does not wish to put at risk the empowerment and skill she currently feels by using it
to follow a conventional academic pathway. Thus she describes as her biggest
achievement the confidence to have a Caesarean whilst remaining conscious:
“ You get two surgeons with two knives but you’re awake for it. That was a real
learning situation. But you can’t get a degree for that. ”
The content of Juliet’s learning has been strongly, even intensely, focused on personal
and psychological issues. Yet this does not mean that it has had an effect only on her
individual growth. Her mix of learning and community activity has enabled her to
commit herself to bringing up her family - presumably to their benefit - without
feeling personally confined by this role. She has used her learning to fashion her
individual combination of different forms of work, each of them feeding off each
other. The mix has reinforced her personal identity and her psychological well-being.
And this in turn has increased her employability, though not necessarily her level of
formal qualification. The relationship between human and social capital is not
straightforward, even where it is demonstrably positive.
10.2 Kali
Kali’s family is from Pakistan. She grew up in Nottingham, and was married by
arrangement at the age of 18 or 19. A year later, she had the first of her three children.
The children were aged 8, 11 and 14 at the time of the interview. Kali has not worked
very often in paid employment. Her husband runs a restaurant and she has helped him
with finances, accounts and reception work. Since all three of her children went to
school, she has started working on a project in Nottingham that supports parents at
school.
Kali was educated in this country in state provision - a mixed primary school and an
all girls secondary school. She started sixth-form college but left to get married.
Neither her own parents nor the family that she married into saw her education as
important in terms of career development because it was anticipated that she would
marry and look after a family. After having children, Kali started to attend courses at
the local college and this has led to employment that incorporates education as part of
it. The combination of employment and education since having children has had an
enormous impact upon her life.
Kali is one of the most straightforward cases of education helping someone to make
the transition from full-time childcare. When her children were all old enough to be at
school, this left a major gap in her life. Participation in education has given her
purpose and structure. It has positively affected her personal identity and
psychological health:
“ [Before participating in education] Waking up in the morning ...you didn’t
have a schedule .. It was like dropping the children off but then coming back ..
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