Gender Issues in Parental Involvement in Student Choices of Higher Education

This article explores gender, social class and ethnic issues in parental involvement in students' choices of higher education. It draws upon interviews with students and their parents, who were a small group of an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study of students' higher education choice processes in the UK. Gender was highly significant in several respects, illustrating changes in higher education over the last 20 years, whereby more women than men now enter higher education. Most of the interviewees were female. They were mothers and daughters who were thinking about higher education. The article explores first how gender is inflected in choice processes--from whether students choose to involve their parents in the study, to their parents' characteristics, to the forms of involvement revealed. Different facets of involvement are considered--interest, influence and support, investment and intrusion. Secondly, the article provides illustrations of girls' collaborative approaches to the choice processes, in which some of their mothers also engage. This is contrasted with boys' perspectives and those of fathers who were interviewed. This illustrates how gender is woven through social networks across the generations. Parental involvement varied in terms of gender, educational and social backgrounds, or notions of 'institutional' and 'familial habitus'. Finally, the authors reflect upon why gender is salient in how young people and their parents think about their involvement in choosing universities and relate this to changes in higher education policies and practices.     

Agency in action: young Muslim women and negotiating higher education in Australia

This article draws on an analysis of the narratives of Australian young Muslim women to explore their higher education experiences and aspirations. The article aims to explore the notion of agency employed by Muslim female university students in relation to the ways they discover their own capabilities along their deployment of available financial, cultural and social resources under cultural and structural constrains. The women’s accounts suggest that pursuit of higher education is highly perceived as a key to girls’ success and economic independence in the present precarious neoliberal environment yet concerns over Islamophobia and gender and racial discrimination which may curtail employment opportunities are present. The research findings also suggest that educational outcomes entail complex forms of negotiation, bargaining and resistance, stressing the ways in which class, gender, ethnicity and religion interrelate.     

Gender Relations and the Production of Difference in School-based Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education in Australia

HIV/AIDS discourses have not only made people aware of HIV as a disease entity but have opened up new ways of thinking and talking about sex and sexuality. This article draws on findings from an evaluation of a pilot sexuality education programme, conducted in secondary schools in Victoria (Australia), to examine gender relations and the production of difference. Participating schools were required to incorporate teaching and learning experiences which normalised and affirmed sexual diversity and explored issues around HIV-related discrimination and homophobia. Two examples, gender, power and menstruation and heterosexism and homophobia, are used to analyse the language and practices students engage in as part of the process of achieving a (hetero)sexual identity. It is argued that HIV/AIDS education and sexuality education, more broadly defined, presents a particular challenge to dominant forms of masculinity and that programmes need to address gender, power and heterosexuality and its discontents if they are to have a positive impact on HIV-related discrimination and homophobia.     

Multiple,relational and emotional mobilities: Understanding student mobilities in higher education as more than ‘staying local’ and ‘going away’

This paper advances theorising around student geographies in higher education (HE). It extends recent work, which has problematised the primacy of social class and binary thinking about student mobilities, and presents local/non‐local experiences and im/mobility as a defining dualism. Drawing on a qualitative longitudinal study of women's experiences during and on completion of HE, the following explores the ways in which a more diverse and constantly negotiated set of mobility practices emerge relationally, in the stratified field of HE, and through shifting personal and emotional attachments. Theoretically, the paper develops a new approach to student mobilities, synthesising dominant Bourdieusian notions of field with relational theories pertaining to mobilities (e.g. Adey, 2009), emotion (e.g. Holmes, 2010) and personal life (e.g. Mason, 2004; Smart, 2007). Such an approach makes it possible to move beyond the binary thinking that has become entrenched in policy and academic debates about student mobilities, and recognise a broader range of movements, flows, stops and starts that emerge relationally, emotionally and temporally as students and graduates move into and through HE. It is argued here that, given the policy emphasis on accelerated and flexible HE provision (BIS, 2016), a gradational view of student mobilities is more important than ever.     

'A Special Duty of Care': Exploring the narration and experience of teacher caring

The present article questions our conceptualisation of teacher caring in contemporary Australian society. It draws on media discussions of the school and teachers, and the writer's ethnographic experiences in an urban secondary high school, to explore our expectations of teachers and the ways in which these expectations shape teachers' relations with students. Our discussions about teachers suggest that underlying debates about the responsibilities of teachers are widely shared idealisations of the teacher figure. I suggest that Bourdieu's concept of habitus, and more specifically the development of this concept to talk specifically about an institutional habitus, can inform our understanding of the ways in which these ideals are enacted in a particular educational setting. I explore the ways in which broader social processes of social class and gender interplay and contribute to shaping caring relations between teachers and students through the intermediary structures of a specific high school.     

Risk,identity and change: Becoming a mature student

This article looks at the stories mature students tell about the risks of higher education, in terms of its effects on identity and the implications for relationships with their families and former friends. Two sources of risk are highlighted in their stories; firstly, risks stemming from challenges to established gender roles in the family, which are mediated by the effects of social class; and secondly, risks that accompany the movement away from working class habitus which is an inevitable consequence of being in higher education. To be 'educated' is to stake a claim to a new identity which can be threatening both to one's own sense of self or to others. This may be experienced either as being seen by others as superior, or as feeling superior to others, but in both cases, there is an implicit challenge to former relationships. In their accounts, students describe how they try to manage relationships with families and former friends in order to minimise the disruption to their lives. Whatever strategy they adopt has consequences for their self-identity, which is experienced as fragmented and compartmentalised. In this process of becoming a different person, gender and class interact to produce specifically gendered and classed experiences of this painful transition.     

Students’ experiences of co-creating classroom instruction with faculty- a case study in eastern context

In order to co-create teaching and learning for enhanced student engagement, faculty–student partnership in higher education is emerging as a distinguished practice in the West especially for undergraduates. However, little is known about the impact of such practices in the East. This article reports the benefits of a term long collaboration between the faculty and students in designing and delivering classroom instructions through the experiences of faculty–student partnership of post graduate students. The findings indicate that while students had positive experiences, they were also distinct in a number of ways when compared with the experiences of students in the West. Students also provided insightful information on the mechanism of navigating through their newly assigned roles of partnership with their faculty. The implications are discussed for higher education practitioners and recommendations are provided for further investigation to achieve better understanding of this practice.     

Teaching Women's Studies: The effects of 'race' and gender

This article aims to explore the relationship between gender and 'race' when teaching a course on 'race', class and gender to women's studies students at a university. It will explore how the racial background and gender of the lecturer may affect the relationship she has with the students and how they see her role as a teacher of 'race' and gender. It will examine how teaching can be and is related to our personal subjective experiences such as our gender, 'race', class, sexuality and age. Whilst most students welcomed the opportunity to discuss issues around 'race' and racism, for some (mostly Black and Asian students) this was often seen as a painful experience based on past experiences. For others (mostly white women) the opportunity to discuss and hear about the experiences of Black and Asian women was something they valued. The article goes on to argue that teaching students about sensitive subjects such as 'race' can be affected not only by the personal experiences of the lecturer, but also by their racial identity and their gender. Indeed, such identities can also affect how students feel about such subjects and how they, in turn, experience their learning.     

Evoked prior experiences in first-year university student learning

In this article, we focus on three aspects of students' prior experiences of learning: evoked conceptions of learning, evoked motivation and evoked self-efficacy. We show how, for a first-year undergraduate population, these three aspects of evoked prior experience relate to students' approaches to learning and their perceptions of the learning environment as well as to their previous schooling, their gender and the broad discipline area in which they are studying. In doing so, we confirm that evoked prior experiences are distinct and measurable and can be used to better understand the ways in which students experience learning in higher education.     

Examining students’ perspectives on gender bias in their work-integrated learning placements

ABSTRACT

Work-integrated learning (WIL) affords students opportunities to apply skills and knowledge to practical work placements. Students potentially learn professional behaviours appropriate to their chosen industry sector. However, students may also face challenges they may not be prepared to navigate. One of these is gender bias due to assumptions about women and work, particularly within STEM sectors. This article presents findings from a pilot study that explores WIL students’ perspectives on gender bias related to experiences at their internship placements or other jobs. The findings suggest that the potential lack of gender neutrality within organizations such as WIL placements, is nuanced through an underlying bias around thinking about gender, women and work, and demonstrated through institutional structures such as branded recruitment campaigns or the individual micro aggressions of co-workers and supervisors. Further research needs to focus on the impact of gender bias on students’ sense of value within different organizations, and the strategies they employ to navigate bias. In the short-term, all students need tools to help them understand how gender is constructed within organizational processes and how to develop strategies to help them confront gender bias within the organizations in which they work.     

The communication patterns of Chinese students with their lecturers in an Australian university

Chinese students are now the largest group of international students in the Australian higher education sector. The patterns of Chinese communication and education affect the ways that Chinese students engage with their lecturers and manage their learning relationships. A case study of these patterns provides a small window through which to observe the progress of higher education internationalisation in Australia. In this study, the experiences of seven Chinese students in a multicultural educational context are explored, with a focus on their communication practices and relationships with their lecturers in Australia. This paper contributes to understandings of how student–teacher communication practices affect learning experiences for Chinese students in Australian or other international universities.     

The Construction of Complementarity in Physical Education

This paper discusses the ways in which feminine and masculine subjectivities are constructed as complementary-that is, defined in opposition to one another. This concept will be explored in the context of secondary physical education through an analysis of open-ended interviews with students and teachers as they talk about themselves and each other in relation to physical activity and their expectations of masculine and feminine bodies. It will be argued that physical education is an important location in and through which bodies are inscribed with gender differences which contribute to the marginalisation of girls in relation to physical activity and help to inscribe the female body as lacking those qualities associated with the active male body.     

Keeping them in line: choreographing classroom spaces

This paper provides teachers with an opportunity for thinking about the kinds of ‘people’ constructed in their classes, the kinds of ‘dances’ choreographed and the ways space is organised for learning. We argue that this is essential for teachers to think about if they are to enact socially just professional practices. In this study, we explore the ways in which students learn to be particular kinds of people. We understand this as happening through their participation in communities of practice. Becoming a member of a community of practice, of a classroom and of a school is a process of developing a particular identity, modes of behaviour and ways of knowing. It is through these ‘normalising’ practices that power is constituted, boundaries constructed and certain ‘kinds of people’ are recognised, represented and constituted, whilst others are not. All individuals are implicated in these processes and active in the construction of their own as well as others’ identities. This paper locates this discussion using social relations of gender and ethnicity, and considers how diversity and difference are actively constituted and play out in one primary school classroom. How students participate in the spatial practices and the construction of pedagogical spaces, what identities are available to them in these spaces and which they take up, is explored. The metaphor of dance is used to analyse these spaces, a metaphor which helps us to understand the complexity of classroom relationships and the way macro‐social practices are both reflected and reconstituted in classroom practices. We argue that the ways teachers think about how they place students, space students and construct students are crucial for student and teacher learning.     

The pedagogical balancing act: teaching reflection in higher education

Despite the common use of the term reflection in higher education assessment tasks, learners are not often taught how to communicate their disciplinary knowledge through reflection. This paper argues that students can and should be taught how to reflect in deep and transformative ways. It highlights the reflexive pedagogical balancing act of attending to different levels of reflection as a way to stimulate focused, thoughtful and reasoned reflections that show evidence of new ways of thinking and doing. The paper uses data from a current project to illustrate the effects of focusing on particular levels of reflection in the pedagogical strategies used, and argues that while the goal of academic or professional reflection is generally to move students to the highest level of reflection to transform their learning/practice, unless higher education teachers attend to every level of reflection, there are specific, observable gaps in the reflections that students produce.     

Being ‘fun’ at work: emotional labour,class, gender and childcare

This paper reports on data drawn from an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded project investigating the experiences of UK‐based students training on level‐2 and level‐3 childcare courses. We focus on the concept of emotional labour in relation to learning to care for and educate young children and the ways in which the students’ experiences of emotional labour and the expectations placed upon their behaviour and attitudes are shaped by class and gender. We consider the ways in which students are encouraged to manage their own and the children's emotions and we identify a number of ‘feeling rules’ that demarcate the vocational habitus of care work with young children. We conclude by emphasising the importance of specific contexts of employment in order to understand workers’ emotional labour and argue for more recognition of the intense demands of emotional labour in early childhood education and care work.     

Multiple pathways to whiteness: white teachers’ unsteady racial identities

Abstract

Teacher education programs in the US, recognizing the mismatch that exists in preschool provision between mostly white teachers and a very diverse intake of young children, have begun to explore ways of raising racial awareness among pre-service teachers, with the aim of improving non-white children’s classroom experiences and outcomes. This paper analyzes 60 critical memoirs written by students about their own awareness of their identity to demonstrate the intersectionality of teacher identity, and in particular the impact of social class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religion on the processes whereby white students acquire a successful white teacher identity. In doing so, it highlights the ways white pre-service teachers who hope to work with young children imagine or realize their whiteness as it intersects with other aspects of their identities.     

Sex and gender in transition in US schools: ways forward

Abstract

This paper examines the current state of law and policy in relation to US transgender youth and their lived experiences. We approach this from different disciplinary backgrounds, identities, and ways of writing terms related to gender identity. We begin with an examination of the current legal climate in the USA and explore how students have pushed back against gender and sexuality norms even in a restrictive climate. Some transformations are already happening in public schools and some backlash, too, is being felt. Laws and policies in some locations are encouraging students, teachers, school leaders and community members to collaborate in making schools more educationally concerned about trans student success and teaching the school community about gender diversity. In shifting among scales and experiences of youth thinking and working on gender, we aim to emphasise youth agency and outline young people’s frustrations at the obstacles related to trans, gender dissidence and sexuality. In conclusion, we point to changes that can be made in schools to help professionals understand how policy and curricular innovation can bolster the openings that trans, gender creative and gender non-binary youth are already creating, whether or not those opportunities are officially recognised.     

Who cares? Gender dynamics in the valuing of extra-curricular activities in higher education

Despite the assertion that higher education is becoming increasingly ‘feminised’ and that male students are the relative losers, gendered meanings continue to permeate higher education in ways that mean that the recognition of women's experiences are frequently marginalised. Our paper reports on research designed to explore student participation in extra-curricular activity from a perspective informed by a broader conceptualisation of the extra-curricular as a site of gendered, raced, and class practices intimately tied to the development of an employable self. We found that women frequently undervalue their participation and are more likely to be dismissive of extra-curricular activity as of value to their employability than men and that they rarely consider caring to be a form of capital which can be utilised or invested in to support their future employment. We argue that higher education institutions need to support students, in particular women, to recognise the value of their participation.     

A thousand words are worth a picture: a snapshot of trans* postsecondary educators in higher education

Abstract

Trans* is becoming a buzzword and trans* celebrities have become increasingly visible. On college campuses, trans* students have also become more visible and advocacy for them continues to be extremely important. To support these claims, some literature has emerged regarding trans* college students’ identity development and experiences on campuses, including their perceptions of campus climate. However, higher education scholars and professionals know virtually nothing about the lived experiences of trans* educators working in colleges and universities. Extending on the importance of scholarship regarding trans* college students, trans* educators’ experiences are important because these educators are in positions of influence as mentors, advisors, and role-models to students and colleagues, and perhaps knowing their journey and how they can better be supported will allow their contributions on campuses to become more visible. Additionally, these educators are in positions of power in the university and encourage all people invested in higher education environments to advocate for increased notions of gender and inclusion in their offices, departments, units and the university as a whole. Through the use of portraiture methodology, with semi-structured interviews and a participant-observation as methods the purpose of this study was to help make more visible the lives and experiences of trans* postsecondary educators, while expanding notions of gender in higher education.     

Four approaches to preservice teachers’ involvement in the writing of case stories: a qualitative research project

In this paper, professors’ framings for student-written cases in six elementary teacher education classes are examined. Analysis procedures were qualitative. There were similarities and differences in course syllabi and materials defining case writing, time spent on cases in class, ways of modeling cases, comments to students on drafts, and professors’ reasons for selecting favorite cases. All professors felt that a good case reflected a genuine dilemma which contained details, support, and reflection. Findings showed that writing roles within the research project had an impact upon ways in which case writing was directed, and how the professors thought about cases and reflected upon the experience afterward. Through their experiences with case writing and through engaging in self-inquiry about case writing, the professors came to understand their students in different ways, students came to understand professors and teaching in different ways, and professors developed new insights into their own practices.