Abstract
This chapter engages with the interrogation of education policies through the medium of life history research. Life histories explicitly locate the stories people tell of their lives within their wider contexts. Here, this research focuses specifically on the highly politicised and problematic issue of state-educated young people in the UK, particularly those from working class backgrounds, progressing to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (commonly elided as Oxbridge). The construction and interpretation of these students’ life histories enable consideration of the tensions generated by widening participation policies and popular (and often well-founded) beliefs that these universities remain academically and socially elite and therefore exclusive. The focus on the students’ life histories necessarily generates questions concerning the interpretation of their identities and the real options young people have when it comes to making important educational choices. It also raises questions about the use of life history research as a means of enabling these interpretations and of using this methodology to critique policy. Despite its specific focus, this research has wider application as governmental and institutional attempts to increase the number of students from historically under-represented social groups are key elements of contemporary higher education policies in and beyond the UK.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Andrews, M., Squire, C., & Tamboukou, M. (Eds.). (2008). Doing narrative research. London: Sage.
Antikainen, A., Houtsonen, J., Kauppila, J., & Huotelin, H. (1996). Living in a learning society: Life histories, identities and education. London: Falmer.
Atkinson, P., & Delamont, S. (2006a). Narrative methods London. London: Sage.
Atkinson, P., & Delamont, S. (2006b). Rescuing narrative from qualitative research. Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 164–172.
Ball, S., Davies, J., David, M., & Reay, D. (2002). ‘Classification’ and ‘judgement’: Social class and the ‘cognitive structures’ of choice in higher education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23(1), 51–72.
Bathmaker, A. M., & Harnett, P. (Eds.). (2010). Exploring learning, identity & power through life history and narrative research. Abingdon: Routledge.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage.
Beck, U., Giddens, A., & Lash, S. (1995). Reflexive modernization: Politics, tradition and aesthetics in the modern social order. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1993). Sociology in question. London: Sage.
Bourdieu, P. (1996). The state nobility. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2000). Pascalian meditations. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
Bridges, D. (2003). Fiction written under oath: Essays in philosophy and educational research. Dordrecht: Springer.
Bridges, D., Gingell, J., Suissa, J., Watts, M., & Winch, C. (2007). Ethics and educational research: Philosophical perspectives. London: TLRP. Retrieved from http://www.tlrp.org/capacity/rm/wt/bridges.
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chamberlayne, P., Rustin, M., & Wengraf, T. (Eds.). (2002). Biography and social exclusion in Europe: Experiences and life journeys. Bristol: Policy Press.
Clandinin, D., & Connelly, F. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Cole, A. L., & Knowles, J. G. (Eds.). (2001). Lives in context: The art of life history research. Oxford: AltaMira Press.
Cortazzi, M. (1993). Narrative analysis. Washington, DC: Falmer.
Côté, J., & Allahar, A. (2007). Ivory tower blues: A university system in crisis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Craib, I. (2004). Narratives as bad faith. In M. Andrews, S. Sclater, C. Squire, & A. Treacher (Eds.), Uses of narrative (pp. 64–74). New Brunswick: Transaction.
Dearing, R. (1997). Higher education in the learning society – Report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education. London: HMSO.
Denzin, N. K. (1989a). Interpretive biography. London: Sage.
Denzin, N. K. (1989b). Interpretive interactionism. Newbury Park: Sage.
Dhunpath, R., & Samuel, M. (Eds.). (2009). Life history research: Epistemology, methodology and representation. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Dominicé, P. (2000). Learning from our lives: Using educational biographies with adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Freeman, M. (2004). Data are everywhere: Narrative criticism in the literature of experience. In C. Daiute & C. Lightfoot (Eds.), Narrative analysis: Studying the development of individuals in society (pp. 63–82). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Giroux, H. A., & Giroux, S. S. (2004). Take back higher education: Race, youth, and the crisis of democracy in the post-civil rights era. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Goodson, I. (1995). The story so far: Personal knowledge and the political. In J. Hatch & R. Wisniewski (Eds.), Life history and narrative (pp. 89–98). London: Falmer Press.
Goodson, I. F., & Gill, S. R. (2011). Narrative pedagogy: Life history and learning. New York: Peter Lang.
Goodson, I. F., & Sikes, P. (2001). Life history research in educational settings: Learning from lives. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Goodson, I. F., & Walker, R. (1991). Biography, identity and schooling: Episodes in educational research. London: Falmer Press.
Goodson, I. F., Biesta, G. J. J., Tedder, M., & Adair, N. (2010). Narrative learning. Abingdon: Routledge.
Griffiths, M. (2002). ‘Nothing grand’: Small tales and working for social justice. In J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.), Reframing teacher education practices: Exploring meaning through self-study (pp. 161–175). London: Falmer Press.
Griffiths, M. (2003). Action for social justice in education: Fairly different. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Griffiths, M., & Macleod, G. (2009). Personal narratives and policy: Never the twain? In D. Bridges, P. Smeyers, & R. Smith (Eds.), Evidence-based education policy (pp. 115–137). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Harnett, P. (2010). Life history and narrative research revisited. In A. M. Bathmaker & P. Harnett (Eds.), Exploring learning, identity & power through life history and narrative research (pp. 159–170). Abingdon: Routledge.
Hatch, J., & Wisniewski, R. (Eds.). (1995). Life history and narrative. London: Falmer Press.
Havel, V. (1990). Disturbing the peace: A conversation with Karel Hvizdala. London: Faber & Faber.
Hollway, W., & Jefferson, T. (2000). Doing qualitative research differently: Free association, narrative and the interview method. London: Sage.
Hulme, D. (2004). Thinking ‘small’ and the understanding of poverty: Maymana and Mofizul’s story. Journal of Human Development, 5(2), 161–176.
Järvinen, M. (2004). Life histories and the perspective of the present. Narrative Inquiry, 14(1), 45–68.
Kearney, C. (2003). The monkey’s mask: Identity, memory, narrative and voice. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
King, C. (2003). From Coronation Street to Oxford: Whatever next? The Philip Jones Memorial Lecture. Journal of Access Policy & Practice, 1(1), 69–78.
Kvernbekk, T. (2003). On identifying narratives. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 22(3–4), 267–279.
Leavy, P. (2009). Method meets art: Arts-based research practices. New York: Guilford Press.
Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Reading, analysis and interpretation. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Moore, R. (2004). Education and society: Issues and explanations in the sociology of education. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Nagel, T. (1986). The view from nowhere. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2000). Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Perry, A., Amadeo, C., Fletcher, M., & Walker, E. (2010). Instinct or reason: How education policy is made and how we might make it better: Perspective report. Reading: CfBT Education Trust.
Phoenix, A. (2008). Analysing narrative contexts. In M. Andrews, C. Squire, & M. Tamboukou (Eds.), Doing narrative research I (pp. 64–77). London: Sage.
Ramrathan, L. (2009). The ethics and politics of data as agency. In R. Dhunpath & M. Samuel (Eds.), Life history research: Epistemology, methodology and representation (pp. 153–172). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Reay, D., David, M., & Ball, S. (2005). Degrees of choice: Social class, race and gender in higher education. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
Roberts, B. (2002). Biographical research. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Rosaldo, R. (1989). Culture and truth: The remaking of social analysis. Boston: Beacon.
Rothblatt, S. (2007). Education’s abiding moral dilemma: Merit and worth in the cross-Atlantic democracies, 1800–2006. Oxford: Symposium Books.
Sclater, S. (2003). What is the subject? Narrative Inquiry, 13(2), 317–330.
Sen, A. (1992). Inequality reexamined. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sikes, P. (2010). The ethics of writing life histories and narratives in educational research. In A. M. Bathmaker & P. Harnett (Eds.), Exploring learning, identity & power through life history and narrative research (pp. 11–24). Abingdon: Routledge.
Sutton, T. (2000). Entry to leading universities. London: The Sutton Trust.
Sutton, T. (2004). The missing 3000: State school students under-represented at leading universities. London: The Sutton Trust.
Thomas, W., & Znaniecki, F. (1918–20). The Polish peasant in Europe and America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tierney, W. G. (2010). Globalization and life history research: Fragments of a life foretold. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23(2), 129–146.
Tilak, J. (2002). Education and poverty. Journal of Human Development, 3(2), 191–207.
Ting, T., & Watts, M. (2009). Narrative inquiry: Defogging expatriate expectations. In F. Kolapo (Ed.), Immigrant academics and cultural challenges in a global environment (pp. 73–106). Youngstown: Cambria Press.
van Stolk, C., Tiessen, J., Clift, J., & Levitt, R. (2007). Student retention in higher education courses: International comparison. Cambridge: The RAND Corporation.
Watts, M. (2002). Dreaming spires or scheming spires? State school students and perceptions of Oxford. Education and Social Justice, 4(3), 24–31.
Watts, M. (2007). They have tied me to a stake: Reflections on the art of case study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 13(2), 204–217.
Watts, M. (2008). Narrative research, narrative capital, narrative capability. In J. Satterthwaite, M. Watts, & H. Piper (Eds.), Talking truth, confronting power (pp. 99–112). Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
Watts, M. (2009). Higher education and hyperreality. In P. Smeyers & M. Depaepe (Eds.), Educational research: Educationalisation of social problems (pp. 141–155). Dordrecht: Springer.
Yorke, M., & Longden, B. (2004). Retention and student success in higher education. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Watts, M.F. (2015). 1.7 Life History Research and the Interpretation of Working Class Success in Higher Education in the United Kingdom. In: Smeyers, P., Bridges, D., Burbules, N., Griffiths, M. (eds) International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9282-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9282-0_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9281-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9282-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)