DIAGNÓSTICO:

In relation to Bourdieu’s concepts of doxa and habitus defined earlier in this Chapter, Zipin et al. (2015) defined two types of aspiration in terms of subjective and intersubjective processes: doxic and habituated aspirations. Doxic aspirations are those that are formed from taken for granted assumptions; they are the common-sense aspirations that young people follow. Doxic aspirations are formed from the dominant way of doing things and are natural to an individual or group of people; for example, obtaining a university degree may be the preferable route for many middle and upper class young people. In a study by Gale and Parker (2015b) examples of doxic aspirations were: pilot and forensic scientist, where these aspirations are associated with having value in society and maybe seen as prestigious aspirations that individuals should want, or be expected, to aspire to by others in their social class. According to Zipin et al. (2015) doxic aspirations have a degree of symbolic violence, defined earlier, associated with them because “they

codify the norms, and so select for the success, of those in relatively powerful positions”

(p. 231). Here working class young people and their families succumb to the meritocratic dream through this symbolic violence and blame themselves if they do not succeed; their aspirations may be fuelled by populist dreams, for example, from the media and television. Zipin et al. (2015) suggested habituated aspirations are arrived at by means of young people’s dispositions; that is their actions, thoughts and behaviours, their lived practices that are the result of their biological and historical circumstances from their family, sociocultural and socioeconomic group; that is they are embodied in their habitus. According to Gale and Parker (2015b) it is these habituated aspirations that account for the structural positioning of individuals in society and it is these aspirations that are reproduced without question: “the logic is: what has been will be” (p. 85). These are the

aspirational possibilities that young people consider given the limits of their social- structural position.

Zipin et al. (2015) further discussed the notion of emergent aspirations. These are aspirations that are changed or modified in relation to new practices, knowledge, meaning and value where school and education play a key role, in addition to the family and community, to provide new and different experiences and opportunities. Moreover, Zipin

et al. (2015) suggested that emergent aspirations show a developing ‘Funds of Aspiration’,

which are future looking and utilise ‘Funds of Knowledge’ from previous experience and opportunities, including those provided from the family or school. It is possible that these

emergent aspirations are as a response to a modified or transformed habitus, where

according to Gale and Parker (2015b) this is a way to tackle disadvantage and lack of resources, to modify aspirations and habitus and to tackle the structural issues of society. This is easier said than done due to the complex nature of society, meaning that some (or most) young people will follow aspirations that are a mixture of doxic, habituated and

emergent aspirations. Zipin et al. (2015) stated that to theorise the emergent aspirations it

may be necessary to use concepts beyond that of Bourdieu; nonetheless emergent aspirations will be considered in the methodology and data analysis.

Scandone (2018) highlighted the shared histories that are passed on inter- generationally through everyday discourses that are responsible for forming aspirations of what is possible for young people of low socioeconomic status. Examples of habituated aspirations from Gale and Parker’s (2015b) study examining the difference between aspirational desires and possibilities in young people included unskilled and manual labour and thoughts that university “was not for the likes of us” (p. 88), which links with the quote from Ball et al. (1999) earlier in this Chapter and demonstrates similar types of dispositions embodied in these young people. It was interesting to note that Gale and Parker’s (2015b) study found that boys are more likely to follow vocational routes and that the difference between what boys saw as a desired aspiration compared to a possible aspiration was greater compared to girls, although not specifically mentioned this could possibly be due to the differences in map and tour knowledge acquired between boys and girls. Zipin et al. (2015) suggested that, at the level of the habitus, doxic aspirations fill the gap in imaginable aspirations that working class young people have, compared to the more practical aspirations related to their habitus. It is clear to see that this can be both empowering and constricting in the battle to transform the habitus of working class young people, where increasing young people’s agency may be beneficial to aid empowerment.

Dumais (2002) stated that in overcoming obstacles, in relation to barriers associated with their position in society, young people could develop cultural capital through opportunities and experience both in school and outwith school, for example through family visits to museum, concerts, reading and so on. This cultural capital could feed into the habitus and help transform the habitus into a new set of dispositions that young people could use to better themselves.

Archer and Yamashita (2003) developed Beck’s (1992) notion of structural limitations on individuals’ aspirations in that these limitations relate to their social, cultural and economic position. This is particularly relevant to this study as Archer and Yamashita (2003) stated that at ages 15-16 years old, young people are going through the process of considering when to leave school and what to do with their futures. Moreover, Archer and Yamashita (2003) found that working class young people often perceived themselves in a negative way with a sense of knowing their limits or evaluating themselves as ‘not good enough’ for certain post-16 education routes. These young people may associate these routes with a lack of knowledge, uncertainty, fear and risk. Reay (2001) attributed this risk to the inherent notion that, for the working classes, education has routinely resulted in failure for working class young people, possibly due to a lack of positive educational experience as has been witnessed through the researcher’s own practice. Ball et al. (2000) suggested that working class young people will blame themselves for any failure instead of structural inequalities and lack of access to resources; and, may opt-out as a mechanism to avoid failure. It is important to acknowledge that this is not true of all working class young people, as discussed previously.

Archer and Yamashita (2003) go further to suggest that working class young people often do not have smooth transitions from school to post-school, and that this also leads to uncertainly and high dropout rates. This concern is acknowledged in the school this dissertation research is carried out in and discussed in Chapters Six and Seven. In addition it is further suggested by Archer and Yamashita (2003) that non-participation in education post-school is seen as a deficit model of the working classes and, that to avoid this, other opportunities post-school must be considered; that is, the more natural choice perhaps associated with their habituated or doxic aspirations. In a study looking at young women, Scandone (2018) referred to the known routes that (young) people take in relation to understanding their aspirations, expectations and pathways and conceptualised aspirations as a form of habitus. However, she cautions that young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds are typically viewed, by policy, in a deficit model where

aspirations are too low or unrealistic, which is not always the case as will be shown by the interviewees in this dissertation and by work by Kintrea et al. (2015) and Gale and Parker (2015a and 2015b).

Moreover, Scandone (2018) discussed the notion of change in an individual’s practice, through their modified habitus which comes about from exposing an individual to new or different resources and providing them with the opportunity to change their dispositions; that is how they think, act and behave. For example, if a working class young person wishes to progress to university, and they are first in their family to wish to go to university, then exposing the young person to university through widening access programmes and visits to universities could result in them changing their thought processes and decisions thus resulting in a transformed habitus with altered dispositions. A similar argument could be made with other post-school routes in terms of actualising aspirations, for example, by including more work experience and extra-curricular activities to expose young people to different environments and fields that could result in a transformed

habitus and dispositions (Scandone, 2018). This would also enable young people to take

advantage of some of the forms of capital discussed earlier, by developing their own social and cultural capital. Scandone (2018) described this in terms of allowing young people to experiment with different career routes. In summary, Scandone (2018) described the

habitus aspect of aspirations as:

“the links between individual and collective experiences, the interconnection

of past, present and future in discourses and practices, and the ways in which the latter are affected by different endowments of economic, social and cultural capital.” (p. 536)

Connolly et al. (2016) described these capitals, social and economic for example, as lucrative in that they are only accessible to those who have a habitus that conforms to the dominant discourse of legitimizing production and reproduction in inequalities. Moreover Connolly et al. (2016) suggested that in schools where there is high attainment and achievement, young people are able to transfer this capital into careers plans and strategies for their future. Moreover, Connolly et al. (2016) stated that these capitals could influence how, in the social world, individuals view, interpret and behave. In support, Connolly et al. (2016) cited research by Jarvie and Maguire (1994) and Wacquant (2008) that related this influence of capitals to Bourdieu’s notion of practice, where practice is the effect of habitus resulting in the display of behaviours and dispositions an individual

exhibits. This could mean that an individual’s habitus affects how they behave, how they think and act, and in turn affect their dispositions and how they display behaviours and thoughts. Hence, the notion of how practice, habitus and dispositions affect one another could be seen as a dialectical relationship.

Furthermore, Connolly et al. (2016) noted an adverse factor in relation to raising aspirations amongst those wishing to pursue Higher Education; where the school pushed for young people to aim higher and more academically, when choosing Further Education may have been a more suitable route, as a stepping stone to Higher Education. This highlights that when institutions have a culture, practices, or activities that encourage students to have high aspirations, that the students are carefully selected, in line with their aspirations, and not set up to fail. This was also highlighted by Rawlinson (2017) in an examination of working class students primary habitus in relation to the habitus of the university and found that when these are aligned students transition to Higher Education is improved in terms of students being more motivated in relation to their future career choice. Furthermore, since aspiration is a very contextual and individually dependent concept, as Connelly et al. (2016) pointed out, it can be seen that if students are pushed to far they may drop out of education or training all together. However, Connolly et al. (2016) noted that if students are not given the opportunity to participate in these practices, or activities, the institution risks promoting the symbolic violence that could lead to the reproduction of inequality by promoting the dominant class with working class young people dropping out.