Filmic figurations of the ‘non-traditional’ student: The pedagogical problems and possibilities of <em>Educating Rita</em>

Films offer useful entry points into how the university and the university student may be understood within the social imagination. In this article, we explore the 1980s film Educating Rita (1983), which many commentators argue offers a ground-breaking portrayal of the ‘non-traditional’ higher education (HE) student. Educating Rita’s success, in part, arose from its novel depiction of an older working-class woman who transitions to study at an elite university. Despite the film being around forty years old, it continues to contribute to popular understandings of HE, and remains an enduring presence in classrooms around the world. Previous researchers have highlighted the film as a powerful pedagogical resource which can be used to orient non-traditional students to university life and different ways of being and acting as a university student. In this article, we critically investigate the pedagogical value of Educating Rita, positioning it as a complex text which needs to be taught with great care. While previous readings have emphasised its empowering possibilities, we argue that Educating Rita also offers troubling representations which need to be carefully considered. Arguably, the film’s narrative turns on the stigmatisation of working-class family and culture, traditional notions that education leads to social mobility and ultimately ‘escape’, and reveals the university to be a fraught environment for an older, working-class woman. This paper offers implications for those exploring Educating Rita with non-traditional students, sharing critical issues to consider.