Spatial (Im)mobilities and Aspirations: Voice of a Young Adult Learner

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 10:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Adolescents and Young Adults' Academic Identity, Aspirations, and Outcomes (Table 5)

Abstract

This paper continues the strand of research on educational aspirations for upward social mobility with an emphasis on physical mobilities as observed in an undergraduate student from a less privileged background. Using data from reflexive journal and life history interviews, the authors explored the participant’s geographical movement, aspirations, higher education experience, and the (im)mobilities enacted in daily life. Drawing on the concept-clusters framework of aspirations, the authors argue that this journey is symbolic of a progression towards adulthood, independence, and importantly, escape for upward social mobility that is carried out alongside, and as a consequence of, the progression from school to higher education, and rural-urban migration.

Authors

• Anh Ngoc Quynh Phan, University of Kent

• Chloe B. Le, University of Louisiana at Lafayette