Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper is about the lives of some working class women and men who chose to return to learn, as adults, in further and higher education in the UK (I need to explain that further education colleges are post-compulsory institutions which deliver academic and vocational courses). Although the focus is on research undertaken in the UK I hope that the voices, experiences, struggles and achievements of the participants in this paper will have resonance and relevance for you here in Poland. The stories are drawn from several research projects which looked at the access, learning experiences and learning identities of working class adults in educational environments which, particularly in the case of higher education, may seem daunting culturally ? a different community to the communities where they live and have known. How are these differences resolved? How do they cope in these two contrasting spaces and keep on going on? What impact does learning have on their classed and gendered, and for some, raced identities and communities? These issues are discussed within the context of the UK?s lifelong learning policy.
Keywords
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References
- ABBOTT A., 2001, Chaos of Disciplines, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
- ALHEIT P., DAUSIEN B., 2000, “Biographicity” as a basic resource of lifelong learning in Alheit P, Beck J., Kammler E., Salling-Olesen H., Taylor R., Lifelong Learning Inside and Outside Schools, Vol. 2, ESREA, Roskilde.
- ALHEIT P., DAUSIEN B., 2002, The “double face” of lifelong learning: Two analytical perspectives on a “silent revolution”, [in:] Studies in the Education of Adults, Vol. 34, No. 1, Spring.
- ALHEIT P., MERRILL B., 2004, Biography and narratives: adult returners to learning, [in:] M. Osborne, J. Gallacher, B. Crossan (eds.), Researching Widening Access to Lifelong Learning, Routledge, London.
- ANTHIAS F., 2005, Social Stratification and Social Inequality: Models of Intersectionality and Identity, [in:] F. Devine et al., Rethinking Class: cultures, identities and lifestyle, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
- ANTIKAINEN A., HOUTSONEN A., KAUPPILA J., HUOTELIN H., 1996, Living in a Learning Society: Life Histories, Identities and Education, Falmer Press, London.
- BARNETT R., 2003, Beyond All Reason: Living with ideology in the university, SRHE/OUP, Buckingham.
- BAUMAN Z., 1997, Postmodernity and its Discontents, Polity Press, Cambridge.
- BLOOMER M., Hodkinson P., 2000, Learning careers: continuity and changing young people’s dispositions to learning, [in:] British Educational Research Journal, 26.
- BOURDIEU P., 1977, Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- BOURDIEU P., 1990, In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology, Polity, Cambridge.
- BOURDIEU P., 2000, The biographical illusion, [in:] P. Gay, J. Evans, P. Redman (eds.), Identity: a reader, Sage, London.
- BOURDIEU P., WACQUANT L.J., 1992, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Polity, Cambridge.
- CASTELLS M., 1997, The Power of Identity, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. II, Blackwell, Oxford.
- CHAMBERLAYNE P., Bornat J., Wengraf T. (eds.), 2000, The Turn to Biographical methods in Social Science, Routledge, London.
- CÔTÉ J.E., LEVINE C.G., 2002, Identity, Formation, Agency & Culture: A Social Psychological Synthesis, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah.
- CROSSAN B., FIELD J., GALLACHER J., MERRILL B., 2003, Understanding Participatiion in Learning for Non-traditional Adult Learners: learning careers and the construction of identities, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 24.1.
- DAWE A, 1970, The two sociologies, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 21.
- DENZIN N.K., 1989, Interpretative Biography, Sage, Newbury Park, C.A. Department of Education and Employment, 1995, Lifetime learning: a consultative document, HMSO, London.
- DEVINE F., SAVAGE M., SCOTT J., CROMPTON R., 2005, Rethinking Class: cultures, identities and lifestyle, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
- FIELD J., 2006, Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order, Trentham Books, Stoke on Trent.
- GIDDENS A., 1991, Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Polity Press, Cambridge.
- JOHNSTON R., 1988, “Really Useful Knowledge” 1750–1850: memories in the 1980s, [in:] T. Lovett (ed.), Radical Approaches to Adult Education, Routledge, London.
- JOHNSTON R., MERRILL B., 2004, From old to new learning identities: charting the change for nontraditional adult students in higher education, [in:] ESREA Proceedings: Between “old” and “new” Worlds of Adult Learning, University of Wrocław, Wrocław.
- JOHNSTON R., MERRILL B., 2004a, Non-traditional students – tracking changing learning identities in the inter-face with Higher Education, [in:] C. Hunt (ed.), (Re)generating Research in Adult Learning and Teaching, SCUTREA/University of Sheffield, Sheffield.
- KUHN A., 1995, Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination, Verso, London. MERRILL B., 1999, Gender, Change and Identity: Mature Women Students in Universities, Ashgate, Aldershot.
- MERRILL B., 2001, Learning Careers: Conceptualising Adult Learning Experiences Through Biographies, ESREA Biography and Life History Network Conference, Roskilde, Denmark.
- MERRILL B., 2003, Women’s Lives and Learning: Struggling for Transformation, [in:] B. Dybbroe, E. Ollagnier (eds.), Challenging Gender in Lifelong Learning: European Perspectives, Roskilde University Press/ ESREA, Roskilde.
- MERRILL B., 2007, Recovering Class and the Collective in the Stories of Adult Learners, [in:] L. West, B. Merrill, P. Alheit, A.S. Andersen (eds.), Using Life History and Biographical Approaches in the Study of Adult and Lifelong Learning: European Perspective, Peter Lang, Hamburg.
- MERRILL B., PUIGVERT L., 2001, Discounting “other women” in Researching Widening Access – International Perspectives, Conference Proceedings, CRLL, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow.
- PAHL R.E., 1989, Is the emperor naked?, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 13. REINHARZ S., 1992, Feminist Methods in Social Research, Oxford, University Press, New York.
- SAVAGE M., 2000, Class Analysis and Social Transformation, Open University Press, Buckingham.
- SAYER A., 2005, The Moral Significance of Class, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- SCOTT P., 1998, Mass Higher Education: A New Civilisation?, [in:] D. Jary, M. Parker, The New Higher Education: Issues and Directions for the Post-Dearing University, Staffordshire University Press, Stoke-on-Trent.
- SKEGGS B., 1997, Formations of Class and Gender, Sage, London.
- STRAUSS R., 1953/1969, Mirrors and Masks: The Search for Identity, The Sociology Press, San Francisco, CA.
- THOMPSON J., 2000, Women, Class and Education, Routledge, London.
- WEST L., 1996, Beyond Fragments: adults, motivation and higher education, Taylor Francis, London.
- WEST L., ALHEIT P., ANDERSEN S.A., MERRILL B. (eds.), 2007, Using Biographical and Life History Approaches in the Study of Adult and Lifelong Learning: European Perspectives, Peter Lang, Frankfurt-am-Main.
- WRIGHT MILLS C., 1973, The Sociological Imagination, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
References
ABBOTT A., 2001, Chaos of Disciplines, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
ALHEIT P., DAUSIEN B., 2000, “Biographicity” as a basic resource of lifelong learning in Alheit P, Beck J., Kammler E., Salling-Olesen H., Taylor R., Lifelong Learning Inside and Outside Schools, Vol. 2, ESREA, Roskilde.
ALHEIT P., DAUSIEN B., 2002, The “double face” of lifelong learning: Two analytical perspectives on a “silent revolution”, [in:] Studies in the Education of Adults, Vol. 34, No. 1, Spring.
ALHEIT P., MERRILL B., 2004, Biography and narratives: adult returners to learning, [in:] M. Osborne, J. Gallacher, B. Crossan (eds.), Researching Widening Access to Lifelong Learning, Routledge, London.
ANTHIAS F., 2005, Social Stratification and Social Inequality: Models of Intersectionality and Identity, [in:] F. Devine et al., Rethinking Class: cultures, identities and lifestyle, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
ANTIKAINEN A., HOUTSONEN A., KAUPPILA J., HUOTELIN H., 1996, Living in a Learning Society: Life Histories, Identities and Education, Falmer Press, London.
BARNETT R., 2003, Beyond All Reason: Living with ideology in the university, SRHE/OUP, Buckingham.
BAUMAN Z., 1997, Postmodernity and its Discontents, Polity Press, Cambridge.
BLOOMER M., Hodkinson P., 2000, Learning careers: continuity and changing young people’s dispositions to learning, [in:] British Educational Research Journal, 26.
BOURDIEU P., 1977, Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
BOURDIEU P., 1990, In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology, Polity, Cambridge.
BOURDIEU P., 2000, The biographical illusion, [in:] P. Gay, J. Evans, P. Redman (eds.), Identity: a reader, Sage, London.
BOURDIEU P., WACQUANT L.J., 1992, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Polity, Cambridge.
CASTELLS M., 1997, The Power of Identity, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. II, Blackwell, Oxford.
CHAMBERLAYNE P., Bornat J., Wengraf T. (eds.), 2000, The Turn to Biographical methods in Social Science, Routledge, London.
CÔTÉ J.E., LEVINE C.G., 2002, Identity, Formation, Agency & Culture: A Social Psychological Synthesis, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah.
CROSSAN B., FIELD J., GALLACHER J., MERRILL B., 2003, Understanding Participatiion in Learning for Non-traditional Adult Learners: learning careers and the construction of identities, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 24.1.
DAWE A, 1970, The two sociologies, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 21.
DENZIN N.K., 1989, Interpretative Biography, Sage, Newbury Park, C.A. Department of Education and Employment, 1995, Lifetime learning: a consultative document, HMSO, London.
DEVINE F., SAVAGE M., SCOTT J., CROMPTON R., 2005, Rethinking Class: cultures, identities and lifestyle, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
FIELD J., 2006, Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order, Trentham Books, Stoke on Trent.
GIDDENS A., 1991, Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Polity Press, Cambridge.
JOHNSTON R., 1988, “Really Useful Knowledge” 1750–1850: memories in the 1980s, [in:] T. Lovett (ed.), Radical Approaches to Adult Education, Routledge, London.
JOHNSTON R., MERRILL B., 2004, From old to new learning identities: charting the change for nontraditional adult students in higher education, [in:] ESREA Proceedings: Between “old” and “new” Worlds of Adult Learning, University of Wrocław, Wrocław.
JOHNSTON R., MERRILL B., 2004a, Non-traditional students – tracking changing learning identities in the inter-face with Higher Education, [in:] C. Hunt (ed.), (Re)generating Research in Adult Learning and Teaching, SCUTREA/University of Sheffield, Sheffield.
KUHN A., 1995, Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination, Verso, London. MERRILL B., 1999, Gender, Change and Identity: Mature Women Students in Universities, Ashgate, Aldershot.
MERRILL B., 2001, Learning Careers: Conceptualising Adult Learning Experiences Through Biographies, ESREA Biography and Life History Network Conference, Roskilde, Denmark.
MERRILL B., 2003, Women’s Lives and Learning: Struggling for Transformation, [in:] B. Dybbroe, E. Ollagnier (eds.), Challenging Gender in Lifelong Learning: European Perspectives, Roskilde University Press/ ESREA, Roskilde.
MERRILL B., 2007, Recovering Class and the Collective in the Stories of Adult Learners, [in:] L. West, B. Merrill, P. Alheit, A.S. Andersen (eds.), Using Life History and Biographical Approaches in the Study of Adult and Lifelong Learning: European Perspective, Peter Lang, Hamburg.
MERRILL B., PUIGVERT L., 2001, Discounting “other women” in Researching Widening Access – International Perspectives, Conference Proceedings, CRLL, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow.
PAHL R.E., 1989, Is the emperor naked?, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 13. REINHARZ S., 1992, Feminist Methods in Social Research, Oxford, University Press, New York.
SAVAGE M., 2000, Class Analysis and Social Transformation, Open University Press, Buckingham.
SAYER A., 2005, The Moral Significance of Class, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
SCOTT P., 1998, Mass Higher Education: A New Civilisation?, [in:] D. Jary, M. Parker, The New Higher Education: Issues and Directions for the Post-Dearing University, Staffordshire University Press, Stoke-on-Trent.
SKEGGS B., 1997, Formations of Class and Gender, Sage, London.
STRAUSS R., 1953/1969, Mirrors and Masks: The Search for Identity, The Sociology Press, San Francisco, CA.
THOMPSON J., 2000, Women, Class and Education, Routledge, London.
WEST L., 1996, Beyond Fragments: adults, motivation and higher education, Taylor Francis, London.
WEST L., ALHEIT P., ANDERSEN S.A., MERRILL B. (eds.), 2007, Using Biographical and Life History Approaches in the Study of Adult and Lifelong Learning: European Perspectives, Peter Lang, Frankfurt-am-Main.
WRIGHT MILLS C., 1973, The Sociological Imagination, Penguin, Harmondsworth.