Bengtson, Camilla

This master thesis is based on an interest to examine the problem of young people’s difficulties with their choice of higher education and plans for the future as a process, linked between self-awareness/identity, social interactions and the greater context of society and educational politics. The thesis will focus on the engagement and interaction between: the individual young person and domi-nating discourses about their educational choice, and behaviour through the educational system. The investigation of this problem is based on individual interviews with young people, who had finished upper secondary school and have difficulties in choosing higher education; and texts from media and political response. To study the link between identity, social interactions and dominating discourses, I made use of the theories of Positioning, Desire and Discourse. Linking the theories and data in the analysis, it can be concluded that the young people of this thesis interact in relation to the dominating discourses by trying to meet unattainable requirements; regarding the important choice of education, and react with emotions of stress, pressure, deficiency and fear of failure.This master thesis is based on an interest to examine the problem of young people’s difficulties with their choice of higher education and plans for the future as a process, linked between self-awareness/identity, social interactions and the greater context of society and educational politics. The thesis will focus on the engagement and interaction between: the individual young person and domi-nating discourses about their educational choice, and behaviour through the educational system. The investigation of this problem is based on individual interviews with young people, who had finished upper secondary school and have difficulties in choosing higher education; and texts from media and political response. To study the link between identity, social interactions and dominating discourses, I made use of the theories of Positioning, Desire and Discourse. Linking the theories and data in the analysis, it can be concluded that the young people of this thesis interact in relation to the dominating discourses by trying to meet unattainable requirements; regarding the important choice of education, and react with emotions of stress, pressure, deficiency and fear of failure

Young people and the choice of higher education

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Roskilde Universitet