Challenging Cultures? Student Conceptions of 'Belonging' and 'Isolation'

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An Evaluation of a Qualitative Study:
'Challenging Cultures? Student Conceptions of 'Belonging' and 'Isolation' at a post-1992 University

1. Introduction

This paper evaluates a study conducted by Read, Archer and Leathwood (2003) in a post-1992 University in the UK. The study aimed at investigating ‘non-traditional students’ conception of belonging and isolation. It looked at the extent to which the students can challenge their positioning as ‘other’ by choosing a university where they feel they can belong to. The study then examined the students’ feelings of belonging when they were at university. The finding showed that ‘non-traditional’ students challenge the dominant discourse of ‘normal’ students by choosing an institution where there will be many other ‘non-traditional’ students. However, the students faced difficulty when they attempted to integrate to the university as the culture of the academy itself still reflects the dominant discourse of ‘normal’ students. This paper critically examines the research methods used in this study and offers a brief suggestion on how the methodology can be improved.

2. Overview of the Study
2.1 Aim of the Study
The study aimed at ‘non-traditional’ students’ conceptions of belonging and isolation within academia at a post-1994 university in the UK. Then the study looked at the extent to which the students are able to deal with the academic culture. Furthermore, the study investigated views and experiences of non-traditional students, which focuses on the extent to which such students can challenge their positioning as 'other' by choosing a university where they feel they can belong to. In addition, the study intends to reveal the extent to which ethnic-minority students actually do...

... middle of paper ...

...and the interviewee than other (Gill 2008).

5. Conclusion

It can be concluded that the findings of the study face the limitations as the data used in this study was gathered for other purposes, which are from other three research projects. However, that the objectives of this studies and the other three studies have some overlapping characteristics have helped the study to enhance its validity.
The study has strength and weakness in its methods. Qualitative approach is well suited to explore the research questions. However, focus groups approach as a method gathering data were not able to fully accommodate the research questions. Therefore, it would be better if the study used the focus group data as a starting point to enrich interviews to deeply explore the research questions. This would strengthen validity, and enrich the findings of this study.

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