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Working Class Female Students' Experiences of Higher Education

Identities, Choices and Emotions

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Sam Shields

    1. School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

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  • Explores the experiences of working-class women undergraduates
  • Examines their identities, choices and emotions in relation to higher education
  • Offers an understanding of working-class female student journeys

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education (GED)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Sam Shields
    Pages 1-18

  3. Women’s University Education: History and Policy

    • Sam Shields
    Pages 19-29

  4. The Study

    • Sam Shields
    Pages 31-41

  5. Deciding to Go to University

    • Sam Shields
    Pages 43-57

  6. Learner Identities

    • Sam Shields
    Pages 59-74

  7. Balancing Acts

    • Sam Shields
    Pages 75-88

  8. Stepping Stones

    • Sam Shields
    Pages 89-99

  9. Conclusion

    • Sam Shields
    Pages 101-107

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 109-118
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the experiences of working-class women undergraduates at three universities in the North of England. The author examines the women’s identities, choices and emotions in relation to higher education; and how they reframe their constrained university choices to maximise their chances of academic success. Highlighting differences in working-class women’s learner identities, caring commitments and quests for upwards social mobility, the book offers an understanding of working-class female student journeys and their mixture of compromise, uncertainty and hope. It will be of interest and value to scholars of working-class women students, widening participation, and sociologists of education.

Reviews

"A fascinating insight into the internal conversations animating working-class women's varied experiences of pursuing, sustaining and benefitting from higher education. This highly accomplished study, with its robust methodology, excellent grounding in the historical and social context of higher education in the UK, and its incisive analysis of rich body of qualitative data will be of vital interest to scholars of education, sociology and gender alike. Those working in higher education settings will also find much here to illuminate the challenges faced by many of our students and prompt informed consideration of how we might best support our students in navigating them.”
—Dr Jane McDonnell, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.



"Working-class Female Students’ Experiences of Higher Education: identities, choices and emotions, by Sam Shields is an interesting, engaging read that explores the identities ofworking-class women and their experiences with university. Sam's descriptions of these experiences are empathetic and enlightening, and provide insights into challenges faced by students from working-class families as they decided to attend university, figure out how to apply and finance this decision, and balance their life responsibilities with study. The findings from this work are worthy of consideration by any provider that is seeking to recruit and support 'wider-participating' students in ways that are most meaningful to those students."
—Dr Megan Kelly Murray, University of Hull, UK.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Sam Shields

About the author

Sam Shields is Lecturer in Education at Newcastle University, UK. Her research interests include social inequalities and higher education, particularly focused on the intersection between gender and social class.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Working Class Female Students' Experiences of Higher Education

  • Book Subtitle: Identities, Choices and Emotions

  • Authors: Sam Shields

  • Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88935-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Cham

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88934-0Published: 10 November 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88937-1Published: 11 November 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-88935-7Published: 09 November 2021

  • Series ISSN: 2524-6445

  • Series E-ISSN: 2524-6453

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 118

  • Topics: Gender and Education, Higher Education, Sociology of Education, Women's Studies, Sociology of Education, Ethnography

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