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In First-Generation Student Experiences in Higher Education: Counterstories, we meet eight students who attended university through an access program, and hear their stories of deciding to enter university, navigating and negotiating the institution, and bringing their university experiences with them into adult life. Their "counterstories"-drawn from application statements, weekly group meetings, diary entries, group conversations, interviews, and media reports-challenge the stereotypes commonly applied to marginalized students in higher education. Chapters offer insights into a range of salient themes and highlight the students' strategies, challenges, successes, and trajectories, as well as their nuanced relationships with their networks, communities, families, and significant others. With this volume, James and Taylor present a valuable resource for educators, administrators, scholars, students and community agencies interested in extending understandings of first-generation university students.
List of contents
Preface: Understanding the Lives, Experiences, and Ambitions of First-Generation University Students; 1 Marginalized Youth in Postsecondary Institutional Contexts; 2 Kofi: "Education Will Get You to the Station": The Possibilities of Merit in University Education; 3 Tristana: "Education Is a Way to Fight Oppression": Giving Back to the Community; 4 Laura: "I Am Determined to Make Other Choices for My Life": Education as a Path to Upward Social Mobility; 5 Sam: "If I'm Portuguese, I Can't Be Gay": Negotiating Identity in a University Space; 6 Jasmine: "I Am Determined to Break Away From my Antiquated Tradition": Education as Survival; 7 Amy: "I Don't Need to Be Held Down by the Shackles of My Misery": Balancing Stigma, Pride, and Expectations; 8 Ewart: "I Really Wasn't Ready": Expectations and Dilemmas in Navigating
University; 9 Jafari: "I Felt Alone and Out of Place": The Experiences and Ambition of a "Non-Canadian"; Conclusion: Reimagining Postsecondary Education
About the author
Carl E. James is a Professor of Education, Youth & Equity Studies, and holds the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora at York University, Toronto, Canada.
Leanne E. Taylor is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada, and Editor in Chief of the Journal of the International Society for Teacher Education.
Summary
This work explores the experiences of students who attended university through an access program and how they brought their university experiences with them into adult life. This book is for educators, administrators, scholars, students, and community agencies interested in extending understandings of first-generation university students.
