Care in academia: an exploration of student parents’ experiences

Abstract

While student parents now represent a significant proportion of the higher education population in England, this group has been given limited consideration in policy circles. Using a social constructivist and feminist theoretical framework, this paper draws on a research project investigating the role of higher education policies in supporting student parents in England. It focuses on findings from 40 interviews conducted with student parents enrolled on university programmes. It shows that, in the context of the default construction of the university student as carefree, student parents often describe their experience of navigating academia as a struggle, in which time-related, financial, health and emotional problems prevail. However, the stories they tell also emphasise the benefits associated with their dual status. By doing so, they resist the discourse of deficit typically applied to 'non traditional' students and produce a counter-discourse that disturbs the long-lived binary opposition between care and academia.

Counting Family: Making the Family of International Students Visible in Higher Education Policy and Practice

“…Likewise, higher education institutions have not been expected to 'care' for their students and their students' families beyond the realm of nurturing scholarship (Lynch, 2008;Lobnibe, 2013;Moreau and Kernot, 2015). Such assumptions persists despite very real changes to the demographic profile of the higher education population that accompanies growth in postgraduate education numbers, increasing demands for skilled labour, and widening participation polices like those that have occurred in the five countries that are the focus of the current Stephanie Doyle et al Counting Family review.…”

“…On the basis of their analysis of data the authors concluded that the students persist, motivated by a passion for learning, future aspirations and the desire to provide financial security for their children. Problems highlighted in the report and echoed in other studies include the lack of data and of systems to collect data on student parents, and the ways in which finance impacts on student parents, for example paying for childcare and living costs (Marandet and Wainwright, 2010;Moreau and Kernot, 2015).…”

“…Little data is collected or reported on Stephanie Doyle et al Counting Family the parental/family status of students by institutions or government agencies, and there is an absence of data collection systems (Martens and Grant, 2008;National Union of Students, 2009;Marandet and Wainwright, 2010;Moreau and Kernot, 2015). Moreau and Kernot (2015) found that only one of their 10 case studies of UK universities collected data on student parents.…”

“…Little data is collected or reported on Stephanie Doyle et al Counting Family the parental/family status of students by institutions or government agencies, and there is an absence of data collection systems (Martens and Grant, 2008;National Union of Students, 2009;Marandet and Wainwright, 2010;Moreau and Kernot, 2015). Moreau and Kernot (2015) found that only one of their 10 case studies of UK universities collected data on student parents. What research literature there is highlights the invisibility of student parents despite their significant and growing numbers, and tends to focus on the tensions and challenges of combining being a parent (particularly a mother) with completing an academic qualification (Armenti, 2004;Kurtz-Costes et al, 2006;Springer et al, 2009;Marandet and Wainwright, 2010).…”

“…What research literature there is highlights the invisibility of student parents despite their significant and growing numbers, and tends to focus on the tensions and challenges of combining being a parent (particularly a mother) with completing an academic qualification (Armenti, 2004;Kurtz-Costes et al, 2006;Springer et al, 2009;Marandet and Wainwright, 2010). At this juncture the generic research on the student parent may illuminate potential issues and future research on the international student parent (Martens and Grant, 2008;NUS, 2009;Marandet and Wainwright, 2010;Moreau and Kernot, 2015). Efforts to widen participation in the further and higher education sector in the UK had led to increases in the numbers of student parents, but little was known about their experience and needs.…”