British Asian women and the costs of higher education in England

This article will examine Asian women’s experiences of financial support in higher education. The article is based on 30 in-depth interviews with Asian women who were studying at a ‘new’ (post-1992) university in the South East of England. Women identified themselves as Muslim, Hindu and Sikh. The findings reveal that women’s religious and cultural background affects their attitudes towards financial support whilst at university. Through their participation in higher education, women are able to use their social and ethnic capital to enable them to receive financial and other kinds of support necessary for their success in higher education.     

As Capable as Other Students: Tanzanian Women with Disabilities in Higher Education

Globally, persons with disabilities are underrepresented in higher education. In sub-Saharan Africa, where opportunities for higher education are especially limited, women are unlikely to continue their education. This research investigates women in Tanzanian higher education with the double marginalisation of being a woman and having disabilities. The women were interviewed on what factors enabled access and participation for their educational success. A thematic analysis of qualitative data was applied. All of the women interviewed were motivated to complete their degrees. Key enabling factors were encouragement from their families and previous teachers, full participation in student life and sufficient financial support. Student life integration, especially peer study groups, and university staff training were emphasised along with structural modifications needed for campus facility access. They understood the importance of education, especially as women with disabilities, and the impact educated women with disabilities have as role models for young women, those with disabilities and without.     

Children with Specific Speech and Language Difficulties—the teachers' perspective

Children with specific speech and language difficulties are frequently placed in mainstream classrooms with varying degrees of support. Yet little attention has been paid to class teachers' views about the children's problems and educational needs. This paper reports the findings of a two-stage project in two local education authorities investigating the characteristics and needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD). Teachers, educational psychologists, and speech and language therapists in two local education authorities identified 133 eight year-old children who experienced primary difficulties with speech and language. Fifty-nine children and a subsample of 10 children of the same age who attended specialist regional schools participated in further investigations. Each of the children was assessed using a battery of instruments covering language, basic attainments and self- esteem. In addition, their teachers completed behaviour rating scales and an individual interview. The teachers comprised those working in specialist provisions, but also those in mainstream schools. In this paper data derived from the interviews with the teachers, supplemented by information from the assessments of the children's skills, will be reported. The teachers faced three challenges: the additional difficulties experienced by the children, their own knowledge gaps, and the barriers to meeting the children's needs. The implications of the results for inclusive education are addressed.     

Invisible experiences: Understanding the choices and needs of university students with dependent children

This paper analyses the results of a research project on the experiences and learning needs of students with dependent children in a 1960s university. The findings are based on semi‐structured interviews with university services and academic staff, as well as a questionnaire survey among students with dependent children and follow‐up in‐depth interviews with a sample of 18 of these students. The paper shows that, for those surveyed, future employment opportunities and being a role model for their children were the main motivations for entering higher education and that their choice of university was highly spatially restricted by their caring responsibilities. It also discusses the main issues students faced once at university, including time and timing, finance, childcare, confidence, sense of belonging and skills. The paper highlights how gender and other biographical characteristics influence parents' experiences and includes suggestions for lessening the barriers they face while at university.     

Diverse experiences of women leading in higher education: locating networks and agency for leadership within a university context in Papua New Guinea

The ways in which women deliberately press back against practices of oppression and demonstrate agency in higher education institutions are highly contextual and culturally bound. The formal and informal networks that women develop and maintain are important elements of generating agency and enhancing women's access to and opportunities for leadership. This article presents a case study from research that explored women's leadership experiences in a higher education context in the Pacific Islands – Papua New Guinea. Situated within a feminist poststructural methodology, the research examined women's experiences of leadership and considered aspects that influenced women's access to formal leadership roles. The findings illustrated that the women faced numerous barriers to formal leadership opportunities. A range of culturally and contextually located approaches supported women to demonstrate agency with regard to their own leadership development and practice. This research highlighted the importance of considering the relationship between networks and agency and the impact of associated cultural and contextual practices within organisations, providing insights into the culturally located complexities of women's leadership in higher education contexts.     

Student parents,hardship and debt: a qualitative study

To date little is known about the effects of financial hardship on student parents, who remain a significant although largely unrecognized proportion of the student population. The objective of this study was to gain an insight into their concerns and illuminate issues which may have far‐reaching consequences not only for the mental and physical health of student parents but also for their children. Interviews were conducted with 12 women who are parents balancing home life with studies and, in some cases, work. Questions were directed at obtaining information relating to both direct and indirect pressures of financial hardship on home and family life. Questioning covered eight topics: change in lifestyle; financial situation; work; sacrifices—financial or otherwise; financial resources; financial impact on mental or physical health; impact on children; doubts over worth of study. For the majority, financial adversity affected their psychological well‐being. In many cases parents reported that their own stress adversely affected their children. Questions were also raised regarding parents' ability to meet the dietary needs of their children. Quality of home and family life also suffered as a consequence of financial hardship. Students' reflections on their experiences offer a clear insight into the emotional costs of further education exacerbated by financial hardship for both them and their family.     

Prospects of higher education of the challenged women in India

The present study aimed to explore the various constraints faced by orthopaedically challenged women in their way towards higher education in Indian society. The tools used for the investigation are the General Information Schedule (GIS), Socioeconomic Schedule, and Interview Schedule. The sample consisted of 100 orthopaedically challenged women collected on the basis of a situational sampling technique from eastern parts of India (West Bengal). The findings are discussed in relation to the barriers to higher educational opportunities for challenged women in India. The study found that the brute physical or architectural barriers, financial constraints and the attitudinal barriers have a significant influence on higher education of the challenged woman. Furthermore, the study also found huge rates of wastage and stagnation at the primary and secondary level of education. The paper concludes by recommending the need for an overall approach for counteracting various constraints that exist in the early level of their education, without which we can hardly dream of higher education of the challenged women in a country like India.     

Turning points in the lives of two pioneer Arab women principals in Israel

This study investigates the managerial career development of two Arab women, pioneer principals within the Arab education system in Israel. Using in-depth interviews relating to the characteristics of the different stages leading up to and within their careers as school principals (childhood and academic studies; the struggle to achieve the position; and the period in their position as principal), the study reveals the characteristics and evolution of their managerial style. The research findings indicate that these are two highly motivated women who dared to swim against the tide from an early age and achieved their positions, albeit with the support of their families, but not without serious battles. As the first women principals in their communities they continue to develop, while coping with the norms of Arab patriarchal society, where they need to prove that, despite their gender and the associated expectations, they are effective leaders. This necessitated their initial adoption of an authoritarian administrative style, which they eventually adapt into a more empathetic style. The study contributes to the study of female management styles by showing the evolution of the two women's management styles within the context of their traditional society, thereby questioning previous studies that see women's management styles as a static phenomenon.     

Confronting dominant whiteness in the primary classroom: progressive student teachers' dilemmas and constraints

Concerns about new teachers' capacity to address diversity in their classrooms are growing in many parts of the West, and there is some consensus that one aspect of the problem is the narrow range of cultural and social backgrounds from which teacher candidates are drawn. Yet a minority of socially aware teachers, from all backgrounds, continue to join the profession, and attempt to teach in ways that address diversity and confront racism. Drawing on data from an on-going longitudinal study of progressive teachers in their early careers, this article explores the dilemmas and constraints faced by four student teachers on their final teaching practice. Focusing on the curriculum, it examines their different responses to the unexamined white norms and priorities in the material they are expected to teach. It concludes that while there is cause for optimism about some new teachers' understanding of and commitment to race equality and ethnic diversity, more attention needs to be paid to how schools respond to teachers who offer a challenge to hegemonic norms and practices. This work takes on a new significance in the context of recent government proposals to shift responsibility for initial teacher education in the UK from higher education institutions to the schools themselves.     

Learning with dyslexia in secondary school in New Zealand: What can we learn from students' past experiences?

This study uses an interpretive approach to present the prior secondary school experiences of four students with dyslexia now studying at university. Students with dyslexia in Aotearoa/New Zealand have had to contend with a compulsory education system that has not recognised their learning struggles nor supported their particular ways of learning. Students have had to develop their own support strategies to complete educational qualifications. Students' experienced teacher and system ignorance of their learning difficulties and needs. Inappropriate support offered in an ad hoc manner impacted on their success. Despite this all students developed their own strengths and support networks, which helped them to progress in their education. The success of these networks influenced their decision to continue onto university. Students perceived their learning with dyslexia as different from their peers and creating difficulties within the existing educational system, but not disabling.     

Women Returners to Further Education: employment and gender relations in the home

The education and retraining of ‘women returners’ to the labour market was an innovative development in further education in Britain in the 1980s. Fifty‐six women who undertook a part‐time information technology course at a college of further education in Birmingham were the subjects of this study. They were the respondents to a questionnaire sent to all women who had studied on the courses run between early 1987 and late 1989. A small number were subsequently interviewed. The aims of the research were twofold: firstly, to study their current employment situations and secondly to investigate the impact of employment on gender relations in the home. Almost all the women had been able to re‐enter employment, most using the skills they had learned on the course. However the course had not been instrumental in breaking down gender segregation in computing and few women worked in professional or male dominated jobs. The majority were in clerical, secretarial or administrative work, though this did mean that most had been able to rejoin the labour force at the same occupational level at which they had left. Some women, including half the black women in the study, improved their occupational position. It is argued that training for women who are in employment needs to be more available, otherwise the women in the study will not be able to progress into better jobs as their confidence grows and family commitments lessen. The study confirmed the continued pervasiveness of ideologies which prioritise men's employment and position of ‘breadwinners’ and women's continued responsibility for home and children. The conclusion of the study is that although feminists and others keen to promote equality for women in employment have made child care and more flexible working conditions the central issues, marriage and the sexual division of labour in the home, whilst equally significant, have been neglected and need to be given more consideration, both theoretically and strategically.     

Meeting the needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties

Clinical and diagnostic approaches to special educational needs do not translate easily into educational models. In some cases, these approaches can serve to limit understanding of children's wider needs. Children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) are a case in point. Clear criteria exist for identification, but identification mechanisms may not relate to the child's wider educational needs. This paper addresses the ways that children with SSLD present in mainstream educational settings. The study aimed to identify all Year 3 children with SSLD in two English local education authorities. One hundred and thirty-three children (95 boys and 37 girls were identified). Sixty-five per cent of the children were in mainstream schools, 14.3 per cent in mainstream schools with designated units and the remainder in special schools. Half were at stage 5 of the Code of Practice, with most of the remaining participants at stage 3. Children experienced a wide range of difficulties, in addition to their primary speech and language problems. Patterns of difficulties varied across children, and associations existed between particular forms of language problems and learning and relationship problems. Professionals (teachers, educational psychologists and speech and language therapists) varied in their understanding of the children's needs. The data highlight the range and diversity of the needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties and the need for a multi-professional approach to these children. It is argued that ‘best practice’ for these children must consider the impact of speech and language problems on children's access to the curriculum and their social and behavioural needs. Narrow diagnostic models do not provide the appropriate information to inform educational practice and support inclusive policies.     

The Case for Women Mentoring Women

ABSTRACT

The authors argue that there will be a critical mass of women in leadership positions in kinesiology and across higher education for substantial gender-based mentoring to take place in the 21st century. First, the current state of women in higher education leadership, trends in mentoring, and the reasons it is important for women who have aspirations to advance in their careers are examined. The authors argue that it is important to have access to gender-based guidance and support that are critical to successful leadership into the future. The authors advocate for a focused, purposeful type of mentoring supported by relational-cultural theory and narrative practice. Men will continue to be important mentors for women, but the authors argue that, at the same time, women also need to have access to the perspectives of other women who have forged the way into higher education administration.     

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.     

Increasing Inequality in Higher Education: The role of term-time working

As the costs of higher education in the UK have moved increasingly from the state to students (and their parents), more university students have term-time jobs. Based on a survey of students in four universities, this paper identifies the pattern of term-time working, its effects on studying and its implications for equity and for the higher education system. The study found term-time employment affected the quality of education. Both cultural and financial factors affected who worked during term-time. Students whose father did not have a degree and female students (especially those from ethnic minorities) were more likely to work during term-time and, hence, benefit less educationally from university. The extent of term-time working varied across the four universities. The research suggested that the financial system might lead to an increasingly polarised university system: those that facilitate term-time working and those that do not, with the more prestigious universities tending to be in the latter category. This would distort the university choice of those who needed to work during term-time, inhibiting their access to prestigious universities, and lead to greater disadvantage amongst those who worked despite being at universities which made fewer concessions for term-time working.     

Parental views on the statutory assessment and educational planning for children with special educational needs

In Norway more than 95 per cent of the students in each annual school-leaving cohort from the lower secondary school continue on to upper secondary education. The result is that there is a wide range of abilities among the students, and so various forms of adapted teaching are necessary. Each year almost 10 per cent of the new entrants in upper secondary are classified as students with special needs. The main focus of this paper is on how different forms of adaptation influence the flow of special needs students through upper secondary education. Two groups are compared: one with students who in their first year are taught exclusively within ordinary classes, and one with students who receive adapted teaching in small groups outside ordinary classes. The analysis controls for the level of functional difficulties among the students. The study illuminates how the organization of the specially adapted teaching influences successes as well as failures among the students. A sample of special needs students from six Norwegian counties has been followed prospectively through upper secondary education. Results of this follow-up study are presented within a theoretical framework based on transitions in the life course.     

Is there any chance to get ahead? Education aspirations and expectations of migrant families in China

In China, there is a growing group of ‘migrant children’, who reside in the city but do not have full rights to access education. Many have been granted a chance to study in public schools after the policy change, but they continue to have lower educational outcomes than the local students. To understand the inequality, this paper examines the educational goals of migrant families in Beijing. Based on the field interviews, it shows that even migrant children who aspire to attain higher education are nonetheless ‘blocked’ by discriminatory examination laws and limited resources. Their subjective outlook is derived from objective conditions and concrete experiences. Their family of origin determines the types of resources available to them, and thus plays an important role in the formation and justification of their educational goals. A realistic assessment of their chances of achieving their aspirations leads them to have lower expectations.     

The “Reasonably Bright Girls”: Accessing Agency in the Technical Communication Workplace through Interactional Power

Women continue to face difficulties in the technical and professional communication (TPC) workplace for a myriad of reasons. However, they are not powerless, and interviews with 39 female practitioners of TPC reveal that they use interactional power to maneuver within and around the system of the traditional workplace to solve problems of devaluation, exclusion, harassment, and siloing. A key aspect of being able to navigate power through interaction is becoming aware of the context in which power struggles take place and then using that knowledge to design new participation. Women who claim agency in the workplace understand that power is not possessed, but that they can access resources to participate in power shifts and dynamics.     

Sex education and cultural values: experiences and attitudes of Latina immigrant women

The paper aims to further explore the role that culture plays in the provision and assimilation of sex education among Latina immigrants in the USA. To accomplish this, researchers conducted focus groups and interviews with 30 women from Central and South America who have lived in the USA for at least five years. Participants were asked to reflect on their experience with sex education in their home country and in the USA, and to assess how their attitudes towards sex education may impact their behavioural choices as parents and as sexually-active women. The findings demonstrate a wide range of views that did not follow patterns by common demographical proxy variables, suggesting that such variables are not enough to predict adoption of new cultural values that are different from their family's traditional norms. Instead, adherence to traditional cultural beliefs appeared to be a better predictor of attitudes and behaviours.     

Black Women's Unequal Experiences of Prison Education

This paper looks at the experiences of black women in regard to prison education. The data were mainly collected through interviews with 10 black women ex‐prisoners who spoke about their prison lives. The majority of these women felt that racism existed in prison, especially in regard to access to prison classes. Recommendations for improvements in prison education are made so that it is open to all.