Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Peck, Stuart (2020) Triple disadvantage: when othered students, study an othered course at an othered university – working-class, mature students’ discursive accounts of life on (and beyond) a two-year undergraduate Law degree. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/33573/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Works, including theses and research projects, may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from them, or their content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). They may not be sold or exploited commercially in any format or medium without the prior written permission of the copyright holder(s). Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author’s name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pag- ination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy Triple disadvantage: when othered students, study an othered course at an othered university – working-class, mature students’ discursive accounts of life on (and beyond) a two-year undergraduate Law degree A thesis submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Stuart Peck (LLM) Centre for Education Research and Scholarship Middlesex University May 2020 Abstract A plethora of research has provided insight into how non-traditional (including working- class and/or mature) students experience three-year undergraduate degrees at public sector universities. This shows that for these students university is experienced differently to traditional students, with non-traditional students feeling relatively disadvantaged. Little is known, though, about how working-class, mature students experience a two-year undergraduate degree at private HEIs. Furthermore, research has failed to address how working-class, mature students experience their two-year undergraduate Law degree and how they discursively construct their student experience. This thesis reports on (semi-longitudinal) research conducted over two phases at one ‘private’ Law school in the south of England. Phase one constituted an 18- month period (between February 2014 to August 2015) of fieldwork. Follow-up interviews took place in May 2019 (phase two). The study comprised a range of qualitative methods: semi-structured interviews of Law students and Law tutors, focus group discussions, discourse analysis of various policy texts, and informal observations of the practices at the Law school; an analysis of which attempts to provide some insight into this under- researched area. The Foucauldian inspired analysis suggests that working-class, mature students in this study constructed their student experience via discourses connected to ‘intensity’, ‘student as consumer/investor/partner’, and ‘employability’ all of which were hegemonic, complex and shifting. The analysis of the data also suggests that the discourses worked to discursively (re)position the students as more or less powerful at different moments and in different contexts. These temporary (re)positionings of powerlessness had an impact on subjectivities to the extent of becoming further disadvantaged. The significance of this is that the nature of a two-year undergraduate Law degree and/or studying at a private HEI was found to exaggerate disadvantage. In particular, when constructing 'the student experience', the working-class, mature students variously drew upon, resisted and negotiated intensity, consumer, investor, partner and employability discourses - all of which impacted upon discursive (re)positionings and subjectivities. This study makes an original contribution to knowledge about working-class, mature students’ experiences of disadvantage within HE. It exposes that this disadvantage is further intensified when pursuing an (Othered) fast-track undergraduate degree at an (Othered) private HEI. Consequently, when non- traditional students on ‘those courses’, at ‘those places’, are subjected to intensity, consumer, investor, partner, and employability discourses they are disproportionally and further positioned as powerless; amounting to triple disadvantage. 2 Working-class, mature students’ discursive accounts of life on (and beyond) a two-year undergraduate Law degree 3 Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Jayne Osgood, for the expert guidance, encouragement and advice she has provided throughout my time as her doctoral ‘apprentice’. Jayne has always been interesting and interested. Moreover, Jayne has inspired me to keep ‘running’ on this doctoral marathon. Of course, completing this work would not have been possible without the time given to me by my (student and tutor) respondents at ‘the Langham Institute’. I am indebted to them for their participation. I would also like to thank those people (i.e. my friends and family) who provided much- needed escape from my PhD studies. They deserve thanks for helping me keep things in perspective. In particular, I acknowledge my gratitude to Emma Knowles, Dan Hunter, Tina Cutler, Dr. Sian Jones, Dr. John Jupp, Rev. Mark Blakely and my family (Dad and two sisters) for their continued support and encouragement. I really do not know how they endured my doctoral discourses! Lastly, this thesis is dedicated to both my late mother (Kathleen) and late nephew (Harry) – both of whom, I am sure, are smiling – as I am now also. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Scholarly Reasons 8 Researcher Subjectivity 11 Navigating the thesis 15 Chapter 2: Mapping the Landscape and Literature Contesting the purpose of (higher) education 18 Constructing students and higher education 20 The experiences of university students 23 A privatising imperative 25 Fast-track degrees 28 The ‘intensity’ of two-year degrees? 31 Studying undergraduate Law 33 Dividing the vocational from the academic 35 The stratification of universities 38 Chapter 3: The theoretical and conceptual framework Constructing the social via discourse 43 Joining knowledge and power together 47 Positioning through discourse 52 The implications for this study 55 Chapter 4: Methods, Methodology and Ethics Research aims and research questions 59 Conceptualising social class 61 Working in the field 67 Designing, Accessing and Negotiating Details on ‘Exampling’ Methods used in ‘working the field’ Analysing Data Ethical issues 81 Informed Consent and Power (A)symmetries Right to Withdraw Confidentiality 4 Working-class, mature students’ discursive accounts of life on (and beyond) a two-year undergraduate Law degree 5 Chapter 5: Discourse analysis - deconstructing government policies, media texts and an institutional document Introduction 85 Mapping the discursive landscapes 87 Intensity discourses in policy, media and institutional documents about two-year undergraduate degrees 90 Discourses of student(s) as consumer/investor/partner in policy, media and institutional documents about fast-track degrees, HE and HE students 96 Employability discourses in policy, media and institutional documents about fast-track degrees, HE and HE students 106 Conclusion 114 Chapter 6: Functions and effects of intensity discourses Introduction 116 Problematizing and unpacking ‘intensity’ 117 Exampling some of the data: Negotiating ‘intensity’ ‘It’s like Go, go, go…’ 120 ‘Cramming three into two’ 125 ‘Everything’s packed in’ ’ 128 Resisting ‘intensity’? ‘It’s just a laughing matter’ 131 Conclusion 136 Chapter 7: An identification and problematisation of the discourses that construct the fast-track Law student as ‘consumer’, ‘investor’ and ‘partner’ Introduction 138 Contextualising the data 139 Unpacking and problematizing ‘student(s) as consumer/partner/investor’ 142 Exampling some of the data: ‘So, when wrongs are happening, I like to fix them’ – negotiating and resisting ‘consumer’ 146 Negotiating ‘Consumer’ – you have to be clever to study a hard subject like Law 148 Be(com)ing an ‘agentless Partner’ 150 Negotiating ‘Partner’ - as a vehicle of power? 152 Conclusion 155 Chapter 8: Identifying and problematising discourses that construct the fast- track Law student at the Langham Institute as employable Introduction 157 What is ‘employability’ and what does it look like? 158 Policy and institutional context 159 Research context 161 What’s wrong with discourses of ‘employability’? 166 Exampling the data: Normativity, discrimination, negotiation and reduction