Introduction

The introduction to this edited collection is divided into three sections. The first section sets out the reasons for working with the possible selves concept in the current international higher education context. This section argues that the possible selves concept both describes and has the potential to disrupt dominant modes of thinking about temporality in higher education. In particular, the concept offers opportunities to explore how past and present inequalities of access to and experience of education extend into the imagined future. The second section draws on responses from the book’s contributing authors to the question, ‘Why possible selves?’ These author responses highlight the concept’s usefulness in thinking through key issues such as the dialectic between structure and agency, methodology and research design, and cross-disciplinary thinking. The final section of the chapter sets out the book’s structure, with summaries of each chapter.