Non-traditional students - tracking changing learning
identities in the inter-face with Higher Education
Rennie Johnston and Barbara Merrill
University of Warwick, England, UK
Paper presented at SCUTREA 34th Annual Conference, University of Sheffield,
UK. 6-8 July 2004
Introduction
Social and economic changes in the wider society have resulted in universities
interacting more visibly with society locally, nationally and globally. Multiple
stakeholders now have claims on higher education, for example, industry. (Barnett,
2003) This has led some to argue that its traditional stronghold on academic
knowledge is being challenged as wider epistemologies enter the university
curriculum (Delanty, 2001). This opening up to the outside world has included the
admission of a wider and more diverse student body as universities have moved from
elite to mass institutions (Trow, 1989). More adults, including non-traditional adults,
are entering higher education across Europe as part of this change process. It is,
therefore, essential that higher education institutions take into account the learning
needs and biographies of adult students.
Non-traditional adults’ learning experiences and biographies are often shaped by
previous learning experiences, particularly by initial schooling, sometimes in negative
ways. Adults also bring with them more and wider life experiences than younger
students. This presents a different form of knowledge for universities. Past
biographical experiences also shape the attitudes of non-traditional adult students
towards learning and their engagement with academic knowledge. This is reflected
through the presentation of different types of educational biographies and learner
identities amongst adult students. In policy terms it is important that change takes
place at the institutional level yet to what extent are universities across Europe
initiating a cultural and pedagogical shift to adjust to its changing student population?
This paper presents findings from a work in progress EU funded Socrates Grundtvig
project entitled ‘Learning in Higher Education’ which is looking at the experiences and
attitudes of non-traditional adult undergraduate students in relation to learning and
teaching approaches in higher education. It aims to develop research approaches for
understanding the stories told by adult learners about their experiences of learning in
HE. While there is now a wide range of research which looks at the experiences of
adults in HE there is very little which focuses on the learning and teaching
approaches. It involves seven countries: Finland, Germany, Ireland, Portugal Spain,
Sweden, and the UK. The key aims are to raise awareness amongst lecturers and
policy makers of the learning needs of adults in HE, promote lifelong learning in HE
by developing a pedagogy and curriculum which will appeal to those who may feel
that HE is not for them. The biographical data will be used to produce guidelines on
learning and teaching approaches for lecturers. A questionnaire was undertaken but
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biographical approaches have been central in giving voice to and understanding the
learning experiences of non-traditional adult students. Interviews have also been
conducted with a sample of lecturers to examine their teaching approaches and
teaching biographies.
The recent turn to biographical methods in adult education and the social sciences
more generally (Chamberlayne et al, 2000) has pushed the boundaries and depth of
understanding in relation to the learning experiences of adults. In particular life stories
demonstrate how learning experiences are shaped by the dialectics of agency and
structure. Biographical approaches are a useful tool for bridging the agency/structure,
macro/micro divide within sociology as they reveal how individuals both act upon the
world as well as being shaped by it. The biographies of learners in this study reveal
that learning in university is both an individual and collective experience. Adult
learners bring with them particular attitudes and experiences to learning which have
been shaped by class, gender, race etc. At the same time engaging in learning for a
degree, particularly in the social sciences, may raise awareness of their structured
position and encourages non-traditional learners to change their lives. As Brah (1992)
points out experience is essential as a means of making sense narratively and
symbolically of the life struggle over material conditions. Biographies illustrate the
multiple roles and identities which characterise the lives of adult learners and how
these also impact upon their learning. Biographies and learning are not encountered
as an individualised process. They are located within a network of social relationships
both inside and outside the university. As Denzin highlights:
We must learn how to connect biographies and lived experiences, the epiphanies
of lives, to the groups and social relationships that surround and shape persons
(1989, p.82).
The narrated life is a construction of the first order. Events and life experiences are
selected by the narrator focusing not only on the actor's self but also on the
interaction with others significant to their life history within specific social contexts.
The narrator is both narrating and interpreting their biography. As researchers we
also interpret the biographies at another level (construction of the second order) in
order to identify the 'process structures' of the lifecourse (Schűtze, 1984).
Although appearing to be individualistic, biographies highlight the collectivities in
people's lives by identifying, as Bertaux (1981) reminds us, the common experiences
of structure:
The intent of the biographical project is to uncover the social, economic, cultural,
structural and historical forces that shape, distort and otherwise alter problematic
lived experiences (Bertaux, 1981, p.4).
The methodological and theoretical frameworks draw on and extend previous models
used in a TSER European project. The latter looked at the access and experiences of
adults in higher education and involved several of the same partners. The
biographies of the adult students in the partner countries revealed a number of
common patterns of behaviour in their educational careers. As in the previous project
we are drawing on Bourdieu's work on habitus to identify different educational
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biographies. Adults construct and make sense of their learning experiences in higher
education within a framework of a particular habitus which can either constrain,
enhance and/or empower their learning and change identities.
Analysis of the biographies revealed the existence of five types of educational
biographies as identified in the previous project: ‘patchworkers’, ‘educational
climbers’, ‘integrators’, ‘emancipators’ and ‘careerists’ (Alheit and Merrill, 2001; Alheit
and Merrill, forthcoming). This current study has revealed further educational
biographies constructed by particular cultural contexts, for example, ‘hesitators’ in
Sweden and ‘marginalisers’ in Portugal. While many biographies exhibit a dominant
type, others cut across the boundaries of one or more types. What they do reveal is
that biographies, while being individual, are also collective in the ways in which
learners both construct their learning and their lives as well as being shaped by the
structures they inhabit. It is what C Wright Mills (1959) refers to as 'the personal
troubles of milieu' and the 'public issues of social structure' (p.14). Applying
Bourdieu's concept of habitus enables us to highlight the dialectics of structure and
agency in biographies. For Bourdieu the habitus is 'the site of the internalization of
reality and the externalization of internality' (1977, p.205), it is a set of dispositions
which incline agents to react in certain ways. Learning in HE enables the individual to
reflect upon and understand past biographical experiences in order to build and
create changed and future identities
The second half of this paper will first explore, using learner biographies, how initial
learning identities are constructed through schooling linked to wider factors such as
the influence of class, gender and race. It will then trace briefly how these learner
identities develop beyond school, looking finally at how they are mediated by different
factors within HE. These include mode of study, home/university connections links or
dissonances, interactions with peers, interactions with tutors, and teaching, learning
and assessment methods. For the purposes of this paper we will focus only on the
inter-face with HE culture and teaching and learning methods. We hope to use these
different stories to generate new understandings about non-traditional students in HE
and to identify the implications of this for policy and practice, and for learning and
teaching in HE.
How initial learner identities are constructed
This section will look in some depth at some of the key initial influences on learner
identity. Experiences of learning in school as children and adolescents influenced
many of the UK participants' attitudes and motivation to learning as an adult. School
for some was experienced in contradictory ways as several participants stated that
they did not enjoy school but as they continued their story admitted to liking some
aspect, usually a particular subject. As one woman stated 'I hated school' but soon
after remarked that 'I very much liked art and dressmaking - practical things rather
than the academic things'. Her dislike of school was shaped by her experiences of
teachers rather than the learning process as there was one in particular who bullied
her. This memory stayed with her and undermined her confidence as a learner
although as she stated 'I knew I knew things' and had intended to stay on at school to
take the qualifications required for university. Similarly one male participant recalled
that he was also bullied by teachers and other pupils in his school in East London
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causing him to dislike school. However, he proceeded to explain that at secondary
school some teachers were influential:
They cared about the subject and it was enjoyable to be there. Like I remember
doing history. We had a history teacher and he was excellent. English wasn't so
bad and there were certain subjects that were really good.
Others found themselves labelled by teachers as troublemakers – a legacy of an
elder sister or brother who had been labelled as disruptive. Jane, who is now in her
40s, outlined:
I came from an unpopular family if you like…The minute my surname was known
then it was like the next scapegoat and I was more or less told to sit in the corner
and keep your mouth shut and I was told I would probably work cleaning streets or
something like that. My school experiences I would say, were horrific and very,
very unhappy. I didn't enjoy school - I didn't seem to be able to get into the group I was always on the edge of the group and felt very alone. Because of that I was
very disruptive.
Jane is now very enthusiastic about learning and is currently finishing a 2+2 Social
Studies degree. Mark also came from a difficult family background but unlike Jane
used learning in school as a means of escaping from it:
I always did like going to school. I moved around a few primary schools. I passed
my 12+ and went to a grammar school. I think the reason I enjoyed going to school
so much was that home life and domestic life was sort of up in the air and also
other issues which made me delve into my schooling and education. My brother
went the other way and ended up in a life of crime. I found almost solace in going
to school - that's why I enjoyed it. I put the time in and did quite well. Yes it was a
positive experience.
Although they had different experiences of school, both Jane and Mark clearly
remember key teachers who supported their learning, Mark putting it this way:
There were two people that…..probably took an hour out of their time over a period
of years to talk to me one-to-one, how’s it going sort of thing and took an interest.
Several other participants mentioned that their schooling had been disrupted as their
family moved around the country and were constantly changing schools and others
experienced disruptions through long-term illnesses or absences from school. But
others did not find it easy to fit into the school culture, perhaps as a result of class
differences. Peter, now an active trade unionist found it particularly difficult to cope
with school routine and didn’t have much time for authority although he liked some
teachers. Catherine, another trade unionist, ‘liked the lessons in the classroom and
finding things out. I was always in the library reading’, but she never felt she fitted into
secondary school:
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I was never very good at sports and things and I think that stumped me at
school….I didn’t go around with people in that school in my own time. It was just go
to school and come home.
Looking back on her schooling, Paula, who got a good degree and has now gone into
teaching, felt short-changed by her school:
Yes, (I was) well behaved and got on with my work. I just feel that there was a lot
of potential that I had. Too young at the time to know but I do feel it came back to
my background and my family and where I lived and that influenced how they
treated me and that’s why college was never even mentioned. ….I think the system
could have done more for me
In looking at the experiences of these working-class students, it could be said that
while they were developing their learning and their learning identities, their workingclass habitus did not easily fit with the more middle-class culture of the school. In
contrast to this, outside activities were often much more influential in changing the
learner identities of these working-class students. As an apprentice, Peter’s antiauthoritarianism drew him first to science fiction, then to surrealism and finally to
punk:
Yes I ….got involved with Punk and all that and the anarchist stuff that got me into
anarchist theory and those sort of things…..They sort of lived their life ….they were
getting away from hypocrisy. If you bought a single it tended to be this great big
sort of fold out thing full of various ideas, contacts for various things. I mean animal
rights, C and B, the whole thing
In contrast, Paula went into banking for 10 years, but after a while was
…questioning the moral issue of the job I was doing and I thought I can’t do this for
the rest of my life…I just thought there had to be more to life than this.
This feeling prompted Paula to start getting books on sociology and politics out of the
library and then to apply for an access course. Jane expressed herself in a slightly
different way. She had her first child at the age of 18 and two more shortly afterwards,
so returned to working in a factory as she needed the money. She explains:
…it wasn't until I got to 40 and I had hit the early menopause and I was like
breaking up and I didn't know what was happening and I wanted to find out who I
was. Returning to education didn't give me just the academic skills it gave me
something about me. All of a sudden instead of being a mum I knew I was Jane.
Access to Higher Education, changing habituses and new learner identities
For Paula and Jane, moving into HE arose from a crisis in their lives and conferred on
them an opportunity to develop a new identity and status, an outcome often
particularly identified amongst women. This was also true for Mark as HE gave him a
chance, now as a new father, to move from a casual, portfolio-type working existence
to take on a more coherent and responsible identity. For the trade unionists
interviewed, Peter, Catherine and Tom, the situation was rather different. They
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already had a strong and positive working identity and HE was for them only an
extension of this. What it offered them was the chance to re-kindle their learning
identities and personal ambitions whilst also developing their knowledge and work as
trade unionists. Because they were taking a degree that had been purpose-designed
for them and were taught all together on block release and because they all had
experience of leadership, the trade unionists did not find HE culture particularly
daunting. They were happy to pick up knowledge and ideas from tutors and books
and then work on these in their own time, often supporting each other in regionally
based sub-groups. However the one thing which they all found difficult and irritating
about HE was the rigidity of deadlines and timescales. Lecturers were too geared to
younger students in this respect and did not take account of the busy lives of their
trade union students. As Peter put it:
God help you if you have a strike or something like that but certainly if you get a
rush of personal problems ..you are always running tight.
This view was shared by almost all mature students. Working alongside younger
students, Paula felt aggrieved that:
… some of the lecturers treat all the students the same and we aren’t all the
same…if a mature student asks for an extension….it’s not usually because they
have been partying ….there is usually a genuine excuse and (some lecturers)
aren’t prepared to listen.
The learning identity of full-time students changed in its interface with HE but some
elements remained. Paula’s belief that people and institutions have made
assumptions about her continued as an adult student at university. While at one level
she thrived in HE through her love of the subject, well-developed reading, reflective
approach and highly developed organisational skills, she still lacked confidence in an
university environment
You never lose that. I don’t think you ever lose that – you learn to live with it but
you don’t ever lose that. You always think I am not worthy of this. That’s something
I feel and you still think that you shouldn’t be here and you are a con – you know
how did I get here and I slipped through the net and I shouldn’t be here.
Kathy, a 2+2 student, also talked about her feelings of not being worthy to be a
university student. This was perceived by her in class terms. In one seminar group
she was aware that some of the young female students came from a very middle
class background because of their accent and lifestyle. The confident way they talked
in seminars undermined her learning confidence:
But those girls…they just made you feel thick. In the third year you do feel thick
and you do feel that you shouldn't be here and you do feel old and feel really on
show and I don't particularly like that.
However, generally, the 2 +2 structure helped mature students adjust to mainstream
university culture. For example, Mark, ‘a working class dodgy-looking geezer’ had
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visited the main campus during his college years so was able to take on a different,
more confident role as ‘Mr Helpful’:
So yes, I kind of help people around. I was the one that put everyone together for a
couple of weeks just checking on them and saying ‘hello’ and I would stop and talk.
In a different way and despite some initial anxieties about accessing the campus, at a
more micro level, Jane was able to use her out-going personality as well as select
particular courses where she was accepted:
I was the eldest person in the seminar group and I think because I was my opinion
was valued…….the seminar tutor always used to say how are your grandchildren,
So not only was she interested in me as student she was interested in me as a
person.
This was recurring theme in that mature students were largely happy to adapt to HE
culture and methods and so gradually change their learning identity but they also
wanted to be recognised and respected as people who had something to offer the ongoing debate. For this reason, most mature students’ favoured teaching and learning
method was the seminar.
Jane took this seriously:
When you go into the seminar you have got something valuable to say because
you have read your stuff and you know what you are talking about.
Paula agreed:
Obviously with ….group discussions I think you get a lot out of mature students
particularly. I liked that. The only downside I would say is that there are some staff
who perhaps don’t appreciate the outside experience that mature students can
bring. ...You probably know more about ‘the real world’ than they do and I think it’s
that (that is frustrating), dismissing the fact that you do know about these things
because they don’t fit in the theory that they talked about.
Mature students, because of their more extensive and varied learning biographies,
tended to see themselves as independent learners. Jackie put it this way:
I see learning as putting your own mark on it and listening to other people’s ideas
about the subject and then hopefully getting some kind of resolution. ….(On the
main campus) I was spoon fed a load of facts and figures, a lot of the time I felt I
needed a dictionary to know what was being said and sometimes I would look
stupid because maybe I wouldn’t know the right word or the terms.
This ‘spoon-feeding’ did not sit well with mature students’ image of themselves as
independent learners. In the light of this, some adopted clear tactics to avoid it and
make the most of their more independent learning identities. Thus the trade unionists,
aided by their block release, used their weeks at university to pick up key ideas and
books to work on, often collectively, in their own time and at their own pace. Mark
soon worked out that he
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wasn’t going to sit at every lecture and listen to every single thing because my
brain just couldn’t take it…so I realized very quickly you had to be selective. So I
pushed for essay titles straight away, I pushed for essay deadlines and indications
of questions.
So he could play to his strengths and help organise his study and working life. This
was a strategy shared by Paula who completed her final year dissertation a whole
summer before her finals in order to build on her ability to plan and work
independently and leave time for combining family life and revision in her final year.
Conclusion
The above examples illustrate how the habitus of mature students both influences
and is influenced by their contact with university culture, how their learning identities
are affected and changed by studying in HE. Our current project is still work in
progress but we hope that, as a result of it, policy makers and practitioners can begin
to pay more attention to the voices of non traditional students, learn from their
dispositions to HE and take action in the interests of making universities more open
and responsive to the needs and interests of such students.
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