The social reproduction within the educational system globally sustains an unequal society. Amongst the students within higher education, there is an overrepresentation of students with at least one parent with a high school degree. Much research – particularly Brittish – has been done to describe and explain this social reproduction but there is not much research done to describe or explain why some young people do not follow their parents’ footsteps but has high academic success and aims. The majority of such studies are retrospective, based on interviews with adults that have experienced upward social mobility through education.

The phenomenon of social reproduction through education is global and existing also in countries such as Sweden where there is a formal equality in education. I present a part of an ongoing analyse process within my PhD dissertation where thirteen youths whose parents have not attained higher education, share their life stories once a year during a three-year period. The aim of the dissertation is to gain knowledge about how these youths, who are structurally less likely to attain higher education, have achieved success in school and strive for higher education. The youths participating in this study have parents who attained upper secondary school as highest, but they are themselves attaining upper secondary school educations that distinguish by demanding particularly high degrees from 9^th grade in order to get in. The research question is: What enables school achievement and aims of attending higher education, amongst youths whose parents do not have experience of higher education?

This paper discusses one analytical track that distinguishes in the interviews. In different means, these youths present their academic success: as a natural consequence of being gifted; as a result of hard work where studying has been a place of refuge from a difficult home environment or social discomfort in relation to peers, and/or; as depending on the encouragement and support from others, mainly teachers.

The empirical data is being analysed through Grounded Theory, i.e. theoretical concepts will be articulated based on the empirical data rather than using the data in order to verify or try already existing theories. However, in order to conceptualise the empirical data, Critical Realism and its ways of presenting social reality through the lens of the dichotomous structure and agency, together with the deterministic theoretical concepts of Bourdieu, have served as a gateway to a ‘theoretical sensibility’ needed in Grounded Theory.

In this ongoing analyse process, I wish that the discussion following the presentation will be in close relation to the analysis of the interviews.

The data consists of unstructured life story interviews with 13 upper secondary school students. The selection of these students was made in several steps. As a first step, the average number of elementary school grades (as summarised in numbers) needed for admission to all upper secondary school in a specific region in Sweden, were analysed. The 10 schools with highest numbers were contacted in order to give a brief presentation of the study and ask students to answer a minor questionnaire including questions regarding the parents educational background and whether or not they strived for higher education. 26 students were contacted based on their answers in the questionnaire, which also included questions of gender, country of birth (both student and parents) and the area where they lived. 13 of these student agreed to participate in the study. The interviews began with a short reminder of the purpose of the study, after which the student were asked to talk about their life, not only about school achievement and their strive for higher education but their life in general. The life stories are analysed both biographically and narratively, i.e. both what is told and how it is told. The narrative is not an exact presentation of the past but an adapted story, for example in relation to the purpose, audience and points of view. A narrative is also a way of presenting aspects of oneself, which is central in the analyses presented in this paper. In Life Story interviews, the story is about the past but created in the present. Hence, it is a present product and not an identical reflection of the past.

In different means, these youths present their academic success: as a natural consequence of being gifted; as a result of hard work where studying has been a place of refuge from a difficult home environment or social discomfort in relation to peers, and/or; as depending on the encouragement and support from others, mainly teachers. These presentations are either explicit or implicit. Some students presents their giftedness as a part of their personality that has always been there. An implicit way of describing this is for example telling how school has always been going good, while an implicit way is to refer to oneself as smart. Some students emphasises the hard work behind school achievement and how studying became a place of refuge. The place of refuge is described both in past and future terms. Studying has served as a way of escaping social encounters with peers, to not join the others after school because there is homework to do. Studying could also be an exit ticket from a strict family where the only valid reason to move away from home after graduating would be to attain University. Many student highlight a turn from unmotivated to motivated or from non-gifted to gifted – a turn that has depended on a teacher’s influence or direct encouragement.

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