Forging engineers : capital mobilisation and professional identity development in the university

Jimenez, Patricia and Budd, Richard (2025) Forging engineers : capital mobilisation and professional identity development in the university. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

Text (2025JimenezPhD)
2025JimenezPhD.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.
Download (1MB)

Abstract

This thesis explores how engineering students from disadvantaged backgrounds in Chile perceive and experience their education as a means of promoting social mobility. Using Bourdieu's theoretical framework of field, habitus, and capital, the study examines the complex strategies these students employ to navigate engineering education, the barriers and facilitators they encounter, and how they develop their professional identities. Through semi-structured interviews with 17 engineering students at a regional Chilean university, the research identifies eleven strategies students used to accumulate and mobilise economic, cultural, and social capital. These strategies coalesce into five integrated patterns: Academic Achievement Approach, Financial Management Strategy, Professional Skill Development, Enrichment Opportunity Utilisation, and Adaptive Coping Mechanism. The findings reveal that students actively transform constraints into opportunities through strategic adaptation and reflexivity rather than merely reproducing their social positioning. The study contributes to theoretical understandings of capital mobilisation, habitus transformation, and identity formation in engineering education. It identifies the development of a "reflexive habitus" as crucial for students' successful navigation of the engineering field while maintaining connections to their primary habitus. The research also highlights the "bifocal professional vision" that disadvantaged students develop, a simultaneous awareness of engineering's technical aspects and its potential for social transformation. While existing Chilean research has primarily focused on elite Santiago-based institutions and structural barriers in higher education, this study provides novel insights into how students at regional universities demonstrate agency and develop professional identities despite limited access to elite networks. The research challenges Santiago-centric narratives by examining how regional universities with strong accreditation levels can serve as effective spaces for social mobility, particularly within engineering disciplines. Additionally, it expands understanding of gender dynamics in Chilean engineering education, documenting how female students strategically manage discriminatory practices in male-dominated environments. Key barriers identified include limited academic and cultural capital, socioeconomic constraints, rigid educational practices, and gendered field dynamics. Despite these challenges, students demonstrate remarkable agency through facilitators such as family support, institutional mechanisms, and the development of problem-solving mindsets and adaptive identities. This research has potential implications for engineering education policies and practices in Chile and beyond, suggesting the need for more flexible educational approaches, comprehensive support systems, and greater recognition of diverse pathways to engineering competence. The findings challenge deficit perspectives on disadvantaged students, highlighting their resourcefulness and capacity for strategic adaptation within structural constraints.