Learning Returns: The limitations and benefits of ‘snowballing recruitment’ as a process when researching the learning journeys of adults returning to education

Broadhead, Samantha ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9469-1233, Hooper, Sharon ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4538-0193 and Gonnet, Henry ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3201-9211 (2025) Learning Returns: The limitations and benefits of ‘snowballing recruitment’ as a process when researching the learning journeys of adults returning to education. In: Change and continuity: Thirty years of FACE. FACE, Peterborough. ISBN 978-0-9954922-7-1 (In Press)

Abstract

An arts-based research project, Learning Returns, was designed to capture the learning journeys of mature learners. The participants had all returned to study the arts after being away from education and training. They undertook many routes back into education. Arts-based methods incorporating film-making were the means employed to record their stories (Broadhead and Hooper, 2024). Recruitment of the participants was continuous throughout the project and adopted a ‘snowballing’ approach. This involved the nomination by the participants of other potentially eligible people who could also make valuable contributions. Snowballing is not unproblematic as it is reliant on the social capital of the participants, and this could inadvertently exclude possible candidates from the research investigation. On the other hand, recruiting participants through data from institutions depends on who is identified as a legitimate learner, and this can also lead to exclusions of those learning in informal settings. This chapter reflects on how the snowballing strategy allowed for new insights to be gained about how mature learners become part of cultural ecologies, keeping in mind that only people who are part of these networks are identified as possible participants. It also shows how adult learners can play an important role in widening access to arts education.

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