Mature Women Students Research Articles

Boosting Voice Equity at Workplace: An Implication of Tertiary Education on Mature Women Work Performance in Rwanda

Before 1994, Rwanda education policy knew some selection barriers to access tertiary education. Thereafter, it liberated the access allowing many higher private learning institutions to open their doors. This paper analyzed late tertiary education impact on mature women students. The impact regards acquired knowledge, skills and capacity that boosted their voice equity to better perform at workplace than before. The research embarked on Bandura’s [1] social learning theory (or social cognition theory) that proves how people with high self-efficacy master their feelings and thoughts, are self-directed and motivated to accomplish their targets. The study followed a qualitative approach including interviews with 18 mature women and 104 who filled the questionnaires. All the participants were in fourth year, between the ages of 30-45 and selected from five higher private and public learning institutions but following different programmes. The findings show that their self-efficacy beliefs as a social cognition construct empowered their capacity to perform specific duties through personal goal setting. Further, tertiary education, from the majority of their views and perceptions, increased their self-esteem and trust, rendered them effective human capital in their day-to-day duties, enhanced their personal fulfillment and awakened them to be more participative in different social, political, economic spheres etc.. In addition, they learned to link challenging goals of studying to strong commitment of being good performers at work, raising confidence in colleagues, employers, neighbors and avoiding failures but creating attitudes of serenity and scrutiny to approach difficult situations.

Mature Women Students’ Experiences of Social and Academic Support in Higher Education: A Systematic Review

<p>In the Widening Participation in Higher Education agenda, students’ retention and success should be a matter of concern, since high students’ attrition can negatively affect the reputation of institutions. Mature women students’ juggling roles and academic study place them at a high risk of dropping out or successful completion. Using the guidelines for systematic reviews formulated by the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre), this review set out to examine institution-based support systems that are available to mature women students and their experiences of the support systems. It found that very few studies focus on women only. In the studies that included mature women or focused on them, support from friends, tutors and administrators emerged crucial in their stories of progression and successful completion, though this was not systematically administered. Overall, institution-based support was not an important source of support, as in most cases, students had no knowledge about it. The paper recommends the provision and systematic administration of institution-based support for mature women students and regular evaluation of such a system.</p>

Mature women and higher education: reconstructing identity and family relationships

Since Edwards’ influential study on mature women students and families in the 1990s, questions have been raised about the effects of Higher Education (HE) on family lives. Edwards maintained that relationships were at risk of breakdown due to the changing identity, increased self-esteem and enhanced confidence levels of women students. Men were perceived negatively as often being unsupportive of their wives’ return to HE, or threatened by the changes they observed in her. This paper is based on qualitative research methods focusing on whether HE changes a woman’s identity and reconstructs family relationships. A narrative line of inquiry was used to build detailed stories of a small group of women students and their husbands. The 11 women students were selected from one Foundation degree in Early Years programme at a further education institution. Data was constructed using mind mapping, focused interviews and a mosaic approach of participant-led research. Research findings showed that HE had the potential to transform a woman’s identity and position within her family relationships. The results also demonstrated that family capital, in the form of practical and emotional strategies of support from both husbands and children, played an instrumental part in the women’s success and participation in HE (though this aspect will be discussed in a subsequent paper).

Korean mature women students’ various subjectivities in relation to their motivation for higher education: generational differences amongst women

This qualitative case study attempts to conceptualize certain ‘patterns’ and ‘processes’ of which 28 mature women undergraduates give meanings to their motivation for higher education in their life contexts. Particular attention has been paid to include diverse groups of women according to their age, prior educational background, marital and occupational status. This was to seek for possibilities of differences amongst the mature women undergraduates, which is a scholarly neglected issue in the existing literature. Life history interviews were conducted with individual participants aged 25–75. Based on a combination of grounded theory approach and feminist post-structuralist theory, three types of learners were identified primarily in different generation—an age cohort that shares certain experiences in common. They are younger ‘careerist learners’, ‘personal growth learners’ and older ‘vicarious living learners’. Although the motivations for these three types of learners overlap to some extent, they disclose distinct gendered subjectivities. The analysis suggests that this partly reflects the historical dynamics of gender relations in Korean society. Drawing on empirical findings, this paper argues that more attention needs to be paid to diversities among mature women students and to socio-historical contexts under which those learners’ motivations and perspectives are constructed.

Returning to STEM: gendered factors affecting employability for mature women students

This paper adds to current discourses around employability by arguing for an explicit recognition of gender, in particular in relation to women’s employment in male-dominated sectors such as science, engineering and technology. This is not limited to young first-time graduates but continues and evolves throughout the life course. Mature women students, who are returning after career breaks, face a number of barriers in re-entering such employment sectors. Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of women graduates in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, who participated in a UK government-funded online programme aimed at supporting them to return to work, the paper examines three gendered factors identified as being of particular influence on outcomes – gender role normativity, locality and mobility, and structural and institutional barriers. The paper concludes by identifying strategies deployed by those that successfully returned to employment, including retraining, networking and doing unpaid or low-paid work.

Mature student experiences in teacher education: widening participation in Greece and England

In the context of the growing number of mature students entering higher education in Europe, this study breaks new ground in comparing the personal and professional identities of mature student teachers in Greece and England. Using an analytical model of student success by Zepke and Leach (2008), the research sought to identify the factors affecting the progress and development of 30 mature student teachers (15 in each country). It was found that individual motivation and prior experience were assets in the development of the student teachers, while peer and family support were vital success factors. In the English context, the importance of institutional support from university and school-based tutors was also strong. Barriers included financial difficulties and domestic responsibilities, which had a particular impact on mature women students. Some recommendations to improve institutional support for mature student teachers are made in conclusion.

Gender, power and emotion: towards holistic understanding of mature women students in South Korea

This study investigates the life experiences of six mature undergraduate women at a traditional 4-year university in South Korea. It explores women's construction of their university lives in the context of their wider socio-cultural experiences, both past and present, which are shaped by the socio-historical context of South Korean society. The study is, therefore, concerned with the interplay of structure and agency in the formation of gendered social practices (Connell, R.W. 1987. Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics. Cambridge: Polity Press). The results from life-history interviews reveal that women's construction of university experiences cannot be fully understood without reference to their life off-campus and their wider social structures. These social structures are Confucian culture, severe academic credentialism, a heavily masculinised labour market, and the discourse of the ‘educational manager mother’ in neoliberal contemporary Korean society.

Returning to Study in Higher Education in Ghana: Experiences of Mature Undergraduate Women

This study was based on the assumption that in Ghana, women who return late to higher education combine domestic and academic work and, in the process, experience tensions and difficulties in the face of cultural and academic prejudice. It employed an interpretive qualitative research approach via narrative interviews with eight mature undergraduate women from different socio-economic backgrounds in one public university. The intention was to explore their experiences and use the findings to make suggestions for institutional development and learning. The data was collected in May 2009 from a sample of first- and final-year women from the Departments of Sociology and Basic Education in one of the oldest public universities in the southern part of Ghana. The women students found academic work difficult and made reference to gaps in terms of their knowledge deficit, unfamiliar courses and teaching methods. Recommendations from the study include the formulation of an institutional policy on mature women students in particular, and non-traditional students in higher education generally, and the regular provision of professional development programmes for higher education practitioners.

Mature women's experiences of preregistration nurse education.

The government of the United Kingdom is encouraging more flexible recruitment strategies to overcome the shortage of qualified nurses. Mature women returning to education, often after completing their families, are a major target, but there has been little evaluation of their experiences as higher education students of nursing. The aim of the study was to follow-up a previous quantitative study of mature women students' outcomes on preregistration diploma courses in order to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences, and consider ways in which their needs might be addressed. Five focus groups were conducted in one higher education institution, and data were analysed using thematic analysis, assisted by the 'spike' feature of Word for Windows. Three major themes were identified: 'Didn't know what to expect', 'Reality shock' and 'Learning the game'. Subthemes of 'Learning the game' were 'Academic study', 'Practice placements and shift work', 'Managing the effect of course workload on domestic roles', 'Personal growth and changing relationships', and 'Support systems and friendships'. The findings are discussed in relation to reports of women's experiences in higher education in general. We conclude that the situation and needs of mature women preregistration nursing students are such that fundamental curriculum redesign is needed so that they can participate in higher education in ways that allow integration of their family and student lives, and permit them to benefit from the higher education experience in the same ways as younger students. The study is limited by its local nature, but the findings mirror those of other work, giving reassurance of its wider applicability. Recommendations are made for changes in the philosophy and organization of future programmes to improve their appropriateness and acceptability to mature women nursing students.

Intrinsic Motivation and Self-esteem in Traditional and Mature Students at a Post-1992 University in the North-east of England

Recent figures have suggested that the composition of the student body is already changing in terms of mature and traditional student learner numbers--while 24% of full time students were over the age of 21 in 1980, this figure rose to 33% by 1996 (Merrill, 1999). Using the Intrinsic Motivation towards Learning Questionnaire (Whitehead, 1984) and the Rosenberg Global Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Rosenberg, 1965), the current study documents the relationship between intrinsic motivation towards learning and self-esteem in traditional and mature students, in order to compare these groups in their approach to learning. Results from sample size of 160 research participants indicated that self-esteem and intrinsic motivation towards learning were significantly associated. Mature women students had the highest intrinsic motivation scores, as well as the highest self-esteem scores in the sample. The findings are discussed in the light of previous research, which suggests that mature women students are vulnerable learners in higher education institutions and the study's conclusion draws attention to the current UK Government policy's commitment to expand student numbers.

Mature women's experiences of higher education: lessons for nursing

There is an extensive literature on the experiences of mature women students in higher education. However, little attention has been paid to the experiences of mature nursing students, other than studies of retention and attainment. With the relatively recent entry of nurse education into the higher education sector in the UK, Australia, Western Europe and many Asian countries, it is important to consider the lessons that the higher education literature can offer for nursing. A major focus of this work is the double life load that these students bear because they continue to take responsibility for home and study. This load is experienced as greater than that for women in paid work and results from women's personal motivations to gain knowledge and self-esteem and improve their position in the labour market. In the case of vocational courses such as nursing, the two 'greedy institutions' of home and university are augmented by a third-the healthcare system in which their practical learning takes place. Patriarchal ideology underpins all three institutions and, despite mission statements emphasising inclusivity, universities are structured around the needs of traditional 'bachelor boy' students, and more recently 'spinster girls', and their inflexibility in terms of timetables, lack of childcare facilities and traditional teaching and assessment methods mean that women's life experiences are not valued nor their needs accommodated. Mature women report that they feel marginalised, and are unable to join in the wider social and leisure activities on offer at universities. In view of the need to improve recruitment and retention in nursing because of current and impending shortages of Registered Nurses, nurse education can learn lessons from this work and adapt its curricula to be more flexible towards the needs of mature women students.

Women's Studies in England: Mature women students and their educational vision

In this article the author takes the vantage points of a group of mature women's studies students at the University of East London to explore the meanings they gave to their education. What kinds of knowledge did they discover and appropriate; what kinds did they resist? How do their stories illuminate the ongoing workings of the academy today? Their perspectives reveal a series of dichotomies taken for granted throughout the university: dichotomies such as those of experience versus theory, research versus teaching, and general and 'objective' versus 'subjective' and particular knowledges. Rather than being inherent in the process of acquiring advanced knowledge about the world, such binaries are structurally embedded in the current organization and practices of higher education. They are socially constructed ideological devices to keep some subjects, students and teaching faculty continually 'at the margins', leaving the dominant disciplines, their practices, and their practitioners, fundamentally intact. This article explores these contradictions.

‘You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube’: The impact of higher education on mature age women students

‘You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube’: The impact of higher education on mature age women students

Mature Women Students: Separating or Connecting Family and Education

The political and the personal separating and connecting public and private worlds family and education - meanings in childhood and adulthood greedy institutions - straddling the worlds of family and education women and family life in the academic and public world power, interest and support - the effects of education on the women's family lives ways of being equality in different worlds. Appendix: the women interviewed.

Individualism, self‐evaluation and self‐fulfilment in the experience of mature women students

This article explores the responses of 43 mature women students to questions about their experience of higher education. All were interviewed whilst students and 23 were interviewed again almost 10 years later. The responses discussed here were not to questions about practical educational and personal problems which mature students encounter (important though these are), but to questions about the way their experience of higher education, and subsequently of their careers, affected their perceptions of themselves in terms of their sense of status, authority and self‐fulfilment: the ambiguity of their initial response led us to explore what they had to say within a theoretical framework which suggests that the relationship between education and gender in the late 20th century makes the management of the ‘public’ and the ‘private’ self a difficult one for women to negotiate. As students they partially resolved the tension by espousing a counter‐cultural view of education stressing the importance of the ‘pri...

Education and Domesticity

abstract This paper explores the relationship between education and domesticity within two different contexts. The first is the theoretical literature about the reproduction of domesticity within the education system — which in various ways suggests that the education of girls and women leads them towards domestic roles and low paid work. The second context is a study of mature women students, in which respondents saw education as leading them away from the traditional versions of domestic roles and into more rewarding paid employment. The paper concludes that the reproduction of social roles is contested and that the extension of education for women has real potential for destabilising traditional notions of femininity.

Facilitating the learning of mature women students: a British perspective

The numbers and the proportion of mature women students are currently increasing in continuing and higher education in Britain. This paper addresses the issues involved in such an increase, showing that demographic changes and political support for adult returners coincides with women's wishes, demands and opportunities to take advantage of the study they missed out on at school. Reasons such as poor teaching, lack of motivation, culture and other priorities are among those examined to partially explain women's low participation in the past, their choice of subject areas, wastage and under achievement. Models of good practice in provision for mature women students, particularly those with non‐standard entry qualifications are examined, with a specific focus on the organisation of access and pre‐access courses. Examples of higher education provision such as that of the Open University, and a variety of polytechnics and colleges provide useful models for recommendations for change for other host institutions. Institutional and pedagogical concerns which facilitate women returners are considered: course design, course content, teaching and learning strategies, funding, hours, assessment, nursery provision and counselling support are all suggested as issues to be addressed by institutions hoping and intending to recruit, retain and facilitate the successful study of mature women students.

Appraisals of social support: Love, respect, and involvement

The multifaceted nature of social support has become more widely recognized in theory and research. Specifically, a consensus is emerging on the distinctions among support resources, behavior, and appraisals. The present study focuses on support appraisals with the aim of studying the degree to which the Social Support Appraisals Scale (SS-A) might be used to assess distinct appraisals of repect, love, and involvement. SS-A data from five heterogeneous samples (including students, mature women students, fathers, and adolescents) were subjected to factor analysis. The factors that emerged were highly invariant across samples and largely reflected respect, involvement, and love, though the “love” factor might also be interpreted as a “family” factor. Patterns of convergent and divergent validity with subscales reflecting constructs of love, respect, and involvement from two other support appraisal measures were equivocal. Some implications for theory and research of differentiating support appraisals are discussed.

SATISFACTION AND ROLE STRAIN AMONG MIDDLE‐AGE AND OLDER REENTRY WOMEN STUDENTS

Abstract The major purposes of this study were: (1) to investigate a range of variables associated with satisfaction and strain experienced in the student role by mature (age 35 and over) reentry women students; and (2) to develop and test a model for predicting satisfaction and role strain in mature reentry women students. Questionnaire data were obtained from 141 women 35 years old and over who were enrolled as undergraduates at a major midwestern university. Significant correlates of satisfaction in the student role included: rated helpfulness of professors' attitudes, helpfulness of counseling, and psychological support from children and friends. Significant correlates of strain in the student role included: dissatisfaction with job, rated helpfulness of financial aid, and number of years since previous school enrollment; age of youngest child was correlated negatively with strain in the student role. Multiple regression results showed that the strongest predictor of satisfaction in the student role w...

Personality Traits of Mature Women in StudentVersusHomemaker Roles

Summary Two equal groups of mature American women (total N = 80, aged 29 to 55 years), one composed of those returning to school and the other composed of those choosing to remain full-time homemakers, were compared on personality measures of sex role, self-esteem, and achievement motivation. Future life plans were also assessed. Although homemakers in comparison to the students described themselves as more feminine, they did not exhibit lower self-esteem or less achievement motivation, as had been predicted. The results suggest that mature women students may be more flexible in their sex role identities and less tied to a nurturant, interpersonally oriented role but that they are not necessarily more ambitious, confident, or achievement-oriented than homemakers.