What is the impact when a social identity is not chosen and embraced, but imposed upon you?

UK policy can be criticised for pressurising the education sector to funnel learners who fail their GCSEs into vocational learning courses such as Media Studies. With narratives drawn from the original, person-centred research conducted by the author in the Further Education sector, this book centres the often-discounted voices of the so-called “low ability” learners themselves.

They tell of the lack of agency that comes from having choices made for them, and the impact on their lives and identities as well as their post-education destinations. Featuring stories from a range of individual research participants, the book also explores intersectional issues, such as how race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and language of origin can feed into the imposed identity and how it impacts their sense of self.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 The further education policy context
  • Learning objective: Understanding the FE landscape
  • Understanding the EnglishFE sector
    • FE and policy
    • 14–19 policy
    • FE and the creative arts
• 2 Meet the staff
  • Learning objective: Policy enactment
  • Meet the principal
  • Meet the experienced media lecturer
  • Meet the new teacher in training
  • Staff perspectives on FE and South College
    • FE as a second-chance provider for failed learners
    • The FE sector’s marginalised identity
    • Uncertainty and change
    • Policy pressures
    • Where is the information?
    • A fractious infrastructure
    • Problems in the media department
    • Teacher training
    • Moving towards stability?
    • The role of FE
• 3 The experiences of negatively classified learners in their own words
  • Learning objective: Drawing on young people’s experiences
  • Learner contexts
    • Richard
    • Rachel
    • Kate
    • Tyrone
    • Abid
    • Dominic
  • Learner lived experience
    • Negative school experiences
    • Othering
    • Lack of progression choices
    • Poor teacher relationships
    • Disillusionment and escape
      • FE: Broader choice for all, or a dumping ground for the difficult?
  • Changing minds, restricted options, and narrow focus
  • Failure shapes identity
    • Objective experiences of failure
    • Subjective experiences of failure
      • How a sense of failure can evolve
    • Identity is shaped by both objective and subjective failure
    • The role of choice
  • SEN, behaviour, and classroom management
  • Finding an ally
  • GCSEs
  • Lack of progression guidance
  • Vocational training prior to the study
  • Journey to South College – summarising themes
    • Lack of information and guidance
    • Insufficient knowledge of vocational courses affects trajectories
  • Conceptualising learner narratives of failure
  • New beginnings?
    • What do learner narratives tell us about college-wide perceptions of media?
    • “I prefer it to school”
    • “It’s different to GCSEs”
  • Progression, aspirations, transitions, and destinations
    • “Doing and not doing” level 2
    • “I’m on the National Diploma”
    • “After college I want to …”
  • “What happened to me after South College”
  • Did South College give me a second chance?
• 4 What can we learn?
  • Learning objective: What can we learn?
  • Long-term impacts of negative classifications on learners
  • Individuals’ cyclical relationships with FE
  • Navigating marginalised identities
  • Parity of esteem cultures
  • Issues of inclusion
• Recommended discussion topics
• References
• Recommended further reading
• Index

Javeria K. Shah PhD is an interdisciplinary academic specialising in sociology, media education, and policy. She holds a range of academic and scholarly roles, including at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London; and on a visiting basis at the Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University; the University of Winchester; and the University of Arts London. She is a member of the Post-14 Education and Work think tank based at the Institute of Education, University College London, and a document reviewer for Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit.