Self-made men : widening participation , selfhood and first-in-family males

This book explores how boys from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds disengage from their education, and are resultantly severely underrepresented in post-compulsory education. For those who attend university, many will be first-in-their-family. As first-in-family students, they may encounter significant barriers which may limit their participation in university life and their acquisition of social and cultural capital. Drawing on a longitudinal study of young Australian men pursuing higher education, the book provides the first detailed account of socially mobile working-class masculinities. Investigating the experiences of these young men, this book analyses their acclimatisation to new learning environments as well as their changing subjectivities. The monograph draws on various sociological theories to analyse empirical data and make practical recommendations which will drive innovation in widening participation initiatives internationally. This book will be of interest to scholars interested in widening participation, transitions, social mobility and Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities. Garth Stahl is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Queensland and former Research Fellow, Australian Research Council (DECRA), Australia. His research interests lie on the nexus of neoliberalism and socio-cultural studies of education, identity, equity/inequality, and social change. Currently, his research projects and publications encompass theoretical and empirical studies of learner identities, gendered subjectivities, equity and difference, and educational reform Foreword Contents 1: Introduction Class and Higher Education Australian Higher Education The First-in-Family Males Project Structure of Self-Made Men References Part I: Masculinities, Class, Education 2: Upwardly Mobile Working-Class Masculinities Setting the Stage Working-Class Masculinities, Education and Social Mobility: A Brief Genealogy ‘Hooligans’, ‘Rebels’ and Silences Contemporary Theorizations of Working-Class Masculinities Masculinities, Neoliberalism and Schooling Becoming Men in Times of ‘Crisis’ ‘Doing Boy’: Schooling and the Production of Masculine Subjectivities Neoliberalism, Class and Gender Subjectivities in Schooling ‘Raising Aspirations’ and Working-Class Youth Masculinities in Higher Education Delineating the Boundaries of Working-Class and Middle-Class Masculinity Conclusion References 3: The Australian Higher Education Context Recent Equity Policies in Australian Higher Education A Fair Chance for All? Equity Groups, the Bradley Review and Marketization Marketing, Branding and Commodification Meritocracy, Masculinity and the Australian ‘Fair Go’ Class Discourses and Masculine Subjectivities in Australia Conclusion References 4: Theorizing Social Mobility and the First-in-Family Experience ‘Injuries of Class’ and Class as Affective Bourdieu, Habitus and Disjuncture Becoming Socially Mobile Destabilized Identities and Upward Mobility Destabilizing Masculinity Theorizing Class: Pathologization, Shame and the Lived Experience Aspirations, Value and Social Class Investing in the Self: The Practice of Self-Crafting Conclusion References Part II: Findings 5: The Transition to University: Dissonance, Validation and Meritocratic Subjectivities Education as a Value-Constituting Practice School Performativity, Spoon Feeding and the ‘Rough Ride’ Academically Underprepared Acclimatizing to University Life Hard Work and Meritocratic Subjectivities Conclusion References 6: Performing the Entrepreneurial Self Calibrating and Regulating New Forms of Selfhood Investing in New Forms of Selfhood Conclusion References 7: Narratives of Value and Fulfilment Independence and Feeling Valuable Producing Subjectivities of Fulfilment The Fragility of Fulfilment Conclusion References 8: Relational Subjectivities and Self-crafting in Times of Transition The Changing Peer Group Shifting Family Dynamics and the University Experience Conclusion References Part III: Conclusions 9: Reflections and Recommendations Studenthood in Neoliberal Education Contexts The Production of Classed and Gendered Subjectivities Masculinities in Higher Education: Effective Forms of Support Concluding Thoughts References Glossary Index