Risk, identity and change: Becoming a mature student

Baxter, Arthur; Britton, Carolyn

Abstract

This article looks at the stories mature students tell about the risks of higher education, in terms of its effects on identity and the implications for relationships with their families and former friends. Two sources of risk are highlighted in their stories; firstly, risks stemming from challenges to established gender roles in the family, which are mediated by the effects of social class; and secondly, risks that accompany the movement away from working class habitus which is an inevitable consequence of being in higher education. To be 'educated' is to stake a claim to a new identity which can be threatening both to one's own sense of self or to others. This may be experienced either as being seen by others as superior, or as feeling superior to others, but in both cases, there is an implicit challenge to former relationships. In their accounts, students describe how they try to manage relationships with families and former friends in order to minimise the disruption to their lives. Whatever strategy they adopt has consequences for their self-identity, which is experienced as fragmented and compartmentalised. In this process of becoming a different person, gender and class interact to produce specifically gendered and classed experiences of this painful transition. © 2001, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2001
• Journal: International Studies in Sociology of Education
• Print ISSN: 0962-0214
• Electronic ISSN: 1747-5066
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 87-104
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09620210100200066
• Keywords: risk, identity, change, mature student
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1087692
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09620210100200066
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This article derives from a study of mature students in a University social science faculty. It explores the risks associated with higher education participation, particularly in relation to class and gender identity. The paper is frequently cited by researchers in the field of studentship and Widening Participation, and it made important contributions to institutional debates. Baxter is responsible for 50% of this publication.