Guided by a collaborative and community oriented editorial process which embodies the ethos of working-class communities, chapters focus on five main section areas: academics, students and student journeys, pedagogy, teaching & learning, non-academic staff in Higher Education, and a final section dedicated to practical steps for the future.
In recent years, UK higher education (HE) has sought to pursue more inclusive practices. However, we are yet to fully understand the experiences of a breadth of working-class people in HE, including professional services who form a critical part of the political economy of knowledge production in the institution. This edited collection uniquely brings together working-class reflections in the different roles and professions that exist in UK universities.
Focusing on understudied groups including working-class academics, students, professional services, administrative staff, ancillary workers and parents, the chapters explore definitions of class, reflections of classism, class-based experiences, inequalities, and theory in conjunction with roles and professional experiences. Guided by a collaborative and community oriented editorial process which embodies the ethos of working-class communities, the collection focuses on five main section areas: academics, students and student journeys, pedagogy, teaching & learning, non-academic staff in HE, and a final section dedicated to practical steps for the future.
A first of its kind, observing the experiences of working-class people across the breadth of UK higher education, this is a breath of fresh air on this subject. It is compelling reading for sociological researchers of class and society, academics across disciplines who have shared lived experiences, those in higher education management and those who work with social class and social mobility in industry.
Chapter
1. Introduction; Jess Pilgrim-Brown, Teresa Crew, and Éireann
Attridge
Chapter
2. Academic Terminology; Rebecca White
Introduction to the section one: Underrepresented academics in UK higher
education; Iona Burnell Reilly
Chapter
3. The normative trajectory of academics and class-based disablism in
Higher Education; Alison Wilde
Chapter
4. From the council house to the ivory tower: Brilliance, bullying,
passing, and the failure of academia for working-class academics; Leanne
Dawson
Chapter
5. Why are you talking like that? From fearing sounding thick to
embracing your voice: Working-class solidarity in academia; Kerry Preston and
Norman Riley
Chapter
6. Breaking barriers: A working-class academic's journey towards a
running a science festival; Claire Price
Chapter
7. Lasting legacy of imposter syndrome; Natalie Quinn-Walker
Introduction to the section two: Working-class students and their journeys
to, and through, higher education; Éireann Attridge
Chapter
8. Lifting the double mask: Neurodivergent working-class students
and the university experience; Nyika Suttie
Chapter
9. Educational narratives: Unravelling the experiences of mature
students and working-class representation in lifelong education; Nysha Givans
and Peter Bennett
Chapter
10. The heavy footprint of meritocratic discourse: An
autoethnographic exploration of social and academic dislocation through elite
higher education progression; Ed Penn
Introduction to the section three: Working-class pedagogy, methods, teaching
and learning; Richard Waller
Chapter
11. A view from within: The pedagogy, practice and possibilities of
drawing from a working-class background; Carli-Ria Rowell
Chapter
12. Rethinking knowledge from a working-class perspective: Voice,
story and knowledge; Sorca Mc Donnell
Chapter
13. Classics for all: From classism to representation for
working-class classicists; Arlene Holmes-Henderson
Chapter
14. The value of making explicit researcher positionality when
researching working-class lives; Sarah McLaughlin
Chapter
15. The search for a realistic Utopia: Reflections on being an
insider/outsider in higher education; Sharon Clancy
Introduction to the section four: Non-academic working-class staff in UK HE;
Charlie Davis
Chapter
16. Ancillary staff in higher education: In/visibility and
mis/recognition; Marie-Pierre Moreau and Lucie Wheeler
Chapter
17. Bridging the gap: An autoethnographic reflection on working in
both professional services and academic roles in UK HE; Stacey Mottershaw
Chapter
18. Becoming a proper academic as a pracademic: Eating the
imposterism trifle in an elite university; Rachael OConnor
Chapter
19. In service to the academy: Exploring class and power hierarchies
in the academic library; Darren Flynn
Chapter
20. Prioritising the building, not the people in it: The void of
evidence in inclusive research, policy, and practice in UK Higher Education;
Jess Pilgrim-Brown
Introduction to the section five: The future of working-class people in UK HE
Chapter
21. Solidarity spaces and places of reflection: Working-class
identity in higher education arts faculty; Liza Betts and Jo Pickering
Chapter
22. Why we need working-class academics now more than ever; Charlie
Rumsby
Chapter
23. Beyond the ivory tower: Transforming academia for working-class
people; Teresa Crew
Jess Pilgrim-Brown is a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford, UK.
Teresa Crew is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Bangor University, UK.
Éireann Attridge is a PhD student in Education at University of Cambridge, UK.
