TY - JOUR
T1 - A level playing 'field'?
T2 - A Bourdieusian analysis of the career aspirations of further education students on sports courses
AU - Connolly, Daniel J
AU - Allen-Collinson, Lacquelyn
AU - Evans, Adam Brian
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - There is currently a distinct dearth of research into how sports students’ career aspirations are formed during their post-compulsory education. This article, based on an ethnographic study of sport students in tertiary education, draws on data collected from two first-year cohorts (n = 34) on two different courses at a further education college in England. The study draws on ethnographic observations, and semi-structured group interviews, to examine in-depth the contrasting occupational perspectives emergent within these two groups of mainly working-class students, and how specific cultural practices affect students’ career aspirations. Utilising a Bourdieusian framework, the paper analyses the internalised, often latent cultural practices that impact upon these students’ diverse career aspirations. The hitherto under-researched dimension of inter-habitus interaction and also the application of doxa are outlined. The article reveals how the two student cohorts are situated within a complex field of relations, where struggles for legitimisation, academic accomplishment and numerous forms of lucrative capital become habituated. The study offers salient Bourdieusian-inspired insights into the career aspirations of these redominantly workingclass students and the ways in which certain educational practices contribute to the production and reproduction of class inequalities.
AB - There is currently a distinct dearth of research into how sports students’ career aspirations are formed during their post-compulsory education. This article, based on an ethnographic study of sport students in tertiary education, draws on data collected from two first-year cohorts (n = 34) on two different courses at a further education college in England. The study draws on ethnographic observations, and semi-structured group interviews, to examine in-depth the contrasting occupational perspectives emergent within these two groups of mainly working-class students, and how specific cultural practices affect students’ career aspirations. Utilising a Bourdieusian framework, the paper analyses the internalised, often latent cultural practices that impact upon these students’ diverse career aspirations. The hitherto under-researched dimension of inter-habitus interaction and also the application of doxa are outlined. The article reveals how the two student cohorts are situated within a complex field of relations, where struggles for legitimisation, academic accomplishment and numerous forms of lucrative capital become habituated. The study offers salient Bourdieusian-inspired insights into the career aspirations of these redominantly workingclass students and the ways in which certain educational practices contribute to the production and reproduction of class inequalities.
KW - Faculty of Science
KW - Further education students
KW - Career aspirations
KW - Bourdieu
KW - Sports education
KW - Social class
U2 - 10.1080/13573322.2014.994175
DO - 10.1080/13573322.2014.994175
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1357-3322
VL - 21
SP - 1144
EP - 1160
JO - Sport, Education and Society
JF - Sport, Education and Society
IS - 8
ER -