Janine Delahunty

• PhD
• Adjunct Fellow at Curtin University

This paper extends understandings of persistence by drawing on the innovative framing of ‘sisu’. Sisu is a recently theorised Finnish concept and, whilst not having a direct English translation, articulates an inner fortitude which is activated in adversity. To better understand persistence, we analysed interview and survey data collected in Austra...

This open access book, now in its second edition, offers a comprehensive overview of the experiences of First in Family (FiF) or first-generation students in higher education. It draws upon narratives of students and their family members and spans the entire university student life cycle (pre-entry, commencement, progression and graduation) with a...

Many first-in-family students begin their university journey not as traditional school leavers, but as mature-age students who have busy family lives, often with young children, as well as working lives to manage. While families can be powerful sources of inspiration, support and encouragement, their demands and expectations can also be problematic...

Drawing on international literature on higher education access and participation, this chapter provides a summary overview of current research and writing in this field. The ‘widening participation’ agenda is critically reviewed in relation to neoliberal discourses of the independent learner and the ‘risky’ nature of university deconstructed. The c...

O’Shea, May, Stone and Delahunty have indicated how attending university for first-in-family students can lead to significant personal transformation but highlight how the embodied nature of this experience can remain hidden or overlooked in the literature. Equally, the effects that university participation has on those around the student remain un...

While first-in-family women’s experience of attending university has been examined in a growing body of literature, there has been little attention paid to the experiences of first-in-family males. This chapter presents an account of the motivations, transitions and participations of first-in-family male students using a narrative gender framework....

Online learning has an increasingly important place in widening access and participation in higher education for diverse student cohorts. One cohort that has been taking up online study in increasing numbers over the past 10–15 years is that of mature-age, first-in-family students. This chapter looks at the experience of 87 first-in-family students...

This chapter draws upon a strengths perspective that seeks to frame first in family students not as ‘lacking’ or as ‘deficit’ but rather as a cohort replete with cultural wealths. Building on Bourdieuian theories and referring explicitly to the work of Yosso and Sen, the capabilities and cultural strengths of this older FiF cohort are revealed. The...

Entering formal university study as the first person in one’s immediate family to do so is inevitably a major challenge. This chapter discusses some of the key factors that influenced the first-in-family (FiF) students who participated in Study B (as discussed in Chap. 1 ) to make the decision to undertake formal study at university level. It also...

The final chapter draws together the threads of a compelling argument that exhorts educators and policymakers to perceive of First-in-Family students in terms of strengths rather than in deficit terms. By using the lens of family and community, the focus is on what students bring to the university environment rather than the ways in which the insti...

This chapter investigates the experiences of first-in-family enabling students as they reflect on their participation in university. Due to university outreach and participation agendas, this cohort is increasing annually in Australia although they are little researched. The data has been harvested from interviews and surveys and analysed using bio...

This chapter complements previous chapters by applying the concept of ‘sisu’ to the enactment of persistence and success of mature FiF women in higher education. Sisu is a Finnish term which describes the inner fortitude activated in moments of hardship especially when nothing more is ‘left in the tank’, likened to the ‘second wind’ that keeps us m...

This chapter explores how the First-in-Family (FiF) cohort is theorised and defined in various geographical and cultural contexts. Beginning with a critique around a lack of clarity of this cohort, the chapter moves to a review of related topics within the broad field of university participation and student engagement. O’Shea, May, Stone and Delahu...

This chapter investigates the dynamic life of ideas in online discussion by revisiting an earlier study and reflecting upon Alexander’s conceptualisation of dialogic teaching. The study sought to address the challenge of how to engage students in productive online discussion, which was motivated by our experiences of shifting from face-to-face to o...

This chapter investigates the dynamic life of ideas in online discussion by revisiting an earlier study and reflecting upon Alexander’s conceptualisation of dialogic teaching. The study sought to address the challenge of how to engage students in productive online discussion, which was motivated by our experiences of shifting from face-to-face to o...

This special issue of Student Success explores the importance of “connections” that contribute to students embarking upon, participating in and achieving their academic and other goals in higher education. While there are many possible connections and relationships that contribute to student success, this special issue focuses on the pedagogies and...

This article considers how the experience of community for young people from rural places (inclusive of regional and remote) can be influential in building a legacy of strengths and qualities, much like an inheritance. While there are many studies of rural youth, few consider rurality through complex social-relational dimensions; fewer still includ...

Book review of Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to do Instead), edited by Susan D. Blum.

Success in a complex labour market requires astute planning, preparation and foresight, particularly within the context of the massification of higher education, increasing graduate competitiveness, and a discourse of employability which places the onus of employment on the individual. A cohort experiencing noticeably weaker graduate employment out...

Globally, access to higher education (HE) has reached unprecedented levels with almost a third of school-leavers worldwide attending university and some countries approaching or exceeding 50% participation across populations (Marginson 2016). This increase in the volume and diversity of students is partly determined by government-driven participati...

The overarching objective of this research was to explore risks to university completion for those in regional, rural and remote locations of Australia. While the original proposal focused on regional students, the participation of some from remote regions broadened this focus. However, to also be inclusive of rural students, the acronym ‘RRR’ will...

Since Universities Australia’s Indigenous Strategy recommended a sector-wide approach to ‘closing the gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, universities have grappled with how to do this. Resisting mainstream approaches to curriculum development that eschew any kind of relational accountability (Wilson, Shawn. 2008. Research is Ce...

Increasing competitiveness in the graduate employment field combined with growing numbers of degree bearing applicants means that gaining employment after completing university studies can be a lengthy and complex undertaking. This is even more the case for students who do not have ready access to the social or family capital often required for suc...

This article applies the framework of possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1986) to the motivation and persistence behaviours of one group of university students. We draw on possible selves to consider how particular goal-focused actions and life experiences may significantly shape movements towards imagined futures. Utilising a narrative approach fro...

Global trends in higher education which have seen increased research student enrolments have also brought growing uncertainty around employment outcomes, now encompassing both academia and industry (Jones, 2018). Related research has largely focused on the products of student work and the experience of supervision, with student voices often unnotic...

Universities across the globe are ‘opening wide’ the doors of academe and students from increasingly diverse backgrounds are responding in their thousands. Despite the resulting increase in both student numbers and student diversity, particularly those who are the first in their families to attend university, many institutional support models conti...

This article presents an examination of tensions and conflicts that exist for rural youth with regard to their post-schooling futures. While the 'push' and 'pull' of rural living has been documented in the literature, rarely has this drawn on the combined perspectives of rural high school students and teachers. Drawing upon interviews and video tra...

This paper introduces the context and design of an institutional educational development grants program, Jindaola, which reflects an Aboriginal way towards reconciling Indigenous and non-Indigenous Knowledges in the Australian higher education curriculum. The program is unique in two ways: it foregrounds the voice of Aboriginal local Knowledge Hold...

‘Student success’ is a key driver in higher education policy and funding. Institutions often adopt a particular lens of success, emphasising ‘retention and completion’, ‘high grades’, ‘employability after graduation’ discourses, which place high value on human capital or fiscal outcomes. We explored how students themselves articulated notions of su...

In China, developing students' overall communicative competence was set as the central goal of the current college English curriculum requirements since 2004. However, this goal has remained largely unfulfilled, particularly with regard to writing competence. This study proposes that the genre based pedagogy in systemic functional linguistics may b...

The expression ‘student success’ has gained traction in the university sector and has been applied to various aspects of the higher education (HE) learning trajectory. Yet, ‘success’ is an amorphous term that means distinctive things to various stakeholders in any educational undertaking. When the literature on this field is examined, it is surpris...

This article combines a sociocultural model of classroom talk with a linguistically-oriented model (systemic functional linguistics) to explore what characterizes effective asynchronous online discussion in higher education (HE). While the benefits of discussion are commonly accepted in face-to-face learning, engaging students in effective asynchro...

This presentation focussed on an innovative approach to developing peer mentoring programs. Drawing upon a ‘student as partners’ framework, the presentation explored how this has been used to underpin an approach to peer mentoring from the ground up. University peer mentoring programs are largely designed and developed by staff, who not only recrui...

This paper reports part of a larger study in which explicit SFL-informed strategies and non-prescriptive guidelines (hereafter, the ‘strategies’) for fostering asynchronous discussion were implemented in a range of blended courses across four large regional universities. The catalyst for the broader study was the hit-and-miss experiences that lectu...

The capacity to write a range of texts demonstrating impact is a critical aspect of professional ‘survival’ in academia. However with much attention on ‘publish or perish’, writing for purposes other than publication requires a shift, which is not easily negotiated, even for those with impressive publication history. This is particularly evident wh...

Many first-in-family (FiF) students begin their university journey not as traditional school leavers, but as mature-age students who have busy family lives, often with young children, as well as working lives to manage. While families can be powerful sources of inspiration, support and encouragement, their demands and expectations can also be probl...

O’Shea, May, Stone and Delahunty have indicated how attending university for first-in-family (FiF) students can lead to significant personal transformation but highlight how the embodied nature of this experience can remain hidden or overlooked in the literature. Equally, the effects that university participation has on those around the student rem...

This chapter explores how the first-in-family (FiF) cohort is theorised and defined in various geographical and cultural contexts. Beginning with a critique around a lack of clarity of this cohort, the chapter moves to a review of related topics within the broad field of university participation and student engagement. O’Shea, May, Stone and Delahu...

This chapter draws upon a strengths perspective that seeks to frame first-in-family (FiF) students not as ‘lacking’ or as ‘deficit’ but rather as a cohort replete with cultural wealths. Building on Bourdieuian theories and referring explicitly to the work of Yosso (2005), the capabilities and cultural strengths of this older FiF cohort are revealed...

This book examines the university experiences of first-in-family university students, and how these students’ decisions to return to education impact upon their family members and significant others. While it is well known that parental educational background has a substantial impact on the educational levels of family and dependents, it is unclear...

This guide articulates a set of principles to help University lecturers, and other teaching academics in the Higher Education sector, to set up and conduct successful asynchronous online discussions for the students in their distance or flexible delivery courses. These principles are based on theory, a review of the literature and research trials c...

While first-in-family (FiF) women’s experience of attending university has been examined in a growing body of literature, there has been little attention to the experiences of FiF males. This chapter presents an account of the motivations, transitions and participations of FiF male students using a narrative gender framework. The analysis especiall...

This chapter investigates the experiences of first-in-family (FiF) enabling students as they reflect on their participation in university. Due to the widening participation agenda, this cohort is increasing annually in Australia although they are little researched. The data have been harvested from interviews and surveys and analysed using biograph...

It is widely recognised that access to university has become necessary for fuller, healthier and more satisfying participation in post-industrial society, as well as for the attainment and maintenance of national prosperity. As a result of this understanding, universities have been strongly encouraged by governments across the globe to widen partic...

Online learning has an important place in widening access and participation in higher education (HE) for diverse student cohorts. One cohort taking up online study in increasing numbers is that of mature-age first-in-family (FiF) students. This chapter looks at the experience of 87 FiF students, for whom the opportunity to enrol in online undergrad...

Entering formal university study as the first person in one’s immediate family to do so is inevitably a major challenge. This chapter discusses some of the key factors that influenced the first-in-family (FiF) students who participated in Study B (as discussed in Chap. 1) to make the decision to undertake formal study at university level. It also e...

Drawing on international literature on higher education (HE) access and participation, this chapter provides an overview of current research and writing in this field. The ‘widening participation’ agenda is critically reviewed in relation to neo-liberal discourses of the independent learner and the ‘risky’ nature of university deconstructed. The ch...

The higher education (HE) sector in Australia is in a state of flux due to a range of social, political and economic factors. Increased competition, greater student diversity, tautening of industry exigencies, reduced funding, and rapid technological advances are key drivers of change in this environment. Within this period of transformation, HE in...

Much of the literature on university access and participation positions people from disadvantaged backgrounds as those who have not ‘traditionally’ attended university. Certain student cohorts are presented as lacking the skills or requisite knowledges to achieve academic success, requiring additional assistance from institutions to address these g...

This paper examines the idea of the university from the first-in-family enabling students’ perspective. It provides an overview of the current crisis of meaning in scholarly commentary that points to a spectrum of meanings about the university. This spectrum ranges from the ancient imaginary of the monastic university as ‘ivory tower’ to the instru...

This research paper was reviewed using a double blind peer review process that meets DIISR requirements. Two reviewers were appointed on the basis of their independence and they reviewed the full paper devoid of the authors' names and institutions in order to ensure objectivity and anonymity. Papers were reviewed according to specified criteria, in...

The higher degree research (HDR) process could be described as a series of transition periods – flagged by milestones such as course completion, research proposal, data collection, writing up and full draft. This process tends to involve a movement from more to less structured support which students must navigate in their progression towards becomi...

Online learning has an important place in widening access and participation in higher education for diverse student cohorts. One cohort taking up online study in increasing numbers is that of matureage, first-in-family students. First-in-family is defined as those who are the first in their immediate family, including parents, siblings, partners an...

by Laura Ritchie, Palgrave Teaching and Learning series (2016) What is self-efficacy, why is it worthy of attention in higher education, how are selfefficacy beliefs linked to teaching and learning excellence and what is “excellence” anyway? These are some points of discussion found in the first few pages of Laura Ritchie’s book, directing the read...

This article outlines a collaborative study between higher education institutions in Australia, which qualitatively explored the online learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The project adopted a narrative inquiry approach and encouraged students to story their experiences of this virtual environment, providing a snapshot...

Project summary of Longing to Belong in Academic Culture: Exploring the experiences of HDR students

This paper reports a study-in-progress examining interactions in the asynchronous discussions of a post-graduate TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) distance subject, focusing on the impact of scaffolding collaborative knowledge construction. Two complementary theories were used: sociocultural theory, which views interaction as...

The proliferation of online learning in higher education merits re-examination of what constitutes quality, productive discussion conducive to the cooperative construction of knowledge, learning engagement and the development of on-line communication skills. The literature demonstrates that interaction with peers and lecturers is important in onlin...

This review focuses on three interconnected socio-emotional aspects of online learning: interaction, sense of community and identity formation. In the intangible social space of the virtual classroom, students come together to learn through dialogic, often asynchronous, exchanges. This creates distinctive learning environments where learning goals,...

Identity became apparent as an important theme while investigating the role of interaction in the asynchronous discussion forums of an online post-graduate TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) education subject. Identity emerged through dialogic choices as students projected an impression of themselves, negotiated their positioni...