Travelling hopefully: an exploration of the limited possibilities for Level 1 students in the English further education system
Authors
Atkins, Liz
Affiliation
University of HuddersfieldIssue Date
01/07/2008
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This paper discusses the findings of a small?scale qualitative study exploring the aspirations and learning identities of three groups of Level 1 students in two English further education (FE) colleges. Emerging identities are explored in the context of classed and gendered dispositions and the educational positioning of the young people. Empirical sections show that the young peoples lifestyle aspirations have a heavy celebrity influence and that their occupational aspirations have an unreal, dreamlike quality associated with a lack of awareness of the trajectories they would need to follow to achieve their ambitions. Further, the paper argues that whilst the young people are developing identities in which learning, leisure, work and domesticity are synonymous, leisure identities assume the greatest importance to them. The paper concludes that this aspect of their young lives is significant since it provides an escapefrom the mundane drudgery of a low?value vocational programme and the inevitability of a future engaged in low?paid, low?skillled work.Citation
Atkins, L., (2008). 'Travelling hopefully: an exploration of the limited possibilities for Level 1 students in the English further education system'.Research in Post?Compulsory Education,13(2), pp.195-204. DOI: 10.1080/13596740802141329Publisher
Taylor and FrancisJournal
Research in Post Compulsory EducationDOI
10.1080/13596740802141329Additional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13596740802141329Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
1356748EISSN
17475112ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/13596740802141329