- Title
- “I am an enabling success story”: An autoethnographic narrative of an unskilled mother’s foray into academia
- Creator
- Johnston, Katrina
- Relation
- https://www.newcastle.edu.au/research/centre/ceehe/access-critical-explorations-of-equity-in-higher-education
- Relation
- Access: Critical explorations of equity in higher education Vol. 8, Issue 1, p. 22-31
- Publisher
- University of Newcastle
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- This paper follows the story of a young woman transitioning from secondary school through a series of unskilled jobs and the impact this had on her self-belief. Through an unexpected enrolment in an enabling course, the opportunity for growth in both skills and confidence impacted on her self-awareness and developed her self-efficacy through the discovery that she could successfully accomplish higher education study. Her achievements in higher education led to a position whereby she realised that she had accomplished something far greater than ever anticipated: she was an academic. As an enabling educator who had walked the same path, she found herself in a strong position to help others on their journeys to success. This story is mine. I am an enabling success story. This paper argues that enabling courses change people’s lives, giving them hope for a better future. Enabling education takes students on a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness, building self-esteem and opening doors to vast opportunities. It further considers how a lecturer who herself comes from a low-socioeconomic background could go onto become a positive role model for enabling students from similar backgrounds.
- Subject
- enabling education; student success; transformative learning; autoethnography; low socio-economic background; Access: Critical explorations of equity in higher education
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1433883
- Identifier
- uon:39378
- Identifier
- ISSN:1440-7833
- Rights
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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Access - Critical explorations of equity in higher education
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