‘My past is a double edge sword’: temporality and reflexivity in mature learners
- 1 March 2013
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Studies in Continuing Education
- Vol. 35 (1), 17-29
- https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037x.2012.684794
Abstract
This paper discusses the ways in which mature students orientate themselves towards the future in making decisions to access higher education (HE). Their narratives connect their past, often difficult, educational and personal lives to their future aspirations and to their current experiences in further education (FE) and HE. The research was part of a larger project undertaken for the UK Higher Education Academy Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics (C-SAP) exploring FE and HE mature learners' future ‘possible selves’ including those selves that are desired and those that are not. Students were asked to reflect on both their past journeys as well as on what their possible future(s) might look like. In this paper, we focus on the mature learners in our study as they emerged as having distinctive orientations towards their futures.Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Time future - the dominant discourse of higher educationTime & Society, 2010
- Mature and younger students' reasons for making the transition from further education into higher educationTeaching in Higher Education, 2010
- Student support through personal development planning: retrospection and timeResearch Papers in Education, 2008
- Adults’ motives for returning to study: the role of self-authoringStudies in Continuing Education, 2008
- Possible selves and career transition: It's who you want to be, not what you want to doNew Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2007
- Possible selves: An adult education perspectiveNew Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2007
- Impossible SelvesJournal of Career Development, 2007
- Understanding the PhD as a Phase in TimeTime & Society, 2005
- Academic Achievement, Motivation and Future SelvesEducational Studies, 1998
- Possible selves.American Psychologist, 1986