Using Bourdieu to understand (non-) participation in university higher education throughout the lifecourse

This chapter synthesizes Bourdieu’s theoretical ideas with empirical data concerned with educational (non-)participation in forms of lifelong education to illuminate how educational inequalities are reproduced throughout the lifecourse. It emerges from two separate studies in England. Study A explores why a group of young adults, living within traditionally working-class communities, choose not to participate in higher education. Study B considers why mature students participate in higher vocational education (HIVE) and how their decision to study this form of higher education specifically is shaped by their working-class backgrounds. Findings are drawn from semi-structured interviews with 12 further education students (Study A) and eight mature students undertaking HIVE qualifications in a further education college (Study B). Both studies took place at large general further education colleges (FECs). Both sites are situated in the North of England, where a large proportion of school leavers in the towns attend the colleges, which are the main providers of post-16 education. The chapter will be of interest to researchers of educational inequality, adult learning and social justice by illuminating how classed forms of (non-)participation can be understood as both ‘structured and structuring’ over time and through the lifecourse. It will be of interest to adult learning practitioners by providing an example of how social theory can be put to work to help us understand real-life educational problems and practices in new ways.