Congruent study dyads show the reproduction of similar educational routes between mother and daughter, as both had the opportunity and subsequently attended university straight from completing their compulsory schooling. The congruent study pairs show a matching of support in the habitus and a desire for study. There are five pairings in the congruent study dyad group.
All three mothers in this grouping attended grammar school and went on to become educators or academics. All of the mothers in the congruent study pairings and deferred congruent study pairings with the exception of Fran, who is a dentist with a Masters degree, went on to either become teachers, early years professionals or university academics at some point in their career. These findings support the historical, stereotypical position of teaching as a middle class, respectable career for educated women (Skeggs, 1997). Anne remained a teacher until she was retired early from teaching due to ill health. Chris, Rose and Sam went on to become university academics and all three have completed PhDs.
These mothers and daughters follow the norm of the understanding that university attendance heightens access to professional levels of status within employment. For these five pairings, the habitus is aligned with the field, which provides the daughters with some certainty of educational trajectory (Reay, Crozier and James, 2011; James, 2012).
Anne and Annette
Anne is 58 years old and has taken early retirement from teaching. Anne was widowed with a son many years ago. She has re-married a widower and Anne adopted her husband’s two daughters four years ago. Anne was grammar school and university educated. Anne recalls that when she went to grammar school ‘most of the children there had been in private primary education … then the girls went into the grammar school and the boys stayed on in private education, which was common at that time’. Dyhouse (2002) acknowledges the cynicism of the value of educating women at this time, due to the norm of women and mothers remaining in the home and not in the workplace. She lives with her husband and three children.
Annette is 20 years old and was educated in a state comprehensive school. She started a Film Director’s course and transferred onto a three-year Teacher Training course. Annette’s change was driven by the current condition of the employment market ‘I’m going into a degree that’s more likely to get me a job than the other one’. Annette works during term time in a bar to fund her living costs and Anne and her husband top-up any shortfall. She lives between her rented accommodation at university and the family home with her Mum, Dad, brother and sister.
Rose, Rosalind and Rosanne
Rose, 50, is a university lecturer and academic. She is married with two daughters, Rosalind and Rosanne. Rose attended grammar school. She trained as a teacher and later followed this with a Masters degree and PhD in education. Both of Rose’s daughters have gone to university and Rose and her husband have financially supported their daughters’ tuition fees and accommodation costs.
Rosalind is 22 years old. She followed her A-levels by starting an undergraduate degree, but she suffered a serious illness and following her recovery, changed courses. Rosalind has a student loan for her £3,290 per
annum fees. She is funding her study with a part-time job, full time in the summer. Rosalind moves between her parents’ home and a rented flat close to the university.
Roseanne is 24 years old. Roseanne attended state primary and secondary schools. Following her A-levels, she studied Philosophy at university and did a conversion Masters in Computer Science. Her tuition fees were £1,000 per annum for which she took out a student loan that she is still repaying. She is currently working full time for an Internet provider. She lives with her parents.
Sue, Suzanne and Suzie
Sue is a 49-year-old teacher and Head of Department at a secondary Academy school. Sue was grammar school educated and followed this with university study. Her first class degree led her straight into a teaching post and she has stayed in the same school ever since, stopping only for maternity leave. Sue and her husband have provided their daughters with a lump sum of money to fund their university educations.
Suzanne has just completed her A-levels and is due to go to university to study a four-year course in Spanish and Portuguese in the next academic year. She is 18 years old and the youngest participant in this study. She attended the same school as her sister and where her mum, Sue, is a Head of a Department. She will live in Halls of Residence for the first year of her study, but she currently lives with her parents.
Suzie is 21 years old. She began her undergraduate study at an elite university, having gained 12 A*s at GCSE and 4 A grade A-levels. Suzie was unhappy at that institution and transferred to another university, where she is now in her third year of a five-year veterinary science course. She has a tuition fee loan. Suzie lives in rented accommodation during term time and with her family during the holidays.