‘Climbing Mount Adversity’:Students’ experiences of psychosocial problems in higher education

Abstract

This article focuses on students’ experiences of psychosocial problems and how these problems relate to ideas of ‘good students’ in higher education. The empirical basis of the article is a qualitative research project following Danish higher education students with a range of psychosocial problems. Forty-seven students were followed for up to two years, in several rounds of in-depth interviewing. A key finding of the research is that students with problems often meet the attitude that they are not ‘proper’ students or ‘suitable’ for university. Psychosocial problems seem to be understood as antithetical to prevalent, culturally normative ideas of the ‘good student’, producing a range of (extra) problems for the students in question. The article discusses this on the basis of two students’ stories of psychosocial problems, pointing out how (academic) self-understanding, individual and independent working routines and dilemmas of getting support have challenged them as they ‘climbed Mount Adversity’ and completed higher education.

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This article focuses on students’ experiences of psychosocial problems and how these problems relate to the ideas of ‘good students’ in higher education. The empirical basis of the article is a qualitative research project following Danish students with a range of psychosocial problems. Forty-seven students were followed for up to 2 years, in several rounds of in-depth interviewing. A key finding of the research is that students with problems often meet the attitude that they are not ‘proper’ students or ‘suitable’ for university. Psychosocial problems seem to be understood as antithetical to the prevalent, culturally normative ideas of the ‘good student’, producing a range of (extra) problems for the students in question. The article discusses this, unfolding two students’ examples, pointing out how (academic) self-understanding, individual and independent working routines and dilemmas of getting support challenged them in higher education as they ‘climbed Mount Adversity’.

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