Higher Education Equity Literature Database

Context: Challenges of transition, especially in the context of widening participation; school and university partnership to support students with their transitions into post-compulsory study and employment. Partnership between school (A-level) psychology teachers and psychology lecturers in post-1992 university in England. Review of literature focuses on common narrative of students' under-preparation. Authors also note the call from the British Psychological Society to strengthen the connections between A-levels and undergraduate to help support students' transitions. Challenges with reduction of employment opportunities mean that university teaching needs to prepare students for a wide range of 'transferrable skills'.
Research dissertation = core element of the initiative described in the article.
Aim: To explore "how undergraduate dissertation students can work with AS and A Level students on their dissertation projects to enhance the skills and development of both" (p.273). Stated objectives of the project:
"(1) To detail an exploratory case study in which staff and students from a school and university work together to support the learning of the AS and A Level students and psychology undergraduates as part of their dissertation with school students.
(2) To explore how supporting dissertation students with their dissertation research project impacted upon AS and A level students' learning and perceptions of higher education.
(3) To explore how taking part in applied research and mentoring of AS and A Level students enhanced dissertation students' learning" (p.277).
Theoretical frame: Social constructivism (Vygotksy) and zone of proximal development
Methodology: Exploratory case study; six undergraduate students who were undertaking their research dissertation expressed an interest in researching with younger people (Author 1 = dissertation supervisor; Author 2 = A-level teacher; Authors 3&4 = students). Information on dissertation projects on p.278.
Findings: Findings from students' dissertation projects = on p.280.
Reflections from participants/ authors
A-level students = asked for their opinions on participating in the dissertation projects; "They stated that they enjoyed the applied nature of the research as they could see how 'real research at uni' is conducted and that it was 'better than just listening and reading about it'" (p.280).
Dissertation students = described how "meeting with the schools in the preparation stage improved their confidence, and increased their understanding of the ethical implications of taking part in applied research" (p.280) and they enjoyed mentoring the A-level students.
Teachers/ authors: reflected on the opportunities for both sets of students, and was likely to encourage schools students to consider studying psychology at university. However, authors note how challenging it can be to develop/sustain relationships between universities and schools (also the ethical issues)
Core argument: A partnership such as the one described in this article can be useful for supporting university students to develop their own research practices, to support school students with their transitions and aspirations/ feel more prepared and aware of what is involved in undergraduate study.

Context: Post-Bradley review Australian higher education system - emphasis on low SES students and human capital arguments. Points to idea that low SES students = "likely to have poor social and cultural capital that tends to limit their capacity and willingness to seek help for matters that may affect their retention and progression in higher education" (p.82) - explores role of Student Services - cites classic Tinto quote ("access without support is not opportunity"). Scopes similar focus on student support in UK and Europe
Aim: Reports on doctorial study that "aimed to determine what theoretical model can be developed that will inform the development of student support services in Australia to effectively respond to the non_academic needs of LSES students" (p.83). [Not clear why focus = only low SES students]
Theoretical frame: Bourdieu/ capital mentioned but not specific theoretical framing of study - mentioned in introduction (commonsensical) and findings
Methodology: Qualitative, grounded theory (constructivist, interpretive). Methods = semi-structured interviews with mature age, low SES, on campus students (n=17) + 3 staff (regional university). Follow up focus groups conducted following analysis of interview data for patterns etc.
Findings:
Students = want suite of support (financial, child care, life-study balance etc.). Students = low understanding (demonstrated) of existing support services, or unlikely to access support services
Students = more likely to access/ take up support "if a person in their personal network encouraged them to do
so, for instance a lecturer, tutor, administration officer, peer, or family member" (p.84).
Social capital = increased by "formation of network of support established on trust" (p.84)
Trust = constructed as six principles: availability, responsiveness, pre-existing relationship, experience, willingness to help, credibility. See also 'trust equation' (Green 2005)
Core argument: "For Student Services, this equates to educating key stakeholders across the institution about
services and forming referral pathways: a collaborative institutional approach to student support" (p.84).

Context: Contemporary higher education landscape in South Africa (challenges brought by massification, globalisation and mass migration) + decolonisation of epistemology and ontology in higher education. Problem = "the onus is falling on academics to find answers to macro social issues and micro-aggressions surfacing in classrooms" (p.2). Authors note that many SA institutions now offer professional development courses such as PG diplomas, but authors argue that a one-size approach is woefully inadequate: "If these programmes remain neutral, generic and uncritical, leading to one-size-fits-all assimilationist approaches that do not get academics to grapple critically and sufficiently with the structural and cultural issues (Behari-Leak 2017), little will change" (p.2). Authors' context = Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE) PGDip.
Aim: To argue that higher education teachers are unlikely to 'meet the challenges' in their classrooms if they have not shared some of the vulnerability experienced by their students; to tie this to students' perceptions of their teachers/ academics
Theoretical frame: Pedagogy of vulnerability (Brantmeier, 2013) - vulnerability seen as a "condition of 'openness' to being positively affected and affecting others in turn (Gilson 2011, 310)" (p.3); authors also explore other categorisations of vulnerability (biological, social, cultural, epistemic). Vulnerability involves risk; "Vulnerability can therefore be seen as an act of courageous pedagogical engagement that holds the potential to engage teachers and students in both caring for and caring about issues that matter (Noddings, 2003)" (p.4). Authors also draw on pedagogy of discomfort (Boler & Zembylas)
Methodology: Reflective narrative auto-methodology. All participants = co-authors, and paper is based on reflective assignments undertaken as part of the LTHE course. CDA = analytic frame
Findings:
Safe and brave spaces: the LTHE course created "a safe space for connections and linkages that encouraged an openness and honesty not characteristic of a university classroom" (p.6), which connects with feminist pedagogy (hooks, 203). The safe space creates possibilities to be and share vulnerabilities from their own vantage points (p.6, my emphasis). These need to be valued. Also, the specific L&T context was significant, given that university educators/ academics are usually expected to know the answers - course teacher/ developer had to also share their own vulnerabilities so as to 'give permission' for students to do so too.
Hierarchies of power: authors discuss the activity to help decolonise understandings of 'disciplines', which they argue
"challenged us to think, feel and act differently in the classroom and to use our own agency for academics and students, traditionally silenced and alienated in the colonial classroom, to be included" (p.9), and permitted power dynamics and histories to be uncovered and opened to discussion - e.g. getting the participants to line up according to the perceived value of their disciplines/ roles in the institution/ institutional hierarchies etc.. By questioning the dominance of colonial models, authors inadvertently created epistemic vulnerability.
Positioned through positionality: positionality understood as 'vulnerability-in-action' (p.10) - in discussing tacit/ hidden elements of hegemony, students = needed to unpack their own positioning/ positionality; as such the course "challenged the over-privileging of intellectual work and foregrounded the affective disposition needed in the knowledge-making process to recognize the importance of 'being' (Boler and Zembylas 2003)" (p.10). Authors also identified that those in power have a 'privilege of vulnerability' because the consequences of showing vulnerability are lesser felt.
Intersectional pathways: danger of resting on a single narrative that hides/ misrecognizes the multiple positions/ vulnerabilities, and also helped participants to reflect on the multiple disadvantages their students face, and which are magnified by assumptions.
Core argument: "...['open-hearted] vulnerability can be used as a productive tool and decolonial catalyst to invigorate teaching and learning engagements in local and global university contexts" (abstract)
"We hope we have provided a canvas for teachers in different global contexts to use vulnerability as we did, as a productive catalyst to recast the teacher as human (e) in the HE classroom. This is one way of how we might re-imagine academic labour" (p.14)

Context: Diversified higher education means we can no longer make assumptions about students' literacies/ familiarity with academic literacies. Set in context of massified HE system - social justice concerns for the privilege/ marginalisation of (non-) traditional students because of academic literacies. Scopes literature on literacy as social practice; criticality; code-switching; funds of knowledge. Article examines intervention in Bachelor of Social Work at Deakin. Talks about writing for social work
Aim: To demonstrate how a revised curriculum for Bachelor of Social Work was able to make codes (home literacies/ academic literacies) explicit, using students' everyday literacies as a bridge to new knowledge, introduce notion of code-switching between literacies; to illustrate how "diverse students' literacies can be valorised and harnessed as assets for learning" (abstract).
Theoretical frame: Literacy as social practice/ academic literacies
Methodology: Practitioner action research (see Kemmis, 2008 and others); intervention = embedded into two units: Yr2 subject - Social Work Theories (SWT) - and Yr1 - Introduction to Social Work (ISW). 78 students enrolled in SWT; 75 enrolled in ISW. Students =diverse (low/ medium SES, FinF, just less than half born outside of Australia). Data collected via questionnaires, students' work, focus group interviews. ALL teacher embedded into course team
Findings:
"Our aims to make elite codes explicit, and make educative use of the literacies students already possess, were underpinned by creating a dialogic space in which students' life-worlds might be expressed, valued and interrogated" (p.6)
Inhabiting a shared 'space': students did not treat any of team differently - ALL person = not conspicuous.
Got to know students by adapting Cuseo's (2011) Student Information Sheet- helpful for identifying students' funds of knowledge and creating a dialogic classroom.
Connecting with students' lifeworlds: notes Ivanic et al.'s (2009) discussion of permeable boundaries between sociocultural contexts and 'border literacies'. Authors drew on students' lifeworlds in reflective writing task (connections between personal biographies and theories/ perspectives underpinning Social Work as discipline). Data suggest that this helped students to identify their own partiality/ bias - however, it also led to worrying trend in students self-identifying deficits. Needs time to do this pedagogic work well and for students' individual trajectories/ confidence with academic writing across genres to develop.
Code-switching: used Northedge's 2005 table of tribal (home) v. academic language/discourse to help unpack codes. Students used meta-language in their conversations (surprising for researchers); however, students struggled to identify ideologically-loaded words or emotive phrasing: "We realised how important it was to allow students time to develop awareness and integrate these new understandings into their existing frames of reference. Raising consciousness about language and moving between literacy practices is complex and perhaps would benefit from ongoing attention and practice beyond two units of study, into other units and practical placements" (p.10).
Overall, the design of the programs appears to have enabled students' competence and confidence "without assimilating them into elite and dominant cultural practices" (p.12) = aka allowing students to make connections between home literacies and academic knowledge, and demonstrate learning.
Constraints: assessment design is difficult to change (because of university inflexibility); time constraints and workload
Core argument: Explicit teaching and embedding of academic literacies = complex but valuable

Context: The move of first year experience (FYE) studies from prioritising local issues to developing widespread approaches, and the overall improvement of FYE while also maintaining student diversity. This paper focuses specifically on the experience of mostly mature-aged students at a satellite campus in Queensland.
Aim: To 'provide insights for universities in better understanding what it means to provide a supportive, connected and challenging environment for first year students' (41).
Theoretical frame: Creswell's (2005) stages of content analysis were applied to focus group transcripts to elicit key themes emerging from discussions in response to research questions.
Methodology: Qualitative - findings taken from a larger mixed-method study which explored the perceptions of students enrolled in their first year of study and also draws on data from focus group interviews involving 14 first year students and guided by an interview schedule asking about work/home/school life and the relationships between them.
Findings: Themes of commitment, engagement in dialogue, and sense of ownership emerged from the interviews. Students expected universities to reciprocate the commitment and effort students devoted, and to make the students 'feel valued'. Students also seem to understand that those of them with 'career-driven goals' and a willingness to sacrifice will fare better in university than those without and acknowledge a divide that for them, indicates commitment/seriousness levels. With regards to dialoguing, 'focus group participants saw themselves as 'customers' accessing services with a clear purpose in mind, rather than as 'students' being taught' (46).
Core argument: 'Dialogue', 'commitment' and 'sense of ownership' are core to a successful first year (48) and 'students may expect to take a greater degree of ownership over the process and be positioned as valued consumers' (49).

Context: Examines pathways taken by indigenous students in NT between VET (cert IV+) and HE, exploring students' perspectives to understand pathways adopted, motivations for study and experiences while studying. VET and HE acknowledged as "crucial elements in Indigenous capacity-building" (p.7). Completion of cert IV makes university a 'viable option' but low numbers of students in 'higher certificates' makes this an 'under-utilised' pathway. In 2012 there were 1759 vocational education providers registered in the Northern Territory (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations 2012) - p.8. Report is situated within literature that outlines the disadvantage that indigenous peoples have traditionally and currently face in Australia, particularly for remote students. Proportional representation of indigenous students in VET is significant = more accessible, especially for students in rural/ remote locations. According to DEEWR statistics, indigenous students tend to be younger, more likely to be living in remote locations, have much lower levels of schooling and are more concentrated in lower certificate levels (41.9% = in cert I/II courses; 30.5% = cert III - diploma; compared with 23.5% and 51.3% respectively of non-indigenous participation). More are male. Many indigenous students are precluded from articulating to HE because of their low level VET qualifications. For indigenous students in HE, they have high attrition rates, low retention/ completion rates and a high failure rate. Patterns with indigenous participation in HE = high proportion enrolments in Humanities: health, education, society = 70% indigenous enrolments in 2008. Health = fasting growing discipline. More women than men in HE. Most significant gaps between indigenous/non-indigenous = postgraduate. Starting salaries = significantly lower for indigenous graduates
Research Questions:
- What are the retention, progression and attrition rates among Northern Territory Indigenous students in the VET sector?
- What are the pathways adopted by Indigenous students in the Northern Territory in the transition from post-compulsory education to work?
- What is the experience of Indigenous students who transition from the VET sector to the higher education sector in the Northern Territory?
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Mixed methods: uses enrolment data from 2000-2009 to explore patterns in enrolment and completion rates, and focus group interviews with 29 indigenous tertiary students from CDU, Bachelor and 2 private institutions
Findings:
Quantitative data: between 2000-2009, indigenous enrolments = 27.3% of CDU enrolments (60% male, 40% female). Most students were under 20. Indigenous enrolments concentrated in lower levels (cert I and II). Multiple course enrolments also observed frequently. Field with highest indigenous enrolments = agriculture and environment studies. Best success rates = hospitality. Between 2000-2009, 280 indigenous students enrolled at CDU (4.8% of total population). The most frequent basis of admission was previous higher education study, followed by alternative pathways (including 'mature-age', 'tertiary enabling program' and 'other'), secondary education results, and vocational education studies - p.27. Most popular courses = nursing and education, followed by law, business and behavioural studies.
Qualitative data:
Common motivations for enrolling in VET studies were employment-related.
- For students who take cert IV+ courses (higher certificates), 17% transitioned from TAFE into CDU. However, given low numbers of students who study higher certificates, this translates into "relatively few students" (p.3)
- For the students who transitioned from VET, they found their VET studies useful, but "some students were unprepared for the more academic environment of higher education and the emphasis on online learning" (p.3)
- Some students perceived a lack of indigenous teachers, but were generally satisfied with their programs
- All students surveyed received financial assistance (e.g. assistance with books, computers, transport, food and accommodation; childcare facilities; time off work; cultural leave; and additional time to complete the course) but all were dissatisfied with the amount of support and the child care facilities, as well as a lack of 'culturally appropriate' places to study
- Some rural students found the move to more urban locations difficult, reporting feelings of social isolation and difficulties communicating in English
Core argument: A lack of social support, language issues and constraints on access to tertiary education remain barriers to participation and completion for indigenous students.

Context: Refugee students transitioning into higher education in Australia.
Aim: To explore how students navigate the temporal dimension of higher education.
Methodology: Longitudinal ethnographic study of with two phases of data collection conducted with a group of participants for 3.5 years, and another group for 2.5 years. Data were collected through interactive semi-structured interviews, and focus groups.
Findings: These are presented as themes adapted from Liao et al.'s (2013) typology.
Wasted/ing time - A significant theme centred around the desire not to waste time, due to commitments at home, which was compounded by the pressure to manage education work and family life.
Time as a Goal - Feeling the need to make up for time, participants sought to manipulate it by shortening time spent on English course, which impacted their English. Another strategy employed included taking multiple courses simultaneously. Both strategies were unsuccessful and promoted a change of direction to take only one course.
Compressed time - Authors reported participants experienced two types of time: macro (whole of life) and meso (recent departure/arrival), which provided challenges for fitting in with a fixed concept of time that was used by the university.
Core Argument: "The competing tempos - the urgency of integration and the urgency of HE- did not create the conditions that would lead to successful educational outcomes (in the traditional sense). Instead, we argue that HE's colonised timescape actively erodes the conditions needed for CALD students to be successful - slow time for contemplation, deeper understanding and questioning. Similarly, HE's temporal structure and pace does not permit the kinds of flexibility needed to accommodate complex lives, nor does it offer time for educators to provide care and support" (p. 12).

Context: Access to HE (AHE) courses in the UK: 1-year diploma program designed to give adults (19+) preparation for studying at university. AHE = key part of British government WP policy/ to improve social inclusion. AHE is described by Franklin (2006) as the 'Cinderella of the education system' (cited on p.766), partly because they are taught in Further Education colleges. AHE = sites of transition, and many AHE students face challenges and need support with those transitions. Literature attests to students' effectiveness when they feel supported by their tutors. However, external influences (QAA, increasing performativity in education/FE) reduce the opportunities for support
Aim: To explore whether/ how AHE courses can be considered as Communities of Practice (CoP); to explore
"mature students' perspectives of their changing learning identities through their developing relationships with their tutors and with each other during their AHE courses" (abstract); to describe "the dynamic processes involved in the formation and reproduction of a community of practice in particular socio-economic and policy contexts" (p.768)
Theoretical framework: Community of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
Methodology: Linked qualitative case study of AHE courses in three further education colleges; focus groups with 5-6 self-selecting students (Humanities/ Social Sciences) in each college over 3 occasions + individual interviews with their tutors. Questions included: "why AHE students, after leaving school, change their views on learning and themselves as learners; about the nature and importance of the learning relationships constructed on AHE courses; and how AHE students' perceptions of their courses and higher education are affected by changing policy contexts" (p.769).
Findings:
How did the group develop: Establishing a common identity / identifying with particular features (e.g. as a mature student), underpinned by discourse of maturity and motivation shared by tutors. Tutors who had also been AHE students understood/ empathised with the struggles
Working together: helping each other, offering advice and moral support. Social support developed over time; tutors noted that there were peaks of coming together.
Developing repertoire of shared resources: tutors and students both saw mutual respect and support/ professional empathy and care (p.774), but acknowledged boundary between them. Increased surveillance/ performativity concerns created distance between the students and the tutors, which the authors argue highlights the tutors' peripheral status in the CoP.

Context: M_ori student learning environments in Aotearoa/New Zealand foundation studies programs in a variety of institutions.
Aim: To consider the question: "What constitutes an optimal learning environment for M_ori learners in foundation programmes?" (abstract)
Methodology: Kaupapa M_ori: similar to critical theory; however, ensures that M_ori values and ways of being and doing are central to the research. It particularly privileges Wh_nau (broadly conceptualized as a group with similar values) which keeps both researchers and researched 'culturally safe'. Methodology also included a M_ori advisory group. Fourteen focus groups comprising approx. 100 students from 12 providers of enabling programs (selected randomly from institutions including traditional university and polytechnic providers, tribally based providers, private training providers and Indigenous university (some tribally based). In addition, 8 tutors and 5 CEOs were interviewed.
Findings: In all research sites, M_ori students were given a 'home' room with freedom to 'design' the room in whatever way they pleased. This allowed students to feel ownership over their learning spaces further enhanced by providing capacity to link to their cultural identity through artefacts. Whakawhanaungatanga (relationship building) is significant to emotional and spiritual wellbeing and all tutors embedded this in their practices. Caring relationships with tutors facilitated caring, collaboration and responsibility amongst the groups of students as well. Students were enabled to "live as M_ori" (p. 444) in their learning spaces where cultural practices were embedded in pedagogy. Risk-taking, mistake-making and collaboration were encouraged in 'success'-oriented classrooms.
Core Argument: The optimal learning environment for M_ori learners in foundation studies programs is holistic and has embedded a strong sense of belonging and interconnectedness between cultural, spiritual, academic and emotional elements.

Context: Spanish legislation explicitly recognises the right to an inclusive, accessible education based on a universal design. In HE, the current Constitutional Law 4/2007 on universities specifically mentions the inclusion of people with disabilities, guaranteeing them equal opportunity and non-discrimination. However, even with the law supporting the right to an inclusive education and the necessary curriculum adaptations, it appears that in practice this is often not considered, as concluded by Lo_pez and Morina (2015).
Aim: To discover the barriers and aids affecting access, academic performance and students' perception of their HE experience, from the students themselves.
Theoretical frame: Not specified in study.
Methodology: Multidisciplinary study (educational sciences, economics, health sciences and experimental sciences), part of an extensive research project financed by Spain's Ministry of Education and Competition, titled 'Barriers and aid that students with disabilities identify at the Unive rsity' (ref. EDU 2010-16264). Participants: All participants were students with some type of disability (aged between 19 - 59 years old); 22 men & 22 women; 38% of the students had a physical disability, 15% psychological, 36% sensory disability and 11% had difficulties associated with some type of organic problem (asthma, degenerative diseases, etc.). The research project was conducted in several stages, with a biographical-narrative methodology. Stage 1: Part 1:Focus groups and individual interviews (oral & written). Participants: (n=44). Part 2: Micro-life histories focused on university career. Participants: University students (n=16) who participated in Part 1. Data collection instruments: Life-lines, focus interviews, self-reporting. Stage 2: Application of a biographical-narrative methodology to provide in-depth life histories & polyphony of voices. Participants: 8 of 16 students who drafted their micro-life histories in Phase 2. Data collection instruments: in-depth interviews, photographs, interviews with key people in each student's lives, observations. Data analysis: 1) Narrative analysis (Goodley et al., 2004): To draft each history 2)Structural analysis (Riessman, 2008) (Miles & Huberman, 1994): To conduct a comparative analysis of all information collected.
Findings: 1)Whether or not to reveal a disability: Most significant theme - Students' desire to be treated normally, and to only receive support when 'absolutely necessary' (p. 219); Need to constantly demonstrate invisible disabilities; Dilemma regarding revealing disability; lecturers as a barrier to achieving successful academic outcomes. 2)What they can and cannot do: Significant theme - the required awareness among students regarding activities they could & could not do; besides lecturers, students highlighted their disability as a barrier 3)The effort needed to achieve one's goals: Significant theme - 'disabilities meant having to invest more time and effort than the rest of the students to achieve their objectives' (p. 220). 4)The various perceptions of themselves as students: No generalised conclusions; Common perceptions: similar to any other university student, 'fighters' (p. 221), 'heroes' or 'survivors' (p. 221); Factors influencing perceptions: Courses studied, their commitment towards their academic career. 5)Rising to meet adversity: Students developed 'strategies of resilience, both to overcome obstacles and to work out how to face such obstacles' (p. 222)); Eg: 'Look at things differently' (p. 222), gaining awareness of disability to develop appropriate strategies. 6) University as a context that contributes to social inclusion and employment: Most students with disabilities perceived HE as a 'positive experience offering them a normalised context', by providing an 'escape mechanism' to overcome challenges associated with their disabilities (p. 222).
Core argument: HE, as highlighted in this study's findings, provides university students with disabilities an opportunity to rebuild their identity, which might have been construed more negatively during other stages of their education. However, not just any university environment facilitates this reconstruction. Inclusive environments are ideal for favouring personal and social development. While universities recognise the need to advance in the field of inclusion and fairness, policies, strategies and programmes must be implemented to contribute to the true achievement of these objectives.

Context: Set in context of Open University in the UK - explores entrance of 'non-traditional' students into Social Work program in Scotland. Non-trad students = those entering with vocational qualifications and with 'advanced standing'. Discusses 'macro' and 'micro' influences on WP: macro = national policy; micro = experiences of students and lecturers
Aim: To explore the interplay between day-to-day experiences of transition and broader influences on widening participation
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Small-scale qualitative study (3 x Social Work courses in Scotland, data collected in 2007) - partnered with Glasgow Caledonian and Dundee University. Students were interviewed over the phone and grades collected: 3 groups of participants: 1) had combination of HNC and SVQ3; 2) credit for study from other degree; 3) no credit for prior study. 6 students discussed (all over 25; 4 x m, 2 x f)
Findings: Scopes macro contexts: the policy context in Scotland, the professional context of social work; the meso context: the OU and Social Work program; the micro context = empirical work with students.
Main finding = similarity in perceptions between the 3 groups of students + initial lack of self-belief but strong sense of motivation. Main challenge related to vocational nature of the course rather than academic.
Students suggested the following support transition:
- Importance of life and practice experience
- Generic study skills [urgh!!]
- Enabling social environment
- Tutor support/ feedback
- High quality learning resources
- Employer/ colleague support
- Family support
Core argument: "analysis of the interactions between the 'macro', 'meso' and 'micro' of widening participation suggests, extending access is not about simply slotting in students to existing provision. It is crucial to student engagement and success that higher education institutes are able to respond imaginatively to learners from a range of backgrounds and differing needs. This requires a holistic and contextual understanding of 'what works' - and what does not - in making a reality of widening participation" (p.181).

Context: This paper complements a corresponding audit of academic literacies and language in enabling programs, and it also exists in response to research that posits that "decisions to seek alternative entry into higher education appear to be strongly connected to their experiences of high school mathematics" and therefore examining numeracy through a social practice perspective is important (p. 142). The theoretical context of this paper highlights the significance of distinguishing between 'numeracy' and 'mathematics'; this paper refers to academic numeracy and acknowledges that this has often been sidelined in academic literacies discourse. Where academic literacies should be conceptualised as "a set of sociocultural practices that are deeply embedded within contexts, and which are constituted by/ are constitutive of particular disciplinary epistemologies" (p. 143), and are historical, systemically embedded and reflective of power relationships, the same can be said of academic numeracies. Connected to this, critical numeracies discourse indicates that mathematic pedagogies are increasingly understood as connected with equity and social justice and rejects traditional and dominant forms of mathematical education. A key role of enabling education is academic preparedness, and numeracies have a key place in the curricula of enabling education as a component of academic literacies. This is particularly so because in Australia mathematics is generally not compulsory after Year 10, uptake of mathematics is declining in high schools particularly at more advanced levels, and Universities have increasingly removed mathematics prerequisites. As there is variation in enabling programs across the sector there has been limited research into how academic literacies practices have been enacted in the sector.
Aim: To understand how enabling programs and educators within them conceptualise academic numeracies and mathematics in terms of curriculum content, concepts and practices, and how this facilitates academic preparedness.
Methodology: "Qualitative, interpretive methodology and adopted an evaluative stocking approach to scoping the enabling sector provision" (p. 149). Desktop review of available teaching and learning material, telephone survey with staff at all enabling providers, and thematic, critical analysis of these calls/interviews. Responses rates were 26 interviewees from 27 enabling programs at 23 institutions. Core questions revolved around what numeracy and mathematics is offered, what is core or optional, what is required for academic preparedness.
Findings: Overall, this study reinforces the context-specific and distinct nature of enabling programs, however there is a general consensus that academic numeracy is core to academic preparedness. Despite this being core to preparedness there is no clear-cut understanding of what undergraduate degrees actually require and relationships with faculties are generally not formalised. Participants generally agree that academic numeracies and literacies are connected ("symbiotic, and are part of a holistic and critical model of core forms of meaning making" (p. 151)). The understandings participants had of academic numeracy and its relationship to mathematics suggest a spectrum of understandings that require further analysis.
Academic numeracies are seen as core in enabling programs - 72% of participant programs included numeracy as a core or compulsory component of study (meaning that they were a separate unit of study, a compulsory part of a discipline, or embedded within a program of study). Numeracy was also embedded within other units of study, such as science units. There needs to be an unpicking of the assumption that mathematics "naturally" pairs within certain disciplines such as science, where is can be invisible, and not with other disciplines where numeracy may also be present (p. 147-148). The core content of these programs reflects "a view forward to undergraduate studies an attentiveness to the context of university preparation" (p. 148). Despite this attentiveness to undergraduate pathways, staff in enabling programs had a range of relationships with undergraduate faculties (none, informal, and formalised relationships). Many articulated that these connections were desirable to improve the transitions of students but "formal relationships were scarce in the data, perhaps indicating the marginality of enabling programs in universities and misrecognitions regarding their role" (149). In terms of participants' perceptions, many acknowledged a shift "toward an acknowledgement of the connections academic numeracies have to social worlds" (149), but in qualified ways. They continued to talk about achieving levels of numeracy that indicates the ideological inflection of their understanding of mathematical numeracy. Participants generally understood academic numeracy as part of academic literacies.
Core argument: The place and practices of academic numeracies within enabling programs, and their relationship to undergraduate and disciplines, needs to be more fully understood and the significance of academic numeracies as a social practice realised in order for enabling programs to meet their social justice imperative.

Context: Support programs for direct entrant (DE) students [students transitioning from Further Education directly into Year 2 of the following undergraduate programs: Psychology, Public Sociology, and Psychology
and Sociology (joint honours)] in Scotland. Authors evaluate an induction and support program, using focus group data to assess what works and who works. Authors cite work that recognises the non-linear/ complex journeys that constitute students' transitions, especially for DE students. Because of the cohort, the authors argue that this article sits at the intersection of transitions and widening participation research/ practice/ policy. Authors note other work that has considered DE students' transitions, and the challenges that are caused particularly by the need to become/ shift to being independent. Authors also note the myriad other challenges that DE students face mean "it is unsurprising that existing research highlights the barriers encountered by DE students, and reveals that on-going transition support is required, rather than the simple provision of places and funding" (p.3-4). Challenges include: adapting to a new culture, unfamiliar systems and staff, impact of subordinated FE sector to HE, risk of individualizing DE transitions (rational choice model)
Aim: To ask "how universities can better adapt to the needs of DE students in transition" while avoiding an individualised view (p.5)
Methodology: Project based around DE Transition (DET) intervention, which has two components: welcome quiz/ bespoke workshops. Data for evaluation collected via focus groups with DE students (n=4: 1m, 3f/ 1 mature age)
Findings: Four key themes: (1) academic skills and independent learning (2) complicating relationships with staff (3) complicating peer support (4) everyday logistics of higher education.
Students repeated issue of difference between FE and HE - particularly with regard to academic literacies and conventions, lower than expected grades, less guidance for assessments. Students suggested more experience prior to transition (e.g. summer school)
Students also repeated concerns about different relationships with staff - characterized by unwillingness to ask for help at university and fear of being seen as not coping.
With regard to peer mentoring support, the participants reported some surprising misinformation, suggesting that this activity needs more careful consideration, particularly with regard to the recruiting of mentors.
Authors claim that participants reporting of procedural/ logistical issues (e.g. navigating campus, room numbering) are not really reported in the literature. Participants in this study found adapting to the geographic layout of their new environments as challenging. This shifted what the authors viewed as a WP issue.
Which students? Participants reported that they often couldn't attend the workshops because of other competing demands on their time: "Participants had little free time outside of their compulsory credit-bearing university study, and this was compounded by the time that adjusting to university life took up in their schedules" (p.12) - which led the authors to wonder if the people who needed the transition support the most had been tacitly excluded, and whether marking DE students as a distinct group was a useful/ wise strategy as it could 'other' these students.
Which staff? Authors note how the funding they received (internal WP funds) made the project possible, that it would not have happened without that funding, and that the short-term nature of the funding hinders sustainability: "While some support mechanisms are codified in job role descriptions and workload
allocations and included in the remit of widening participation committees, others take place in the informal spaces between classes, in inboxes at evenings and weekends. Informal support can be contingent upon the availability and 'goodwill' of individual staff; unevenly distributed and institutionally unrewarded academic 'housework' (Heijstra, Steinthorsdottir, and Einarsdottir 2017)" (p.13).
Core argument: Transitions supports should be embedded throughout the institution:
"(1) improved training and compensation for student volunteers and peer mentors, in order to reduce the spread of inaccurate and worrying information;
(2) improved awareness among lecturers about DE needs, including unfamiliarity with first-year course content;
(3) standardized, and sustainably funded, transitions support, to address the common concerns of DE and continuing students;
(4) consider institutional policies to 'mainstream' widening participation, mandating the consideration of the WP implications of all aspects of the university as institution, in order to reduce the exclusionary effects of the logistics of university life" (p.14).

Context: Set within a context where 'inclusive pedagogies' are recommended as an approach for addressing increased student diversity in HE, and different understandings of inclusive pedagogies as an educational approach are currently supported within many HEIs across the world - including state-funded and private institutions, as well as universities with differing emphases and purposes' (p. 1). However, authors highlight that no research has mapped the field of inclusive pedagogies in HE to shed light on ways researchers have conceptualised and investigated this phenomenon.
Aim: To provide a systematic scoping review of 'how research in HE has often conceptualised inclusive pedagogies, and by extension inclusion, and discuss some of the philosophical assumptions underpinning these conceptualisations' (p. 1). RQs:
- Are there any patterns in the peer-reviewed published literature relating to inclusive pedagogies in HE by date, country or purpose?
- How have scholars conceptualised and researched inclusive pedagogies in HE?
- What theoretical ideas underpin scholars' conceptualisations of inclusive pedagogies?
- How do HE researchers approach 'inclusion' in their work?
Theoretical frame: Scoping review framework (Arksey and O'Malley, 2005).
Methodology: Search strategy - Focuses on the 'how' of teaching (based on Norwich's (2013) distinction); Search terms - 'cross-searched 'higher education' terms ('higher education' ti. ab., universit* ti. ab., college* ti. ab., postsecondary ti. ab.) with 'inclusive' search terms ('inclusive pedagog*' ti. ab., 'inclusive teaching' ti. ab., 'inclusive learning' ti. ab., 'inclusive instruction' ti. ab.'(p. 4); Database searching - five electronic databases - British Education Index, Education Research Complete, ERIC, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences and Australian Education Index; Inclusion criteria: a) Be published in English, b)focus on HEIs that offer full degree programme, c)have an explicit and substantial focus on inclusive pedagogy/ies, d)focus on the deployment of inclusive pedagogies in HE, e)focus on inclusive pedagogies in relation to the how of teaching, i.e. instructional methods and/or learning environment (see above), f)be of any format (e.g. empirical study, opinion piece, literature review); Selection process - 1)Titles and abstracts of records were screened for relevance by first reviewer (LS); 2) Retrieved articles were assessed again for inclusion by LS, following piloting of 20% of the records by LS & GK; Data management - References were managed using EndNote X8; Data charting - Data charted: 'first author, date, country, study design, purpose of the article, how inclusive pedagogies are conceptualised, theoretical underpinnings, and approach to inclusion' (p. 5); Analysis - Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006); Dates of articles reviewed -2002 - 1,2003 - 1, 2004 - 2, 2009 - 5, 2010- 2018 - 22 articles; Total number of articles reviewed - 31
Findings: 1) Inclusive pedagogy in relation to its focus on student 'difference' - Many authors used the term 'inclusive pedagogy' when discussing inclusion exclusively in relation to students identified with disabilities (n = 15) (see Lombardi, Murray & Dallas, 2013; Enjelvin, 2009); The authors of three articles focused on other facets of student identity and sought to advocate inclusive pedagogies as a method for including students who fall into one or two perceived 'marginalised' groups: ethnic minorities and women studying science, technology, engineering and mathematical disciplines (Aragon, Dovidio, and Graham 2017); ethnic minorities and students from low SES backgrounds (Schmid et al. 2016); international students (Stipanovic and Pergantis 2018); 13 articles developed a more holistic understanding of inclusive pedagogies and discussed inclusion in relation to what might be termed 'student diversity' (see Cunningham, 2013; Grier-Reed & Williams-Wengerd, 2018); 2)Mixed purposes (with regards to the articles' aims) - Four broad categories of purposes: 'Discusses a programme/workshop' (n = 1t2), 'General ideas for practice' (n = 9), 'Explores staff attitudes/perceptions' (n = 9), and 'Explores student attitudes/perceptions' (n = 1)' (p. 8); 3)Diverse conceptual underpinnings - most authors cited the work of one scholar or several scholars and developed a (unique) conceptual framework that underpinned their approach to inclusive pedagogy (Barrington (2004) - Gardner's (1983) Multiple Intelligence Theory, Glowacki-Dudka, Murray, & Concepcion (2012) - Aristotle's Principle of Justice and cultural difference, O'Shea et al. (2016) - Foucault's (1972) ideas about discourse and power, Stipanovic & Pergantis (2018) -integrative framework incorporated Guiffrida's (2015) Constructive Supervision Process; Dallas, Upton & Sprong (2014) & Dllas, Sprong & Kluesner - adopted Universal Design (UD) as their sole inclusive pedagogy); 4)Commonality or individuality principles - theoretical approaches to inclusion - 6 categories: Most popular - 'Inclusion as a way of addressing the needs of diverse students' (n=12t) (p. 11); 'Inclusion as making difference invisible' - a 'commonality' approach (n=9); 'Inclusion as appreciating difference' - an 'individuality' approach (n=5); 'Inclusion as social justice' (n=2); 'Inclusion as making difference invisible (commonality) and/or appreciating difference (individuality)' (n=1); 'Inclusion as about the democratisation of knowledge' (n=1) [Full list of authors for each category can be viewed on Table 2 (p.10)]
Core argument: 'Inconsistency and fragmentation in perceptions of inclusive pedagogies is the result of inclusion itself being a philosophically contested matter'; and 'this needs to be reflected in the way that inclusive pedagogies are discussed in HE - even if this goes against current performative and market-driven trends that emphasise quick fixes over acknowledging the complexity of pedagogic issues' (Abstract).

Context: Discusses evolution of Preparation for Tertiary Success program at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education. Discusses how enabling programs can be transformative (ref to Dawe, 2004; Coombes & Danaher, 2006; Habel, 2012) and how enabling students are often referred to as 'non-traditional' students (p.246) - notes concerns raised around attrition/retention of enabling students (in general - not specific to Indigenous)
Indigenous context: The ASSE suggests that Indigenous students are not proportionally represented in Aus HE (less than 1%, compared to 2.5% of population) and up to 35% do not complete Year 12. There are particularly disciplinary directions for Indigenous students (broadly speaking): health, education, society/culture. Refs Lane (2009) who heralds relative success of Indigenous students from 'mainstream' rather than welfare oriented background'. Lane points to 'Standard Australian English Literacy' as main barrier to success for Indigenous students. Lane (2009) and Oliver et al. (2013) suggest that there is evidence of disciplinary diversification at UG level. Oliver et al. note various barriers (including literacy) and the decreasing resources/ increasing demands of 'Aboriginal Centres'
Methodology: PTS = evolved over last 16 years. Hall makes the case that a review in 2009 (undertaken due to high attrition/low levels of course completion) resulted in new pedagogy/curriculum, which have significantly enhanced the completion rates of students. Focus of PTS = 'learning to learn'- holistic, learner-centred program, based on Deakin Crick (2007) - 'Learning Power Theory'. Overview of PTS on p.250. Offers numbers analysis and 'stories of transformation'
Conclusions: New design of course has resulted in higher numbers of completion, and higher levels of autonomy and confidence on graduation.

Context: Explores relationship between class, attainment and 'capabilities of agency and voice' (abstract), which are viewed as central components of the capacity to contribute to civic/social life. Notion of agency "is closely connected with the opportunity to act as a full member of a social context" (p.293). Class origin defined by parents
Aim: "to explore how class origin and education interact in shaping young people's chances in life, and to consider whether higher education reduces or reinforces any structural inequalities in the social aspects of life" (p.292). RQs:
"First, are there differences in the capabilities of agency and voice between young adults of different class origins?
Second, does educational attainment affect the capabilities of agency and voice?
Third, can any differences in these capabilities between young people of different class origins be related to differences in educational attainment?
And finally, are there any differences between young people of different class origins in the significance of educational attainment for the realization of the capabilities of agency and voice?" (p.292)
Methodology: Longitudinal survey called 'Swedish Survey of Living Conditions' (n=1085 young people, aged 16-19 years old who first participated in 1988-95 and then again 8 years later; 528w/ 530m). Sweden is pertinent location to engage in this research because of its reputation for equality and school reforms where sorting and choice happen at 16 and all education is free.
Core argument: Class background does impact on agency and voice and educational attainment between interview 1 and 2 also influenced participants' agency and voice, and higher education "is crucial for acquiring agency and voice" (p.309). Thus, even if there was a class difference before, access to HE 'equalises' difference, "indicating that higher education provides the individual with resources that will increase their agency and voice and, by extension, their social participation and opportunities in life" (p.309)

Context: Lifecourse research/ longitudinal surveys with young people; notion of 'career' (duration) in lifecourse research, whereby movement is understood as subject to change at any moment; "at any given moment, the conditions and direction of each point of a trajectory can be redefined, with new resources or constraints appearing and leading to a change of direction" (p.254-55). Alternatively, lifecourse = understood as a process
Aim: To discuss the benefits of longitudinal panel methods, which "make it possible to compare different moments in time, to analyse the intervals and to identify 'ways of moving'" (abstract)
Theoretical frame: Transition as process - focus on turning points, identification of driving forces, consideration of subjective and objective changes, multidimensional analysis, inclusion of social networks (p.256)
Methodology: Qualitative longitudinal survey with young people in Caen, France (aged 17-23; last year of high school or in work readiness programs, even gender balance). Face-to-face questionnaires and interviews; interviews then repeated every 3 years. Personal networks included (see p.257)
Discussion: Responds to criticism that "time has effects that cannot be correctly identified when reconstituted a posteriori" (p.257). Longitudinal methods allow changes to unfold in real time - by repeating similar questions/ revisiting similar themes over time, the researcher can mitigate issues held with retrospective accounts: "The researcher thus conducts an exercise in retrospection that is more reliable than one that seeks to cover a whole life at once, since the human memory is better at remembering a recent, delimited period of time than at giving an account of a whole existence" (p.258). This permits a kind of triangulation. Repeat interviewing: "Repeating interviews with the same persons at different moments in time makes it possible to compile separate data sets for each wave, representing different and comparable 'presents'" (p.258)
Orientations and turning points: how is a trajectory constructed? Future is often decided at turning points, or "institutionalized crossroads" (p.260). Author talks about 'biographical bifurcations', whereby a bifurcation is defined by "a relatively high concentration of changes, compared with the preceding and subsequent sequences" and by "unpredictability (in terms of norms and flows)" (p.261)
Turning points have methodological value: "the investigation of turning points reveals its heuristic potential: it is easier to identify the factors driving change than those responsible for continuities" (p.262).
Multiple temporalities: People experience overlapping temporalities/ roles/ identities: "After all, individuals inhabit several spheres of life simultaneously and are therefore tuned to the different rhythms and logics of action that characterize those various spheres. They take on different roles depending on the context and its rhythms, logics, norms and social frames" (p.266). Also, there is multiplicity in the timescapes of different spheres of life, and events in a sphere can 'contaminate' progress in another (e.g. a love affair can get in the way of work)
Core argument: Longitudinal methods are ace! "Longitudinal methods make it possible to break up different dimensions of time, to identify different presents, to compare situations and representations at different moments, to reconstruct the interval between them, and to identify 'ways of moving'" (p.269).

"The longitudinal perspective also clarifies the link between practice and representations and between objective and subjective elements in the shaping of a life course. Facts and ideas may follow different paths and different rhythms, their disjunctions and evolutions being more visible with repeated interviews. The plurality of temporalities situated in diverse life spheres (work, leisure, family life etc.) is partly interactive and combined, as people do not completely separate their social roles from each other. The 'plural self' results from this combination, which is also revealed in the form and structure of the individual's network. The relationships with different kinds of other people, having diverse opinions and influences on one's orientations, contribute to the plurality and to the dynamics of the person's construction in relation to the social world. These processes of socialization are particularly active during the time when young people leave their family and school when becoming adults. Longitudinal methods show their relevance to the study of such processes" (p.270).

Context: Community-based university study. In context of Australia, which is "deeply confused and conflicted around a policy discourse of inclusion that is sutured within an existential context heavily committed to the tenets of neoliberalism" (p.155). For low SES students in particular (authors problematise this term and 'disadvantaged') it is difficult to access university (as seen in steady figures of under-representation of people from lowest SES quartile). Authors describe misappropriation of 'social justice' orientations into neoliberal discourses/ policies as "The middle class has become somewhat adept at pursuing its own interests, while at the same time, seeking to claim otherwise" (p.156) = concealment of power. Class = relational and lived (not a set of attributes or characteristics). Offers critique of higher education as high level exercise in power - particularly seeking to conceal admissions procedures, in particular the lack of nuance in the use of ATAR: "The short story about what is problematic about the ATAR is that it pays no heed to socio-cultural circumstances"(p.158). Describes neoliberalism as "reframing identity by inscribing it with a particular ensemble of notions: the supremacy of invisible market forces as the ultimate means of regulating all social activities; the inevitability of competition as a result of the operation of global forces; the retreat of the state to a focus on performative
policy indicators; success based on meritocracy with rewards following by dint of personal efforts; and the cultivation of an entrepreneurial self through self-responsibilisation" (p.159). Neoliberalism forces the blame for 'failure' on students for having made 'bad choices' and positions them as 'flawed consumers' (Bauman, 2007).
Aim: To explore experiences of one student (case study) who took part in community-based program and challenges and obstacles he faced because of HE system and neoliberal policy discourses.
Theoretical frame: Takes a 'capacities' approach (as opposed to focus on barriers) - see Sellar and Gale (2011)
Methodology: To describe BA_Griffin (community engagement program: not its real name) - aimed at young people without conventional entry requirements (e.g. not good VCE preparation) in low SES regional city in Victoria. Students accepted into program on basis of EOI and/or recommendation of someone who knew them well. Program based on pedagogical model = democratic and engaging and uses familiar school/ community settings: 3 hour workshop based on 'critical dialogue' model (critical pedagogical underpinnings). Not presented as second chance education; "The key aim of the programme is to prepare students to succeed in a mainstream
university setting in second year and have flexibility in programme choice" (p.163). Paper draws from larger critical ethnographic longitudinal tracking study over 3 years (same students into UG study). Presents case study of 'Jake'
Findings:
Challenges faced by Jake = the volume and diversity of reading to be undertaken and the new experience of writing and referencing essays
Jake drew on peers, support staff in program (teachers in secondary college + UG students from university)... interesting silence on academic staff
Suggestion that direct school-university transition = 'too daunting'.
Analysis = Jake = missed out on 'the structure of feeling' (Williams, 1989) that makes university feel 'normal' or ritualized and he has lack of access to grapevine knowledge. Jake had to move away from friends/ old peers, "and he had to sacrifice old values for the new ones he was taking on" (p.167).
Core argument: Common elements of participating in BA-Griffin = familial/ community expectations of reproduction of working-class lives; working-class educations = typical focus on vocational education ('hands on' stream); 'fitting in' = related to home/ working-class identities and perceptions of (from students, cultivated by institutions?) higher education