Nalita James

• University of Warwick

This chapter reflects on the use of mind diagrams to uncover the views of mature adult students about their experiences of Access to Higher Education (AHE) courses in England and the social injustices their experiences often revealed. The students in the study were frequently economically marginalised and usually poorly qualified formally, but ofte...

This paper discusses the educational, social and economic backgrounds of Access to Higher Education (AHE) students and how these factors influence students’ choices of courses and colleges in which to pursue their desires for entering Higher Education (HE) despite the risks involved and the initial lack of confidence of many of them in their capabi...

Adult education can transform lives and is especially powerful for those individuals who missed out on educational opportunities earlier in life. Participation in adult lifelong learning activities can have social and economic benefits for individuals and society (Field in Second International Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Springer, Dorderect, pp....

The main aim of this book has been to present an account of how austerity has had an impact on the adult education sector in Britain, and to bring together chapters which are useful to those teaching and researching in the field, as well as policymakers and practitioners As discussed in the first part of this book, society is characterised by deep...

This book examines the experiences of adult learners in times of austerity. The power of adult education to transform lives is well known, and it is especially powerful for those who missed out on educational opportunities earlier in life. Those who have been successful learners in the past are more likely to continue their education and training,...

This paper discusses how mature Access to Higher Education (AHE) students worked hard to gain access to Higher Education (HE) because they wished to pursue careers that required this level of education. They wanted to transform themselves as learners to achieve their aspirations despite the hurdles that many faced, such as maintaining families, con...

There has been little empirical research that has paid attention to the identity formation of academics, who experience transitions across communities and changing forms of academic membership. Drawing on the narratives of two academics based in Cypriot public universities, who were part of a qualitative study examining the impact of communities of...

Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning investigates the experiences of mature adult learners returning to formal education. The book challenges the policy discourses in which Access to Higher Education survives by suggesting that continuing education is more about determination by students to alter their identities and career opportunities t...

ssues of access, social exclusion and widening participation dominate educational policy agendas and are a shared global challenge. Participation in higher education and adult lifelong learning activities can be a life-changing experience that opens up new opportunities. However, access remains unequal. People from lower socio-economic backgrounds,...

This paper discusses the complexities of using ethnography to investigate the experiences of students on formal learning courses who use digital and hybrid (online/offline) spaces to develop their learning and create networked communities that complement their face to face experiences on formal courses. Formal and informal learning by students take...

Non-traditional mature students on Access to Higher Education (AHE) courses have to struggle to assert themselves by entering university and escaping from precarious economic circumstances despite the social and policy contexts they face and their prior experiences of learning, which were often unsuccessful. The chapter draws on a study that was ca...

Students form a diverse undercaste in schools which is distinguished by markers of age and levels of academic knowledge from those people who are placed in charge of schools and colleges, the teachers and more senior leaders, by society. Schools in England are regimented by performative national and local discourses and policies that are maintained...

Mature students’ experiences of learning and teaching on Access to Higher Education course are coloured by their socio-economic backgrounds, their prior experiences of learning and their relationships with their tutors. After giving informed consent, 60 students and 20 tutors across seven colleges in a region of England in 2012–2013 took part in in...

145 words) An important way in which people can (re)present themselves in different situations, such as being an AHE student, is visually as well as through talking and acting. Drawing and labelling pictures by participants in social situations or taking photographs or drawing concept or mind maps are part of a broad range of visual methods that al...

The paper explores how computer-mediated communication offers space for academics to think and make sense of their experiences in the qualitative research encounter. It draws on a research study that used email interviewing to generate online narratives to understand academic lives and identities through research encounters in virtual space. The pa...

The article explores how the Internet and email offer space for participants to think and make sense of their experiences in the qualitative research encounter. It draws on a research study that used email interviewing to generate online narratives to understand academic lives and identities through research encounters in virtual space. The article...

There is a dearth of literature on Access to Higher Education (AHE) tutors, which this paper addresses. Tutors play an important part in constructing emotional and academic support for students. Understanding their constructions of professional identity and their views of the students they teach helps to explain the learning environments they creat...

This article examines the extent to which Access to Higher Education courses can be defined as communities of practice. Other studies have already revealed the importance of mutual engagement and supportive relationships between students and between students and tutors in facilitating learning. While previous studies carried out on Access to HE (AH...

Despite the diversification of the student population in higher education, there has been little empirical research on the impact of Access to Higher Education (AHE) courses, on mature students' learning identities, and of the changes in higher education policy on their chances to participate. Using data from a study examining AHE students' learnin...

Hybrid communities using online and face-to-face communications to construct their practices are increasingly part of everyday life amongst people who have easy access to the internet. Researching these communities raises a number of challenges for researchers in the pursuit of ethical research. The paper begins by exploring what is understood by h...

Adult learners on Access to Higher Education courses struggled with institutional and social structures to attend their courses, but transformed their identities as learners through them. Although asymmetrical power relationships dominated the intentional learning communities of their courses, their work was facilitated by collaborative cultures an...

There is a limited literature examining the ethical dilemmas that arise when research is conducted in prison settings, and the extent to which it is possible to give voice to young offenders' experiences, thus placing them at the centre of the research process. By drawing on a qualitative research with young offenders, the paper will discuss how pr...

This paper investigates experiences of Access to Higher Education Diploma students in England in order to better understand ways in which they enact their agency as learners and conceive their future professional trajectories against the current UK policy backgrounds. Using repeated focus groups with 60 students aged 19-54 from seven Further Educat...

This paper discusses the complexities of investigating the experiences of participants in hybrid (online/offline) learning communities through educational ethnography. In these communities, people construct small cultures in the liminal spaces or 'border crossings' between the virtually real and 'actually' real, using computer-mediated and face-to-...

Chapter Objectives: This chapter focus on ethical research practices in educational leadership by considering how value driven research processes reflect and articulate with some of the key dynamic vectors of educational organisations-power, culture, decision-making, construction of identity, learning communities, policy contexts. It discusses how...

This is the author's final draft of the paper published as British Educational Research Journal, 2007, 33 (6), pp. 963-976. The final version is available from http://www.informaworld.com. Doi: 10.1080/01411920701657074 This article argues for the potential that email interviewing has as a qualitative method in educational research. The article dra...

Educational researchers have a responsibility to ensure that in whatever research paradigm they work, the research that is conducted is done so within an 'ethic of respect' to those who participate. This implies a number of responsibilities on the part of the researcher that include ensuring trust, dignity, privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. W...

This article explores the methodological issues encountered when using email as a web-based interview in on-line qualitative research. By drawing on two separate research studies that used this method to explore participants’ understandings of their professional experiences and developing professional identities, the researchers consider the method...

At the heart of any research project lies the trustworthiness with which its findings might be viewed. In which ever paradigm researchers choose to locate their work, they try to ensure the trustworthiness or credibility of its outcomes by enacting it within a rigorous framework that addresses the epistemological complexities of a study's methodolo...

This paper considers how email interviews can be used as a site and space for participants in research to construct narratives of experience. It will begin by outlining how the researchers came to use the method rather than two other forms of interviewing: – telephone interviewing and face-to-face interviewing. The paper will focus on how email int...

This is a paper which was given at the Annual Conference of the British Sociological Association, University of London, 12-14 April 2007.

This paper was published as Working Paper 46 by the Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester. It is also available from http://www.clms.le.ac.uk/research/wpapers.lasso This paper presents the findings from a study which explores the role of theatre as a site for learning in a community context and how it can provide informal learni...