Lyn Tett

‘A real rollercoaster of confidence and emotions’: learning to be a university student

Accounts of emotion and affect have gained popularity in studies of learning. This article draws on qualitative research with a group of non‐traditional students entering an elite university in the UK to illustrate how being and becoming a university student is an intrinsically emotional process. It argues that feelings of loss and dislocation are inherent to the students’ experiences of entering university, and that ‘coming to know’ a new community of practice is an emotional process that can incorporate feelings of alienation and exclusion, as well as of excitement and exhilaration. A broader understanding of how students learn then depends not just upon the individual’s emotional commitment to developing a new learning identity, but on the emotional interaction between the student and the learning environment of the university.

Collaborative partnerships in community education

This paper reports on a study into collaborative partnerships between community educators and the variety of partners with whom they work. It suggests that, despite a policy imperative promoting partnership working, collaboration is only one of many solutions to the problem of delivering effective services and argues that there are a number of circumstances when it is best avoided. It contends that partnerships need to build a meta-strategy that is designed to allow all relevant interests to explore possible ways forward whilst, at the same time (a) advancing their own mission, and (b) building up the capacity (trust, understanding, synergy) to engage in effective and sustained collaborative working. Finally, it is concluded that the power relations in collaborative partnerships are critical and partners must take account of the exclusionary and inclusionary practices often built on deficit ideologies that these generate.

Im Working Class and Proud of Itgendered experiences of non-traditional participants in higher education

This article examines the gendered experiences of a small group of working-class participants in higher education through an analysis of interview data of students’ recollected and current experiences around four themes: their school experiences; their later learning experiences; their views about higher education; and their attitudes to being working class. It is argued that how people describe their experiences reflects the ways in which they construct their feminine and masculine identities, which are not static but are historically and spatially situated and evolving. It is suggested that whilst a persons subjective position is as importantly influenced by, for example, race and age, as by class and gender, these are always key factors in interpreting lived experience. It concludes that through questioning the discourses of class and gender that frame the ways of thinking, problems and practices which are regarded as legitimate, it begins to be possible for students to open up new ways of thinking reflexively about the social construction of their experiences of education.

Mature working-class students in an ‘elite’ university: Discourses of risk, choice and exclusion

Abstract Widening participation initiatives tend to focus on raising the aspirations of the working class rather than changing educational cultures. However, any analysis must take account of the role of the educational institution itself in creating and perpetuating inequalities. Participation in higher education (HE) is an inherently more risky, costly and uncertain ‘choice’ for working class groups and this frames their decisions. This paper focuses on the particular issues and ‘risks’ raised when mature working-class students form a small minority in an elite institution. It draws on the experiences of two cohorts of mature students to examine the contrasting discourses used to explain their exclusion and choice. It argues that if the entrenched inequalities in participation in, and across, HE are to be properly addressed and systematically dismantled, there is a need to understand issues of process and structure, and exclusion and choice, in all their complexity.

Education, social justice and inter-agency working: joined up or fractured policy?

Gender equality has been a major educational theme for the past two decades and has become interwoven with other policy themes, including those of marketisation and managerialism. Contributors to this strong collection are key researchers in their fields and seek to address the following questions: * What patterns are discernible in the educational attainment of girls and boys over the past two decades? * To what extent are changes attributable to gender equality policies? * What form have gender equality policies taken in different parts of the UK? * What has been the impact of European equality policies? * How have gender equality policies been experienced by particular groups including pupils from ethnic minority and working-class backgrounds? This book aims to take an overall look at how significant have been the changes in experiences, aspirations and culture of girls and boys and male and female teachers. It explores how attempts to improve equal opportunities in education have fared and examines the tensions and contradications in recent policies.

From college to university: looking backwards, looking forwards

This paper reports on the first phase of a study of the experiences of a small group of students (35) that have entered an ‘elite’ Scottish university directly from Further Education (FE) colleges where they have studied Higher National Certificate and Diploma courses. Students’ experiences were gathered through in‐depth interviews and a standardised questionnaire on entry to the university. Students typically reported positive experiences of their previous courses, with good support from staff. A key concern was balancing study and other commitments, with support from families particularly important. Despite these concerns, the students’ responses to questionnaire items on their approaches to learning in FE were similar to the patterns of responses reported by successful Higher Education (HE) students in other studies. The students’ hopes and fears about HE encompassed both a sense of excitement about this stage as well as considerable anxiety at leaving the highly supportive FE environment.

Adult literacy, learning identities and pedagogic practice

This article discusses the relationship between persistence in adult literacy and numeracy programs, changes in the participants’ attitudes to engaging in learning and pedagogic practices using data from eight Scottish literacy education organizations. It argues that literacy learning can act as a resource that enables vulnerable adults to change their dispositions to learning, achieve their goals and make a transition towards their imagined futures. Pedagogic practices that operate from an approach that emphasized learners’ strengths, rather than their deficits, and critically interrogated learners’ experiences used as a resource for learning were the most successful in enabling this transition. Holistic provision that creates a supportive community of practice was found to be the most effective in bringing about the positive changes that learners identified they wished to make in their lives.

Families at a Disadvantage: class, culture and literacies

Abstract This paper addresses the issue of diverse literacies, and the problems of privileging a dominant form of literacy at the expense of those from non‐mainstream cultures. It uses data from a family literacy project to illustrate how the actual literacy practices of working‐class families and communities can be incorporated into learning programmes. It argues that whilst familiarity with the dominant forms of spoken and written language is a vital ingredient in adults’ and childrens communicative functioning, it should not be the unchallenged objective of education. Instead opportunities to legitimate the vernacular literacies of the home and community should be sought. In so doing deficit views of families at a disadvantage can be replaced by views that positively value the home culture to the benefit of both the home and the school.

Partnerships, community groups and social inclusion

The themes of collaboration and partnership lie at the heart of the vision of a range of UK initiatives designed to tackle social exclusion. However, the benefits are extolled and the costs to community groups are minimized. Some of the problems and possibilities for the involvement of community groups in partnerships are considered. Partnerships are characterized by processes of inclusion and exclusion, dominance and subordination and it is argued that attention must be paid to the structures and processes involved. New ways of thinking about representation are required, with priority given to including those with the least power who are nevertheless the most expert in identifying the needs of their own communities, if local action is going to reduce social exclusion.

Learning, Rehabilitation and the Arts in Prisons: A Scottish Case Study.

Abstract This article investigates the role of the arts in enabling prisoners to engage with learning and improve their literacy, and the impact this has on their rehabilitation and desistance from crime. It draws on data collected from prisoners who participated in arts interventions in three different Scottish prisons. It argues that participating in the arts projects built an active learning culture and encouraged the improvement of verbal and written literacy skills through the use of positive pedagogical approaches. In addition participants learned to work together more effectively, developed self-confidence and were more trusting and supportive because they were working together on intensive projects that they had co-devised. For many prisoners participation in the arts projects constructively challenged and disrupted the negative identities that they had internalised. Their public successes in performances before audiences of significant others opened up new personal and social identities (as artists or performers) that helped them to begin to envision an alternative self that in turn motivated them towards future desistance from crime.