Wasted, manipulated and compressed time: adult refugee students’ experiences of transitioning into Australian higher education

ABSTRACT

While there is a growing knowledge base of how students experience their transitions into and through university, little is known about how they experience the temporal dimensions of their higher education (HE) studies, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students. This article draws on Australian longitudinal research that sought to track the experiences of one particularly marginalised group of adult learners – students from refugee backgrounds – as they moved into and through university study. While investigating experiences of time was not an explicit goal of this enquiry, our analysis revealed this as a dominant theme. Therefore, drawing on the conceptualisation of ‘timescales’, this article presents an analysis of the meeting of academic time and the temporalities of students from refugee backgrounds. Using a typology of students’ social meanings of time, we found that time was experienced by the students in our study primarily as wasted/ing time; as a goal or achievement; and as compressed time. We identify areas where these perceptions, enactments and feelings about time can create significant challenges for these students, which are exacerbated by their cultural and linguistic differences with those of the host institution. We contend that these challenges are shared by other ‘non-traditional’ students who balance multiple responsibilities alongside their studies, and we make recommendations for how universities might better respond to their complex needs and lives.

KEYWORDS:

• students from refugee backgrounds
• time
• temporality
• timescapes
• higher education (HE)
• Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We acknowledge that what ‘counts’ as successful resettlement is individually negotiated and context-dependent, and may well be different from official definitions of successful resettlement.

2. We secured ethical approval from the university’s Human Research Ethics Committee before commencing our study.

3. VET offers workplace training and education, and forms part of the Australian tertiary education system.

4. Enabling education provides free-to-students, academic preparation, which offers students the opportunity to develop their academic practices and disciplinary practices/ knowledges as a form of alternative entry to Australia HE.

5. Centrelink is the Australian government’s social welfare payment agency.

6. ‘Cert III’ is a reference to Certificate III, a standard level of vocational and educational training in Australia.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Australian Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), grant (ID15-4758).

Notes on contributors

Sally Baker

Sally Baker is Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. She is a sociologist of language and education, whose research interests centre on language and literacies, cultural transitions, educational policy and social justice. She is particularly interested in the interplay between policy, discourse and practices related to equity in HE, particularly with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. As a sociologist of HE, Sally works with the Academic Literacies conceptual and methodological framework, seeking to develop rich, contextualised pictures of students’ experiences, and to expose the discourses, logics and power of institutions to open and constrain opportunities for particular groups of students. Sally is a co-chair of the national Special Interest Group for/with students from refugee backgrounds (supported by the Refugee Council of Australia), and is the co-author of Refugees in Higher Education: Debate, Discourse and Practice (Emerald Publishing, 2018).

Evonne Irwin

Evonne Irwin is a teacher and PhD candidate (Sociology) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research focuses on access, participation and equity in HE, including the transitions of students from refugee backgrounds into and through HE, as well as the positioning of language, numeracy and literacies in tertiary preparation programmes. Evonne is an experienced English language practitioner who has worked with students from refugee backgrounds in the pre-university and university sectors. Currently, Evonne develops online curricula for enabling education students and teaches academic practices at post-graduate level. Her PhD research examines the identities of HE staff working in roles that cross academic and professional domains.

Homa Freeman

Homa Freeman is a PhD candidate at the University of Australia who currently works at the Avondale College of Higher Education, NSW. She earned her first degree from Azad University, Iran, and gained a Master of Education (Educational Technology) from the University Technology Malaysia. She is interested in team-based research that draws on mixed-methods designs, with a particular preference for qualitative methods. Her PhD research focuses on learning outcomes, curriculum change and change agents in HE, as well as factors impacting curriculum change.