The Milk Lady

Abstract

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC 4.0 License. 5. THE MILK LADY A Nurturing Identification Object This chapter presents results from the research project conducted as part of my PhD dissertation. Divided into two parts, the chapter begins with a contextualisation of the research project, which concerns students who use an alternative channel to enrol in a profession-specific education as a social pedagogue. The concept of non-traditional adult student is also defined. For readers unfamiliar with the Danish system, a brief description is provided of the profession of social pedagogue as well as the Danish practice of Validation of Prior Learning (VPL). Next, there is a short, introductory presentation of the life history research approach. The second part of the chapter involves an analysis of a student enrolled in a professional bachelor degree programme. The case focuses on a non-traditional adult student who changed careers. Her name is Hanna and she was accepted into the programme on the basis of VPL, and is studying to be a social pedagogue. The analysis examines how Hanna while contributing to and benefitting from the emphasises her relationship with her mother as important to her choice of education. The way she paints her future, the role as a professional she anticipates and her experience of the degree programme appear to expose some contradictory aspects, which call for an interpretation of her relationship with her mother, who worked as the milk lady at Hanna's school when she was growing up. The notion of the non-traditional student originates from the Anglo-Saxon term non-traditional adult student (Alheit, 2017) and is currently defined in multiple ways, though there appears to be a general European consensus on a common understanding of the term. Crosling et al.'s (2008) international study Improving international access and retention studies to identify non-traditional students: (1) low socioeconomic status, (2) disabilities, (3) first in family to participate in higher education, (4) mature age and (5) minorities and refugees, which is also a recognised non-traditional adult student, however, must be used with caution as it is imprecise and defining it with precision is not possible since various students are considered