“Kids from here don't go to uni”: Considering first in family students' belonging and entitlement within the field of higher education in Australia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah O’Shea
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
First In Family

The effects of citizenship and ethnicity on the education pathways of Pacific youth in Australia

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Kearney ◽  
Matthew Glen
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Young People ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Vocational Qualification ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
First In Family

This article reports on a study that investigated the education pathways of 464 young people. We were interested in the effects of New Zealand citizenship and Pacific ethnicity on pathways so compared findings for three groups residing in Australia: Pacific youth with New Zealand citizenship, Pacific youth with Australian citizenship, and non-Pacific youth with Australian citizenship. Findings showed that the first group was significantly less likely than others to have gained a university qualification. Pacific youth, regardless of citizenship, were more likely than non-Pacific peers to have a vocational qualification rather than a university qualification. No evidence suggests this resulted from lack of motivation or lack of ability. However, two inter-related factors explained outcomes for the Pacific cohort: likelihood of low socio-economic status and first-in-family to attend university. We propose that Pacific communities’ collectivist orientation may also restrict opportunities for Pacific youth seeking higher education pathways. We therefore argue that until Pacific young people are better represented in higher education cohorts, they should be a targeted equity group, and that the Australian government’s decision to exclude many of these young people from higher education loans is an anomaly in the context of its ‘widening participation’ agenda for Australian higher education.

Literacy autobiographies in pre-service teacher education: opportunities for therapeutic writing in widening participation contexts

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-161
Author(s):  
Rachel Burke ◽  
Emma Shaw ◽  
Sally Baker
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Literate Practices ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
Pre Service Teacher Education ◽  
First In Family ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

Literacy autobiographies, where learners write about significant events or experiences that have shaped their literate practices and identities, are commonly employed in composition courses as a means of encouraging author reflexivity. Here, we discuss the implementation of a literacy autobiography assignment in a pre-service teacher education course offered at a regional university in Australia. The assignment proved to be innovative, particularly resonating with the large proportion of pre-service teachers from first-in-family and traditionally underrepresented backgrounds in higher education, who often struggle with the literate practices privileged in the academy. Our observations suggest that these pre-service teachers embraced this novel university writing experience as an opportunity to make deeply personal connections with the course content and their own learning journeys. Our intention is to collectively consider important questions emerging from this innovative practice including: what do the deeply personal responses to this assignment suggest about university writing as a tool for making sense of past and present learning experiences; how can personal writing help to unpack the complex, power-laden relationships between literacy, biography and access; and how can autobiographical writing assist learners to reflect on the shifting identities (both literate and otherwise) associated with transitions into and through higher education?

scholarly journals "Are we there yet?": Making sense of transition in higher education

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannette Stirling ◽  
Celeste Rossetto
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
First Year ◽  
Regional Campuses ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
Regional Campus ◽  
First In Family

This paper reviews a first year transition program first implemented in 2011 and designed for students commencing higher education at the regional campuses of an Australian university. A significant proportion of students attending these campuses are mature age, the first in family to attempt university study, Indigenous, and/or from low socio-economic backgrounds. Our project aims were to facilitate academic participation and hence retention in a higher education environment that relies on various multimedia technologies and blended learning models. Ongoing evaluations of the project clearly indicate its efficacy. Even so, longitudinal analyses raise questions about how current social inclusion policy shapes praxis; indeed, about how we do social inclusion and transition in higher education. The following discussion grapples with some of the unresolved tensions between transition as institutional policy and the complex, differentiated and sometimes messy transitional experiences of first year regional campus undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document