“…Despite the global educational focus on the development of meritocracy (Allen, 2012) and widening participation agendas for higher education (Passy, 2012), there has been an imbalance of entry to university, with an under-representation of students from low-income families in the United Kingdom, USA and Australia (Power et al, 2003;Pearce et al, 2008;Reay et al, 2010;Wilks & Wilson, 2012). Against this background, research has explored the dynamics between structural and cultural influences on working-class relationships to education through the study of educational biographies using the interview method (see, for example, Power et al, 1998aPower et al, , b, 2003Reay, 2001Reay, , 2006Aries & Seider, 2005Pearce et al, 2008;Davey, 2009;Reay et al, 2009Reay et al, , 2010Hernandez-Martinez & Williams, 2013).…”