25. Diversifying Discourses of Progression to UK Higher Education Through Narrative Approaches

In ‘Diversifying Discourses of Progression to UK Higher Education Through Narrative Approaches’ (Ch25), Laura Mazzoli Smith reflects how her teenage reading of Iris Murdoch’s novels made her aware that it was possible to challenge social expectations rather than conform to them. This enabled Laura to create an agentive personal counter-narrative to overcome family tradition, go to university, and follow an academic career. Seeing herself as an early example of ‘wider participation’ and the Murdoch novels as what Raymond Williams terms ‘resources of hope’ she considers how, by creating and disseminating a diversity of stories that capture individual’s learning journeys, we could encourage a broader range of students to apply to university and democratize the system.