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Subjects in Formation: Women’s Experiences of Access to Higher Education Courses and Entering Higher Education

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Being an Adult Learner in Austere Times

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Abstract

This chapter considers the impact of a neoliberal Higher Education context, which has retained predominantly middle-class, male values (Archer 2007; Burke and Jackson 2007) despite significant demographic changes, on the ways in which ‘non-traditional’ female Access to Higher Education students see themselves. It traces the extent to which education enables the development of agency through interviews with three women. Lorraine Code’s discussion of ‘rhetorical spaces’ (1995) forms the theoretical background to this research. Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004a, b) work on arborescent and rhizomatic modes of interpretation have also shaped the theoretical analysis of subjectivity offered here, as well as contributing to a methodological approach that seeks to resist rigid categorisations of the women. In proposing a methodological approach that works to identify moments of agency and resistance within contexts of structural inequality, this chapter aims to contribute to research approaches that broaden the ‘rhetorical spaces’ within which ‘non-traditional’ female students are constituted.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    One of the participants was enrolled in a Higher Education Introductory Studies course, equivalent to an AHE course.

  2. 2.

    Pseudonyms have been used and identifying characteristics have been anonymised.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. City of Bristol College, Bristol, UK

    Sherene Meir

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  1. Sherene Meir
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Correspondence to Sherene Meir .

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  1. Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh , Edinburgh, UK

    Ellen Boeren

  2. School of Education, University of Leicester , Leicester, UK

    Nalita James

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Meir, S. (2019). Subjects in Formation: Women’s Experiences of Access to Higher Education Courses and Entering Higher Education. In: Boeren, E., James, N. (eds) Being an Adult Learner in Austere Times. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97208-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97208-4_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97207-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97208-4

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