Enablers and restrictors in navigating careers in education in England. The role of policy in supporting aspirations to become a teacher

This research article examines how some mature students can recognise and navigate educational opportunities in University Continuing Education, despite the instability and transience of educational policy and the significant individual, societal and political challenges that must be navigated to succeed. It extrapolates findings from eight individual life stories, focusing on part-time pathways for teaching assistants becoming fully qualified teachers.

This longitudinal life course enquiry includes a series of semi-structured interviews over a period of four years, which are paralleled with educational policy. Bourdieuian-based ‘Careership theory’ (Hodkinson and Sparkes, 1997) analyses the multi-dimensional influences of structure, agency, and culture in relation to their educational ‘horizons for action’ (Hodkinson and Sparkes, 1997). The study identifies that unstable routes to reach teacher status are disproportionately experienced by those who have not accessed higher education as a young person and that the effect of short-lived educational policies creates instability for mature students embarking on non-traditional routes. Enablers and restrictors to success for the participants in the study were centred around the balance between cost and risk, guidance and access to educational career structures, and acknowledgement that disruptive life events affect people at different times in their learning lives. Common to all participants is evidence of a strong desire to be active contributors to society and the impact of the positive influence of supportive others. The findings from this study support organisation of flexible, alternative routes in University Continuing Education that are accessible across the life course.