An Analysis of Mature Students’ Positioning Based on the Use of Terms of Reference

Abstract

Traditional students, and their struggle within their position as non-traditional students. In 2019, four mature students whose average age was 35 participated in the study as research participants. For this study, qualitative research methods, participant observation, and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in order to collect data for analysis. This study analyzes the positioning of mature students based on the reference terms they used to refer to their younger peers. This study was framed with Positioning Theory and utilized Positioning Analysis (Davies & Harré, 1990, 1999). Positioning Analysis is used to analyze the positioning of speakers and the negotiation of interactions within various forms of communication. Through positioning analysis, the following aspects of mature students’ positioning were found. First, mature students struggle over their position as students and tend to not position themselves as students with the same learning rights as other traditional students. Second, mature students take defensive positioning toward traditional students for fear of being rejected by traditional students. These findings suggest the need for instructors and schools to better understand mature students and provide institutional resources which would allow mature students to better position themselves and consider themselves as students that are equal to other traditional students.