Exploring positioning, purpose and power through pictures, poetry and progress charts:

An introduction to some different ways of working with

fieldwork data

Acknowledgements

• The work reported in this paper forms part of the FurtherHigher Project. The FurtherHigher Project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Award Reference RES-139-25-0245) and is part of the ESRC’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme.

The paper presents ideas developed by:Cate GoodladWill ThomasVal Thompson

Overview

• Introduction

• The FurtherHigher Project

• Friday afternoon syndrome

• Exploring positioning, purpose and power

• Working with data in different ways

• Pictures, poetry and progress charts

• End notes

The FurtherHigher Project

• Widening participation in HE• ‘Dual sector’ institutions (further and higher

education)• Transitions between level 3 and level 4

(beginning of HE) andbetween level 5 and level 6 (2 year HE to honours year)

• Sectoral shape and structure• Patterns of participation (statistical analysis)

Exploring positioning, purpose and power

The FurtherHigher Project asks the question:

What is the impact of the division between further and higher education on strategies to widen participation in undergraduate education in England?

This raises issues related to

• Stratification

• Differentiation

• Social justice and equity

• Structure and agency

What do alternative forms of working with data do?

• Help us to try out ideas

• Help us to think differently

• Help us to see things differently

• Help us to ask questions

• Help us to re-present ideas

Pictures, poetry and progress charts

Tables

Maps

Pictorial diagrams Photos Student timetables

Waterlogic diagrams Tag clouds A Stick Verse

AVCE Health and Social Care sample at

Northgreen College

Pseudonym Age Gender Ethnicity Hannah 18 Female White British Sarah 18 Female White British Jessica 18 Female White British Robin 18 Female Mixed White/Black

Caribbean Ria 18 Female Asian British –Pakistani

Higher National Diploma sample at Northgreen College

Pseudonym Age Gender Ethnicity Karen 23 Female White British Elizabeth 26 Female White British Ruth 27 Female White British Debbie 38 Female White British Christine 46 Female White British Margaret 64 Female White British Jacqueline 33 Female Black British -

Caribbean Peter 21 Male White British

Location of case study and other Further Education Colleges

Home locations of National Diploma Business Students from East Heath College

Home locations of National Diploma Sports Students from East Heath College

Home locations of Foundation Degree Early Years Students from East Heath College

Pathways to higher educationCULINARY ARTS MANAGEMENT

GROUP 1: ACADEMIC BRIDGING PROGRAMME

Lizzie

GCSE'SAT SCHOOL

SCHOOL 6TH FORMA LEVELS

FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT

FE ASSESSMENT

WORK -BASED

LEARNING

EMPLOYER TRAINING

HE

FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT

FE PART TIME

ACADEMIC BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

Diana

GCSE AT SCHOOL

FE COLLEGE

FE COLLEGE

ACADEMIC BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

James

GCSE AT SCHOOL

SCHOOL 6TH FORM A/S LEVEL

FE COLLEGE

ACADEMIC BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

Matt

GCSE AT SCHOOL

FE COLLEGE

ACADEMIC BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

PART TIMEEMPLOYMENT

Paul

GCSE AT SCHOOL

FE COLLEGE

ACADEMIC BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

Lilly

NO QUALIFICATIONS

AT SCHOOL

FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT

RETURN TO SCHOOL

NO QUALIFICATIONS

HOME AND FAMILY

FE COLLEGE

WORK EXPEREINCE

ACADEMIC BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

Pathways to higher educationCulinary Arts Management

GROUP 2: PRACTICAL BRIDGING PROGRAMME

Gerrard

GCSE'S AT SCHOOL

FE COLLEGE

PRACTICAL BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

Elizabeth

GCSE'S AT SCHOOL

A/S LEVELS AT 6TH FORM COLLEGE

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

PRACTICAL BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

Geoff

GCSE'S AT SCHOOL

SCHOOL 6TH FORM A LEVELS

PRACTICAL BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

Skittles

GCSE'S AT SCHOOL

A LEVELS AT SIXTH FORM

COLLEGE

PRACTICAL BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

Jen

CSE'S AT SCHOOL

FE COLLEGE

FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT

PART TIME FE

FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT

PART TIME FE

HE

PRACTICAL BRIDGING

PROGRAMME

HE

Louise

?

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

Teaching room at Daiston Campus site of Northgreen Federal College

Wall display in teaching room at Daiston Campus site of Northgreen Federal College

College notice at Tultry College site of Northgreen Federal College

Timetable in year 1 of Social Work at University Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 9-15.00 (employment hours) 10-16.00 (study hours)

Paid employment (1) Agency work: Teaching assistant in special needs, anywhere in the city [employment is related to area of HE study]

Paid employment Agency work: Teaching assistant in special needs, anywhere in the city [employment is related to area of HE study]

University lectures and seminars Teaching for 1 module, lasting all day

University lectures and seminars Teaching for 1 module, lasting all day

Paid employment Agency work: Teaching assistant in special needs, anywhere in the city [employment is related to area of HE study]

University library for 3 hours Meets friends for a chat

Watches TV (East Enders) Does university work

Evening Study for university, caring for mother

Timetable for the week in year 3 (final year) of BSc Sports Therapy

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 9-11 Lecture

Professionalism and ethics

11-13.00

Lecture Entrepreneurial Studies

13.00-14.00

Seminar Entrepreneurial Studies

14.00-16.00

Practical Diagnostics and management (seeing clients, carrying out diagnosis and treatment) Supervised by course tutor

16.00-18.00

Lecture Diagnostics and management theory

17.30-19.00

Personal: athletics training at nearby University

NO CLASSES Time used for work on dissertation and assignments Goes to gym

Personal: athletics training at nearby University

NO CLASSES Time used for work on dissertation and assignments Goes to gym

2 hours study (more or less depending on how much completed during week)

2 hours study (more or less depending on how much completed during week)

Waterlogic Flow Sally

A ‘normal’ route B B ‘better’ job A C Heavy workload D D harder K E modules J F placements J G lack of money K H independent N

learning I different to college H J Assessments N K Pressure H L Part-time work K M student identity H Higher-status N first-class degree B

Sally Flow Diagram 1

Heavy workload Harder Part-time work Lack of money Pressure Different to Student identity college Higher status Independent Learning Placements Modules Assessments

First-class degree ‘Better’ job ‘Normal’ route

Sally Flow Diagram 2Placements Modules Student identity Higher status

Assessments Different to college

Independent First-class degree Learning Heavy workload Part-time work Harder Lack of money

Pressure ‘Better’ job ‘Normal’ route

Tag clouds

confidence career family friends wages fees

accommodation location type of institution experience S&P

T&L tutor influence bursaries grades coursework exams

Positive and Negative Influences on decisions about whether to enter HE

National Diploma Sports Student at East Heath College

Gerrard Gerrard wiry sharp young son brother scoucer fresher pleasure to talk to interview digitize download attach to an email transcribe anonymize import into ATLAS ti code explode analyse theorize publish Gerrard dog-eared disappeared. Val Thompson, March 2007

End notes• The most admirable thinkers within the scholarly

community you have chosen to join do not split their work from their lives. To unleash the imagination C. Wright Mills recommends:

• Rearrange the file of ideas, papers etc that you have collected

• Be playful with phrases and words with which issues are defined, for example look up synonyms, and pursue words to their roots

• Set up a new classification: charts, tables, and diagrams of a qualitative sort are not only ways to display work already done; they are very often genuine tools of production.

• How you go about arranging materials for presentation always affects the content of your work. C. Wright Mills, 1959

The Sociological Imagination

• Know that many personal troubles cannot be solved merely as troubles, but must be understood in terms of public issues – and in terms of the problems of history-making. Know that the human meaning of public issues must be revealed by relating them to personal troubles – and to the problems of the individual life.

• The sociological imagination has its chance to make a difference in the quality of human life in our time. C. Wright Mills (1959)

What IS your story?

• Usually most of what you have to say about a topic can readily be put into one chapter or section of a chapter. But the order in which all your topics are arranged often brings you into the realm of themes.

• Sometimes, by the way, you may find that a book does not really have any themes. It is just a string of topics, surrounded, of course, by methodological introductions to methodology, and theoretical introductions to theory. These are indeed quite indispensable to the writing of books by men [sic] without ideas. (238)C. Wright Mills (1959)

Relationships between methods, methodology, epistemology and ontology*

Methods

Methodology

Epistemology

Ontology

Iceberg

(Iceberg courtesy of David James, UWE Bristol)