Ed recently completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford’s Department of Education and teaches academic skills at Oxford. Isabelle is an undergraduate historian who works with Ed regularly. Both are from working-class backgrounds. This blog post discusses how their shared class background has enabled a productive tutor–student relationship where Isabelle has developed her academic practice, challenging deficit narratives about working-class students’ potential in elite institutions. This blog post is not intended as a critique of Oxford as an institution, but instead as an exploration of the recognised and persistent challenges working-class students face in navigating the culture of elite higher education institutions.

Invisible pedagogy

Many of the traits of invisible pedagogy which Oxford University prizes are dissonant with the strategies which some working-class students develop to reach Oxford. We argue for the importance of working-class academics in enabling working-class students to access and perform the academic practices which enable success in the academy. Tapp’s (2015) exploration of inclusive curriculum design presents the development of academic literacies as key to joining the scholarly community of practice, wherein Bernsteinian (2003) pedagogical framings of (in)visibility create space for such development to take place.

We argue for two connected elements of working-class pedagogic relationships: experiential understanding as central to Tapp’s pedagogic approach; and, consequently, trust, enabling open conversations about the support more disadvantaged students may require. Deploying these concepts challenges deficit narratives surrounding working-class people in higher education by framing academic skills practice as a route to full participation in the academy.

Experiential understanding

Isabelle

I felt a discontinuity between my working experiences before Oxford and academic tasks once I’d arrived. At Oxford I had to consciously shift how I conceptualised my work; I struggled with the ambiguity of managing my schedule with few contact hours and unclear direction. My previous academic work had been completed around paid employment and caring responsibilities, and I wasn’t sure how to navigate the open-ended tasks in front of me, particularly assembling my ideas into effective arguments.

Ed

Tapp (2015) highlights the need for ‘doing and feeling’ to acquire competence in hegemonic academic literacies. My experiential understanding that Isabelle’s schooling hadn’t built a practical grasp of the abstract idea of ‘evidence use’ allowed me to suggest strategies which harnessed her existing strengths. In one session we discussed using evidence in essay writing, and co-created a diagrammatic representation of one way to approach this (reproduced in figure 1).

Figure 1: A diagrammatic representation of using evidence in essay writing

Isabelle

I’ve made most progress through Ed (and other tutors) clearly framing the academic task at hand and then enacting this framing iteratively in my work. I took the diagram to the library and used it to approach my essay. Focusing process rather than outcome helped me integrate evidence into my writing more effectively. I shared this with my (middle-class) friends, who were surprised I didn’t know techniques for argument-building. I quickly realised many of them had already encountered them during their schooling.

Trust and challenging deficit narratives

Ed

Our shared class background generates trust, facilitating more effective advice on academic self-management and the development of critical academic literacy. Isabelle’s material disadvantage continues to impact her academic practice but also her wider life, and this is difficult to communicate to some tutors. Rather than viewing these challenges as deficits, our working relationship acknowledges them as contextual factors requiring adaptive strategies.

Isabelle

I receive polite sympathy and assurances from well-meaning tutors who nonetheless cannot understand the ongoing challenges I face. I feel uneasy in continuing to ask for help: it feels there are only so many times extraordinary circumstances can be considered extraordinary. Knowing Ed understands this context removes the expectation I feel to present my background as irrelevant by omitting it from conversation. When I encounter complex, protracted challenges to manage at home, Ed understands their impact and facilitates conversations with tutors to negotiate modified working expectations. Similarly, I’ve felt confident enough to share my writing process, together identifying methods for timed writing that help me confront my anxiety around producing written work.

‘I receive polite sympathy and assurances from well-meaning tutors who nonetheless cannot understand the ongoing challenges I face.’

Implications for practice and research

First, further research is required into the classed nature of teaching in higher education broadly, but particularly at highly selective institutions which have historically catered to students with more homogeneous, advantaged backgrounds than is now the case. Second, we must continue to recognise the centrality of working-class academics in elite institutions. They serve a crucial function by offering working-class students effective guidance through seemingly ‘universal’ (but actually class-coded) practices, challenging institutional tendencies to mistake class difference for academic deficit.

References

Bernstein, B. (2003). Class, codes and control: Volume IV: The structuring of pedagogic discourse. Routledge.

Tapp, J. (2015). Framing the curriculum for participation: A Bernsteinian perspective on academic literacies. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(7), 711–722. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1069266