Try before You Buy: Using Enabling Programs to Negotiate the Risks of Higher Education

Autor/in	Jarvis, Lynn
Titel	Try before You Buy: Using Enabling Programs to Negotiate the Risks of Higher Education
Quelle	In: Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 61 (2021) 1, S.26-44 (19 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1443-1394
Schlagwörter	Higher Education; Risk; Access to Education; Foreign Countries; Program Evaluation; College Students; Nontraditional Students; Student Attitudes; Capacity Building; Australia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Risiko; Education; Access; Bildung; Zugang; Bildungszugang; Ausland; Programme evaluation; Programmevaluation; Collegestudent; Schülerverhalten; Australien
Abstract	For some students, entering higher education entails considerable risk -- that is, the potential for harm or uncertainty. This is particularly true for students entering university via an alternative entry, enabling program. This study explored student experiences in Tasmania, Australia, as they progressed through their first semester of study in an enabling program, using the lens of risk to consider the issues and challenges they faced, and the strategies they employed to negotiate these. Qualitative data were collected from both students and staff via semistructured interviews. A complex and nuanced relationship between risk and opportunity emerged. While considerable risk was clearly evident, students and staff both preferred a narrative of opportunity. However, this narrative did not prevent students from proactively managing risk. In this process, the enabling program emerged as a 'safe space' where risk could be unpacked and managed and where they could 'try out' university. These findings highlight the considerable strengths enabling-program students bring to their university experience, sitting in opposition to the more common characterisation of such students as disadvantaged and lacking. They also challenge the way in which enabling-program outcomes are measured, particularly in terms of attrition, rendering current understandings of them incomplete. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Adult Learning Australia. Office 1, Henderson House, 45 Moreland Street, Footscray VIC 3011, Australia. Tel: +61-3-9689-8623; e-mail: info@ala.asn.au; Web site: http://www.ala.asn.au
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01