Conversations of Creating Change: Widening Participation to Higher Education through working-class voices

Dr Abigail O’Brien, University of Plymouth

Email: abigail.obrien@plymouth.ac.uk

Session recording

Presentation

Click to download the presentation Conversations of Creating Change: Widening Participation to Higher Education through working-class voices (.pptx)

Abstract

This seminar will involve a presentation of my findings from my recently completed PhD thesis. The thesis was centred on student voice of prospective university students, and widening participation to higher education with a focus on working-class voices. The findings involved future inclusion and accessibility considerations to enable working-class voices to be present in the shaping of access and participation to university. This UK study had a focus on access to ‘elite’ universities, although the findings provide useful considerations for widening participation at all university institutions.

The main aim of the thesis was ‘to create change by finding new ways to improve the Higher Education system and promote a more socially inclusive environment’ (O’Brien, 2022:2). Exploring prospective university student voices was key to this study. Findings for the study were collected through a range of narrative elicitation tasks and interviews, over the course of 10months at what were considered critical time points in decision-making.

The main findings from this study were around the importance of access to open days and the effect of attending open days. As well as the importance gaining further information made to the final decision of secondary school students considering their post-18 university choices. Interesting findings on aspiration and family influence on working-class decision-making also provided useful insight into young people’s decision making for post-18 options. In particular, some of these findings have questioned previous readings and research on working-class aspirations. 

‘Widening Participation is not only about increasing the numbers of entrants to higher education, it also involves engaging learners from currently under-represented groups’ (Gordon, et al. 2010:169).

References

O'Brien, A (2022) Widening Participation in Higher Education: Exploring factors that prevent secondary school students, from disadvantaged/non-traditional backgrounds, from engaging in Higher Education with ‘elite’ universities. PhD thesis. University of Exeter, United Kingdom [Online]. Available at Widening Participation in Higher Education: Exploring factors that prevent secondary school students, from disadvantaged/non-traditional backgrounds, from engaging in Higher Education with ‘elite’ universities (exeter.ac.uk) (accessed: 31 January 2023)

Gordon, J., Dumbleton, S., Miller., C (2010) ‘'We thought we would be the dunces' - From a vocational qualification to a social work degree: an example of widening participation in social work education’, in Widening Participation and Lifelong learning. 12, pp.169-184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5456/WPLL.12.S.169

Dr Abigail O’Brien

Associate Lecturer, University of Plymouth

Abigail O’Brien was a first-generation university student from a working-class background which is what lead her to pursue her research within this area. She is currently an a\ssociate lecturer at the University of Plymouth on the very course she started her academic journey on as an undergraduate student. She completed her undergraduate in BA Education Studies and continued onto an MSc in Social Research Methods at the University of Plymouth. She recently completed her PhD around Widening Participation in Higher Education with a focus on Social Class at the University of Exeter. The research involved working with sixth form students regarding their decision-making for post-18 choices, with a keen interest on the students' voices being heard. Previous interests included volunteering in community learning spaces. Her research interests include widening participation, social justice, social class, student voice and alternatives in education.