Abstract
As an English teacher and student of anthropology, I have experienced how rural and urban students have different experiences of access to university. This paper is a reflection on the lived-experience of widening participation activities, considering location as a factor of inequality. These experiences raise observations about familiarity as an important concept for considering university study, and exposes how some students are currently strangers to widening participation provision. In contemplating how these circumstances come about, I conclude by proposing some potential solutions for widening participation in the future.
Highlights
Country mouse, town mouseOver my fourteen years as a teacher in rural Somerset, one thing has remained true: many of the students I teach experience life as if on an island far removed from the opportunities of the rest of the country
“Is it the study of ants?” At this time, while I was teaching part-time in Somerset, I was simultaneously working as a widening participation (WP) outreach teacher in London for University College London (UCL), running sessions for school and college students to experience university subjects like anthropology through lessons, lectures, and activities
WP inadvertently acts as an instrument of an education inequality regime insofar as it acts as a gateway to experience something considered valuable and prestigious
Summary
Over my fourteen years as a teacher in rural Somerset, one thing has remained true: many of the students I teach experience life as if on an island far removed from the opportunities of the rest of the country. As school is a step on the path to university, rural students are experiencing a form of exclusion because of their remoteness This complicates possible definitions of diversity since my students’ issues cannot be identified or solved by exploring issues of class, ethnicity, or economic status, important these factors are too. WP inadvertently acts as an instrument of an education inequality regime insofar as it acts as a gateway to experience something considered valuable and prestigious This gateway is controlled by those in power; the staff, teachers, and lecturers at schools, colleges and universities. My personal experience listening to them suggests they do not feel education fulfils their needs (see Devlin & McKay, 2014 and Harwood, 2017) for further research into the importance of shared experiences of university) Returning to the stranger metaphor, targeted WP provision suggests prioritising people who already possess some familiarity with the institution: somebody nearby
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