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.

Introduction

Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual toolbox offers powerful explanatory potential for understanding the experiences of people in diverse social settings and how these experiences are influenced by intersectional factors, expectations of social (im)mobility, and educational inequality (see Atkinson, 2022; Barrett, 2015). Habitus remains Bourdieu’s most pivotal concept bridging agency and structure to investigate social reproduction and transformation (Costa et al., 2019). Bourdieu describes the habitus as a system of internalized dispositions informed by an individual’s life experiences, which may contribute to their self-expectations (Piroddi, 2021; Wright, 2005) and have a significant impact on the formation and maintenance of learner identities (Reay, 2010). Despite differing interpretations, habitus has proven useful for many researchers as it provides ways of knowing how practices and values are impacted through continual exposure to various fields (see Stahl & McDonald, 2021; Tan & Liu, 2022). While habitus has been – and continues to be – widely used within educational research the complexity of the conceptual tool often does leave it open to critique (see Reay, 2004). Furthermore, the relationship between habitus and methodology remains largely unexplored. This paper focuses on the methodological complexities we encountered in attempting to capture aspects of the habitus where we consider the possible implications for how educational researchers come to understand the formation of aspirations (Wong et al., 2023) and learner identities (Reay, 2010).

In science education, over the last two decades, there has been an increased focus on how learner identities are cultivated and maintained (Lemke, 2001). As the field of science seeks to widen its participation, there has been a focus on getting women and students from minority backgrounds involved in the sciences at an early age (Burke & Mattis, 2007; Griffith, 2010). Learner identities require approval, recognition, and acknowledgment from individuals within the immediate environment in order to ensure their sustainability. Carlone and Johnson’s (2007) work extends this conceptual underpinning, where they state that a ‘science identity’ is constituted and maintained through three distinct yet interrelated dimensions: competence, performance, and recognition (p. 1190). In conducting educational research in STEM – specifically gender and STEM – we ask how we can further our understanding of the formation and maintenance of learner identities. Furthermore, by focusing on the theoretical tool of habitus, we seek to reflect on what this allows us to see about science participation and aspirations. We see this work as assisting in addressing the long-standing problems of underrepresentation of women as well as minority groups (Brickhouse & Potter, 2001).

The formation of learner identities is an ongoing process that entails navigating complex and interrelated structural, cultural, and agentic relationships. Scholars such as Stuart Hall (1990) and Judith Butler (1990) foreground identity as fluid, always in process, and entangled within complex relations of power, including structural inequalities of gender, class, and ‘race’/ethnicity. Researchers in STEM, such as Gonsalves (2014), Johansson et al. (2018) and Danielsson (2012), explore how social and cultural differences generate a particular toolkit of cultural resources that inform learners’ identities. These differences are also influenced by structural and cultural contexts in which gender is enacted, resulting in multiple masculinities and femininities (see Pyke, 1996; Reay, 2001; Stahl & McDonald, 2022). Moreover, as Avraamidou (2020) posits, a learner identity should be viewed as an integral component of social practice, connected to ‘the process of becoming’ (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1999). With this in mind, it is crucial that the construction of learner identities in STEM involve a thorough consideration of the habitus and how it is informed by experiences within the discipline-specific culture (Avraamidou, 2020). To address the formation of learner identities in the STEM discipline, we focus on the role of narrative inquiry as a methodological approach for acquiring a deeper knowledge of the formation of the habitus. In reflecting deeply on such an approach, we are interested in exploring the cultivation of a STEM learner identity.

Narrative inquiry, as an interpretive approach, involves researchers capturing and interpreting the stories that individuals recall about their lives (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). These stories can take various forms, including personal anecdotes, life histories, or even fictional narratives. By examining these narratives, researchers seek to understand how individuals make sense of their experiences, and how they construct their identities (Hu & Dai, 2021). At its core, narrative inquiry explores how people construct and convey meaning through stories – and these stories provide insights into their experiences, identities as well as the social and cultural contexts in which they are embedded. To date, surprisingly, there has been limited engagement with narrative inquiry in deciphering the formation of habitus. We see this article as further developing scholarship concerning the interconnectedness of theory and method, as it remains a primary tenet of Bourdieusian studies (Costa et al., 2019; Stahl, 2016).

We recognize how capturing the habitus is not a simple undertaking and such an endeavour involves consideration of multiple overlapping factors (see Costa et al., 2019; Reay, 2010). In exploring what narrative inquiry can offer Bourdieusian researchers interested in deciphering the formation and maintenance of the habitus, the paper highlights the continual dialectical relationship between theory and method. To explore this dialectic, the first author draws on her experiences as a Chinese female researcher studying Chinese female students’ learning experiences with STEM and how these experiences contributed to the shaping of their learner identities. In the second half of the paper, the first author foregrounds her own reflexive deliberations on what narrative inquiry can offer researchers interested in habitus. In exploring what narrative inquiry can offer the paper highlights the continual dialectical relationship between theory and method.

Operationalising Bourdieu’s Habitus to Understand Learner Identities and Aspirations

In Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, habitus is an essential conceptual tool for uncovering individuals’ experiences in relation to their capitals (e.g., financial, symbolic, etc) and the fields they encounter which, over time, contribute to their social practices. As a tool to break down the agency-structure divide, the habitus encapsulates how aspirations, trajectories, and identities of individuals are all informed by the social conditions they are located in as well as the social conditions of their origin. Bourdieu (1990) describes habitus as ‘a system of dispositions interconnecting and working together, which significantly develop considerable potential actions, allowing people to take advantage of transformative and constraining practices’ (p. 87). His scholarship highlights that these dispositions are socially constructed (Bourdieu, 1990) to reveal the logic behind persons’ practices and can be understood as the ‘concrete intuition’ and ‘a peculiar philosophy of action, or better, of practice, sometimes characterised as dispositional’ (Bourdieu, 2002, p. 28).

Therefore, habitus incorporates individuals’ cognitive patterns and dispositions constructed in the social structures which reflect how they perceive and act toward reality (Bourdieu, 1987). Elaborating this further, Bourdieu (1977) highlights the dialectic in the habitus between history and present circumstance:

…every agent acts according to his position (that is, according to the capital he or she possesses) and his habitus, related to his personal history. His actions, words, feelings, deeds, works, and so on, stem from the confrontation between dispositions and positions, which are more often than not mutually adjusted but may be at odds, discrepant, divergent, even in some sense contradictory. In such cases, as one can observe in history, innovations may appear when people reported-a-faux, misfits, who are put into question by structures (operating through the positions) are able to challenge the structure, sometimes to the point of remaking it. (p. 31-32)

Bourdieu’s words here indicate how the habitus is socially embodied, a culmination of individuals’ past and present experiences, influencing how they operate within their social surroundings (e.g., families, and schools) (King, 2000). It is worth noting that habitus can be continually restructured over time through individuals’ ‘transposable dispositions’ (Bourdieu, 1990, p. 53) which are influenced by factors in the external world (DiMaggio, 1979). This means the formation of habitus concerns a continual process of construction and reconstruction dependent on exposure to different social milieus and experiences. In this regard, functioning as a system of consistent and transferable dispositions, the habitus reflects individuals’ lived experiences influencing actions (Costa et al., 2019).

Habitus, as representative of the internalized social world, can configure individuals’ self-subjectivity and self-recognition to inform their aspirations and identities. Aspirations are grounded in values and beliefs and are informed by shifts and growth of self-awareness (Pollard & Filer, 2007). For Bourdieu, aspirations and identities are imperceptibly formed and reshaped by their self-expectation, and emotional resonances of dispositions, which most influence individual behaviours on social meaning (King, 2000). As Bourdieu (1988) mentions:

the selfish expectation of a future goal, which lastingly modifies – that is, for the whole period that the expectation lasts – the behaviours of the person who counts on the thing expected. (p. 89)

In the field of sociology of education, habitus remains a fundamental tool in how we understand individuals’ aspirations and the relationship between students’ learning practices and the formation and maintenance of their learner identities (see as Reay et al., 2010; Stahl, 2013).

We understand learner identities as derived directly from the habitus forged through both structural positions and the agency of actors (Reay, 2010). These learner identities are formed from the development of learning dispositions acquired as they are navigate through their schooling (Stahl & McDonald, 2021; Watkins & Noble, 2013). With this in mind, one of the main complexities in applying habitus to understand the formation and maintenance of learner identities is the dialectical relationship between theory and method (Reay, 2010). In this article, we recount one approach to narrative inquiry through presenting a small case study of Chinese women studying STEM in higher education. Through reflecting on the use of narrative inquiry, we consider how it has the capacity to capture aspects of the habitus. ¹ Furthermore, in using narrative inquiry, the first author recognizes how her own reflexivity as an educational researcher and Chinese woman was a continual and integral part of the research process informing how she negotiated various tensions.

The Development of Narrative Inquiry as a Methodology

Narrative inquiry, as a research method, foregrounds an approach to unpacking life experiences. Differentiating it from other qualitative research approaches, narrative inquiry is positioned within a constructivist standpoint, with reflexivity, interpretivism, and representation being its primary characteristics. The term “narrative” refers to “a discourse form in which events and happenings are configured into a temporal unity by means of a plot” (Polkinghorne, 1995, p. 5). Undertaking narrative inquiry involves not just the collection of stories and anecdotes but also rigorous interpretive analysis. Through capturing the narrative, a story meaning is co-created between the teller and the listener, requiring the researcher to adopt a sensitive approach. Active listening is a crucial skill for narrative inquiry researchers; furthermore, they should view the interviewee as a storyteller rather than a respondent. Stories are created and re-created during interviews, and both researchers and participants acknowledge that the stories may not necessarily reflect a pre-existing reality. Analysis in narrative inquiry typically involves examining epiphanies and metaphors within the stories, as well as consideration of reflexivity and researcher positionality.

In the 20th century, we have seen not only the emergence of narrative inquiry as a research methodology but also its increased popularity. As it has gained more prominence, the field of narrative inquiry has developed various schisms where Riessman and Speedy (2006) highlight “‘realist’, ‘modernist’, and ‘postmodern’ (p. 428). In what follows, we outline some key aspects in the relatively short history of the development of narrative inquiry.

In 1990, Connelly and Clandinin drew attention to narrative inquiry as a research methodology and noted it has intellectual roots in the humanities and other fields that fall under the broad category of narratology. They linked this methodological shift to new ways of thinking about how we, as researchers, understand the experience, observing that:

It is equally correct to say, ‘inquiry into narrative’ as it is ‘narrative inquiry’. By this we mean that narrative is both phenomenon and method. Narrative names the structured quality of experience to be studied, and it names the pattern of inquiry for its study…. Thus, we say that people by nature lead storied lives and tell stories of those lives, whereas narrative researchers describe such lives, collect and tell stories of them, and write narratives of experience (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990, p. 2).

Then, in 1998, Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach and Zilber highlighted a “narrative revolution” caused by the weakening influence of an exclusively positivist paradigm in social science research (p. 1). This was followed by recent work from Clandinin and Rosiek (2019) which contends that while narrative inquiry begins with an individual’s experience, the approach also takes into account social and cultural contexts in order to deepen the analysis. As these debates continue, within the field of educational research, scholars (see Hu & Dai, 2021; Nardo, 2021) continue to utilize narrative inquiry to study student experiences and how these experiences contribute to the formation of aspirations and learning trajectories.

The focus of this article is how narrative inquiry was used as an approach to capture habitus. Reay (2004) articulates that habitus is a way of working with the data, where it is both theory (operationalised) and what is being studied (the empirical). To explore the relationship between habitus and narrative inquiry, we untangle the tensions which ensued in using narrative inquiry to capture and interpret individual’s habitus and the formation of their dispositions. In an effort to decipher how the dialectic between theory and method was negotiated, the first author draws on recent research with female Chinese students in the next section where, as a case study, it provides some insight into thinking about methodology as well as Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. In considering key moments in the formation of their habitus, we sought to nuance how dispositions were structured in relation to lived experience as well as their experience as learners.

Case Study: Female Students’ Habitus and Learner Identities in Chinese STEM Higher Education

As societies continue to develop, and a new impetus for economic development emerges, there continues to be a demand for gender equity in STEM occupations that remain male-dominated. As reported by the OECD (the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 2015, gender differences in higher education are persistent although arguably the trend is narrowing. Young female students are significantly underrepresented (less than 20%) in higher education level computer science programmes in OECD countries and only approximately 18% of entrants in the engineering field (OECD, 2016). The persistent gendered imbalance of STEM disciplines also contributes to the shortage of females in the labour market and the reinforcing of gender segregation within the broader social system. Due to this inequality we have seen efforts to increase STEM participation for women and minority populations internationally. However, in China, women remain severely underrepresented (Jing, 2009), even as the country makes progressive improvement in the competitiveness of its higer education sectors (Dai et al., 2023).

As Gan (2006) argues, the gender division of labour present in Chinese culture also contributes to the prevention of women from choosing the field of science and engineering. These insights from researchers highlight how the STEM field is still primarily dominated by males from privileged backgrounds and how such dominance contributes to how females participate within STEM disciplines.

We recognize that to decipher the formation and maintenance of habitus is not a straightforward process (Costa et al., 2019; Reay, 2004; Stahl, 2013) – and therefore to unravel the formation of a STEM (learner) habitus of Chinese women also presents challenges. In conducting the research, the first author, who is Chinese, female and a former STEM student, spoke with female students in the STEM field focusing on the learning experiences which allowed them to develop a STEM-oriented learner identity. Drawing on a common approach within the narrative inquiry, Author 1 adopted interview-based narratives to collect and (re)construct participants’ learning experiences and their personal histories (e.g., experiences within their family, educational and social contexts). The case study collected interview data from 10 voluntary participants. These participants were undergraduate students mainly from three Chinese science universities in Beijing (University A), Guangdong (University B), and Hubei (University C), and were distributed across various STEM disciplines (e.g., electronic engineering, industrial design, and artificial intelligence).

Author 1 first asked participants to describe how their learning trajectories in the STEM disciplines at the secondary level influenced their choices in studying STEM in higher education. In this regard, keeping in mind they were recounting memories, Author 1 had the opportunity to explore aspects of a participants’ habitus – specifically the formation of certain dispositions – and how, to varying degrees, the habitus contributed to their learner identities. This informed how Author 1 came to understand whether the participants chose to stay or withdraw from the STEM field.

When Author 1 first met Fiona at University B, they began by speaking about her earliest experiences with science.

Author 1: How do you come to be a science student in your early school life?

Fiona: I started to be a science student from my high school. At that time, my grades in science subjects were consistently better than in human science subjects. Another important reason is that I am really fascinated by Apple products, admiring their stylish design and advanced technology. I hope I can be a member of their company and make a contribution to changing the world through my own efforts.

From Fiona’s early experiences, it is apparent that her decision to pursue a STEM field was driven by her exceptional academic performance in science subjects as well as her aspirations to make a difference in the world. During her youth, she harboured a strong desire to achieve her dream of using her skills and knowledge to effect positive change in society, which ultimately motivated her to choose a major in STEM.

However, as the interview proceeded, Fiona highlights a conflict between the aspirations formed in her youth and reality she faced while studying STEM in higher education. For the most part, Fiona felt ill-equipped to navigate the male-dominant classroom atmosphere she encountered at university. The gender imbalance in her classroom made her feel like an outsider, diminishing her ambition and impeding her ability to fulfill her aspiration in the STEM field.

Author 1: Do you think your learning experiences in STEM disciplines at universities have been influenced by your gender?

Fiona: Well, when I first started my classes at university, I felt quite out of place. As the only female student in the class, I found it hard to engage in class discussions or answer questions from teachers because the course model is quite different from what I experienced in high school. I'm naturally a bit shy to ask for help around unfamiliar male students and teachers, which made me feel even more isolated. I remember feeling quite stressed during that first semester, as I struggled to find my place in the classroom.

…

To make matters worse, when group projects were assigned, I felt even more uncomfortable. All the other groups in the class were made up of male students, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be part of any of them. It added to my feeling of being an outsider and made me even more hesitant to participate in group activities.

Fiona experienced a challenging start to studying STEM at university as she attended different course modules and a new learning environment with unfamiliar peers and teachers. Furthermore, Fiona’s academic anxieties became more evident as she was the only female student in her class and, therefore, felt the need to prove her concentration and motivation. Based on her account, we can assume that her previous habitus and learner identity formed during high school did not fit in the STEM higher education environment which contributed to seeing herself as a failure.

Bourdieu (1990) writes how the habitus can be continually restructured over time through individuals’ ‘transposable dispositions’ (p. 53) influenced by various experiences in the external world (DiMaggio, 1979; Skeggs, 1997). Furthermore, while transposable across space and time, the habitus is also generative and adaptable. After two years, Fiona developed the capacity to integrate herself more into STEM courses with her male classmates and teachers. She also showed improvement in her academic performance and gained more confidence in her chosen field of study:

Author 1: How did you adapt to your study life in the STEM field?

Fiona: After going through a period of feeling down, I realized that I couldn't continue in that state and that I needed to make some changes. Firstly, I started to communicate more with male students and teachers in order to better understand the STEM questions in the course modules. Then, I began to observe how my high-achieving classmates learn for the STEM disciplines and picked up some good study habits from them, such as pre-reading before class, treating teachers as friends, and discussing learning problems with them. Through interacting with teachers and classmates, I realized that I had been limiting myself in my comfort zone. I should constantly push myself to adapt to the difficulties encountered in the learning environment because my intelligence and ability are no different from male students as we all were admitted to the same university. By working hard, I believe that I can learn STEM just as well as male students do.

Fiona’s words capture the process of attempting to restructure aspects of her habitus as well as her learner identity. This process of adaptation was influenced by her awareness and various learning experiences. As a student who wanted to do well, Fiona developed specific strategies to establish herself as a legitimate member of the university community by stepping out of her comfort zone and learning to communicate with colleagues and acquire knowledge from them about STEM subjects. This highlights the agentic capacity of the habitus and its desire to accrue value (see Stahl, 2013). We see how her identity was reshaped by the educational forces within her new surroundings, influencing her ‘science identity’ through recognition, competence, and performance (Carlone & Johnson, 2007). What Fiona’s words highlight is how identities are “continually in the process of being re-produced as responses to social positions, through access to representational systems and in the conversion of forms of capital” (Skeggs, 1997, p. 94). Furthermore, in Fiona’s recount of her experiences (as memories), we also glimpse how she sees her own positionality, the modifications of dispositions within her habitus, and how she navigates her experiences as an outsider.

Researchers contend narrative inquiry, as a methodology, has the capacity to provide rich and nuanced accounts of individuals’ perspectives and lived experiences. It is worth noting that other participants in the study also experienced an initial stage of feeling demoralized and, in order to overcome this feeling, often recognized the need to change their approach or their situation. The process of adaptation highlights how educational experiences and surroundings compel female students to reshape their habitus in relation to the continually developing and reforming science learner identities, which involves experiences with recognition, competence, and performance (Carlone & Johnson, 2007; Skeggs, 1997). Some participants from universities A, B, and C explained how they felt uncomfortable and struggled to communicate, seek help, and collaborate with male peers in the beginning due to traditional gender roles and the fear of being perceived as too intimate. Other participants’ narrative accounts often highlight introverted behaviour and a hesitancy to integrate into male-dominated STEM environments at the outset of their academic journey at universities. They also tended to prefer self-study.

Another aspect that was particularly compelling in the data was how the learner identity, informed by the habitus cultivated in Chinese high schools, seemed to prioritize individual efforts in repetitive practices aimed at achieving high grades and cultivating an exam-oriented workforce. However, this habitus did not assist female students to adapt into the learning journey in Chinese higher education STEM courses which focused on project-based learning and group cooperating. An adaptation of the habitus – where new dispositions are formed – was required in order to be successful in the new field.

Reflecting on Capturing the Habitus and Learner Identities Through the Use of Narrative Inquiry

Narrative inquiry, as a method aimed at unpacking a ‘situated truth’ (Riessman, 2008, p. 185), seeks to understand and interpret human experiences through the collection and analysis of participants’ life stories. Foundational to the epistemology of narrative inquiry, is the immersive nature where participants are offered chances to articulate and express their self-reflection and emotions. Through revealing such information, the researcher is able to gain a better understanding of the formation of the habitus in terms of what they have experienced. According to a Bourdieusian perspective, a student’s habitus formed in relation to their past and present experiences, whether consciously or unconsciously, can influence their educational norms, attitudes, behaviours, and aspirations, identities (Crossley et al., 2008; Perry, 2002). However, in adopting narrative inquiry to capture the formation of the habitus, it is important to note there are two forms of subjectivity at play here – the subjectivity of the participants but also the researcher’s subjectivity contributing to what they may or may not pick up on.

We acknowledge the habitus is composed of various tensions, or contradictions, due to competing dispositions which come to the fore depending on the circumstance (see Stahl, 2013). This, we would argue, is where narrative inquiry can perhaps be most useful. This is because the scope of narrative inquiry recognizes that the temporality of circumstance (Polkinghorne, 1995) and how the individual is influenced by wider social and cultural contexts (Clandinin & Rosiek, 2019). It also captures consistent dispositions formed over the life cycle. Most recent approaches to narrative inquiry, especially post-modernist ones, have sought to foreground the importance of complexity over cohesiveness (McAllister, 2001). Other approaches to narrative inquiry highlight how the researcher and the participant co-create meaning together providing insight into how their perspectives are shaped by experiences and the cultural contexts in which they are embedded. For example, Author 1, when reflecting on her first impulse, recognized that there was a tendency to compose a cohesive narrative rather than foreground the conflicting information the participants recounted. As Author 1 re-listened to the narratives, she thought critically about the dialectic between narrative inquiry (method) and habitus (theory), and what this could mean for understanding the intricate interplay between habitus and learner identities.

Overall, we found narrative inquiry assisted in capturing the participants’ experiences with STEM constituted through multiple aspects of family, schools, and society. For example, the majority of the participants’ accounts indicate that their parents’ expectation and their early familial childhood science experiences plays an important role in the development of their habitus which influences their decision-making process of STEM disciplines in higher education. Throughout his oeuvre, Bourdieu foregrounded not only how the family is integral to the formation of the habitus but how the family can be a field with its own doxa (family beliefs) (see Bourdieu, 1989). Furthermore, Bourdieusian scholars continue to highlight how schools serve as a powerful field of inculcation – fostering students’ particular values and knowledge (Zipin & Brennan, 2003). Within this study, many of the women formed their STEM habitus in relation to often conflicted experiences with their early familial socialization and schools. The point here is that for narrative inquiry to capture the habitus, the researcher needs to be focused on not only the tensions in their stories but also the powerful socialisation processes the participants’ experience over the life course. What the research highlights is how the embodied dispositions present in the habitus of the women Author 1 spoke with are affected by the educational institutions they interact with as well as the relationship with teachers and peers, and the time period of learning (Reay, 2010).

In this paper, we have explored how narrative inquiry (method) allows for capturing some of the complexity of respondents’ practices and experiences with learning working to crystallize some aspects of the habitus (Costa et al., 2019). Such an exploration compels us to think critically about the dialectic between theory and method (Costa et al., 2019). We examined how narrative inquiry as a method can be employed to collect participants' accounts, presenting narrative materials that reveal their habitus shaped by the intricacies of social, cultural, and historical relations. The process of unpacking habitus is one which seeks to identify individuals’ beliefs and behaviors in relation to “generative structures” (Reed-Danahay, 2005; Speller, 2011, p. 41) that ultimately inform their STEM learner identities.

Discussion

This paper explores the role of narrative inquiry in understanding the formation process of the habitus. Important here is to consider how aspects of the habitus can be captured, which is related to how the researcher narratively showcases their experiences around (1) tensions in their stories and (2) the powerful socialisation processes the participants’ experience of the life course. In focusing on these two facets, educational researchers can better contextualize individuals’ learning trajectories and the structuring of participants’ subjectivity. Furthermore, we feel reflecting their own subjectivity has an important role to play in this process.

As many researchers have highlighted, a Bourdieusian approach must foreground reflexivity (see as Sayer, 2010; Sweetman, 2003). In Mu, Dooley and Luke's (2019) book Bourdieu and Chinese Education, they conclude with a compelling call for a “reflexive reappropriation” of Bourdieu’s sociology in the study of Chinese education (p. 260). It sets forth a research agenda that encompasses the exploration of how the habitus is shaped through the lived experience in the ordinary and extraordinary contexts of home, school, and community with particular emphasis (see also Mu, 2020). For Bourdieu, research cannot exist without reflexivity as it is integral to how research is conducted and how data is analyzed. Essentially, reflexivity refers to how we come to understand an individual’s subjectivity, which transcends beyond the concepts of self-subjectivities and self-awareness to process the ‘unthought categories of thought which delimit the thinkable and predetermine the thought’ (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 40). For researchers, it is important to reflect on how, when, and why respondents have told us about certain experiences, practices, and thinking. Engaging in reflexivity prompts researchers to critically consider how to use ‘the very terms by which we give an account’, interpreting and presenting respondents’ practices (Butler, 2005, p. 21). In other words, we should recognize all accounts as “accounts of the accounts” and the role our own understanding plays in how we come to understand.

Based on these arguments, as a researcher, Author 1 now foregrounds her methodological reflexivity as a Chinese female in an effort to deepen her understanding of how females navigate through the STEM learning journey and, furthermore, how she read and interpreted a participants’ habitus. Such a process of reflexive deliberation involved engaging with her own subjectivity and her own autobiographical learner identity as a STEM learner. Notably, participants’ discussion about their strategic selection of STEM disciplines and their sense of belonging to the field reminded Author 1 of her own experiences. Specifically, through reflection, Author 1 could recognize their practices because she had similar experiences and engaged in similar behaviours which we now elaborate on.

When Author 1 was a young girl, she exhibited a strong aptitude for mathematics, which culminated in receiving the third prize in an Olympic math competition in primary school. As a result, Author 1 aspired to become a renowned scientist. With this aspiration, she dedicated considerable effort to studying the sciences in secondary and high school, including physics, chemistry, and biology. However, Author 1’s academic failures within the STEM field resulted in a strong disjuncture between her learning pattern during secondary school and the teaching methods employed by her high school teachers. That is to say, as a student at a selective high school, her teachers assumed that students already possessed a solid foundation in science concepts through self-directed learning and therefore prioritized teaching strategies for solving difficult and complex exam questions.

Author 1 found the learning process to be particularly challenging, as her habitus often did not fit the instructional approach of the high school. To compensate, Author 1 had to devote significant time outside of class to grasp concepts that had not been covered by her teachers. Comparing herself to her male classmates, who appeared to have an innate grasp of the subject matter, Author 1 began to question her suitability for a career in STEM and wondered if she had chosen the wrong area of focus from the beginning. In considering her experiences – in conjunction with the experiences of some of the participants, particularly Fiona – there were certain synergies in terms of dissonance between the STEM dispositions and the reality of struggling to realise our aspirations. Such a disjuncture prompted a deep self-reflection and realignment with the field of STEM. More specifically, while Author 1 and the participants worked to embrace the values and goals of STEM, aligning their habitus with the logic of the field, a theme that came to the fore was a desire to often pull themselves away, highlighting the agency of the habitus. Taking this one step further, through studying their reflexive identity work, we see evidence of self-competence, performance, and recognition of reshaping STEM learner identities in new cultural contexts (Carlone & Johnson, 2007).

Operationalising habitus, as a conceptual tool, offers an understanding of how respondents’ dispositions inform their learner identities in a particular field, which guide their practices (choices) and determined their position in the social structure (Archer et al., 2012; Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999). Therefore, on a concluding note, in considering the dialectic between method and theory, Author 1 recognize her own habitus in how she interpreted the stories of the women in her study. In considering this, Author 1 was compelled to reflect on how objective factors influence individuals’ recounts and experiences, thereby shedding light on how participants' habitus are formed through their interactions with families, institutions, and other social fields. The formation of the habitus, in relation to the power dynamics within STEM field, influenced the participants’ STEM learner identities. In contemplating the dialectic between habitus and narrative inquiry, the use of narrative inquiry as a research method facilitated a more nuanced understanding of the significance of establishing an inclusive and supportive learning environment for learners to engage in self-reflection and realize their aspirations in STEM fields.

Conclusion

In educational research, Bourdieu’s concept of habitus remains an important tool for understanding how individuals’ experiences and practices are shaped by their social conditions. Habitus incorporates individuals’ cognitive patterns and dispositions, which are constructed in social structures, and in relation to discipline specific learning experiences. Habitus also plays a crucial role in configuring individuals’ self-subjectivity, self-recognition, aspirations, and identities. Surprisingly, to date, there has been limited engagement with the research methods used to decipher the formation of habitus.

Drawing on a small segment of data, and reflecting deeply on what narrative inquiry can do, this article has articulated some of the ways narrative inquiry allows for a deeper interpretation of the formation and maintenance of the habitus. The primary aim of this paper was to focus on the methodological complexities encountered in attempting to capture aspects of the habitus and to consider the possible implications for how educational researchers come to understand the formation of aspirations and learner identities. The paper makes three key contributions. First, it briefly explains how to operationalise Bourdieu’s habitus in an effort to understand learner identities and aspirations. Second, it offers a case study of Chinese female students’ experiences in higher education where Author 1 reflects on how narrative inquiry allowed her to explore the formation and maintenance of their habitus as learners. Third, it concludes with attention to Author 1’s own reflexive deliberations on what narrative inquiry offered her as a researcher, specifically when considering the STEM learner identities of the participants and how they are formed through their experiences with families, institutions, and other social fields.

We contend the relationship between narrative inquiry and habitus remains an interesting one which requires further reflection. Furthermore, we recognize the various limitations and ambiguities of the research methodologies and the importance of reflexive thinking when engaging with narrative inquiry to understand social patterns. We have not simply highlighted the benefits of a narrative approach; instead, we have drawn connections to how recent iterations have the capacity to foreground capturing the conflicting dispositions in the habitus. Therefore, as a tenuous conclusion, we feel researchers interested in working with habitus and using narrative inquiry should focus on (1) tensions in their stories of their participants and (2) the powerful socialisation processes the participants' experience of the life course and where they agentically resist such processes and (3) how the habitus of the researcher is embedded in the research process. While we have not foregrounded what underpins a STEM identity – specifically competencies, performances, and recognitions, which contribute to the development of learner identities in the science field (Carlone & Johnson, 2007) – it is present and requires further exploration. This would, indeed, add another layer to exploring the continual dialectical relationship between theory and method, leading researchers to a more nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between individual agency and social structural constraints in shaping STEM learner identities.