Freire and Football: The Messy Game of Widening Participation in Higher Education. An Exploration of Non-Linear Eco-Coaching Methods as a Toolkit for Dialogue with Under-Represented Groups of Young Men

The research seeks to identify barriers to Higher Education (HE) from the perspective of 34 young men, aged 15 -18 from Burnley in Pennine Lancashire. This micro-study is a work package within a wider investigation of local underrepresentation. The method is underpinned by the pedagogy of Paulo Freire and delivered through an Emancipatory Action Research model, set within an eco-social paradigm. The method employs non-linear 'messy' Association Football Coaching tactics in a metaphorical cognitive/physical (Play, Do, Review) context as a toolkit for problematization. This is a conceptual model, applying meta-theory to method. The purpose is to evaluate the model as a toolkit for the identification of epistemological disconnections between young peoples’ experience, and how their needs are represented within widening participation and lifelong learning practice. Thus, questioning use of econometric research methods, and how these may contribute to failures in widening participation and consequently, lifelong learning strategy. The young people are referred to as co-researchers rather than participants throughout this paper. The study provides an eco-social map of barriers to accessing HE, revealing instances of an alt-reality to the dominant narrative on barriers to widening participation to education and lifelong learning.