Disrupting discourses Rethinking the student experience: - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Disrupting discoursesRethinking the student experience: the case of student carersBERA 2017

CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AND EQUITY RESEARCHSlide2

Dr Charlotte Morris

Rethinking the student experience: The case of student parents /carers

CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AND EQUITY RESEARCHSlide3

‘The student experience’‘Belonging’ (key concept in retention literature)The ‘ideal learner’ who is constructed through discourse as ‘male, white, middle-class and able-bodied, an autonomous individual, unencumbered by domestic responsibility, poverty or self-doubt’

and caring responsibilities.(Leathwood

and O’Connell, 2003, p. 599

)

How do these discourses impact on student carers?

Why the gap between discourses of belonging & inclusion and experiences?

To what extent are student carers able to recognise and resist such discourse?

DiscoursesSlide4

Post 1992 university; case study – student parentsInstitutional research - Learning and teaching fellowship funded

Research and development, feeding into equality and diversity work & policy

Phase one: Literature review – empirical research; neoliberal context; care.

Survey of 130 student parents;

12 interviews (8 undergraduate, 4 postgraduate);

Phase two: 8 further case studies of student carers;

According

to the Care Act

(2014) a carer is someone ‘who provides or intends to provide care for an adult or child’.

The projectSlide5

Multiple barriers – time (need to juggle), financial, childcare constraints, emotional challenges and isolation (Hinton-Smith, 2012; NUS, 2009; Reay, 2003) Alsop et al., 2008 – gendered (women traditionally carers).

Marandet and Wainwright (2010)

‘belonging’

identified as key issue – HE environment geared to meet needs of younger students without caring responsibilities

.

Estes (2011) – role conflicts –

impossibility of being good student & parent; Both roles labour intensive, require large emotional and time commitments.

Brookes (2012

) - Contrast UK ‘liberal’ welfare regime and Danish ‘social democratic’ regime – services provided on universal (rather than selective) basis and high value accorded to achieving social equality. Student parents viewed more favourably as ‘good students’.Moreau (2016) UK Institutional policy contexts: ‘careblind’ / universal; ‘targeted’ / add-on; ‘mainstream’ needs considered in policy – even in these contexts needs to be whole institution ‘buy-in’.

Overview of literature:

E

mpirical research –parents / carers, mature students.Slide6

‘Carelessness’ (Lynch, 2009) Assumptions

of academia and academics as being ‘care-free’ have a long history in university culture

Binary

Cartesian

thought: reason / emotion; mind / body; masculinity / femininity.

Kittay

(1999) and Fineman (2008)

– importance of relationality and interdependencies.

Neoliberal academic climate - new moral legitimacy to carelessness; primacy of self-interest over care for others.Leathwood and Hey (2009) – universities constructed as ‘emotion-free zone’- conflicting discourses;

Burke (2015) - impacts of hyper-individualised climate; negative and shaming effects on those who are

vulnerable;

marked by gendered, racialized and classed differences, including those with pregnant and / or caring bodies.

The careless neoliberal academySlide7

Student retention literature has highlighted need for ‘good student experience’ – socially and academically integrated (Trotter and Roberts, 2006; Yorke, 1999; 2004; Yorke

and London, 2008);Concern with attendance of ‘non-traditional’ students and inclusion of working-class, first generation, mature students and those with disabilities (Tinto, 1993’ 1997)

However ‘curious absence’ of attention to students with caring responsibilities;

Indeed ‘the social’ and social spaces pertains to student accommodation, the student bar – excluding parents.

Thomas (2002; 2012) foregrounds importance of students developing sense of belonging, further integrating social and academic domains (institutional habitus) – highly influential;

Translated into university strategies – uncritical ‘quick-win solutions’ and mainstreaming which do not recognise / address underlying differences / inequities.

Reproduce constructions of ‘normal’ student – marginalises those who do not fit definitions.

Retention literatureSlide8

‘The student experience’ has gained momentum in policy discourse over last decade (Sabri 2011) Brown Review of HE (2010) ‘the student experience’ positioned as central to increase in student ‘choice’ – play pivotal role in policy rationale underpinning marketization of higher education and elevation of student as consumer.

‘The student experience’ straddles two areas; ‘learning and teaching’ expressed in consumer terms (via NSS) and

‘extra-curricular’

which coincides with

marketised

and commercialised

student leisure and entertainment;

‘Totemic quality’ – lack of criticality

Homogenises, commodifies and diminishes an understanding of both ‘students’ and ‘experiences’ ‘The student experience’Slide9

The survey sample: Respondents (n=130): 78.6% undergraduate 42% lone parents 91% women 84.5% full-time

58% also in paid work 13.6% also have disability 56% commuting / 43% locally based

Interview:

All women, 30 – 50

8 undergraduate, 4 postgraduate

5 undergraduates also working, 2 postgraduates working.

9 working-class backgrounds

Five disclosed mental health difficulties

Health, Education, Social Sciences.The researchSlide10

The student experience?

‘Parents don’t seem to fit the criteria of the

stereotypical students

which the university caters for’; ‘a lot of the events are

designed for younger students

, not a lot is organised for mature students’; ‘I don’t think they purposefully hinder but I feel unless you are a

‘proper’ student

you will not find out about this stuff

’.‘I don't have the free time to get drunk, nor the desire to. The university social scene is driven by alcohol, bar crawls, coach trips to night clubs all organised by university affiliates. Fresher’s fair is swamped by bars and pubs handing put drink vouchers. I'm only 26, but this scene is not attractive or helpful to those who don't want to affect their kids by coming home drunk, who have limited finances, who have responsibilities to babies throughout the night and the following day.’Slide11

‘I can never get to anything! Things are always organised for early evening when I'm collecting from childcare, making tea, helping with homework!’

‘Unfortunately I do not have the time to participate in any sports groups and I do not have enough money to be able to attend any group events with my class. This is upsetting as everyone else is able to enjoy themselves, but with responsibilities to my children, it is essential the decisions made are with their best interests

.’

‘I

think it should be more welcoming for us to bring our children with us sometimes which would help them see that they can aspire to go to university. Have a crèche and longer opening hours.

Do

some family friendly events and things.’

Participation in ‘student experience’Slide12

Lack of understanding and flexibility from academic staff – academic (as well as personal, affective) implications.

Tracey, 42, single parent of two, access route, undergraduate in education

The only time I’ve had to call upon the university for support was recently actually um I had some big assignments coming up, I’d got two out of the way but there was a

biggy

coming up and I had to do well in it. I’d done all the reading, I had all my notes ready, I had my plan ready and in my diary I’d put three weekends in – I didn’t have the children, they were going to their dads and that was the only time I had to do it, on those weekends. I wasn’t panicking because it was all sorted and then just before the first weekend their dad said ‘they can’t come to me’ and so for those three weekends I had the children. I came to the university for an extension – I’d never done that before, never done it and I was told I couldn’t have one so I just had to get on with it but I was a little bit cross and I ended up bursting into tears.

InclusionSlide13

‘I

do a lot for the university, most of it unpaid, I’ve had 100% attendance, I give 100% when I’m there – I do Ok in assignments, I’m not a first but I do Ok, I contribute to everything, I’ve never asked for an extension, now I am and these are my reasons and I didn’t get it. So I was cross more than anything.

As

it turned out I’m quite glad I did because I got a good grade

and

I’m not going to fail, you’re not going to make me fail. I’m trying to talk to you about it and you’re not listening to what I’m saying, you’re not going to make me fail. In the end I’m glad I did because it’s out of the way, the mark’s out of the way. That’s the only time I’ve ever asked for help from the university specifically to do with children and it didn’t happen. I haven’t got a lot of faith in it, put it that way

.’Slide14

‘I feel like we are ignored. It’s like we don’t fit the general student mould and it’s our own fault

’.‘I have never heard of anything for student parents. It is almost weird to say that you have children because nobody cares

about our private

life.’

‘The university focuses on the stereotypical Fresher - who comes straight from the family home and needs help with accommodation and budgeting. The majority of parents left their

parents’

home quite some time ago and have different needs than younger students. I genuinely feel like I am some sort of

bizarre anomaly in terms of being a parent student, a "unique, freak" and for the most time, invisible

. I know I am not the only single parent in the university, but most of the time it feels that way. BelongingSlide15

‘[One of the biggest challenges is] lecturers not understanding that my child comes first! I live in X and travel to X and for late finishes ask to leave lectures/seminars a few minutes early as my train comes at 1 minute past the hour only and some have been really rude about this! A 9-5

uni day to me is actually a 6:30am-7:30pm day. My child's school has breakfast and after school club but they are only open 7-6 meaning I have to rely on relatives to take and collect him. I have explained this and still received rude remarks about how I chose to come to

uni

and how I should prioritise.’

‘Consider

the model of the student family.

I am not an individual, I am an essential part of a family, and it defines me, and it is the reason I am a student developing my career. Why not value

that with a special family induction day - where they can understand what they have all let themselves in for. Occasional events, and a mention/provision at graduation - It's very stuffy and unfriendly to children (and most people really!). I'd love to bring them onto the stage with me at graduation. My children think I've joined the secret service, but I think that's part of a wider culture within the University of

seeing parenthood as a problem - to do something about.’ Slide16

‘I suppose [other students] a bit more used to being in education whereas I had done the year before of the access course but it was only an access course, if I hadn’t done the course I wouldn’t have been prepared for this at all, I wouldn’t have known how to write an essay or

anything. I suppose I did feel a bit cagey ‘cos other people, especially as people live here as well people got to be really close friends and stuff and you could see groups of people whereas I was on my own… so I

dunno

, I supposed it would be like… ‘cos when you’re at school there’s a class but there’s so many more people at

uni

and you don’t have that class so you’re kind of… I don’t know, I just thought it would be a little bit more social I

s’pose…

It

would be nice to kind of meet up with other parents because sometimes I tend to put pressure on myself to kind of keep up with other people but I have to remember I am keeping up with everyone else, I’m not failing anything but I have to find out things for myself if I’m struggling – I’ve got children, I have to work – I’ve got to remember I’m just not going to get an A in everything, it’s just not going to happen…’Carly (aged 31,working-class, non-traditional route mother of two school age children, had come to university via access route following years of working in retail since leaving school at 16.)

Like a ‘fish out of water’Slide17

In terms of ‘student choice’, student carers likely to have limited / no ability to choose alternative institutions – geographically, financially and timebound, support structures;

Critical as individuals; may form support groups; may complain (if have resources).

However, lacking voice and representation – time constraints inhibit participation;

Internalisation of discourses / acceptance – not university’s responsibility.

Limited ability to affect change – intervention needed.

Individual staff members attempting to raise awareness, initiative changes.

Equality, widening participation and access agendas.

Needs buy-in from senior management – economic arguments.

Resistance?Slide18

Students constructed as young, care-free, middle-class (male), relatively affluent, autonomous, pleasure seeking, consumerist individuals with no dependencies, able to freely make choices and benefit from a commercialised ‘student experience’.

Pedagogical, material and affective consequences for those who do not fit this mould, indeed positioned as ‘other’.

Discourses assume ‘ the student’ as a homogenous group, gives impression of generic ‘student’

Such

discourses are

excluding, silencing and shaming - validating

certain kinds of students and experiences over others – which students are able to make

choices

/ have voice to articulate what want and be listened to? Which students get to be included and to belong?Myriad contextual factors which constrain choices of student carers.

‘Mainstreaming’, ‘quick win’ approach to retention risks further marginalising the needs of those who do not fit the ‘normal’ student;

Recognise and respond to differentiated needs of student carers.

Ultimately need to challenge pervasive underlying – ‘careless’ and reductionist notion of the ‘ normal student’, ‘ideal learner’.

Conclusions