Katharine Vincent

April 2012

‘Liminal Learners’?The education of Bangladeshi

girls in east London

AbstractBritish Bangladeshi girls are often seen as a marginalized, vulnerable group unlikely to succeed within the education system. Although achievement at GCSE level has improved in recent years, they continue to under-perform at A-level and in Higher Education, and are under-represented in the labour force.

This paper examines the educational experiences of girls at an east London secondary school, exploring their perceptions of educational success and expectations for university. The study draws on data gathered from students in the final year of Sixth Form, and interviews with students during their first year at university.

Through a narrative, case-study approach, it seeks to challenge preconceptions of a group of young women whose voices are often excluded from the discourse. It argues that more research is needed into the impact of cultural and socio-economic factors on educational outcomes and the reasons why some students are more successful than others, at school and university.

Discourses of Inclusion in Higher Education

1. The aspirations and expectations of young British Bangladeshi women in the Sixth Form at one east London secondary school.

2. The realities of the transition to university life for these young women and their peers.

3. Theorising education in global cities: culture, identity, community, citizenship, belonging.

Hazel Grove School‘a highly inclusive, caring school where girls develop into exceptionally confident, articulate

young women who strive for the highest possible standards in all that they do’ (Ofsted, 2010)

• Predominantly (95%) Bangladeshi Predominantly (95%) Bangladeshi

Muslim Muslim

• One of the poorest boroughs in the UKOne of the poorest boroughs in the UK

• Many adults without basic literacy skills Many adults without basic literacy skills

• Worst household overcrowding in Worst household overcrowding in

LondonLondon

• 61% of children living below the poverty 61% of children living below the poverty

lineline

• Highest youth unemployment in London Highest youth unemployment in London

Phase 2 (late 1990s - early 2000s):

British Asian girls are starting to develop more independence and their educational achievement has improved, but they are still marginalised and disadvantaged by the system.

e.g. Bhopal (1998), Haw (1998), Archer (2002)

Phase 3 (mid-late 2000s):

British Asian girls have developed multiple strategies of survival and resistance, and are involved in ongoing processes of self-definition and identity construction.

e.g. Hussain (2005), Hussain and Bagguley (2007), Pichler (2007)

Phase 1 (1980s - 1990s):

British Asian girls do not achieve well in school because they are the victims of prejudice and discrimination inscribed within the structure of the system and enacted by teachers and other (white) students.

e.g. Wade and Souter (1992), Gardner and Shukur (1994), Ghuman (1994)

Previous research into the education of British Asian and Muslim girls

I set out to challenge these misconceptions of Asian girls by presenting a set of alternative accounts directly from Asian girls themselves. These accounts reveal that, rather than being the passive victims of oppressive cultures, the girls are actively engaged in producing identities that draw on both residual cultures of the home and the local and regional cultures they now inhabit.

‘Resistance through culture’

Shain (2003) The Schooling and Identity of Asian Girls

Stereotypes and preconceptions

Stereotypes and preconceptions

Baker (2009) “All that dark material”: A corpus-based analysis of representations of Muslim women in the British press

Sumaya: There are many examples of how the media portray Muslims negatively and target us such as news about family killings related to Muslims. We ourselves have read articles with headlines such as ‘Muslim husband who killed his wife and children because of their western ways’ and ‘Muslim killed daughter for the ‘dishonour’ of having a boyfriend’. And when we look at articles about ‘other’ people, the headlines read ‘Father arrested for killing 3-year-old daughter’ and ‘Man killed wife and two young children’.

So why is it that news related to Muslims, specify the word Muslim and in cases of other criminals it does not specify religion? And then there’s terrorism and suicidal attacks where again they would specify Muslims as terrorist on the news and for others they share

only what had happened and where. Strange!

Portraiture

I wanted to develop a document, a text that came as close as possible to painting with words. I wanted to create a narrative that bridged the realms of science and art, merging the systematic and careful description of good ethnography with the evocative resonance of fine literature.

Lawrence-Lightfoot (1997) The Art and Science of Portraiture

Critical Research

The researcher, even in social science research, is supposed to remove herself or himself from the data as much as possible and should not have a vested interest in the outcome of the research.

Critical research, in contrast, is defined by the interestedness of the researcher, more specifically by the explicit desire to use research as a tool for social change.

…the work is geared towards producing knowledge in the pursuit of action for change.

Duncan-Andrade and Morrell (2008) The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools

Aspirations

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2011) The influence of parents, places and poverty on educational attitudes and aspirations

However, despite this political interest, the links between aspirations and educational and labour market outcomes are not well understood, nor the best ways to raise aspirations. The presumption in policy thinking is that high aspirations imply a sense of career direction and a belief that upward mobility can be achieved through learning. This portrayal can sometimes suggest that aspirations are essentially individual attributes that are freely chosen.

Politicians and policy-makers are very interested in aspirations. The strong assumption is that raising aspirations will increase educational achievement, while contributing to greater equity and the UK’s economic competitiveness, and that public policy has a key role in ensuring that these ends are attained. Aspirations were a theme of many of the Labour Government’s policy papers on children and young people. They were a key component of The Children’s Plan (2007) and in Aiming High for Young People (2007), and the concerns raised helped to shape the 2009 Inspiring Communities programme. The coalition Government has continued this interest in raising aspirations, again based on the assumption that aspirations are too low among disadvantaged groups.

Aspirations of different groups

Strand, S. (2009) Race, sex, class and attainment at age 16: Actually it’s more complicated than that

Aspirations vs ExpectationsAspiration (what you hope for) and expectation (what

you realistically think) are not the same emotion.

Cuthbert, C. D. and Hatch, R. (2008) Educational Aspiration and Attainment amongst young people in deprived communities

“Nearly all parents have positive general aspirations for their children and several studies have shown that disadvantaged

children do not have fundamentally different aspirations from their more advantaged peers”

Aspirations of young women at Hazel Grove

I want to do something with my life mainly due to the encouragement I got from my family and friends. I have this goal to do something successful that will not only make me feel proud but something I will enjoy.

The career I have chosen requires a university degree and my family and I have seen how important a good education is for a stable future and job.

I’d like to have a stable and well-paid job, and while I know this is not guaranteed even if I do go to university, I believe I'd have a better chance of attaining one. Also, I would just like to be educated to a higher level and feel I'd enjoy going to university.

I love the subjects that I study and I want to learn then in more dept at uni. In addition, this will help me to get a good job in the future.

Raising aspirations

Shamima: Last year I used to tell teachers that I don’t know what I want to do and I might just be a normal housewife, that’s what I said last year…. But ‘Star Academy’ gave me the mentor who came up to me and was talking to me and saying what I’m good at at what I’m really weak at. So that helped me work out what I want to do in the future.

Sadia: …in the past I used to not pay attention as much as I do now, and (Star Academy) made me realise that Year 11 is a really hard year and you need to get your grades, leave the school or if you want to carry on in the Sixth Form, and then go onto your future.

Cultural Capital

Bourdieu (1973) argued that one's habitus develops in relation to how much cultural capital one has; a person from the lower-class is aware that people from that class tend to have little cultural capital and that without cultural capital, they are unlikely to succeed educationally. Therefore, lower-class students tend to self-select themselves out of the college-going track on the basis of their views of what is possible and what is not. On the other hand, exceptional students from the lower class may see the accumulation of cultural capital as a way to overcome the obstacles that are typical for those in their class position.

Dumais (2002) Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success: The Role of Habitus

Definitions of success

Aysha: In my opinion, success is achieving my goals, learning new things, accomplishing and breaking new boundaries.

Fahmida: Success is achievement, an outcome that one is proud and happy about, an aim that was intended to be.

Bushra: From my point of view, ‘success’ would be a favourable result, after working extremely hard and trying my best.

Tamanna: To some success is fame and money but to me personally, success includes gaining a degree at a top university in an area of my interest – then landing a top job.

A lack of confidence

Abida: Obviously I aim high in terms of I want to go to university, I want to get As, but I see a limit to what I can achieve, which maybe I shouldn’t! Even if I go to a Russell Group university I don’t know how successful I’ll be afterwards in getting a job or when in comes to finding internships. I’m not that confident about what I’ll do in the future.

Fatima: I want to be able to achieve something in life yet again I am finding it hard to achieve my A-levels so I am becoming somewhat unsure about what I want to do later in life.

‘Bonding’ vs ‘Bridging’Deprived communities with low aspirations often have high concentrations of ‘bonding’ social capital, characterised by strong social glue among group members, such as close friends or family members. Social interactions can be frequent, but generally the geography of these interactions is more limited in scale (Buck, 2005).

Strong local networks are often a source of strength and support. However, they can also constrain individuals to familiar choices and locations. Bonding networks may predispose individuals to eschew experiences that might build other forms of social capital and precipitate change (Raphael-Reed et al, 2007).

Our in-depth qualitative work revealed low levels of ‘bridging’ social capital in our case study communities, meaning that young people often lacked the advantage of a diverse network of contacts outside their immediate neighbourhoods and social circles. For those interested in supporting the formation of high expectations, this matters, because young people’s social networks influence their expectations.

Cuthbert, C. D. and Hatch, R. (2008) Educational Aspiration and Attainment amongst young people in deprived communities

To go or not to go…

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Percentage of students

My parents Othermembers

of myfamily

Theschool

Aparticularteacher orteachers

My friends Myreligion or

culture

Which factors influenced your decision about whether or not to go to university?

Very importantQuite important

Parental support

Sumaya: I am expected to study at home without being told to do so, we all sit together and share new things we have learnt nearly everyday and have the opportunity to ask each other any questions we may have, we play games that help improve our general knowledge and vocabulary, they always share articles and videos with me about interesting talks and keep me updated with the latest on what’s going on around the world.

Everything they do is always beneficial and varied; they support and encourage me with education, career choices, religion, politics and those are what really make a person successful. Anything I need to help me reach my full potential, my family have always given me and by providing me with what I need, is how they ensure I am able to succeed.

Parental support

Humayra: I come from a religious family, but I’ve never been told ‘you’re a girl so you can’t do this’ or ‘you’re a Muslim so you can’t do this’.

Some of the teachers at that school were almost feminist, and told us all the time that as young Muslim women we had to take up every opportunity on offer to us.

You also had people who wanted to keep you in a sheltered lifestyle...and if that meant sometimes putting ambitions on hold or whatever it was to ensure you were leading a properly religious lifestyle, then so be it. There weren’t many people who had views like that but those that did really really annoyed me, and I just thought no, I’m not listening to you!

Education by proxyHusnara: My dad always supports and encourages me with my school work by ensuring that I spend my hours around school wisely such as spending time revising and reading. He also makes time to work with me during my revision, corrects my mistakes or expands on the things I already know to allow greater understanding. He is frequently testing me through notes I take during lessons and I feel that because he supports me so much, that is what has helped me to succeed at school this year.

My dad was a top student at school and became a pharmacist in Bangladesh but once he moved here to London, he gave up and always expresses his regret for not starting the same career here in London. He believes we are lucky and have it easy because those living in poorer countries are not able to succeed because they do not have the necessary requirements, therefore, have to give up which wastes a lot of talent. That is what makes me appreciate the advantages we have here in London and motivates me to work my very best.

‘I was lucky…’Humayra: …a lot of the friends I have, and some people I know, actually have been a little less fortunate in terms of choosing what universities and things like that that they get to go to because their parents aren’t comfortable with the idea of them moving away from home.

And somebody said to me that actually wasn’t necessarily a class thing rather it was, I don’t know, it’s just an Asian thing, which I don’t necessarily agree with. I think it’s just because lots of people don’t have, lots of people’s parents, especially in this school, don’t have the experience of going to university outside of home and all that sort of thing.

But I was lucky because I managed to convince my parents and say actually it’s very normal, lots of people do it, it’s fine, it’s probably going to be very good for me, and I think they really understood that, so I was lucky where lots of other people actually aren’t.

‘They’re still cautious…’

Abida: Our parents want us to do well and they encourage us, you know, obviously they want us to get As and good grades, but they’re still cautious as well of where we go and a lot of people won’t want them to move out.

...it’s not the parents, it’s that people will ask, like your relatives and others will say you’ve let your daughter move out, and obviously if you say they’re going to Oxford or Cambridge that’s fine, but otherwise there’s this idea that you should stay at home.

‘A cultured habitus’

Schooling, in particular, can act to provide a general disposition, a turn towards what Bourdieu terms ‘a cultured habitus’ (1967: 344). This process of educational socialization has proved particularly effective for the working-class students in our sample.

However … the working-class students’ turn towards a cultured habitus was not due, in the main part, to the strong support and active mentoring of their teachers. Rather, it was predominantly work on and of the self.

Reay et al (2009) ‘Strangers in Paradise?’ Working-class Students in Elite Universities

The role of teachers

Salma: I think all our teachers are really nice. I think the teachers are impartial, I don’t think they stereotype us. They’re just really nice. I really like all the teachers, here, they don’t judge you.

Siddika: Brilliant teachers who are always there to help me with work when I need them, by running extra intervention sessions and just always answering my questions. I thought sixth form would be hard and we’d be more independent and rely less on teachers but they are still always willing to help.

Nabila: Teachers at school really influence me and motivate me to do well and they really push me to achieve great results.

The role of teachers

Sumaya: … we feel that teachers have this perception that because of our culture and we are females, we must be young women who are disciplined and would never challenge authority. (Maybe this thought comes from the ideology that Muslim men have control over Muslim woman or Asians, and if we can accept that, then we must be disciplined to accept the demands of anyone.) We are students who accept instructions and advice but not ‘demand a person throws because they are in a position to do so’. And because there are many girls in the school who never question authority when they have every right to, teachers tend to use the defence of us being rude and disrespectful because we are the ones who speak up.

Achievement: British Bangladeshi girls

Participation in Higher Education

Runnymede Trust (1997) Black and Ethnic Minority Young People and Educational Disadvantage

Definitions of success

KV: Do you see yourself as being successful at school?_____________________________________________________

Humayra: This year, yes, because I got into Cambridge and it’s an unconditional offer, so in that sense yes but I have to say that last year I didn’t really feel like that because I just missed out on my first choice university._____________________________________________________

Abida: Um, not, well yes, I guess. I mean when I look at my university places, I’m really happy with them, and yeah sometimes you don’t think about it but obviously to get into Russell Group universities it’s obviously a good thing, so yeah I am I guess.

Fair access?

Sutton Trust (2010) Responding to the new landscape for university access

What aspects of university life are you looking forward to most?

Meeting new people (being in a school where the spectrum of people is very limited, I can't wait to socialise with different people) Being around other students who are just as enthusiastic about my subject as I am.

Meeting many people with different backgrounds from all over the country.

Meeting people from different walks of life, exploring outside my comfort zone.

I'm looking forward to meeting a more diverse mix of people, and just being able to be educated at a higher and more interesting level. Also, I'm kind of looking forward to having to be self-motivated and take control of my own learning.

Great expectations

Latifa: I genuinely believe that it makes a person, like me, it would make me learn new things about myself by going university by myself, and it makes me I think become a better individual, by living by myself, I think that’s the whole purpose of university as well, learning new things about yourself, gaining confidence and stuff.

Sumaya: At university, these subjects will be taught in more depth and we are able to openly share our own views which we are looking forward to. This is because there will be people from different backgrounds and by allowing us to share our own views, we think will give us the opportunity to speak about our beliefs and answer questions people may have for us which could possibly mean that those who hold negative and false ideas about us may start to think otherwise.

Reasons for going to university• natural progression• economic reasons: job, salary, status• independence• parental wishes• wanting to become better mothers and members of their own communities• a desire for education and personal development• following role models• delaying marriage

Hussain and Bagguley (2007) The role of higher education in providing opportunities for South Asian women

‘The Bangladeshi women in particular were more likely to give instrumental or economic reasons for going to university. They had their eyes on their longer-term careers, and obtaining better paid employment than their parents had been able to do.’

A sense of apprehensionLatifa: I think it will be a little harder, because not many young Muslim Bengali girls live on campus away from their mums and dads...there’s the scarf as well, which I think, I don’t think anyone would think, oh she’s in the scarf and I don’t want to be her friend, but there is that fear of, she’s different because she’s in the scarf...I think that’s the main reason I would be scared because I feel as if I will be treated a little different.

Sumaya and Husnara: There are many challenges we will face, no doubt about that. Of course there are the clear challenges that we believe many young people will face regardless of background such as being more independent and adapting to the new system. For us, there are a lot more other difficulties that people from other places may not face. We come from a school and live in an area surrounded by only female peers at school and majority Asians and there’s also language and beliefs which will certainly create a culture clash and many conflicts. …being a Bangladeshi woman from East London attending University may be new to ‘some’ and they may have their own judgements about East London and Asian people for whatever reason.

Positive experiencesHumayra: First term met my expectations for university quite significantly! I expected it to be academically challenging and interesting and it was. It was actually quite easy to be away from home and I didn’t get very homesick, although I did go back home to celebrate Eid with my family. Socially, it was better than I expected as I had a vague concern that I may be cooped up in a library for the most of term, but I managed to get involved with the Union, attend talks by interesting people, and made friends in other colleges too. The only way that it was slightly worse than I expected was that our kitchen is tiny and the duvet they provided was horrifically thin!! Apart from that, I genuinely had few qualms.… I had thought that my detestation for ‘clubbing’ (eugh) may somehow make me stick out, but fortunately, plenty of people hate being crammed in small spaces with absurdly loud music, so that was fine. I also think I found it quite easy to adapt in terms of practicing my faith, as Cambridge has a very

large, diverse and welcoming Islamic Society.

Negative experiencesEman: … studying at post graduate level has been quite horrible. I only go to university on Fridays and to be honest I really hate my classmates! I feel so different wearing the Muslim headscarf and dress that I really feel that it is the reason some of my male white classmates just don’t really know how to talk to me.

I’ve been on the course for six months now and there are three men that I have never spoken to! I actually cannot wait to be on my school placements full time to just avoid them. I could be completely paranoid but it really feels like we come from very different worlds and so we just don’t talk at all.

I also remember a seminar we had on tackling homophobic bullying in schools and I could just feel their eyes on me as if to say ‘you’re Muslim and therefore you must be homophobic’.

Negative experiencesLatifa: I was in Aldgate the other day on the way to my auntie’s house and some, this man was just making all these racists comments to me...but I just don’t listen. I was born in this country, you know, I’m not from another country and just because I’m standing by my religion it doesn’t mean every Muslim carries a bomb or straps a bomb around them!

Sumaya: We ourselves have to deal with terrible comments in the streets; bunch of youths in the same bus as us shouting out ‘there’s a bomb on the bus, everyone jump off’ and two middle aged men passing by saying they are going to bomb every mosque in the area. …By wearing the hijab you become more visible and due to a lack of understanding about the hijab, we are perceived as oppressed, passive and unintelligent. ... People are not staring because the hijab is unusual to them; they stare either with disgust like we’re assassins let loose and others may see us as a threat.

Negative experiences

Latifa: I found it really difficult - I was complaining to my mum, I was complaining to my uncles, I was complaining to my friends, my sister, everyone. I was just like, I’m enjoying the course, I’m enjoying every module that I have. The thing is that my social life was a bit of a no-no there because I found it really… what it is, the thing is that freshers’ week, the way we get described it in school and college, it’s nothing like that. You have to adapt into the uni culture, the drinking and the getting wasted at night and then going back to your dorm. That’s what you have to do to enjoy freshers’ week, otherwise there’s nothing else.…I think they came in with different intentions, to university. With me I really want, you know, I want to study! Seriously, I want to get my degree out of this, I’m there because I want to study.

‘A sense of shock ’

… South Asian women were able to form strong friendships and support networks with other South Asian women on campus. For them the issue was the very small numbers of South Asian people on their courses compared with their experiences of school and Sixth Form. Students sometimes experienced a sense of surprise or shock in the first instance as they noted that there were so few South Asian people at their university compared with the schools and Sixth Forms. Some were often the only students from their backgrounds on their courses and this was particularly isolating. Many maintained strong friendships with other South Asian women and for some these were an especially strong source of support in overwhelmingly White environments.

Hussain and Bagguley (2007) The role of higher education in providing opportunities for South Asian women

Achievement in Higher Education

Brill (2011) ‘The Ethnicity and Attainment Gap in the UK HE sector’

Achievement in Higher Education

Richardson (2011) ‘The Open University’s Research on Ethnicity and Attainment’

• Ethnic minority students are being systematically awarded grades and degrees that are poorer than one would expect on the basis of their prior qualifications.• We don’t know the factors that are responsible for this, but one can be confident that they have nothing to do with the ability of ethnic minority students, as evidenced by their prior qualifications.

Building community

The mere presence of a group of black and minority ethnic (BME) students does not automatically equate to a student community where there is equal access, participation and opportunity. The strength of the university community is based on what the students identify with and if they feel they belong to something greater; that they identify with the collective.

…the role that universities play in preparing and training individuals to contribute to society is great, and it follows that, universities can influence individuals to be more tolerant and empathetic citizens. University is a space that greatly influences the individual’s political and social consciousness and this community, though constantly changing and evolving according to its members, is an important location in building a successful multi-ethnic society.

Runnymede Trust (2007) Not Enough Understanding: Student Experiences of Diversity in UK Universities

Liquid Modernity

These days patterns and configurations are no longer 'given', let alone 'self-evident'; there are just too many of them, clashing with one another and contradicting one another's commandments, so that each one has been stripped of a good deal of compelling, coercively constraining powers. And they have changed their nature and have been accordingly reclassified: as items in the inventory of individual tasks. Rather than preceding life-politics and framing its future course, they are to follow it (follow from it), to be shaped and reshaped by its twists and turns. The liquidizing powers have moved from the 'system' to 'society', from politics' to 'life-policies' - or have descended from the 'macro' to the 'micro' level of social cohabitation.

Bauman (2000) Liquid Modernity

Writing Diaspora

Having been educated alongside their White and Black colleagues, they demand equal rights within the majority culture. In acknowledging Britain as their home, they are cultivating their own distinct values, interests, meanings and ambitions within English society.

It is not a question of forsaking one identity for another and choosing between a ‘Western’ or ‘South Asian’ way of life. Young British Asians are therefore best understood as mobile in linguistic, religious and cultural terms.

Hussain (2005) Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity

‘Special qualities’

‘such readings propose the contemporary transnational and transcultural migrant as a global hero-figure of almost messianic qualities, as a new

kind of fluid, complex, multiple, open, inclusive identity, replacing old identities and cosmologies of

stability and belonging with the uncertainty of a liminal position in-between two or several cultures.

By virtue of these qualities the transcultural migrant hero is assumed to be endowed with a special,

inclusive vision and sensibility, a double-vision that is particularly conducive for the heterogeneous

complexity and perspectival uncertainty of novelistic modes of representation’

Moslund (2010) Migration Literature and Hybridity: The Different Speeds of Transcultural Changes

Liminal/Marginal Identities

‘Mainstream’ British

society/culture

Liminal/Marginal Identities

Socio-economically

secure?

Christian/Secular?

‘British’?

Male?

Adult?Rural?Suburban?

‘Native’?‘White’?

Second and third generation teenage Muslim Bangladeshi girls living in relative

poverty in east London

Insiders

The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not ‘marginals’, are not people living outside’ society. They have always been "inside” - inside the structure which made them ‘beings for others’. The solution is not to ‘integrate’ them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become beings for themselves.

Freire (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Cultural reproduction

(A) demon sorts moving particles passing before him, some being warmer, therefore moving faster, others cooler, therefore slower moving; the demon sends the faster particles into one container, whose temperature rises, and the slowest into another whose temperature falls. He thereby maintains the difference and order that would otherwise tend to be annihilated. The educational system acts like Maxwell’s Demon…it maintains the pre-existing order, that is, the gap between pupils with unequal amounts of cultural capital.

Bourdieu (1998) Practical Reason: On the theory of action

Building community

‘The Government must finally tackle the serious problem  of radicalisation on university campuses with utmost urgency. The situation that has been allowed to develop is unsustainable.  It endangers our security at home and has international implications that are serious enough to threaten our alliance relationships.  We are concerned that despite damning evidence of a problem, little progress has been made in developing an effective programme to address this issue.’  

The  All-Party  Parliamentary  Group  on  Homeland  Security  (2011) Keeping Britain Safe: An Assessment of UK Homeland Security Strategy

Building community

The new migration casts a question mark upon the bond between identity and citizenship, individual and place, neighbourhood and belonging.…it is difficult to identity who belongs and who is an outsider.

What is it we belong to in this locality? What is it that each of us calls home and, when we think back and remember how we arrived here, what stories do we share?

Bauman (2010) ‘Education in the World of Diasporas’

A second irony then is the failure of the widening access and participation debate to recognize that elite universities need non-traditional students just as much as the students need them. Both need the other in order to flourish, the students academically and the universities socially. Within the current status quo, an enormous number of working-class students are excluded from realizing their academic potential. Yet, equally worrying and even less recognized is the failure of the elite universities to realize their potential for combining academic excellence with a rich social diversity.

Reay et al (2009) ‘Strangers in Paradise?’ Working-class Students in Elite Universities

‘Strangers in Paradise’?