A level playing ‘field’? A Bourdieusian analysis of the career aspirations of further education students on sports courses

Abstract

There is currently a distinct dearth of research into how sports students' career aspirations are formed during their post-compulsory education. This article, based on an ethnographic study of sport students in tertiary education, draws on data collected from two first-year cohorts (n = 34) on two different courses at a further education college in England. The study draws on ethnographic observations, and semi-structured group interviews, to examine in-depth the contrasting occupational perspectives emergent within these two groups of mainly working-class students, and how specific cultural practices affect students' career aspirations. Utilising a Bourdieusian framework, the paper analyses the internalised, often latent cultural practices that impact upon these students' diverse career aspirations. The hitherto under-researched dimension of inter-habitus interaction and also the application of doxa are outlined. The article reveals how the two student cohorts are situated within a complex field of relations, where struggles for legitimisation, academic accomplishment and numerous forms of lucrative capital become habituated. The study offers salient Bourdieusian-inspired insights into the career aspirations of these predominantly working-class students and the ways in which certain educational practices contribute to the production and reproduction of class inequalities.

Keywords:

• Further education students
• Career aspirations
• Bourdieu
• Sports education
• Social class

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the sports students and staff at the college who participated in this study, and also the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of the paper.

Notes

1. The level at which students typically enter into FE from secondary school, around the age of 16 if entering direct from school

2. We use the plural form ‘habitus’ here, although some writers prefer the term ‘habiti’.

3. Some Subsidiary students do progress on to the second and third years of their respective course (in essence, the Extended Diploma) and may be offered trips to university taster-days at a later date, but only if they progress to the extended programme.