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About intersectionality
About intersectionality
About intersectionality
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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.
In the essay “Campus Diversity and Student Self-Segregation: Separating Myths from Facts” by Debra Humphreys, the writer explains the research conducted on racial and ethnic groups in many diverse universities. Humphrey’s cites recent research of diversity and self-segregation on college campuses to determine the benefits of each. Humphrey’s first gives us her point of view of self-segregation in which she thinks it doesn’t have a positive impact on students today in the classroom and later on in life. She believes that diversity is an “essential ingredient in many students’ persistence and success in college.” (575, Hoeffner and Hoeffner).
... of the students. Many of the students have no sense of belonging and see no relevance of to be at a place where even there teachers have no expectations for them.
When one enters a new academic discourse community, they experience a rite of passage, a coming-of-age passage. The rite of passage is the process of the individual’s detachment from their former community, preparation for this new phase of life, and the reappearance into society except with a new status. In this case, the new status is student of higher learning. In any case, the rite of
...the data did not involve member checking thus reducing its robustness and enable to exclude researcher’s bias. Although a constant comparative method was evident in the discussion which improved the plausibility of the final findings. Themes identified were well corroborated but not declared was anytime a point of theoretical saturation Thus, the published report was found to be particularly strong in the area of believability and dependability; less strong in the area of transferability; and is weak in the area of credibility and confirmability, although, editorial limitations can be a barrier in providing a detailed account (Craig & Smyth, 2007; Ryan, Coughlan, & Cronin, 2007).
After years of research, Dr. Ryan Padgett and Megan Johnson (2012) found that first generation students lack interpersonal skills when entering college because they are unfamiliar on how to interact with individuals who have a postsecondary education. By demonstrating a certain lack of skills before entering college, Jennifer Guerra of the National Public Radio extends the findings of Padgett et al. by stating first-generation students feel out of place when assimilating to their college campus. When I began college I had a small group of friends, but when I was trying to introduce myself to new people it came as a surprise for them that my parents did not attend college. After the conversations ended, I felt uncomfortable on how to act or think because I had a feeling of misplacement when talking with my fellow peers. I began to lose the confidence that I belonged in school and how I could not be the “savior” for my family without
Noble, John, and Peter Davies. "Cultural Capital as an Explanation of Variation in Participation in Higher Education." British Journal of Sociology of Education 30.5 (2009): 591-605. JSTOR. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Beginning their research, Levine and Dean targeted undergraduate students from a range of higher education institutions. 26 colleges and universities, nationwide, were examined; where an inclusivity of data was collected from community, private, and public environments (Levine & Dean, 2012, p.207). Further, it was designed to represent “the diversity of higher education” in terms of “size, control, location, degree level, demographics, and religious orientation” (Levine & Dean, 2012, p.206). This variety aided to present breadth and uniqueness to the cultures that are present throughout the United States. The data collected from each environment also prevented the bias that might exist if one region is overrepresented.
The authors of this article have outlined the purpose, aims, and objectives of the study. It also provides the methods used which is quantitative approach to collect the data, the results, conclusion of the study. It is important that the author should present the essential components of the study in the abstract because the abstract may be the only section that is read by readers to decide if the study is useful or not or to continue reading (Coughlan, Cronin, and Ryan, 2007; Ingham-Broomfield, 2008 p.104; Stockhausen and Conrick, 2002; Nieswiadomy, 2008 p.380).
In Robert Grandfield article “Making It By Faking It: Working Class- Students in an Elite Academic Environment he argues that stigma limits one’s opportunities to participate in social life due to particularly gender or racial stigmas. I felt very much connected to this article and could totally relate being a working class student myself I sometimes find myself feeling out of place and not fitting in with the crowd. Sometimes I feel as if I have to hide my class background in order to maintain my identity that people perceive me to be. It can almost feel as living in two different worlds. I myself am guilty of wanting to go back and help my community as I plan to pursue a degree in social work. I can sometimes be very carful when speaking
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson. Berger, J. B., & Milem, J. F. (1999). The role of student involvement and perceptions of integration in a casual model of student persistence. Research in Higher Education, 40, 641-664. Light, J. R. (2001).
(Pittman and Richmond 2008). Pittman and Richmond (2008) recruited a sample of 79 first-year college students from an introduction to psychology course at a regional state university to assess their sense of belonging in college and quality of friendship in relation to their adjustment. They first collected information from participants during the fall semester and another during the spring semester to obtain a more accurate result. The sample consisted of 58 women and 21 men in between the age of 18 to 19 years old. Researchers collected information from participants using a questionnaire to assess their demographic, sense of belonging at the college, quality of friendship, self-competence, which can be defined as a student’s performance level toward academic work and social acceptance, and problem behaviors such as aggressiveness, anxiety, and
“ The inclusion of multiculturalism in the dominant curriculum in higher education was originally a response to minority student demands of the ‘Sixties and Seventies’”(Kailin, 1998, p.1). This is direct evidence that the topic has been continually pushed aside as time has gone on. Originally b...
Changing can be the biggest obstacle many student will have to face while attending a University. Students will have to learn how to be on their own, and on top of that learn around what people to associate them self with. In Alfred Lubrano essay “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts”, he explains how many students struggle with parents and friends while attending college. However, Lubrano goes on to say that depending on cultural ethnicity will determine how the years at college will change a person. Parents have spent about 18 years to mold their children the way they want, but the moment they enter college it seems to deteriorate into pieces, because of all the new material the students are learning.
When students are still in high school, college looms in the distance like an ominous cloud. Frankly, all of the students are scared about going to college. When students go to college they feel like going to the great unknown – to go to a place where they don’t know anyone. But after all college is not that bad.
The topic of belonging and identity has become very topical especially with recent increases in migration and debates on cultural identity (Guibernau,2013 ; Adams,2009; Ahmed,1999). It has been noted by writers like Erikson (1968) that through different stages of an individual’s life they experience the forming and the reformation of their identities which become more complex as an individual develops from childhood to adulthood. However, the process of identity formation is generally complex and difficult when it comes to second generation West African immigrants in the United Kingdom. Thus, this process can often be especially difficult, resulting in struggles to identify a clear sense of belonging and identity.