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Lifting the hood: lifelong learning and young, white, provincial working‐class masculinities
Author(s) -
Quinn Jocey,
Thomas Liz,
Slack Kim,
Casey Lorraine,
Thexton Wayne,
Noble John
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/01411920600895767
Subject(s) - masculinity , lifelong learning , working class , gender studies , situated , sociology , white (mutation) , pedagogy , class (philosophy) , drop out , psychology , political science , politics , epistemology , demographic economics , law , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science , gene , economics
Young, white, provincial working‐class men are portrayed as a threat to lifelong learning goals. They are least likely to enter university and most likely to ‘drop out’. However, white provincial masculinities are neglected in debates on gender and lifelong learning. This article uses a UK‐wide study of working‐class ‘drop‐out’ to explore the situated nature of such masculinities, how they are performed by students and consumed by others and reproduced by university cultures and pedagogies. It concludes that such students struggle to fit the fluid paradigm of the new lifelong learner and are constantly being fixed in place by structural inequality, discursive frames and institutional practices. Their ‘drop‐out’ is shaped by masculinity, but need not be viewed pejoratively. It can be a frustrated search for lifelong learning, often inspired by a love of informal learning. This should be respected, not ignored.