Sole Parent Students and Higher Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Genine A. Hook

   Pages 1-16

3. Epistemological Foundations

   • Genine A. Hook

   Pages 17-33

4. Perspectives of Sole Parents in Higher Education

   • Genine A. Hook

   Pages 35-52

5. The Case Study

   • Genine A. Hook

   Pages 53-65

6. Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity and Recognition

   • Genine A. Hook

   Pages 67-74

7. Sole Parenting in Higher Education Spaces

   • Genine A. Hook

   Pages 75-93

8. Access and Attachment to Higher Education for Sole Parents

   • Genine Hook

   Pages 95-122

9. Policy: Performative Recognisability

   • Genine Hook

   Pages 123-153

10. Equitable and Widening Participation in Higher Education

    • Genine Hook

    Pages 155-171

11. Conclusion

    • Genine Hook

    Pages 173-183

12. Back Matter

    Pages 185-192

    PDF

This book examines how sole parents are constituted within university contexts, through social discourse and social policies. The gendered assumptions of female parental care-work are analysed as both constraining and enabling sole parent participation in higher education. Social welfare policies and the policies of university institutions are also considered as central to the experiences of sole parents who study at universities. This book explores the sense of belonging and engagement for sole parents in higher education with a view to challenging how universities engage with under-represented and diverse students. Equitable access to higher education is important as a potentially transformative personal and social good and this book contributes new thinking to understanding why a university education remains elusive for many students.

• Academia
• Equity
• Judith Butler
• Social Policy
• Parental Care-work

“This book provides an urgently needed theorization of widening participation through a focus on the experiences of sole parents within Australian higher education. Dr Hook puts concepts of recognition and accountability to work to examine questions of temporality, gendered parental constructions and academic performativity. Through this intricate analysis, she points to the need for more nuanced, reflexive policies and strategies for widening equitable participation. I strongly endorse this important book.” (Professor Penny Jane Burke, Global Innovation Chair of Equity and Director of the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia)

• Department of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

  Genine A. Hook

Genine Hook is Lecturer at La Trobe University, Australia. She continues to combine her sole parenting and academic work which reflects her feminist/queer positioning, advocating for alternatives of familial and kinship bonds. 

Policies and ethics