Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

The importance of internal conversations and reflexivity for work-based students in higher education: Valuing contextual continuity and 'giving something back'

Bovill, Helen

Authors

Helen Bovill Helen2.Bovill@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor of Education



Abstract

This paper utilises the theories of Archer to explore the impact of student 'internal conversations' upon the development of reflexive approaches employed by work-based students (WBS). The study informing this paper draws on the voices of a range of WBS on a Foundation Degree in Educational Support within a new university. A range of reflexivities are identified within the strategies students employ to 'make their ways' through the often unfamiliar and sometimes alienating contexts of higher education (HE). Whilst routinisation can be viewed as in decline people are not equally placed to be liberated or to liberate themselves from structurally determined biographies. Importantly for this paper, liberation is not strongly identified by participants as a site of what they 'care most about'. It is argued in the conclusion to this paper that students have an 'empirical tendency' to employ the reflexivity that enables them to remain knowledgeably embedded to their social context, to move on but not necessarily 'out' of their social circumstances; so the autonomous reflexivity of Archer's study is less relevant to many of these students. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Citation

Bovill, H. (2012). The importance of internal conversations and reflexivity for work-based students in higher education: Valuing contextual continuity and 'giving something back'. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 31(6), 687-703. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2012.723049

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Dec 1, 2012
Deposit Date Jan 9, 2013
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal International Journal of Lifelong Education
Print ISSN 0260-1370
Electronic ISSN 1464-519X
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 6
Pages 687-703
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2012.723049
Keywords internal conversations, reflexivity, work-based students, higher education, contextual continuity, university, students
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/943697
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2012.723049

Files






You might also like



Downloadable Citations