Independent learner as the ideal – normative representations of higher education students in film and television drama across Europe

ABSTRACT

This article explores the normative representations of higher education students in seven films and television series from four European countries. Drawing on the concept of the ‘independent learner’ as an ‘ideal construction’, I demonstrate how these texts offer complex and at times paradoxical representations of who gets positioned as the ‘ideal’ student. Popular culture texts, such as those analysed here, I argue, contribute to framing normative understandings of students. As examples of public pedagogy, these representations have significant ramifications for the popular understanding of what it means to be a student in contemporary higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Normative representations
• students
• popular culture
• higher education
• independent learner
• public pedagogy

Introduction

There is a growing body of work in higher education (HE) scholarship on idealised notions of HE students. Much of this scholarship has been stimulated by the increasingly diverse student population in HE institutions across Europe. These studies argue that the ideal or desirable student' that underpins academic cultures and pedagogical practices as well as informs the perspectives of policymakers, staff and students is itself not given but is based on dominant norms about what and who is considered a good student (Gregersen & Nielsen, 2022; Ulriksen, 2009; Wong & Chiu, 2020). This normativity of the ‘ideal’ is captured in the construction of ‘independent learner’. While independence and independent learning are widely accepted as key features of university education and what is expected from students (Magnusson & Zackariasson, 2019; McKendry & Boyd, 2012), Carole Leathwood and colleagues assert that the notion of ‘independent learner’ is inherently masculine, western, white and middle-class (Leathwood & Read, 2009; Leathwood, 2006). Many researchers have argued that in the dominant academic cultures and pedagogical practices the ‘ideal’ is implicitly constructed as neutral, therefore some bodies appear naturally closer to it, while others are deemed inherently less ideal from the start (Burke et al., 2017; Danvers, 2018). In other words, the ideal excludes a large part of the student population, particularly in the context of mass HE (Leathwood, 2006).

Dominant understandings of students are not only constructed within the realm of HE. Popular media such as film and television are also powerful sites in which cultural meanings about HE students are constructed, circulated and negotiated. Indeed, in the scarce, mostly US-based, scholarly literature exploring HE in popular culture, a key argument made is that students are portrayed as homogeneous, with white middle-class students depicted as the norm and minority groups placed in the periphery (Byers, 2005; Fisher et al., 2008; Reynolds, 2014). In the European context, research on dominant constructions of students is largely based on the perceptions of policymakers, HE staff, and students themselves (e.g. Brooks, 2020; Burke et al., 2017; Danvers, 2018). A handful of studies have examined student representations in newspapers (Brooks et al., 2022; Finn et al., 2021), but notably absent is research on film and television. Only two recent UK-based studies have explored student constructions in British television (Calver & Michael-Fox, 2021; Silverio et al., 2021), both emphasising the role of television texts in framing what it means to be a student. US colleagues have noted the lack of this scholarship outside the US and emphasised the importance of such work, including the potential of cross-national analyses (Johnstone et al., 2018; Reynolds, 2014).

The present study responds to this call. Building on the above literature, this paper provides a critical examination of the representations of HE students in seven films and television series from four European countries. The power of film and television texts to inform audiences about the ways of doing and being an HE student is recognised in the concept of ‘public pedagogy’, which refers to various sites of learning outside formal education (Sandlin et al., 2011). According to Giroux (2011), popular culture texts are not only about entertainment, but also perform important pedagogical work by ‘placing particular ideologies and values into public conversation’ (p. 689). Given this ideological and pedagogical significance of media culture, the need to broaden the scope of HE research to include analyses of students in popular film and television becomes especially pronounced. In this paper I ask, how do the different normative elements of the ‘independent learner’ feature in the representations of students in the analysed popular culture texts? What are the potential implications of these representations in conveying messages about contemporary HE students and HE more broadly? Drawing on post-structural feminist scholarship and the notion of ‘independent learner’ and conceptualising the analysed texts as examples of public pedagogy, I demonstrate how the texts offer complex and at times paradoxical representations of who gets positioned as the ‘ideal’ student. These representations, I argue, have significant ramifications for the popular understanding of what it means to be a student in the contemporary HE.

The ideal ‘independent learner’

Nearly two decades ago, Carole Leathwood and colleagues discussed how the notion of ‘independent learner’ as a construction of the ideal student excludes many students based on their social characteristics (Leathwood & Hey, 2009; Leathwood & Read, 2009; Leathwood, 2006). They argued that the notion is classed, gender and racialised, and it is mostly white, male, middle-class students who can fit into this norm. The concept is deeply rooted in the Western philosophical tradition, as I discuss below, yet it has gained new importance as a result of neoliberal values dominant in contemporary HE. In this paper, I use the concept to examine the socially and discursively constituted (and limited) subject positions made available to different students within HE. In the remainder of this section, I introduce the different aspects of this concept.

Although women currently make up the majority of HE students in most European countries, the dominant figure of the ‘learner’ is deeply rooted in the Western philosophical tradition – understood as individual, autonomous, rational subject free from dependents – a figure that has historically been reserved only for men (Leathwood & Read, 2009; Lynch & Ivancheva, 2015). This understanding of the learner is based on traditional constructions of masculinity and femininity, with the mentioned dispositions typically associated with masculinity, whereas emotion, dependence, support, and care are commonly linked to femininity. This binary construction not only results in ‘the impossibility of the intellectual woman’ (Leathwood, 2013, p. 137), but it also has implications for how support and emotions are understood in relation to teaching and learning, and more broadly within academia. Indeed, Leathwood and Hey (2009) assert that universities have traditionally been regarded as ‘emotion-free zones’, with learning viewed as a purely cognitive and rational activity based on ‘challenge’ and ‘hard critical thinking’. Although the ‘place of emotion’ in HE has been debated in recent decades (see e.g. Danvers, 2016; Furedi, 2017), the construction of the ‘independent learner’ rests on the notion of a universal learner as a rational figure in search of objective truth (Leathwood, 2006).

The classed aspect of ‘independent learner’ is based on the ideal of independence associated with the figure of ‘economic man’ - ‘unburdened by social and material considerations’ (Leathwood, 2006, p. 615). This refers to freedom from obligations and responsibilities outside studies, such as paid work or caring responsibilities. However, research has shown that students, particularly those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, are not free from these material constraints, and face financial difficulties throughout their studies (e.g. Read et al., 2003). The classed aspect of the ‘independent learner’ is also related to what is required of learners for good academic performance. Namely, institutional cultures and pedagogical practices presuppose dispositions and qualities in students that are largely reflective of middle-class habitus in a Bourdieusian sense (Read et al., 2003). This means that students who lack these dispositions are constructed as inherently lacking the cultural knowledge and skills leading to good academic performance (e.g. Burke et al., 2017). While it is widely documented in the extant literature that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds struggle to fit in and belong to the HE environment culturally, socially, and pedagogically, the expectation remains that individual students must adjust in order to fit in and participate rather than changing the academic culture and practises to reflect student diversity (Burke et al., 2017).

In addition to the gendered and classed aspects of the ‘independent learner’, the rise of marketisation and neoliberal values in HE have foregrounded an aspect of independence that emphasises the responsibility of the individual student in financing their degrees, making rational choices, and securing a smooth transition from HE to labour market (Simons, 2020). Although most notable in England (Leathwood & Read, 2009), HE policies advancing these forms of independence have been introduced across Europe. For example, since the 2008 financial crisis, tuition fees in many Spanish universities have increased while student support has been cut back, increasingly shifting the cost of HE to students (de la Torre & Perez-Esparrells, 2019). In Germany, the changes introduced to the degree structure under the Bologna Process urge students to complete their studies efficiently to secure a faster transition to the labour market (Hüther & Krücken, 2018), whereas the Irish HE policies introduced in the 2000s promote an image of students as ‘independent entrepreneurial and innovative subjects’ (Lolich, 2011, p. 282).

In contrast to the traditional constructions of femininity and masculinity discussed above, neoliberal values of rational choice and individual responsibility have increasingly penetrated discourses about young women, who – within these discourses – are seen as independent, successful and self-inventing (Harris, 2004). While older notions of femininity constructed women in terms of the sexy/brainy binary, the newer notions of femininity promote an image of independent successful women, who can be both (Charles, 2010). In popular media, ‘girlpower’ discourse has opened up space for portrayals of young women as active and agentic (Dobson & Harris, 2015), a shift from the image of women as passive objects of the male gaze (Mulvey, 1975). Yet, the neoliberal discourse imposes a post-girlpower image of young women – with not only a possibility for agency but an expectation of a fully self-actualised neo-liberal subject (Dobson & Harris, 2015). These changes potentially open the space for female students to be represented in terms closer to the ideal of the ‘independent learner’.

Notwithstanding, some researchers have expressed concerns about how the newer notions of independence, within the discourses of the consumerist university, serve to reinforce student infantilisation and position them as vulnerable in need of protection rather than promoting independence and autonomy (e.g. Furedi, 2017). This critique of consumerism, which defends the more traditional notion of ideal ‘independent learner’ fails to recognise the normative nature of both the ‘independent learner’ and the ‘rational consumer’ (see Lynch & Ivancheva, 2015). As such, the image of the ‘independent learner’ is seen as being available to all students equally, and it is only the consumer discourse rather than the hegemonic values embedded in academic cultures and practices that are problematised.

Film and television texts as public pedagogy

The concept of public pedagogy has been widely deployed as a theoretical construct in educational research that focuses on various sites of education, including popular culture texts (Sandlin et al., 2011). For Giroux (2011), a key figure in developing the concept, popular culture texts are relevant as public pedagogies insofar as they are read as political and ideological texts that are ‘situated within the broader politics of representation’ (p. 692). According to Giroux (2008, 2011), the pedagogical possibility of the texts lies in their ability to describe and reproduce meanings, values and identities that resonate with broader discourses and dominant ideologies, thus legitimising and normalising particular subject positions over others. In doing so, these texts links power to knowledge and teach this knowledge to audiences in convincing and implicit ways (Giroux, 2008).

This is not to say that the meanings in the texts are fixed or that there is a direct link in what people see and how they act (Giroux, 2008). Instead, meanings are constructed by the viewer, yet this process is constrained by the broader discourses in which the texts are produced and read (Leathwood, 2013). In this way, popular culture texts as a form of public pedagogy ‘create a climate that helps to shape individual behaviour and public attitudes in multiple ways’ (Giroux, 2011, p. 691). Drawing on Giroux’s conceptualisation of public pedagogy, my aim is to explore how the different assumptions, values and social relations that play a role in constructing the ‘independent learner’ as a norm feature in the analysed texts. By doing so, I can study how the texts reproduce this norm or some elements of it, and in so doing invite the audience to reflect on what it means to be a HE student and who are deemed to be ideal students and who are not.

I depart from Giroux’s understanding of public pedagogy, however, in that I acknowledge the potential of popular culture texts as sites for counter hegemonic possibilities (Hickey-Moody et al., 2010). Giroux’s account of public pedagogy has been criticised for, for example, ‘enveloping negativity’, meaning that popular (or public) forms of knowledge are ‘too often posited as negative ideological forces that are largely seen to act upon and corrupt individuals’ (Savage, 2010, p. 109, italics original). This overly negative view, Savage (2010) argues, fails to recognise cultural texts as dynamic, multifaceted, and potential sites for resistance. In my analysis of the texts, I am interested not only in the reproduction of norms but also in the ways in which norms are negotiated and contested. In exploring the dynamics between the different normative elements of ‘ideal’ representations of students, I suggest that the pedagogical potential of the texts is also enacted in the negotiation of student identities. Thus, the position taken in this study is that popular culture texts operate pedagogically through both reproductive and resistive dimensions (Sandlin et al., 2011).

Introducing the study

This paper is based on an analysis of seven films and television series from four European countries: England, Germany, Ireland and Spain (see Table 1). The study was carried out as part of a larger research project exploring conceptualisations of students across Europe (Brooks et al., 2022). In selecting relevant films and television series three criteria were used. The chosen texts had to 1) feature students prominently 2) be made within the last ten years, and 3) be widely distributed and/or have had high viewer numbers in each national context. I used these criteria to ensure that the chosen texts were considered significant, and thus, potentially influential in conveying messages about HE students in public discourse.¹ Relevant texts were identified from the Internet Movie Database, and student focus group participants who took part in the larger project were also asked for recommendations. With respect to language, the material was either in English or had English-language subtitles.

Table 1. Analysed films and television series.

Country	Name	Format	Year of production	Genre and number of seasons
England (or UK)	Fresh Meat Clique^3	TV series TV series	2011–2016 2017–2018	Comedy; four seasons Psychological thriller; two seasons
Germany	13 Semester Wir Sind Die Neuen (We Are the New Ones)	Film Film	2009 2014	Romantic comedy Comedy
Ireland	Normal People	TV series	2020	Drama and romance; one season
Spain	Fuga de Cerebros (Brain Drain) Merli – Sapere Aude (Merli – Dare to Know)	Film TV series	2009 2019	Romantic comedy Drama; one season

I employed a discursive approach in analysing the texts. I first watched the films and television series, paying attention to visual, aural and verbal elements and noting down common themes, categories and constructions of students. I then wrote an extensive summary of each text that I further analysed focusing on the meanings anchored in the visual, aural and verbal elements, the discourses mobilised, and the subject positions constructed within the discourses – linking them with questions of ‘power, agency and social transformation’ (Giroux, 2011, p. 692). In doing so, the conceptualisation of ‘independent learner’ was used as a resource in exploring the multiple and complex relations between the texts, discourses and structures of power. In presenting the analysis, I discuss common discursive themes that I identified from the texts. While many of these themes were evident in most of the seven texts to varying degrees, I have chosen to discuss 1–2 texts as a representative of each theme.

Responsible individuals?

One of the elements embedded in the notion of the ‘independent learner’ is the individualisation of responsibility for academic success and failure, which has two important aspects. The first is related to long-lasting developmental assumptions about linear process from dependence to independence (Leathwood, 2006), while the other is related to the more recent neoliberal discourses in HE and the increased emphasis on the responsibility of the individual securing a smooth journey through education to the labour market (Simons, 2020). These two aspects of the individualisation of responsibility are pronounced in the two German films 13 Semester and Wir Sind Die Neuen.

In 13 Semester, the discourses of responsibility and individuality are mobilised in portraying the students as either being or becoming an ‘independent learner’. The film follows two friends, Moritz and Dirk, through their Business Economics studies at Darmstad Technical University. For Dirk studying at the university is depicted as a smooth experience. He is focused, motivated, makes steady progress and manages to secure an internship and future job in a desirable company. He embodies many qualities of the ideal: he enters the university with good academic skillset, he is self-reliant, and academically successful – fitting in with the university environment and pedagogical practises that emphasise these qualities. Dirk’s character echoes what Kirkup (1996) refers to as a ‘turbo student’ – one who studies fast with minimal support (cited in Leathwood, 2006). Moritz, on the other hand is depicted as struggling from the start. He lacks study routines and motivation and has difficulty keeping up with the required pace. For example, Dirk and two other students are forced to kick Moritz out of their study group because he is not doing his fair share of the work and is unwilling to work as hard as the others. As such, Moritz is initially positioned at a distance from the ideal, however the journey Moritz is shown to travel brings him closer to it. Towards the end of the film Moritz is shown to come to a turning point; either he drops out or invests effort in his studies. He chooses the latter and decides to work hard and, in the end, with the will to invest effort and support from others he also reaches the finishing line. Although Moritz is ultimately positioned closer to the ideal, dependence in Moritz’s journey is framed as acceptable only as part of the process of becoming independent, thus ultimately valorising independence and individuality (Leathwood, 2006).

The ideal ‘independent learner’ in 13 Semester is, then, represented as an ‘always already’ autonomous learner who is a ‘good fit’ for the university (Johnson et al., 2000) or as a learner on a journey from dependence to independence. Both representations emphasise individual effort and hard work as elements leading to success. Being and/or becoming the ideal ‘independent learner’ is, thus, represented as a matter of responsibility, individual effort, and choice, which not only places the responsibility for success (or failure) on the individual, but also diminishes the role of any external factors in students’ success or failure. Indeed, in 13 Semester the representation of the ideal lacks any contextualisation of the political landscape of HE or students’ social characteristics. In these terms, the ideal is constructed as ‘unspecified body’ (Danvers, 2018) and available to all students.

In the other German film, Wir Sind Die Neuen, the image of the contemporary student is embedded in the recent changes in the political landscape of German HE, which impose neoliberal discourses of performativity and individualism. The film presents a shift from the ‘golden past’ to the ‘new era’, in which the ‘independent learner’ is portrayed as the ideal, yet simultaneously criticised as harmful and unsustainable. The film follows the lives of three young students sharing a flat, Barbara, Thorsten and Katharina, and their new neighbours – three pensioners, Anne, Johannes and Eddi – who decide to return to the shared living arrangements they had as students. The students are depicted as fully focused on their studies, having extremely structured and efficient lifestyles, and working hard towards their future careers. This is shown to be contrary to the expectations of the older generation and the memories of their student years, when student life also meant partying, meeting new people, having a good time, and seeking out new experiences. The students explain to their new neighbours that they simply cannot ‘afford’ to spend their student years in the same way that the older generation did because they are under intense pressure to complete their degrees in a shorter amount of time and to pursue successful careers. The portrayal of the students as efficient and future-focused positions them close to the ideal ‘independent learner’ in the context of neoliberal university – a student who takes full responsibility for their learning and employment prospects and works hard to complete their degree efficiently and effectively (Simons, 2020).

As the film proceeds, it is revealed that the students fall short of this ideal. Their hard work and disciplined lifestyles do not lead to academic success, but are shown to have negative consequences for their well-being – echoing several studies that point out the challenges to wellbeing students face in contemporary HE (e.g. Auerbach et al., 2016). For instance, they become extremely stressed and exhausted, suffering from physical injuries and high levels of anxiety, and thus are unable to study. To get through these difficult times, the students are forced to turn to their neighbours for assistance and support. The discourses of performativity and individuality are represented as harmful to students and, in this way, the film questions the ‘independent learner’ as the ideal. However, juxtaposing the experiences of the ‘new’ students with the ‘old’ ones, the film also unrealistically portrays the past as the ‘good old days’.

What is notable in both German films is the minimal role social characteristics play in the representation of students. In Wir Sind Die Neuen they are not foregrounded at all, and in 13 Semester only Moritz’s family background is disclosed: he comes from a non-academic family who sees Moritz as a ‘craftsman rather than an intellectual’. However, his status as a first-in-family student is only mentioned briefly in the beginning of the film and is not developed as an important element of his character. Thus, the representation of students in these two texts reinforces the ‘independent learner’ as the norm by ‘failing to interrogate who the student is (and is not) in relation to differentiated access to power, privilege, and opportunity structures’ (Danvers, 2018, p. 557). In the other analysed texts, social characteristics play a significant role in the unequal positioning of students in relation to the ideal. In the sections that follow I turn to these representations.

Class journeys to middle-class spaces

Socio-economic background is pronounced and shown as an important factor in the representation of students in several texts – ranging from typical stereotypes to nuanced description of inequalities in the experiences of ‘non-traditional’ students. In the following sections, I analyse the representation of ‘non-traditional’ students’ journeys in what is shown as middle-class spaces in four texts: Brain Drain, Normal People, Merlí – Dare to Know (hereafter Merlí) and Fresh Meat.

Outsiders in a safe haven

The Spanish romantic comedy Brain Drain is about ‘non-traditional’ students in an elite HE space who stand out from the ideal student. The film is a story of five Spanish young men, who cheat their way into Oxford University to follow Natalia, a childhood love of one of the men who is finally ready to declare his love. The young men are represented as different from the typical Oxford student in multiple ways. They all come from non-educated families, two of them are physically disabled, one is gay (although not ‘out’), and one is Gitano.² They have no educational aspirations or the necessary social and academic skills to study at Oxford University. They also engage in unconventional behaviour, such as selling drugs or falsifying documents to gain access to the university. In contrast, the typical Oxford students are portrayed as intellectual and independent individuals – free of material responsibilities who have the disposition to ‘fit in’ and succeed in the elite environment. Natalia, for example, has won a scholarship to study medicine and is now following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. Edward Chamberlain, another medical student, is studying two degrees simultaneously, is the captain of the Oxford rowing team and a son of the dean of the medical faculty. The distance between the Spanish men and the ‘ideal’ Oxford student suggests that the fivesome do not belong in this elite space.

The film depicts Oxford University as a place of tradition, prestige, and privilege, which is shown through different practices, rituals and material elements. For example, the professors are old white men dressed in suits or gowns asking the first-year medicine students to swear loyalty to the basic principles of ‘tradition, discipline, and honour’ that are required of an Oxford education. Furthermore, images of different material elements such as historical buildings with courtyards, spires, and large halls are highlighted in portraying the Spanish young men as ‘out of place’ of this privileged space. According to Kelly (2017), such images are used in fictional representations of universities to associate them with knowledge, learning, socialisation, and privilege and emphasise the exclusion of some would-be students. These material elements are shown as powerful for the young men’s experience. For example, when they first enter the campus, they gaze at the spatial landmarks in awe and make comments like ‘we won’t last here more than two hours’. These depicted experiences of intimidation and fear echo studies on elite education that demonstrate how different spatial and material elements are part of the sensory structure of eliteness and the ways in which privilege works in these spaces (Fahey et al., 2015). In the film, the power and privilege manifested through the protagonists’ sensory experiences portrays them as ‘out of place’ and illegitimate members of the elite community.

The portrayal of Spanish young men constructs them as ‘non-learners’ whose presence in the elite environment is marked as a temporary disturbance to the ‘safe haven’ reserved for privilege (Reynolds, 2014). Some of the humorous elements in the film depicting the efforts of the fivesome navigating in the elite space – such as cheating their way in or one of them selling heavy drugs under the label of ‘homeopathic treatment’ to a medical student – can be interpreted as an attempt to contest the existing class hierarchies by ridiculing the naivety of the ‘real’ Oxford students (see Lockyer, 2010). However, these behaviours rely on stereotypical tropes of the characters that ultimately reproduce rather than challenge class hierarchies, echoing Thornham and Purvis (2005) observation that comedy and romance as genres tend to rely on social status or fixity with little variation and disruption in character. It is precisely these stereotypes that serve to naturalise the representation of HE as an elite and rarefied environment to which ‘entry is determined by class and wealth’ (Fisher et al., 2008, p. 165).

Meritocratic dream

Similar to Brain Drain, the two television dramas Normal People and Merlí are also about ‘non-traditional’ students in privileged spaces, but they are portrayed as both outsiders and insiders. Normal People is a story about two young people from rural Ireland, Connell, a working-class student who studies at the prestigious Trinity College Dublin together with Marianne – Connell’s ex-girlfriend from a wealthy family. Merlí follows the protagonist Pol and other first-year Philosophy students at the University of Barcelona in Spain. Pol is also a working-class student from a single-parent family and first in his family to attend university. In both series, Connell and Pol’s experiences at the university as one of the few ‘non-traditional’ students are contrasted with the experiences of upper/middle-class students. Yet, the portrayal of them as both high-achieving (despite being working-class) positions them close to the ideal.

The working-class background of Connell and Pol is shown to influence their experiences as students in various ways, ranging from educational choices to the social aspects of university life and feelings of belonging. In terms of choice, for example, Pol initially believed that university was not ‘his thing’, and for Connell, studying English at the elite Trinity College was not among his ‘possible options’. In contrast, the middle-class protagonist of Normal People, Marianne, is shown to have always assumed that she, like her mother, would study at Trinity. In fact, working-class students’ choices to attend high-status universities are often a late realisation of what is deemed possible, which for the middle-class students are part of a natural transition (e.g. Reay et al., 2009). The protagonists’ background is also shown to influence their feeling of belonging. Connell is depicted as struggling to fit in whereas Marianne and her friends are shown to be ‘at home’ in the elite environment. For instance, Connell is hesitant to attend social gatherings of ‘typical Trinity students’ and initially struggles to participate in seminars, intimidated by other students’ ability to effortlessly express well-formed opinions in fluent academic language. The depiction of Connell and Pol echoes the experiences of working-class students, who feel dislocated and social outsiders at university (e.g. Read et al., 2003; Reay et al., 2010).

While Connell and Pol are shown to stand out as different from their peers, as learners, they are positioned close to the ideal ‘independent learner’. In contrast to middle-class students who are positioned ‘always-already’ close to the ideal, the working-class protagonists’ positioning is linked to their intellect and talent. They are portrayed as exceptionally talented, intellectual, independent, self-reliant, and hard workers – qualities that are shown as highly valued in academia and leading to success. Marianne, for example, regards Connell as the ‘smartest person she knows’, and other students request to read Connell’s essay because of his exceptional grades. In Merlí, the ethics professor Maria is shown to be impressed by Pol’s ‘philosophical thinking’ and considers him one of the best students she has ever had. The portrayal of the working-class students in these two texts is, then, based on the duality of fitting in and standing out.

The ambivalence of standing out and simultaneously being positioned close to the ideal is also shown through the engagement with various material elements. Connell and Pol’s sensory experiences of the materiality of the university signifies them being part of the university, in contrast to the exclusion that the protagonist in Brain Drain experienced. For example, Connell’s initial arrival at the campus symbolises his transition from the ‘outside’ to being part of the privileged community. The camera follows him walking towards the university through the city centre and entering the campus through a majestic entrance gate – a gate that defines the borders of the community to which he now belongs to (Rizvi, 2015). Similarly, Pol is often shown to gaze at old and historical premises of the university in awe, accompanied by classical music – associating these elements with a sense of tradition and privilege. For both protagonists, these sensory experiences illustrate pride of being part of these communities, and yet the social power these elements embody as symbols of privilege is also part of their experience of in-betweenness (Fahey et al., 2015).

This ambivalent representation of the ‘non-traditional’ students in the two series has multiple implications for public discourse. Portraying the protagonists as fitting in and standing out contests the persistent myths about working-class intellectual abilities (Macfarlane, 2020; Reay et al., 2009), and illustrates the diversity of student experiences. Simultaneously, positioning the protagonists close to the ideal ‘independent learner’ reproduces this ideal as the norm and constructs universities as static spaces where working-class students must change and adapt to fit in (Burke et al., 2017). Paradoxically, this representation endorses a meritocratic discourse by attributing their success to personal characteristics, such as talent, self-reliance, and hard work.

In-between stereotypes and defiance

In contrast to the analysed texts of ‘non-traditional’ students in elite spaces, the British television comedy Fresh Meat is about ‘non-traditional’ students in a non-elite university. The series is a story about six undergraduate students sharing a house and studying at the fictional Manchester Medlock University in England. One of the protagonists, Vod, is a mixed-race student and the first in her family to attend to university. In contrast to the other protagonists, Vod as ‘non-traditional’ student is shown to have accessed university through an atypical path and lacking family support. While the other protagonists followed a ‘normal transition’ straight from secondary school, Vod completed an access course while working in a fish factory to achieve her distant dream. Also, Vod’s family is not supportive of her – her father works in the military and focuses on his career, and her mother is an abusive alcoholic. For most of the series, Vod is depicted as a student who lacks academic ability, motivation, and self-reliance, and is unable to defer gratification. She is an irresponsible, carefree hedonist who drinks heavily and uses drugs. She shows little interest in learning and academic work, instead she is always up for a party. For example, she loses her military officer bursary due to drug use, and she frequently persuades the other protagonist, Oregon, to let her plagiarise her work rather than invest effort and time in her studies. As such, Vod is positioned as far from the ideal ‘independent learner’.

As the series progresses, the portrayal of Vod in relation to the ideal becomes more ambiguous. On one hand, she is depicted as streetwise and non-conformist with anti-establishment views, and in this role, she is vocal in criticising certain ‘middle-class’ practices and lifestyles within and outside the university. For example, she explains how tutors ‘do not care’ about students and how the future for students like her is more uncertain without the bank of mum and dad and existing social networks. Also, Vod’s candidacy for student union president as a representative of the (mocked) ‘Cheap Chips’ party can be viewed as a critique of dominant student union politics in England and the lack of ‘non-traditional’ students in union leadership positions (see e.g. Brooks et al., 2015). On the other hand, Vod’s final year is shown to be an awakening, and she decides to put effort into her dissertation and studying for her final exams. To everyone’s surprise, she receives a much higher grade than expected. Through this portrayal, Vod is positioned closer to the ideal: capable of accomplishing academic work and succeeding.

The portrayal of Vod as a multidimensional character leads to a paradoxical representation of ‘non-traditional’ students in contemporary HE. The portrayal of her as unmotivated and unwilling to learn reinforces stereotypes of ‘non-traditional’ students as ‘incompetent’ and ‘lowering standards’ of university education. These stereotypes points towards the arguments made already several decades ago that opening up HE for the ‘masses’ leads to loss of quality and declining academic standards (Brooks et al., 2022; Macfarlane, 2020). Such arguments reiterate the white, middle-class student as a norm and constructs ‘non-traditional’ students as ‘Others’ in the middle-class space. Simultaneously, Vod’s eventual success and the hegemonic middle-class practices that her character exposes as well as her non-conformist views construct her as contemporary ‘unruly woman’ (Rowe, 1995) whose ‘body resists and challenges middle class control and decorum’ (Lockyer, 2010, p. 131). In this way, Vod can be viewed as a character of defiance and resistance contesting the white, male and middle-class student as the norm.

The impossibility of the intellectual woman

As shown in Vod’s character, social class is not the only characteristic highlighted in the texts. Indeed, gender also plays an important role in the unequal positioning of students in relation to the norm. In this final section, I analyse two texts, Merlí and Clique, to illustrate two gendered representations of the norm. The first is embedded in the traditional binary notions of masculinity and femininity and the second in neoliberal forms of femininity.

Emotional caretaker

The first aspect of gendered representation of the independent learner is about foregrounding what are traditionally considered masculine traits, such as rationality, independence, and self-reliance (Leathwood, 2006), as the attributes of a successful and talented student. In Merlí, such traits are embodied in the protagonist Pol, and are made evident in the juxtaposition of another character, female student Minerva. As mentioned earlier in the paper, Pol is depicted as an academically successful student with a special talent for ‘philosophical thinking’. Minerva, on the other hand, is depicted as a caring and kind person who shows plenty of care for people around her. For example, she worries a lot about her sick grandmother back in Argentina. Her caring character is also shown in her strong sense of social justice. She confronts Pol during a lecture after he arrogantly reacts to another student’s difficulty understanding certain philosophical concepts, accusing him of taking ‘too much time’ in asking ‘easy’ questions. Minerva openly criticises Pol’s attitude and defends the right to ask questions and learn. Furthermore, she is depicted as politically active, often making critical comments about society, pointing out various grievances related to, for example, capitalism and colonialism. In this way, the series portrays Pol as the intellectual successful student and Minerva as the caring activist.

The portrayal of the two characters is based on gendered binary of rationality and care/affect. While Pol’s ‘thinking’ is framed as rational, intellectual, and based on individual reasoning – qualities traditionally associated with masculinity (Danvers, 2018), the type of critical thinking Minerva demonstrates is not shown to be linked to her academic engagement or success. Instead, it is reduced to communicative actions that position her as ‘emotional caretaker’ (Danvers, 2018), and at a distance from the ideal ‘independent learner’. This feminised representation of Minerva’s criticality is juxtaposed to Pol’s ‘serious intellectual thinking’, which is recognised and rewarded in the confines of the university. This representation parallels with Danvers (2018) point about gendered dichotomy in critical thinking that positions ‘feminised performance of criticality as “smoke and mirrors” in relation to some elusive “traditional” intellectual body’ (p. 555). Consequently, Pol as the ideal ‘independent learner’ reproduces the masculine notion of this ideal at the expense of downplaying the value of affect and care within university.

Objectified girlpower

The second aspect of the gendered representation of the independent learner is situated within the interplay between the ‘older’ and ‘newer’ notions of femininity that were discussed earlier in the paper. This interplay transpires in the first season of the television series Clique that follows a group of female Economics students at Edinburgh University. Even though the students are represented as neoliberal subjects and close to the ideal ‘independent learner’, the representation ultimately reinforces the sexy/brainy binary by diminishing students’ learner identities.

In the series, the student clique is portrayed as intelligent, ambitious, and hardworking as well as sexy and fashionable. As successful students, they have gained access to a competitive internship programme for ‘exceptional students’ led by the Economics ‘star’ Professor Jude McDermid. The professor runs the internship programme ‘Solasta Women Initiative’ in her finance company that she owns together with her brother. The program’s goal is to increase career opportunities for talented female students and helping them to achieve powerful positions in society. To achieve these goals, the professor emphasises the responsibility of individual women to advance their careers and secure high positions by playing the game with the cards they have been given. The internship programme not only allows the young women to build their professional profiles, but also gives them access to Edinburgh’s ‘high life’ with numerous contacts and exclusive parties. The ‘high life’ and the opportunities of the programme, however, are shown to have their flip sides. When the reality of the internship programme unravels, the students find themselves in a dangerous, corrupt, and exploitative financial world, orchestrated by men where these students face sexual abuse, manipulation, and even death.

These top students are initially positioned close to the ideal ‘independent learner’ aligned with neoliberal policies. They are represented as the ‘neoliberal girl powered subjects’ who are sexy, brainy, and entrepreneurial (Charles, 2010). The narrative of danger, however, challenges the empowering nature of the girlpower and the neoliberal post-feminist agenda of the ‘star’ professor, both of which fail to provide students with the agency and power they need to succeed in what is framed as a patriarchal financial world. The available positionings for the students within the risk narrative does not offer them with empowerment and agency either. Instead, they are positioned as vulnerable and potential victims, and object of others (mainly men). In this way, their agency is limited, and their bodies are prioritised for gazing, pleasure, and even violence (Yakaboski & Donahoo, 2017). The risk narrative, then, diminishes students’ learner identities by pushing them further away from the ideal ‘independent learner’, implying that if female students are ‘too independent and smart, they will pay with their life or safety’ (Yakaboski & Donahoo, 2017, p. 112). This paradoxical representation of the female students ends up reproducing the ‘older’ binary notions of femininity in which it is only possible for girls to be ‘sexy’ or ‘brainy’. Furthermore, rather than inviting the audience to reflect on an alternative vision for the women’s agency, this representation constructs agency and victimhood in dichotomous terms, suggesting that it is impossible for young women to be agentic whilst claiming to be affected by patriarchal power system (Harris & Dobson, 2015).

Conclusions

In this article, I have argued that as examples of public pedagogy the analysed popular culture texts contribute to the (re)production of normative understandings of students in ambiguous and sometimes paradoxical ways. On the one hand, the student experiences portrayed in these texts are more diverse than the ones depicted in US popular cultural texts, where ‘non-traditional’ students are placed in the periphery of the white, middle-class ‘norm’ (e.g. Byers, 2005). In the European texts included and this study, ‘non-traditional’ students are, in fact, often placed in central positions as protagonists. In this way, the texts negotiate and resist the dominant ‘norm’ of the ideal student. The portrayal of ‘non-traditional’ students’ experiences in the middle-class spaces, alongside elements, such as the affective dimensions of Minerva’s character in Merlí, Vod as the ‘unruly woman’ in Fresh Meat, or the questioning of the ‘independent learner’ as the ideal in Wir Sind Die Neuen, gesture towards the need to challenge dominant academic cultures and practices and narrow conceptualisations of the ideal. On the other hand, success within HE as portrayed in these films still tends to conform to the ideal of the ‘independent learner’, a norm based on white western middle-class male which, in the context of mass HE, excludes many students (Leathwood, 2006). This, paradoxically, leaves any challenges of the norm constrained by the nature of academic culture and institutional structures themselves. The discourses of individuality, choice, ability, effort, and hard work that position the students closer to the ideal ultimately endorse a meritocratic view of HE, undermining an engagement with the latter’s structural inequalities (Littler, 2018). The analysed texts’ attempts to challenge the dominant discourses are, therefore, simultaneously complicit with such discourses (Read et al., 2003) or, at least, manifest uncertainty about an alternative vision (Marquis, 2018).

The insights I have provided here are an important addition to the scant discussions about HE students in popular culture in HE scholarship in Europe. As such, they also highlight a future research agenda on this topic. Firstly, the spirit of critical and public pedagogy (Weaver & Daspit, 2000) would require an inclusion of alternative readings of popular culture texts, such as students’, in order to decentre researchers’ interpretations and embrace multiple voices. Secondly, more comparative research is needed on two fronts: cross-nationally and across genres. Although the purpose of the paper was not to compare the texts in these terms, the analysis revealed some interesting similarities and differences, such as the minimal acknowledgment of social backgrounds in student representations in German texts or the high reliance on stereotypes in comedies. Exploring these aspects more systematically has the potential to add to the debates about the role of national contexts and the impact of genre in student constructions (see e.g. Brooks et al., 2022; Reynolds, 2014).

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Rachel Brooks and Tijana Maksimovic for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the European Research Council [681018_EUROSTUDENTS]

Notes on contributors

Anu Lainio

Anu Lainio is a PhD researcher at the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey, UK. Her research interests are in international and comparative higher education, student identities and media studies.

Notes

1. Although popular culture products cannot be considered ‘public’ in the sense that they are accessible to all (Savage, 2010), I, nevertheless, consider that the reach of the films and television series make them relevant for a critical analysis of public discourse.

2. Gitanos refer to the Romani in Spain.

3. Although Clique is based at a Scottish rather than English university, the series is a UK based production and as such it was qualified as part of the dataset.