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Part-time study: the new paradigm for higher education? A selection of papers from the 2012 Conference of the Universities Association for Lifelong Learning
Edited by Paul Gibbs, William R. Jones, Susan Oosthuizen
Introduction
This paper describes how a group of adult women students from a range of social and educational backgrounds pursued personal goals aimed at integrating their lives around the three core foci of family, work and education and how their actions unintentionally contributed to the social good in their community. It uses detail from individual narratives to illuminate the broader social benefits that arise from people choosing their own lifestyles, in a reversal of the normative top-down processes associated with policy making.
Research context
The discussion is supported by data taken from a research project that initially set out to explore the student experience of adult education but found, in process, that there was a much broader story to tell, one that draws upon students' biographies and their life choices. The emergent nature of this research is discussed in detail in a reflective article on methodology ([27] Wright, 2009) and a monograph Women Studying Childcare : Integrating Lives Through Adult Education ([28] Wright, 2011) but the basic research design is outlined here. This was a study of 33 women who enrolled on a childcare diploma over a ten-year period from 1997 to 2006 (selected from and typical of the 150 who returned background questionnaires). The students signed up for a vocational diploma course in an English Further Education college and many (but not all) had taken this opportunity after a period of volunteering in their own children's pre-school settings. They enrolled on the course because it was convenient, affordable (supported by the local authority) and fitted around their family obligations. However, on completion they acquired a level three vocational qualification (equivalent to an English A-level) and this opened up many new opportunities. For all students it provided a licence to practice, and several existing science and liberal arts graduates valued this focus, using it to develop a career in childcare. For some, achievement at level three in a post-compulsory context made it possible to enrol on a foundation degree, so the diploma contributed to the widening participation agenda.
The study developed a...