Conference Agenda

The importance of studying elite education lies in that social classes are always relational and need to be contextualized to wider social hierarchies. Therefore, to understand educational inequalities we also need research on how privilege and power are (re-)produced in education (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977). Privilege can be understood referring to individuals but also to being part of an exclusive elite school. Previous studies on elite education have illustrated how the school as an institution and its position within the field of education shapes students’ orientations towards their future education and beyond (forber & Lingard, 2915; Maxwell and Aggleton, 2014). Gaztambide-Fernández and Maudlin (2015, p.62) have described this as envisioning, where the “sense of entitlement is then projected into the future through the ability to envision elite futures” and when the students apply to an elite school, they already need to be able to envision themselves as students who can fit that particular school. In this presentation we use ethnographic research data to explore (re)production of privilege in Finnish elite general upper secondary school and its relation to admission-seeking to higher education. More specifically we ask: how elite status is being (re-)produced and maintained (1) in the everyday life of an elite general upper secondary school and (2) in relation to admission-seeking to higher education.

Elite is not typically linked to Nordic education, known for its egalitarian ideals and tuition free public education. Yet, there are schools that are known as elite general upper secondary schools in Finland. The students who wish to continue to general upper secondary education can choose the school they want to apply. Students are then selected based on their comprehensive education grades and the general upper secondary schools that have the highest entrance limits nationwide are the ones referred as elite general upper secondary schools (see Magnusdottir & Kosunen, 2022; Laaksonen & Niemi, 2022; Tervonen, et. al. 2018). As the elite status is constructed on academic achievement rather than on economic means, previous research conducted in the Nordic context has described institutions like this as “meritocratic elite schools” (see e.g., Halvorsen, 2021). However, previous research exploring elite education has also illustrated how the discourse on meritocracy can be used to blur social distinctions and explain privileged positions within education (e.g. Törnqvist, 2021; Kahn & Jerolmac, 2013). Bourdieu (1998; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977) engaged in the deconstruction of the meritocratic myth of social mobility to illuminate how education is not a neutral field, but as a field that consists of several options for different people (Skeggs, 2013). The starting point for this presentation is how social inequalities do not lie only in the processes of (non-)access to higher education, but also in the patterns of how students’ educational paths are formulated and, in admission-seeking strategies that are available for them when making higher education choices. Rather than understanding the application process to higher education as an equal, similar process for every applicant, it can be seen as a distinctive process, where students have very different admission-seeking strategies available for them.

Recent economic, social and educational changes in contemporary societies have had a considerable impact on how the relationship between the worlds of education and training and work is perceived. In the case of European Higher Education, which in recent years has become massified and, to a certain extent, democratised, it is interesting to investigate to what extent educational and labour pathways are conditioned by the sociocultural conditions of origin. It has been increasingly evidenced that having a higher education degree is no longer a sufficient condition for securing a job. Labour market changes occurred over the last few years, largely as a result of technological development and globalization, have made job perspectives less defined and predictable over time, whilst the transitions between jobs tend to be more frequent and difficult (Savickas, 2013). Young adults who have just entered the labour market, even if graduates, are the ones who suffer the most, with higher unemployment rates (ILO, 2017). In this context, additional forms of capital, which go beyond generic skills, have been identified as important predictors of employability, namely those related to social background, gender and ethnicity (Reay et al., 2006; Tomlinson, 2017). This may give rise to social inequalities, resulting from different educational and cultural biographies that will affect dispositions towards employability (Tomlinson, 2017).

Taking a comprehensive definition of employability, that not only focuses on individual attributes, but that considers it as resulting from the dynamic and evolving interactions between governmental and educational policies, organizational strategy, individual characteristics, and the social, economical, cultural and technological context (Guilbert, Bernaud, Gouvernet & Rossier, 2016), this study will explore the relationship between contextual factors, namely social capital, and career resources of higher education students. This proposal is grounded on the framework for career success (Hirschi et al., 2018). Taking the concepts of capital, Hirschi, Nagy, Baumeler, Johnston and Spurk (2018) propose, on the basis of a meta-analytic research, a comprehensive framework to assess key predictors of career success. Four types of career resources integrate this model: (i) human capital resources – referring to knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics considered relevant to achieve performance expectation for an occupation; (ii) social capital resources – including resources external to the individual, such as networks, mentors, and social support; (iii) psychological resources – integrating positive psychological traits and states; and (iv) career identity resources - referring to conscious awareness of oneself as worker and to the subjective meanings linked with the professional role. Career resources are here defined as “anything that helps an individual attain his or her career goals” (p. 4, Hirschi et al., 2018). Despite the positive and promising results of this theoretical framework, there is not much empirical research on this yet. In this scope, one of the open questions that this study will address is: how do career resources are affected by the social conditions of origin, namely, social class, gender and participation in extracurricular activities?

Student employment has become a widespread phenomenon across many European countries and a common practice among university students in general (Broadbridge and Swanson 2005; Darolia 2014; König 2018). According to EUROSTUDENT data, the percentage of working university students in European countries has risen to about 70% in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Germany.

A highly relevant question for scholars and policy makers in this context is how working while studying affects student retention. Previous research on term-time employment in the U.S. (Darolia 2014), Australia (Hall 2010), New Zealand (Richardson et al. 2013), the UK (Callender 2008) and Germany (Bacher and Wetzelhütter 2014) has shown that time-consuming student employment (i.e. more than 10 hours per week) has an overall negative effect on academic success with regard to final year marks, degree results or credits, and that they are more likely to struggle with combining work and study (Broadbridge and Swanson 2005).

As far as the subjective well-being of working students is concerned, studies have shown that students entering time-consuming employment are more likely to report increased likelihood of illness and sleeping problems (Broadbridge and Swanson 2006; Robotham 2013). Previous research also indicates that less privileged students are more likely to be affected negatively by term-time employment (Darolia 2014; König 2018). An example for such a student group are students who are the first in their families to attend university (i.e. First-in-Family students).

However, little attention has been paid to explore the role of term-time employment in First-in-Family students’ lives and its link to student retention. Qualitative in-depth analyses are needed to illuminate the complex role of term-time employment within the everyday lives of students. By drawing on narrative interviews with 14 First-in-Family students from three universities in Austria, I investigate the following research question: How does term-time employment shape the everyday lives of First-in-Family students and how is it related to student retention?

From a theoretical perspective, I draw on the conduct of everyday life concept (Schraube & Højholt 2016) that is a subject-oriented sociological concept which attempts to grasp society from the everyday lives of people performing actions in the various areas of their lives. Its basic premise is that people have to tackle all of the different – in some cases contradictory – demands that they encounter in the various spheres of everyday life (ebd.).