ABSTRACT
Young men from low-SES backgrounds are the least likely to attend university in Australia, and the select few who do attend university are at a higher risk of attrition. Many struggle to feel a connection to the future-oriented space of higher education and engage in struggles to change aspects of the self to fit in. Drawing on longitudinal research with first-in-family males, we are interested in the ways in which boys from working-class (and working-poor) backgrounds adapt their identity to align with their perception of the university context. As we understand gender to be discursively constructed and negotiated through daily interaction, we are interested in how they adapt in relation to their experiences. University, as a site of being and becoming, is where gendered and classed experiences contribute to the structuring of student subjectivities. The chapter delineates two different themes in the data (e.g. acclimatizing and connecting), and our analysis suggests there are significant variations within these themes.
