Formation of respectable citizens : precarious work and uncertain futures in a f-cked up world

• Drawing on research on gender and class and especially on the work of Beverly Skeggs we analyse adult educational student’s stories of their future occupations and future lives. We argue that these narratives of the future are both gendered and class specific. The results shows that there are echoes from the past, where the working class focused on being diligent, caring, modest and respectable. There is also a gender difference among the working class students, where women picture their future occupations in relation to having children and a family. For the working class female students their future occupations are further often connected to working with people, i.e. as care workers, teachers or for instance physiotherapist – i.e. work that involve caring in one way or another. Different results are seen in the analysis of middle class students that are more likely to focus on their individual self-realisation, where the futures are grander and not so much connected to a specific time and space. Another important result is that the working class students are modest in the narratives of their future occupations. Imagined occupations would mean a certain amount of social mobility, but rather modest ones.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

Keyword

adult education

class

work

citizenship

futures

Utbildning och lärande

Education and Learning

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)