1 / 10

Senses of belonging and fitting in? Affinities and emergent identities

Senses of belonging and fitting in? Affinities and emergent identities Iain Jones and Roger Willoughby November 11 2009. Aims To present and reflect on findings of research that investigated complexity of specific situated experiences of widening participation

leah-buckley
Télécharger la présentation

Senses of belonging and fitting in? Affinities and emergent identities

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Senses of belonging and fitting in? Affinities and emergent identities Iain Jones and Roger Willoughby November 11 2009

  2. Aims To present and reflect on findings of research that investigated complexity of specific situated experiences of widening participation To debate how to deepen understandings of the complexity of students’ experiences

  3. Understanding the complexity of experiences Focus identified (following Reay, 1998; Reay et al, 2001; Thomas, 2002; Thomas and Jones,2005; Burke,2009) designed to explore meanings, norms and beliefs students gave to four overlapping areas Why they chose to study for a degree and their expectations of HE Why they chose to study at NUC Their initial experiences of NUC and of their course The relationship between their experiences of being a student and other parts of their lives.

  4. Structure of presentation “I’m not going to say how many years gap I had between Access and school!”: Identities, choices and ‘fitting in’ “Climbing a barrier”: ‘Fitting In’ and dimensions of habitus “Raising up a storm”: Theorisations of policy approaches to widening participation

  5. Why focus groups? “ the expression of differences” (Morgan, 1992, p.185) and hearing a range of opinions and experiences (Bloor et al, 2001, p. 52) Above all it is useful to work with pre existing groups because they provide one of the social contexts within which ideas are formed and decisions are made ( Kitzinger, 1994, p.105 ; my emphasis) Use of dual exercises – open questions and photographic interpretations- a ‘ close reading’ ( Prosser, 2006) generating multiple meanings

  6. “ I’m not going to say how many years gap I had between Access and school” Nina recalled her initial self doubt I didn’t tell my Mum and my sisters not even my Dad [ laughs] literally six weeks into the course I think it was when I got my first assignment back and I passed it and as soon as I passed it I said I’ve not been going to work I‘ve been going to College [ laughs]. It was literally a sense of now or never. Ann, by contrast, has experienced different family reactions to her decisions Even now they don’t support you…. It’s still like that now

  7. “Climbing a barrier” Ann – a connection between emotional experiences and her expectations of academic support. Lack of support she has had from her Mum and sister reinforced response she perceives from one of her two subject areas “ Open door policy” – her perception- or “ This is what it’s like in H.E”- a tutors reaction when she asked to see her Different ways of understanding specific institutional identities and practices and learners’ identities combine the academic, utilitarian and transformative (Jones and Thomas,2005).

  8. “Climbing a barrier” The use of photo elicitation within the focus group (British Sociological Association, 2009) was designed to explore the meanings that the students gave to images Kerry: If I had looked at that one (photograph) before I applied (of lecture theatre with small number of students) that would have been an advantage to me Iain: An advantage or a disadvantage? Kerry: In some of the other prospectuses, for x University, that’s more filled and more daunting

  9. “ Raising up a storm” Interplay between academic and transformative Ann: We didn’t think we was good enough to come into education …. A transformative approach to access must stress the idea that higher education should be changed to permit it to both gauge and meet the needs of under –represented groups (Jones and Thomas, 2005 p.619) Students complimented specific aspects of teaching and learning methods including quality of assessment feedback Students were concerned about availability of physical space to prepare and plan group work

  10. “ Raising up a storm” Theorisations of policy approaches to widening participation Processes of curriculum design and change : Incorporating the understandings of learners It must also encourage critical reflection, together with an understanding of the constructed qualities of knowledge and the various implications of this (Jones and Thomas, 2005, p. 619) Life history research can contribute to this process Meaning is given to life experiences. Using biographical approaches enabled the voices of participants to be heard, placing them central to the research process as they reflected upon, interpreted, gave meaning to and constructed past events and experiences within a social context (Merrill and Crossan 2000,p.2)

More Related