Pathways to higher education: snapshots from two European countries

Author(s):

Réka Plugor(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 04 D, Student Transitions and Graduate Employability

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

09:00-10:30

Room:

B019 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Päivi Vuorinen-Lampila

Contribution

In this paper I look at how students evoke the process of deciding to study at university, I consider what applying to university means to students who live in two different country contexts – England and Romania – how that relates to the journey they have embarked on and how it is storied into their lives. With this discussion my aim is to answer the following research question: what circumstances and motives lead youngsters to choose to go to university? First, I present how students regard higher education (HE) and why they decided to embark on this journey, and then I focus on the details of how they made the decision and what were the factors that impacted on their choices. Apart from considering the individual circumstances, I was also interested to understand and describe how higher education decision-making is exercised in the two country systems, whether it is similar or different and why.

In education research information about the decision-making processes of pupils is gathered either retrospectively, varying times after their university application, by asking students or graduates about past events and choices (see Brooks & Everett 2008; Greenbank 2009; Lexmond & Bradley 2010) or prospectively, varying times before application, by asking pupils about their plans and viewpoints related to higher education studies (see du Bois-Reymond 1998, 2004; Reay, David & Ball 2005; Bates et al. 2009). Few longitudinal studies exist that try to offer a more holistic picture of the decision-making process (see Hodkinson et al. 1996; Hodkinson & Sparkes 1997 for students in VET; Purcell et al. 2008 for students in higher education). My research corresponds to the first, I gathered information from students retrospectively, but my aim was to gain a holistic picture of their decision-making, so I conducted the research from a biographical perspective, using students’ life stories as basis for social research in order to understand processes of transitions (Merrill & West 2009). This perspective, as Goodson and Sikes (2001) argue, has “the potential to make a far-reaching contribution to the problem of understanding the links between ‘personal troubles’ and ‘public issues’”.

Method

The main methodological approach was narrative inquiry as this approach allows researchers to present experience holistically in all its complexity and richness (Webster & Mertova 2007) and positioned the student voice at the heart of the study. As several authors mention (see Riessmann 1993, Cortazzi 2005, Webster & Mertova 2007, Squire 2008) this approach focuses on participants’ experience and the meanings given by them to the experience; the voices of the participants gain emphasis as well as their motivations, experiences and perceptions; and not least this approach allows the exploration of research activity itself as a story. I conducted 42 topical life history interviews (Ward 2003) with final year university students from a variety of social and disciplinary backgrounds in the two countries. This method focuses on one key aspect of the participant’s life, in this case, students’ education- and work-experience, rather than discussing all their life experiences. Using this method helped gain more focused data in relation to the main aim of the study. The method of analysis was informed by the work of Cortazzi (1993), Lieblich and colleagues (1998, 2008), Clandinin and Connelly (2000), Riessman (1993), and Brannen and Nilsen (2011). Student experiences were compared and contrasted based on the themes and the emerging categories using narrative categorical-content and -form analysis. Apart from paying attention to the content and form of the narrative, I also read the interviews for context. Embedded contextual information helped me to understand the narration better and to be able to place the experiences more accurately when I was comparing and contrasting the narratives at various levels. Reading for context is strongly connected to how students positioned themselves and others in the stories and whether they referred to random events and external circumstances in their lives.

Expected Outcomes

Students’ pathways to university can be clustered in three main groups, the first two are similar to du Bois-Reymond’s (1998) categories of ‘normal’ and ‘choice’ biographies. The first group of students positioned HE on a predicted life course, they stated that they “knew the university was the next step” and they cited varying reasons that underlined their feelings. For the second group of students going to university was not the norm, they made a conscious choice of opting for HE because they wanted to have a better future, a better job, or because it was a stage of life and they wanted to have that experience. A third group – not mentioned in previous research on educational choices – consisted of those students who ended up applying and attending university due to a happenstance event. The paper presents the characteristics of these three groups and the topics and influential factors students mentioned. With using the biographical perspective to research school-to-university transitions I was able to gain insight into the relationship between the unique student life (biography), the context within which it is lived (structural dimensions), and the processes of which it is part (for example change in the higher education system, social mobility). The analysis of these stories offers the opportunity to look in detail at how the pathways from school to university are organized in two different institutional contexts in Europe. By examining students’ motivations for going to university and the factors that impact their choice processes, the research contributes to the growing understanding of school-to-university and school-to-work transitions which is important not only for academic purposes, but for the wider policy and practice community as well.

References

du Bois-Reymond, M. 1998. ‘I don't want to commit myself yet’: young people's life concepts. Journal of Youth Studies, 1 (1), pp. 63–79. Brannen, J. and Nilsen, A. 2011. Comparative biographies in case-based cross-national research: methodological considerations. Sociology, 45(4), pp. 603–618. Brooks, R. and Everett, G. 2008. New European learners? An analysis of the ‘trendsetter’ thesis. Journal of Youth Studies, 11 (4), pp. 377–391. Clandinin, D. and Connelly, F. 2000. Narrative inquiry. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Cortazzi, M. 1993. Narrative analysis. London: Falmer Press. Goodson, I. and Sikes, P. 2001. Life history research in educational settings - learning from lives. Doing qualitative research in educational settings. Buckingham: Open University Press. Greenbank, P. 2009. An examination of the role of values in working‐class students’ career decision‐making. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 33(1), pp. 33–44. Hodkinson, P., Sparkes, A. and Hodkinson, H. 1996. Triumphs and tears: young people, markets, and the transition from school to work. London: D. Fulton Publishers. Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R. and Zilber, T. 1998. Narrative Research: Reading, Analysis, and Interpretation (Applied Social Research Methods). London: Sage Publications. Lieblich, A., Zilber, T., Tuval-Mashiach, R. 2008. Narrating human actions: The subjective experience of agency, structure, communion and serendipity. Qualitative Inquiry 14(4), pp. 613–631. Merrill, B. and West, L. 2009. Using biographical methods in social research. London: SAGE Publications. Purcell, K., Elias, P., Ellison, R., Atfield, G., Adam, D. and Livanos, I. 2008. Applying for higher education-the diversity of career choices, plans and expectations: findings from the first Futuretrack Survey of the ‘Class of 2006’applicants for higher education. Manchester: HECSU/IER. Reay, D., David, M. and Ball, S. 2005. Degrees of Choice: Social Class, Race and Gender in Higher Education. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books. Riessman, C. K. 1993. Narrative analysis. California: Sage. Squire, C. 2008. Experience-centered and culturally-oriented approaches to narrative research. In: Andrews, M., Squire, C. and Tamboukou, M. eds. 2008. Doing narrative research. London: Sage Publications. pp. 41–63. Ward, B. 2003. Reflecting on the value and use of the edited topical life history approach - a research approach. In: O'Donoghue, T. and Punch, K. eds. Qualitative educational research in action - doing and reflecting. London: Routledge Farmer, pp. 26–41. Webster, L. and Mertova, P. 2007. Using Narrative Inquiry as a Research Method: An Introduction to Using Critical Event Narrative Analysis in Research on Learning and Teaching. London: Routledge.

Author Information

Réka Plugor (presenting / submitting)

University of Leicester

Centre for Sustainable Work and Employment Futures

Leicester

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