Capturing Habitus: Reflections on the Use of Narrative Inquiry to Explore Female Learner Identities in Chinese STEM Higher Education

Abstract

Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus remains an important theoretical framework educational researchers draw upon to explore the learner identities of students as well as their learning trajectories. As scholars grapple with habitus, as both a theory and a method of working with the data, they have drawn upon different research methodologies. To date, what has been largely absent in Bourdieusian educational research is how narrative inquiry can enhance our understanding of how habitus shapes learner identities. Narrative inquiry, as a research approach, seeks to understand and interpret human experiences through the collection and analysis of participants’ life stories. This article first explains how to operationalise Bourdieu’s habitus to understand learner identities and aspirations. Second, narrative inquiry is introduced as a methodology. Third, the paper offers a case study of Chinese female STEM students’ experiences in higher education where the first author reflects on how narrative inquiry allowed for a deeper exploration of the formation and maintenance of their habitus as learners. Lastly, the paper concludes with the first author’s own reflexive deliberations on what narrative inquiry can offer researchers interested in habitus. In exploring the relationship between narrative inquiry and habitus the paper highlights the continual dialectical relationship between theory and method.