Future students’ stories about higher education: an ethnomethodologically inspired analysis of described interests

Previous research is unequivocal regarding higher education’s importance for regional or national development, and the local presence of highly educated individuals in a municipality is crucial for its prosperity and development. The study aim is to increase understanding of representational perceptions of future university students in rural areas regarding university studies. Qualitative interviews create and reproduce meaningful representational perceptions, rendering a private dimension in stories about family and friends and an academic dimension in stories about the academic environment and research. Representational perceptions in both dimensions are dramatized as an ethno-methodological balance between verbal conflicting interests and downplaying these interests, producing and reproducing involvement, community, fusion, consensus, and participation in the narrative, rather than a verbal split. This balance reflects social pedagogical recognition relevant to their interest and success in university studies.