared towards 'navigating/finding a way' into formal education, often meeting dead ends and switching tracks, which will be explored in greater detail in the rest of the paper. The following sections of analyses discuss data from the respondents and propose that their relationships to postcompulsory education can be better understood using notions of 'risk', inequalities and identities.
Barriers to participation
(i): Risks
As Beck (1992) argues, risks are unevenly distributed within society and this uneven distribution works to reproduce and perpetuate class inequalities. Positions of privilege enable the purchasing of protection from risk, whereas disadvantaged positions carry the greatest threats and risks.
In this research, respondents' stories reinforce the argument that working class groups occupy a structurally more 'risky' position and are more prone to experiencing disadvantages that restrict ability to participate in education. For example, after leaving school before the age of 16, Darius enrolled in an FE college to take his GCSEs, but faced difficulties when having to work full-time and when he was forced to leave home. Similarly Derek reported having a 'bad time' at home that affected his schooling, with the result that he was often 'not able' to go and unable to concentrate when he did attend. Darius also felt that institutional racisms within the education system would place him at greater risk of failure in FE and/or HE. As argued elsewhere (Archer & Hutchings, 2000), the(economic, social and personal) costs of failure are higher for working class students. Thus Jodie's, Darius' and Derek's strong motivation to avoid potential failure (by not attempting participation) can be read as pragmatic risk management strategies operating within contexts of multiple inequalities, rather than a lack of 'aspiration'.
Derek felt that although anyone 'could' go to university, participation is dependent upon having 'direction' and 'plans' that he personally never experienced. Other respondents referred to the 'middle class plan' as effective for enabling participation but which was alien to their own experiences.
'Planning ahead' can be read as a middle class privilege because these families are not negotiating the same unstable structural inequalities and demands as working class families.
(ii) 'Irrational' resistances?
Government rhetoric suggests that educational participation is rational, desirable and valuable in a number of ways (e.g.
at national, social and personal levels) and can bring about desirable and positive changes for disadvantaged social groups. This implies that resistance to participation may be 'irrational', but respondents in this study voiced a range of 'rational' reasons for non-participation that were grounded in discourses of identity and emotion. Non-participants in particular framed their resistance to post-compulsory educational participation in terms of earlier negative experiences of school. For example, Darius and Derek both 'did not survive' school and said 'thank God it's over'. Jodie also clearly resisted returning to any form of adult education because of her school experiences when she was severely bullied. She was adamant that she would not return to education for 'fear of it happening again'.
Gendered identities also provided a key site for resistance, particularly amongst male respondents, where education was not valued as a 'manly' option, as Derek said 'if you've got to be there sweating over a book you can't be out grafting can you?'. Darius and Derek both talked about the competing demands of masculinity, although the content of these constructions was different, being grounded within specifically racialised discourses (see Archer et al., 2001).
Several respondent identified a risk of 'changing' identity as a result of participation in HE. Fela said 'I think there is a chance of it changing you if you allow it' but suggested a positive strategy among his friends was 'they go through university and university doesn't go through them'. This position echoes earlier suggestions that working class respondents often felt able to take advantage of the benefits of university but they do not have a sense of ownership (Archer & Hutchings, 2000). Many respondents did not 'buy into' the middle class transformative ideal of HE, and instead embraced potential economic mobility but resisted social class identity change. Several students expressed ambiguity about possible identity changes and, as Lawler (2000) found, a tension appears between 'escape' from, and 'holding on' to, authentic classed identities. In this study, students and non-participants alike emphasised the value of retaining working class values of 'common sense' and 'experience' over the middle class obsession with 'paperwork' and 'head knowledge'.
There was also evidence of respondents' resistance to middle class hegemonic discourses and government interventions that position educational progression as an only natural, normal and desirable goal. For example, Derek spoke about being the target of a particular 'top-down' return to work strategy that aimed to change him, not the system: I thought it was a liberty, the whole thing. It was like (you're) a square peg and all of a sudden they bang you into a round hole and you fit Jodie was also insistent that she should not feel 'forced' to return to education and resisted this pressure by 'staying out' of the educational system. Life Long Learning discourses can end up positioning the uncredentialled as 'incomplete', individual failures against a middle class normative model of educational participation, and our data suggests that such negative messages may be resisted by working class non participants.
(iii) Cultural factors
Many respondents talked about HE as outside their 'horizons of choice'. All of the students recounted experiences of familial/cultural resistance to their potential participation. Women in particular met with disapproval from their families, which has been explained elsewhere (see Hutchings et al., 2000) using theories of class envy, mobility and resistance and notions of what is acceptable/ 'respectable' femininity (Skeggs, 1997).For example, Sarah
said that university always seemed like 'a far-away option' because no one in her family had been. Eventually she 'made the jump' but received strong discouragement from her entire family. Violet was similarly dissuaded by friends and family who told her she would not be able to cope or understand anything. For both women, discouragement centred around their motherhood, which rendered being a student 'irresponsible' behaviour. Fela and Neil also faced discouragement from friends, colleagues and/or family, but this seemed to relate more to negative views of students/study. Neil was strongly discouraged by his brother who regards him as a '31 year old loser' about to spend three years 'dossing around'.
(iv) Structural inequalities
Choices and options are classed, because opportunities are framed by structural locations and power relations. The financial positions of non-participants such as Jodie mean that HE participation can be simply impossible ('At the moment, how the hell is somebody in my position, on 54 pound a week, going to ever get a chance to better themselves?').Joan found from her experiences that 'in terms of further education you have to have money in the background'. She says this is because money 'gives you a chance', it opens up the range of options and allows 'real' participation, such as not having to juggle paid employment with studying.
Joan, Darius and Fela also brought up issues around racism as impacting upon 'choice' and opportunity to study (and succeed). Like a number of other black women in the larger study, Joan drew attention to her experience that many teachers had stereotypically lower expectations for black girls ('they brand you'), discouraging girls from aspiring to higher/further education. Fela also suggested that in his experience, higher education was not presented as a realistic aspiration ('they did advise that it would be nice to go into uni but if you did get a job, go for it, because that's the whole idea').
The difficulties of accessing information and advice regarding HE was not restricted to school experiences. Fela, Neil and Violet all talked about their problems in trying to obtain careers advice as an older person who is 'outside' the educational system. As a result, both Neil and Violet had to change tracks and switch courses at different stages of their post-compulsory journeys.
Facilitating factors
(i)Knowing someone
Most of the student respondents said that an important factor facilitating their participation was 'knowing someone' had been to/was at university. As Ball &Vincent (1998) have argued, 'hot' or 'grapevine' knowledge plays a central role in working class educational decision-making, because "the grapevine is often seen as more reliable than other 'official' sources of information' (Ball & Vincent,1998; p.380). For respondents in this study, 'knowing someone' who was/ had been a student encouraged access in various ways. Sarah was encouraged by meeting students on an open day, because she realised that they were 'like us'. Violet received practical help from her sister-in-law in choosing whereto apply. Fela found out important information about university from friends who were studying. These personal contacts were essential for navigating routes into HE; without them respondents suggested they had no idea of 'what's going on' inside universities.
The importance of informal personal contact was also emphasised. Violet gained the courage to begin her course from university staff who were friendly and reassuring when she repeatedly rang up 'panicking' during the application and pre-registration process. Derek also suggested that if he were to think of going to university, it would be important to have contact with staff who could 'break it down' for him, rather than relying on 'official' sources of information, such as brochures. Jodie suggested that it is scary going into universities because she has 'no idea at all' what they are like. She wanted a non-intimidating place, like a shop, where she might go to ask for information, chat to people who teach/study at university and consequently not feel like she was asking for something embarrassing like a 'filthy book'!
(ii) Student composition
Student respondents talked about how the 'cultures' or student mix in an institution could facilitate access by enabling them to feel more relaxed by being around people from similar backgrounds. Students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds can be disadvantaged by institutional cultures that position them as 'Other' and such cultures may discourage a conception of oneself as a potential university student (Tett, 1996). Neil suggested that 'polytechnics' are working class, and are specifically for people like himself, although this view was ambiguous and threaded with an awareness of inequalities and painful self-deprecation ('I come here because I live locally and I'm stupid basically').
As Reay et al., (2001) recognise, the status of an institution is increasingly defined by its student intake, and Neil's comment exposes the psychological dilemma this may create for 'non-traditional' students in less prestigious institutions.
Fela also emphasised the importance of ethnic mix('I didn't want to go to a place where I would be the only speck') and suggested the importance of 'getting a feel' for an institution in facilitating the decision to apply. But as Reay et al. suggest, similar processes of disidentification may be evident among ethnic minority and working class students, who are aware of the lower status of those institutions which are most accessible for 'people like them'.
(iii)Alternative entry routes
The student respondents had all entered university through 'alternative' entry routes such as Access (Sarah, Violet, Neil) and direct entry with accreditation for prior learning/ experience (Fela). These routes were important not only for 'short-cutting' the potential 'traditional' long GCSE/A Level routes into HE, but were valuable in their own right.