“I don’t think I was a learner”: the transformation of Access students’ learning identities

Abstract

This paper challenges Bourdieu’s view that the movement of the habitus across new fields can result in a split habitus, divided against the self and in constant negotiation with itself and its ambivalences. It draws on a qualitative study of Access to Higher Education students across three Midlands-based further education colleges which aimed to develop an understanding of the complexities of Access students’ learner identities as they move across the unfamiliar field of FE. Data was collected by …….., The findings demonstrate nuanced understandings about how the Access to HE students make sense of their previous learning experiences, and how those experiences inform the development of their current identities, action and learning. [What do the findings show about Bourdieu’s theory?