Widening educational participation: masculinities, aspirations and decision-making processes

This chapter focuses on the decision-making processes involved in accessing higher education . I draw on my ESRC funded research (RES-000-22-0832) on masculinities and men returning to study, which aims to understand the ways that gendered identities shape and impact on men’s experiences of access courses and their educational aspirations . Thirty-nine men took part in two in-depth interviews, and all were participating in London access or foundation programmes. Although the primary focus of the study was on gender and masculinity , my theoretical perspective understands gendered identities as complex formations that intersect with multiple identifications and social positions, including age , class , dis/ability, ethnicity , nationality, race , religion and sexuality. My analysis in this chapter attempts to make sense of complex identity formations across multiple sets of differences and the ways that these might shed light on the processes of decision making that the men were engaged in as learners. The analysis is contextualised in relation to policies of lifelong learning and widening participation which to some extent frame the men’s decisions, aspirations and choices about where and what to study and their dispositions and sensibilities as (potential) higher education students.