Narratives of access: A critical exploration of how institutional interactions with students affect regional student participation in higher education.
- Authors: Ostini, Jenny , Partridge, Helen , Kelly, Kate , Owen, Sue , Jeffries, Sandra
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Student Success Vol. 11, no. 1 (2020), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: This article examines the narratives that drive university staff understanding of the concerns and experiences of regional and remote students at five universities in Australia. Interviews were conducted with thirty university staff members over a period of three months in 2018. Reflexive thematic analysis of the stories told by staff of supporting regional students found that staff used the lens of access to create meaningful stories for themselves and others in how they supported students. Access is defined as a multi-faceted term encompassing access to people, Internet, study materials and equipment and study environments. Access is facilitated by a sense of belonging or identity as a student and limited by the lack of this. Our analysis of “belongingness” draws on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitas to start to unpick the interactions between higher education institutions and the student that develop student identities as scholars and centres the narrative on the student as a person, wrestling to gain many forms of access within complex social situations.
‘Working together’ : Public libraries supporting rural, regional, and remote low-socioeconomic student success in partnership with universities
- Authors: Power, Emma , Partridge, Helen , Owen, Sue , Kelly, Kathryn , Jeffries, Sandra
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association Vol. 68, no. 2 (2019), p. 105-125
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: University students living in rural, regional, and remote (RRR) areas of Australia face unique challenges including geographical isolation, lack of access to face-to-face support, and technological barriers. Additionally, RRR students from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds experience multiple forms of disadvantage compared to their on-campus peers, and require additional study, learning, and social support. Partnerships between universities and local public libraries can enhance RRR low-SES student success through increased access to face-to-face support, reliable technologies, and study facilities. This exploratory research, led by five regional universities, presents the first national-level empirical data exploring how Australian public libraries and universities can work together to facilitate success for RRR low-SES students. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with public librarians from RRR low-SES communities across Australia. Thematic analysis findings explore themes of librarians’ perceptions of students as persons; the role of regional librarians in supporting RRR low-SES students; RRR low-SES students’ access to learning support; and the critical elements of sustainable partnerships between RRR public libraries and universities. Key recommendations are provided to guide future partnerships between public libraries and universities, including building the foundations of partnerships; professional development to support partnerships; and recommendations for good partnership practices. © 2019 Emma Power, Helen Partridge, Sue Owen, Kathryn Kelly and Sandra Jeffries.