Transforming habitus? : experiences of mature students in a higher education institution

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 230-245).This study explores the experiences of mature adults returning to study at a higher education institution. The aims of the research focus on the complicated and complex ways in which dispositions of class, embodied in the habitus, shape opportunities, choices and experiences of a group of mature students enrolled at a school of management studies within a higher education institution. The study focuses on the reasons these mature adults returned to study, the strategies they employed to cope with the academic demands and related expectations during their year of study, and the effects and consequences of the higher education experience on their relationships with significant others in their lives. The study foregrounds class and its role in mediating the choices, actions and experiences of mature students through drawing on Bourdieu’s conceptual toolkit of habitus, capital and field