ABSTRACT
The focuses on how working-class students manage the academic in relation to their social selves across two institutions that are even more polarised in terms of social class and levels of resources than the two HEIs in Bradley and Ingram's study. It explores how they navigate and relate to the university both academically and socially in order to develop 'academic ability' and accrue educational knowledge (cultural capital) which they can turn into 'success'. Lave and Wenger present a socio-cultural theory of students' engagement with their learning, demonstrating the importance of the social as well as the learning contexts. However, their understanding of power relationships and structural concerns is limited. In order to develop an understanding of student experiences and interrelated processes that keeps power dynamics and structure, as well as agency, at the centre, the chapter deploys Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital and field in the analysis of data.
