Higher Education Student Narratives of Multiple Status Positions in England and Romania

Author(s):

Reka Plugor(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 04 C, Employability and Transition to Work of Higher Education Graduates

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

09:00-10:30

Room:

STD-401

Chair:

Mariana Gaio Alves

Contribution

The paper focuses on one of the “construction sites” (Teichler 2009) of the relationship between higher education and the world of work, namely the transition from university to work, as it is experienced by students in two European countries: England and Romania. The main aim was to describe, understand and interpret the transitional journeys of students via higher education by looking into the reasons why they go to university, what it is like being a student, the tensions of multiple status positions (work and student life) and how the experience contributes to their planned future employment plans.

In the paper, the concept of ‘education-to-work transitions’ is analysed through the multiple status experiences of final year undergraduate students with the aim of answering the main research question: What are the characteristics of school-to-work transitions in two European countries and how does agency and structure shape the experiences of university students? To explore these questions I use the theoretical map of the structure and agency debate, embedding concepts from Pierre Bourdieu (habitus, capital, field, practice), Norbert Elias (figurations), Phil Hodkinson (turning points) and Maarten Wolbers (double status positions).

Wolbers (2001) distinguished three types of double statuses when talking about youngsters combining learning and working: young people who combine learning and working in the dual system, full-time students who have jobs, and employed individuals who invest in training to advance their working career. My research focused primarily on Wolbers’ second category, on full time students and their extracurricular activities and I found that there are students who engage in more than one or two activities during their university course and consequently multiple status students is a more appropriate term to describe them.

The research is taken from a biographical perspective, using students’ life stories as basis for social research in order to understand processes of transitions (Merrill and 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 and Mertova 2007) and positioned the student voice at the heart of the study. As several authors mention (see Squire 2008, Webster and Mertova 2007, Cortazzi 2005, Riessmann 1993) 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. Topical life history interviews (Ward 2003) were conducted with male and female students, from a variety of disciplines, in the two countries. This method focuses on one key aspect of the participant’s life (Ward 2003), 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 Lieblich et al. (1998). Student experiences were compared and contrasted based on the themes and the emerging categories using categorical-content and -form analysis.

Expected Outcomes

With using the biographical perspective to research transitions from education to work 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, change in the labour market). The analysis of these multiple status positions offers the opportunity to look in detail at how the pathways from education to work are organized in two different institutional contexts in Europe. This research is responding to calls for additional studies to address concurrently societal and individual transitions and help to understand how and why students make the choices they do during higher education and how these choices combined with the habitus of the institution and the social and economic situation present in the country impact their university experiences. By examining students’ activities during university and their perceptions about these activities, the research contributes to the growing understanding of university students’ experiences and school-to-work transitions which is important not only for academic purposes, but for the wider policy and practice community as well.

References

Bourdieu, P., 1977. Outline of theory of practice. Cambridge: University Press. Cortazzi, Martin. 2005. Analysing narratives and documents. In Coleman, Marianne and Briggs, Ann R. J. (eds.) Research methods in educational leadership and management, London: SAGE Publications, pp. 196-212. Elias, N. 1991. The Society of Individuals. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 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. Hodkinson, P. 1998. The Origins of a Theory of Career Decision‐making: a case study of hermeneutical research. British Educational Research Journal, 25:5, pp. 557-572. Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R. and Zilber, T. 1998. Narrative research. Reading, Analysis and Interpretation. Applied Social Research Methods Series. vol 47. London: SAGE Publications. Merrill, B. and West, L. 2009. Using biographical methods in social research. London: SAGE Publications. Riessman, C. K. 1993. Narrative Analysis. Qualitative Research Methods Series. California: Sage. Squire, C. 2008. Experience-centred and culturally-oriented approaches to narrative. In Andrews, M., Squire, C. and Tamboukou, M. (eds.) 2008. Doing narrative research. London: Sage Publications. pp. 41-63. Teichler, U. 2009. Higher education and the world of work. Conceptual frameworks, comparative perspectives. Empirical findings. Rotterdam/Taipei: Sense Publishers. 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. Wolbers, M. H. J. 2003. Learning and Working: double statuses in youth transitions. In Müller, W. and Gangl, M. (eds.). Transitions from education to work in Europe. Oxford University Press. 131-155.

Author Information

Reka Plugor (presenting / submitting)

University of Leicester

CLMS

Leicester

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