Eileen Kelly- Blakeney St. Angela’s College, Sligo, Ireland ekelly@stangelas.nuigalway.ie

1. A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Eileen Kelly-Blakeney St. Angela’s College, Sligo, Ireland ekelly@stangelas.nuigalway.ie The Open University Widening Participation Conference 30th April and 1st May 2014 Milton Keynes

2. Overview • Background and context • Theoretical approach and methodology • Findings • Implications A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

3. Background and context • Undergraduate ITE in Ireland: high standard of entry andstrong competition for places (Hyland, 2012; Mooney et al. 2010) • ITE student body: remains homogenous (Drudy, 2006; Heinz, 2013) • WP in ITE: noted (Byrne, 2002; Kelleghan, 2002) but not a policy priority • Recently, raised as an issue by the Teaching Council (TC, 2007; 2011) • However, WP as a policy field in HE has impacted on ITE - target of 72% participation rate by 2020 (EGFSN, 2007; HEA, 2008) • Growing research base on WP and the student experience in the Irish context (Fleming & Finnegan, 2011; Keane, 2009; 2011a; 2011b; 2012) • This study: experiences of WP students in undergraduate ITE A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

4. Theoretical approach and methodology • Adopted a Bourdieusianapproach ‘A Bourdieusian approach to research practically depends on the adoption of three guiding principles: 1. The construction of the research object 2. A three-level approach to studying the field 3. Participant objectivation’ (Grenfell 2008: 220-221) • Implications for practice: → thinking ‘relationally’ … concepts of field, capital, habitus → applying the three-level approach to RQs → reflexivity throughout A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

5. Applying Bourdieu’s three-level approach to studying the field 1. Analyse the position of the field vis-à-vis the field of power 2. Map out the objective structure of the relations between the positions occupied by the agents or institutions 3. Analyse the habitus of agents (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992:104-105) What is the structure and position of ITE in HE in Ireland? How is WP and increasing access to ITE enacted in policy and practice? How do non-standard entry- route students experience undergraduate concurrent ITE? A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

6. Level 1: ITE as ‘dual-field, sub-field’ International National Policy I T E Teaching Profession Higher Education ‘…no field exists in isolation…there is the sense of fields within fields within fields’ (Grenfell & James, 1998:20) Fields Policy Fields A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

7. Level 3: Analysing the habitus of agents • Participants recruited from 2 HEIs in west of Ireland • Face-to-face interviews undertaken, informed by Wengraf’s (2001) approach to narrative interviewing • 6 Access-Route Students -3 School-Leaver Access-Route (3 F: Janet, Monica, Rachael) -3 Mature Access-Route (1F: Deborah; 2M: Richard, George) • 3 Mature-Entry Students (2F: Linda, Martina; 1M: Steve) • All were first-generation HE entrants A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

8. Narrative analysis of narrative (Polkinghorne, 1995) • Employs narrative analytic procedures to produce explanatory stories from data • Good ‘fit’ with Bourdieusian approach ‘…biographical data are not enough on their own. They also need to be analysed with respect to field positions, structures, and their underlying logic of practice…’ (Grenfell, 2008:223-224) → Allows a focus on the ‘relational’ to be maintained ‘When composed into a story, a new level of relational significance appears…(Polkinghorne, 1995:7) → Emulates approach employed in Weight of the World (Bourdieu et al. 1999) - ‘allows the interviewees to speak for themselves’(Warde, 2002:1007) A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

9. Field positions of participants ‘Belonging’ • Transition to HE generally easy • Feeling ‘same’ as everyone else • Capacity to draw on and convert capital • High level of agency in negotiating both fields • Heightened reflexivity re ‘field’ and ‘game’ ‘Adjusting’ • Transition less smooth • Feeling ‘different / inferior’ to others • Capital not identified • Experienced difficulty in one/both fields – ‘Struggling’ • Resilience evident • Available supports not always drawn on George, Janet, Linda, Steve Deborah, Martina, Monica, Rachael, Richard A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

10. Narratives on ‘choosing’ HE ‘I know it sounds absurd now - but in our school, boys didn’t go to college… for a normal, everyday lad, it wasn’t the thing to do ’ (Richard, Access-route, mature) ‘So the career guidance teacher told me about the Access course and how you had to have certain financial or other …mmm, not problems …but criteria in order to get onto the course. And he told me that you could get onto the teaching degree from that’ (Rachael, Access-route, school-leaver) ‘If I’d known about it [the Access course] the first time I did my Leaving Cert [exam], I’d probably have applied for it. It was advertised in the (names local paper) and that’s how I found out about it’ (Monica, Access-route, school-leaver) ‘Well, after my Leaving Cert, I did a year in Town Planning. I knew the course wasn’t for me so I just did the first year. I had wanted to do catering, but my career guidance teacher at the time told me not to waste my Leaving [Cert], that I was too intelligent to be just a chef, that I could do better than that’ (Martina, Mature entrant) A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

11. … on ‘choosing’ HE ‘I always wanted to [go on to HE], I always did – no question about it. I knew what I didn’t want. I’d done the whole summer job thing, and I didn’t want that kind of area – retail and all that. I knew that was not for me, and I knew that I wanted to better myself (laughs)…I knew I didn’t want to be working all my life and still have nothing’ (Monica, Adjusting) ‘I would have seen it [doing a degree] as a way to get what I wanted, you know, a step-up from where I was and what I was working at’ (Linda, Belonging) ‘There was always something in the back of my mind actually, about educating myself further. Yeah, I’d say every year or every second year if I wasn’t doing my own work in the evenings; I did some kind of course; and I never really realised it, but I’m into lifelong learning and all that’ (George, Belonging) A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

12. …on ‘transitioning’ to ITE (Belonging) ‘I knew after a few weeks on the Access course, I knew how much I was enjoying it, and I decided that I’d like to stay on, yeah. It was almost instantaneous y’know. I mean, even the Library here, there’s an atmosphere in the Library and I just love coming into it. Especially on a windy day, upstairs you can hear the wind whistling like and I’m inside and I’m studying away, and I just love that feeling’ (George, Access-route, mature) ‘I decided to give it a year and see how I’d feel at the end of the year…it was a big transition. I had no idea of what the standard was going to be, I didn’t know what was expected, I didn’t know any of that. So I put in the effort – maybe too much effort – and it paid off. […] Well, I got a first in first year, and so it was worth it. And now I know what the standard is’ (Linda, Mature entrant) A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

13. …on ‘Transitioning’ to ITE (Adjusting) ‘…you do feel it, you feel it sitting among 50 or 60 people who have all gotten there with high points - it’s like you feel you cheated your way through it, that you got there, you know…’ (Monica, Access-route, school-leaver) ‘It [the Access course] helps you to get to know the College and what College life is like. And academic writing – yes, it really helps you with that’ (Rachael, Access-route, school-leaver) ‘The Access course gives you a sense of what’s expected, it brings you up to a certain standard. I was dreading maths, there’s a lot of it in years 1 and 2, but the Access course was a great help with that. But going onto the degree – it was still a big step-up from anything I’d done before’(Richard, Access-route, mature) A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

14. …on negotiating the dual-field: HE ‘Like last year, I picked out what I’m going to do for my thesis. I was talking to a third year and he told me we’d be doing a mini essay this year to prep you for the thesis. And the Lecturer said that if there was something in particular you had in mind [for the thesis], you could do the essay around that. So I knew I had that essay coming up this year, so I got that done during last summer. That took all the pressure off the first six weeks’ (George, Belonging) ‘…and it was the first time I failed an exam – an actual written exam and I just thought to myself oh, am I ever going to finish…will I ever get out of here? But at the same time, at the back of my mind I was thinking: I’m going to finish, I’m definitely going to finish’ (Deborah, Adjusting) A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

15. …on negotiating the dual-field: School Placement ‘I’ve always looked for [school] placements near to the college. I didn’t have a lot of the resources at home. I had the internet but I didn’t have broadband and so it was very hard to do any work there’ (Janet, Belonging) ‘It was a really good school too, and I suppose that makes a difference. I mean there are a few inner city schools and they would be a different ball game if you know what I mean. But where I went, it’s a really good school’ (George, Belonging) ‘I’m not all that confident at times and I suppose I always find it nerve-racking …It’s just that I’m very nervous on teaching practice. Like while I find that I’m fine when I’m in the classroom after a few days, you know, but as soon as anybody comes in and assesses me, I just totally lose confidence’ (Deborah, Adjusting) A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

16. Some final reflections on the field(s) ‘I think I have my own opinions now and I would stand by them and that girl I was in first year would have been like: ‘I didn’t get those points’, but now, that doesn’t matter. I suppose you do get more confident in yourself, in your ways, but you do get a lot of knock-downs along the way, and you have to build yourself up.’ (Monica, Adjusting) ‘Like before I started [the Access], the postman was retiring in our village, and my father said to me: ‘that job’s there now if you want it’. And I was half thinking about taking it. And I do often think about it now, when the pressure is on with coursework and that - I’d be thinking that if I was sitting there in that postman’s van on wet rainy day, like, waiting for the rain to stop to get out and deliver a letter - I’d say I’d have regretted it for the rest of my life.’ (George, Belonging) A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

17. Implications • Adds to knowledge-base re pre-and post-entry experiences of WP students in Ireland in one field of study • Indicates that WP student experiences of ITE are heterogeneous • Continued awareness-raising required re WP routes to ITE • Highlights the need for ‘normalisation’ of non-standard entry-routes to ITE so that WP students don’t feel alienated - Schools - Teaching Council - HEI’s : awareness - raising among staff • Supports provided by HEIs are important for students - pre and post-entry -these need to be adequately resourced as numbers of non-traditional students increases A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney

18. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided to me towards the costs of this research by the Teaching Council Research Bursary Scheme For further information ekelly@stangelas.nuigalway.ie Thank you for listening! A Bourdieusian Approach to Researching Student Experiences of WP in ITE Eileen Kelly-Blakeney