Wow! eBook
Lone Parents' Experiences as Higher Education Students: Learning to Juggle
Author(s): Tamsin Hinton-Smith (Author)
- Publisher: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
- Publication Date: 1 Nov. 2011
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 192 pages
- ISBN-10: 1862014612
- ISBN-13: 9781862014619
Book Description
Would lone parents rather exist on benefits than work to support their families? Must universities be responsible for ensuring their students can balance learning with childcare? What can elite higher education institutions learn from new universities in ensuring academic success for this group of non-traditional students? Lone Parents’ Experiences as Higher Education Students is an in-depth, up-to-date sociological analysis, focusing on lone parents’ educational engagement in the UK’s higher education sector. This is a topic of acknowledged and increasing contemporary importance as single parenthood persists as a social trend, and as lone parents seek to develop their educational potential and employability. Through valuable new insights illuminating lone parents’ own interpretations of their experiences at UK universities – balancing higher education with wider life responsibilities – the book challenges deeply entrenched stereotypes of lone parents as lazy, work-shy, benefit scrounging people who are also perceived as poor role models to their children. In sharp contrast, the evidence shows that many lone parents are highly motivated to improve the lives of themselves and their children. They contribute usefully to society by becoming educated and securely employed, despite the many barriers and lack of support they face.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Tamsin Hinton-Smith is a Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Sussex, where she has also taught for ten years. Her specialist areas are gender, adult education, qualitative research methods, and social inclusion of marginalised groups. Tamsin completed her own higher education as a lone parent.
