Abstract

This paper examines the history of the expansion of educational opportunities in the UK, to understand how different generations of ­working-class students managed to access HE. Based on 23 life-story interviews with working-class students, the study highlights how the changing dynamics of the structure of compulsory education and the labour market have shaped working-class students’ views of HE. Exploring the changing structure of opportunity, and how this has shaped working-class students’ sense of social position, is key to understanding the uneven pattern of working-class pathways to HE across generations. It is evident that different types of secondary school experience and opportunities in the labour market affected working-class pathways to university with the nature of the school environment and employment shaping various expectations. This article concludes that people’s understanding of their social position within the educational and occupational opportunity structure leads to variations in ­working-class transitions to university across different generations.

摘要

本文考察了英国教育机会扩大的历史，以了解不同世代的工薪阶层学生如何设法获得高等教育。该研究基于对工薪阶层学生的 23 个生活故事访谈，强调了义务教育结构和劳动力市场的动态变化如何影响工薪阶层学生对高等教育的看法。探索不断变化的机会结构，以及这如何塑造工薪阶层学生的社会地位感，是了解工薪阶层获得高等教育途径的不均衡模式的关键。很明显，劳动力市场中不同类型的中学经历和机会影响了工人阶级通往大学的途径，学校环境和就业的性质塑造了各种期望。