SOCIAL INCLUSION AND HIGHER EDUCATION Edited by Tehmina N. Basit and Sally Tomlinson SOCIAL INCLUSION AND HIGHER EDUCATION Edited by Tehmina N. Basit and Sally Tomlinson First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Policy Press North America office: University of Bristol Policy Press 1-9 Old Park Hill c/o The University of Chicago Press Bristol 1427 East 60th Street BS2 8BB Chicago, IL 60637, USA UK t: +1 773 702 7700 t: +44 (0)117 954 5940 f: +1 773-702-9756 [email protected] [email protected] www.policypress.co.uk www.press.uchicago.edu © Policy Press 2012 The digital PDF version of this title [978-1-4473-5473-4] is available Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits adaptation, alteration, reproduction and distribution for non-commercial use, without further permission provided the original work is attributed. 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May you inherit a world that is truly socially inclusive. Contents Foreword by David Watson vii Notes on contributors ix Introduction 1 Sally Tomlinson and Tehmina N. Basit Part One: Issues in social inclusion one Capitals, ethnicity and higher education 17 Tariq Modood two Widening participation from an historical perspective: 41 increasing our understanding of higher education and social justice David W. Thompson three Broadening participation among women and racial/ethnic 65 minorities in science, technology, engineering and maths Terrell L. Strayhorn, James M. DeVita and Amanda M. Blakewood four Social inclusion in a globalised higher education 83 environment: the issue of equitable access to university in Australia Richard James five From minority to majority: educating diverse students in 109 the United States Yolanda T. Moses six Equity, diversity and feminist educational research: enhancing 129 the emerging field of pedagogical studies in higher education for social inclusion Miriam E. David seven Social justice as a matter of policy: higher education for the 149 masses Trevor Gale and Deborah Tranter Part Two: Perspectives on widening participation eight ‘I’ve never known someone like me go to university’: class, 173 ethnicity and access to higher education Tehmina N. Basit nine Widening participation in the higher education 193 quasi-market: diversity, learning, and literacy Rob Smith v Social inclusion and higher education ten Para crecer: successful higher education strategies used by 215 Latina students Pamela Hernandez and Diane M. Dunlap eleven Empowering non-traditional students in the UK: feedback 237 and the hidden curriculum Andy Cramp twelve Teaching Indigenous teachers: valuing diverse perspectives 255 Ninetta Santoro, Jo-Anne Reid, Laurie Crawford and Lee Simpson thirteen Widening access to higher education through partnership 273 working Jaswinder K. Dhillon fourteen Higher education, human rights and inclusive citizenship 295 Audrey H. Osler Index of authors 313 Index of subjects 317 vi Foreword David Watson The intertwined issues of access, widening participation, social justice and social mobility, as they affect and are affected by higher education, wax and wane in intensity and importance in differing national contexts and at different times. Currently they are often very ‘hot’, and nowhere more so than in the UK. Here, a Conservative–Liberal Democratic Coalition government has proved itself a global outlier in terms of positioning higher education as part of a response to the mix of economic downturn, international tensions and rapid development of information and communications technologies that characterises the second decade of the 21st century. The system is to be rationed, marketised (without in fact trusting the consumers to make the correct choice of institution, subject or mode of study) and significantly deregulated, with historical patterns of public investment replaced by a precarious formula for co-payment. What this odd mixture of national priorities will produce in terms of who wants to and who does get in to higher education, what they receive, and what the effects will be on public and private returns across the spectrum of health, happiness and democratic tolerance, as well as economic prosperity, is deeply uncertain. Meanwhile, other richer and poorer countries are united in a sense that continuing to invest in higher education has to be part of the solution to the challenges of economic recovery and social cohesion rather than simply an obstacle in the path of rapidly fixing public expenditure. Meanwhile, the educational research literature presents no clear-cut solutions to the problems of variable aspiration, of variable resources (financial and moral) and of varying levels of achievement and reward for groups across society seeking (or not seeking) and succeeding (or failing) to capitalise on the potential benefits of post-compulsory learning. This is apparently not for want of trying, and any new book on the issue has to offer more than simply a recapitulation of the perennial themes. The equation is highly complex, with variables including class, ethnicity, gender, age, subject of study and location. The policy options all present wicked issues of distribution and effect (eg how to advantage the disadvantaged without further advantaging the already advantaged). And the practice can be confused, as initiatives in vii Social inclusion and higher education admissions, in pedagogy and in assessment can confound the worthy intentions of their designers. However, I do believe that this collection helps to significantly move us forward, not least because of its avowed focus on the ‘voices of students and staff’ in universities in the UK, the US and Australia. All too frequently, policy and practice in these contentious areas has been something done to and for, rather than with and by, the participants. Instead, the editors and authors of this work have taken a rigorously participative and bottom-up approach, to good effect. I commend their work to all serious and thoughtful students of the subject. Sir David Watson Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford 1 June 2011 viii Notes on contributors Professor Tehmina N. Basit Tehmina Basit is Professor of Education and Director of the Institute for Education Policy Research at Staffordshire University. She has previously held posts at Keele University, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Leicester, and University of Wolverhampton. Her PhD at the University of Cambridge examined the educational, social and career aspirations of teenage Muslim girls in Britain. Her research interests include: the education of minority ethnic groups; race and ethnicity; gender; social class; citizenship and young people; social justice; social inclusion; initial teacher training; the professional development of teachers; and qualitative research methodology. She has directed a number of externally funded regional and national research projects. Her latest book, Conducting Research in Educational Contexts (2010) was published by Continuum. Amanda M. Blakewood Amanda Blakewood is a PhD candidate in Higher Education Administration and Research Associate for the Center for Higher Education Research and Policy (CHERP) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Her research interests include: identity development for college students; gender issues in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education; and college student retention for targeted populations in higher education. Amanda received her BA degree from the University of Central Florida and her MS degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in College Student Personnel. Dr Andy Cramp Andy Cramp is currently Head of MA