`I Call Myself a Mature Student. That One Word Makes All the Difference': Reflections on Adult Learners' Experiences

Abstract

This article discusses findings from a longitudinal study of 20 mature students from a broad range of backgrounds that joined a full-time Access to University programme at an English urban FE college in September 2001. The fieldwork involved repeated interviews – up to five times each – over a two-year period, covering the Access course and first year at university for those progressing as intended (13 of the 20). The interviews explored the impact of returning to study on the lives and biographies of those involved, particularly changing personal relationships, negotiations of risk and the (re)construction of class and learner identities. I seek here to highlight the social context of the interviewees’ lives, and to draw heavily upon their stories and self-representations to ground the theories underpinning the analysis offered.