Life history research and the interpretation of working class success in higher education in the United Kingdom

Michael F. Watts

pp. 233-255

in: Paul Smeyers, David Bridges, Nicholas C. Burbules, Morwenna Griffiths (eds), International handbook of interpretation in educational research, Berlin, Springer, 2015

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.