Lifting the hood: lifelong learning and young, white, provincial working‐class masculinities

Abstract

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.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Kathryn Ecclestone and Rob Lawy.