Official policy texts in England have long assumed that students make their Higher Education choices in an individualized, rational and context-free manner. Under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government (2010-2015), a greater emphasis was placed on accomplishing higher levels of widening participation in elite institutions. Those…

In this qualitative study, adult students placed in an eight-week, closed-cohort GED preparation program were introduced to blended learning while attending in-person instruction five days a week during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants had the opportunity to receive their curriculum in a blended format, which provided some convenience for the…

In the context of active development of further education services many universities become interested in engaging students into further education programs. From this perspective, it is extremely important to determine relevant social factors majorly impacting the students' representation about further education and its role in building and…

Mature-age postgraduate students are those who are late to higher education or have returned to postgraduate study after an educational hiatus in industry. While some mature-age students seek a postgraduate qualification out of extrinsic motivations such as for vocational reasons, there are older non-traditional students who seek higher status;…

An obvious goal of adult learners is to find their own voice, to be heard in rational discourse with their peers, and to gain control over the day-to-day decisions that affect their lives. This chapter asks how doctoral students can be partners with faculty in charting the direction of their academic pursuits.

This article reports on issues of diversity in the context of "widening participation" in "global higher education" (HE). Mature students represent a third of the HE student population in Australia, Canada, UK and the USA. More research is needed to understand factors that can facilitate or hinder access to HE for this group.…

In this paper John Butcher challenges policymakers and the English higher education sector to act urgently to address the decline in part-time higher education. Although the drop in part-time student numbers has been well-reported in a series of quantitative studies, the problem persists. The dramatic reduction in part-time learners…

Offering immediate subject expertise, personal narratives and sharing personal experiences are commonly encouraged in first-year college writing and adult ESL. However, quantitative research found a negative correlation between oversharing and student learning (Frisby & Sidelinger, 2013). Through investment theory (Norton, 2013), this paper…

Family, school, and community contexts each link to secondary school enrollment, yet these factors have been comparatively examined only in limited ways. A holistic examination of contextual factors will be particularly important for engineering where college enrollment patterns vary by demographics. To begin explaining patterns of engineering…

In this essay, Michael Satterfield recounts his experiences as a student in and outside of prison. His narrative exposes the challenges faced by one person in pursuit of an education, and recounts his early educational experiences as well as his participation in a college-in-prison program. He also describes his journey to a four-year college and…

This explores the narratives from three individuals in low-skilled employment in the UK. The interviewees reflected upon their experiences of learning from compulsory education and beyond and their pathways through education to employment. The narratives illustrate how with the support of significant others, resilience and proactivity, they can…

This article offers an alternative point of view on the perspectives that large-scale literacy surveys provide on refugee women by presenting the case of Darya, a young Afghan woman who moved to Canada as a refugee in 2009. It also presents how a community-based organisation for young people addressed Darya's literacy and identity curation…

It is increasingly understood that in order to be successful in today's economy a postsecondary degree is needed (National College Access Network, 2012). Approximately 65% of jobs in 2020 will require some form of postsecondary education (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2013), and of the 30 fastest growing occupations, more than half require…

High-impact educational practices can promote student involvement and learning outcomes, but are rarely tested in the community college setting--where involvement is a typical challenge to student success. For Family Child Care (FCC) providers, who tend to be older and overworked, higher-education training can be especially difficult. The present…

Research on the socially-situated nature of learning shows how practices and identities are affected by participation in communities, but very little is known about how mature-age students experience the relational dynamics of university. Based on data from a qualitative study of first-year students, we consider written accounts by older learners…