Nicola Ingram and colleague awarded the British Sociological Association's poster prize
8 April 2013
Dr Nicola Ingram (Department of Social & Policy Sciences), along with her colleague, Ms Jessica Abrahams (University of Bristol), has been awarded the British Sociological Association's poster prize at the 2013 annual conference held in London on the 3-5 April.
The poster was entitled: Using Self-Representational Model-Making to Engage Working-Class Young People in Reflections on Identity and Education. It presents the findings of two research projects focused on social-class, education and identity.
One was a study of young working-class men in two schools in Belfast (study A) and the other a study of working-class students live at home whilst at university in Bristol (study B). Both projects used an innovative visual method to explore issues of identity in a sensitive way.
Participants were asked to create plasticine models that represented their identity in relation to their home and educational contexts. They were then interviewed about their models and given the opportunity to talk about themsleves.
This particular method promoted a reflective engagement with the topic and the results highlight the sophisticated and nuanced ways in which working-class young people negotiate their identity in relation to their home and educational contexts.
Some reported an almost switching of dispositions as they moved between the different contexts, while others described a process of transformation as the educational context began to exert more influence on their lives. Others had difficulties in managing the conflicting expectations of the two contexts.
A Bourdieusian analytical approach was employed in both projects. Through viewing the contexts as fields that structure dispositions, the researchers consider the development and transformation of the young peoples’ dispositions in relation to multiple fields promoting a dynamic conceptualisation of habitus. Such depth of analysis was enabled due to the particular method employed.
Identity is complex and participants often find it hard to discuss, as such this poster also serves to illustrate the benefits of such a fun, unique and useful method.
