From life crisis to lifelong learning: Rethinking working-class 'drop out'

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From life crisis to lifelong learning They also seemed more reluctant to seek out student support and more fearful of ‘looking like an idiot’. Although our participants were under 25, young women sometimes had caring responsibilities for children or elderly parents, which added to the problems they faced in negotiating time and contact with lecturers. The gendered nature of the labour market also had an impact. Young men exhibited nostalgia for the secure patterns of traditional industry and felt themselves pulled towards the remaining opportunities that existed: 34 What I’ve got now I keep telling myself if I hadn’t went to university I could have learned a trade and be earning good money. (Male participant, research jury day) Stereotypical attitudes to young, white, working-class men as being rough and even dangerous, but at the same time weak and feckless, had had an impact on their educational progress. Sometimes it diverted them from the educational path that might have led to success, as with this student who was encouraged to drop maths for engineering and ultimately found his university course too boring to continue: Researcher: Were you encouraged to go to university from the sixth form? Interviewee (male): No, I don’t think my background helped. I came from [area C], as you probably know it has a bad reputation, I was an outsider. There was a parents’ evening. I was doing A level maths. I was good at maths, I got a B in it. The maths teacher turned up and said he didn’t think I suit maths because mathematicians are clever people. I sat with my jaw at the floor and thought fine. Was he saying I didn’t suit being a clever person? Researcher: So you think you brought this stereotype with you?
Reasons for leaving university Interviewee: Yes. It sounds pathetic but my nickname was ‘scary Pete’, they all thought I was a bit psychotic. I had been in a rough area. I was a bit rough at the time so they didn’t exactly like me. However, we do not agree with the prevalent view that young working-class men lack the correct ‘learning dispositions’ (Times Higher Educational Supplement, 2005). There were many instances when young men had demonstrated enthusiasm for informal learning: All the way through school I was interested in gadgetry and electronics, so I decided that would be the best course for me. (Male) Music was my big thing; I was really into that in a big way. (Male) The learning they were interested in was not taken seriously and they were often given poor careers advice, which took them in the wrong direction: I told them I wanted to make films for a living but they told me I’d never be able to do that. They made me tick boxes on a computer. The number one jobs the computer came up with were stonemason, police officer and mechanic. (Male) On entering university, they could be alienated by pedagogic methods that were rigid and non-participatory and, ultimately, they became disillusioned and dropped out: Researcher: How did you find the teaching methods? Interviewee (male): Some cases good, some cases bad. One module was mainly practical experience – that one was more interesting. It was better than having your head in a book and being dictated to. I don’t feel that’s the right way to learn. In many cases, they left university in an attempt to rekindle their original interests, demonstrating considerable persistence and belying the image of young, white, working-class men as the ultimate ‘quitters’: 35
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From life crisis to lifelong learning: Rethinking working-class 'drop out'

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