ABSTRACT
Using Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and field, Chapter 4 explores the reasons for becoming an Access to HE student and the complexities between habitus and field to understand how the students experience and conceptualise their positions as they (re)engage in formal learning. It also examines how the Access to HE students’ social and cultural capital informed how they responded to the educational field and the relationships they encountered. In reconstructing their habitus, the processes of exclusion and power are also considered in terms of how the students’ struggles and resilience with both personal and institutional contexts helped them to begin to recognise what they could achieve in their lives.
