Browsing by Author "Salo, Saara"

Previous studies show that offspring tend to educate themselves to the same educational level as their parents, and that the child's family background and living conditions maintain the cross-generational continuity of education. Studies show that parent’s academic education predicts child’s academic education. Previous studies have shown that the perspective of agency can be used when examining educational pathways. Agency refers to an individual’s change-oriented activity. To see oneself as an active agent is central to agency. The purpose of this study was to understand the creating of a educational pathway from the perspective of agency. The aim of this study is to examine what structural and cultural conditions shaped the interviewees whilst growing up. In this study I interpret how did the interviewees engage with these conditions. I interpret the creating of a educational pathway from the perspective of agency. The study was carried out as a case study and the analysis was done with theory-based content analysis. The research consisted of six interviews and they were analyzed by using Archer’s (2003) theory of mediation between structure and agency. The interviewees study at or graduated recently from university. They come from low educational backgrounds. The interviews were carried out as theme interviews in December 2020. The educational pathway was affected by the way the interviewees reacted to their conditions through deliberations and actions. The interviewees recognized opportunities for development in failures and chose to develop themselves. Agency seems to affect individual’s possibilities to come to university from a low educational background. Recognizing the opportunities to choose and being able to pursue one’s goals signify the importance of agency.