In this paper, I explore the epistemological issues which arise in, and are fundamental to, examining how mature students in the UK experience their full-time Foundation Degree in Childhood (FDC) which is my research focus. The key issues centre on how gender, the student experience and emotions are conceptualised and theoretically described. I will argue that Bourdieu offers/provides a conceptual framework through which my research question can be illuminated, that may minimize the dichotomies of the dualistic argument of male/female, mind/body, rational/irrational. I will argue for a feminist/post-structuralist standpoint and show that it is consistent with embracing Narrative Inquiry (NI) and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). In practical terms, this involves using interviews and reflective tasks as research instruments. My proposed research question is ‘What is the role of gender in mature students’ emotional lives as a result of attending/finishing a higher education professional course?’

I will began with a brief contextualisation of why it is important to address the role of gender when researching mature student emotion (positive and negative) within the care industry and why it may be an issue for social justice. This is followed by a discussion of the work of Reay (2000; 2004) and Zembylas’s (2007) elaboration of Bourdieu’s ‘capitals’ framework. By researching how emotion is captured/capitalized and how this ‘emotional capital’ manifests in mature students’ professional and personal lives because of higher education, the meaning of emotion and the contextualisation of emotion within higher education will be addressed. The research methods will be justified in the second part of this essay.