Shared communities and shared understandings: the experiences of Asian women in a British university

Abstract

This article examines Asian women's experiences of belonging to communities of practice within higher education in Britain. The research explores the ways in which women engage in friendship and support networks, how they negotiate their identities and their experiences of being marginalised and ‘different’. The research argues that Asian women within the university environment are engaged in ‘communities of practice’, which act as mechanisms through which they are able to find support, mutual engagement and understandings of shared belongings and shared identity. The paper draws on the work of Wenger (1998) to examine the processes of identity construction as experienced by Asian women in higher education. The research is based on 20 case study interviews conducted with Asian women in a university in the South East of England. The interviews were tape‐recorded and the data transcribed. The data was analysed by using methods of grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990).

Keywords:

• Asian women
• university
• communities
• education
• identity

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the University of Greenwich (School of Education and Training) for providing the funding and the time to carry out the research. I am grateful to the 20 women who participated in the research who spoke openly about their experiences and gave generously of their time. I would also like to thank Martin Myers for reading earlier drafts of the paper and providing useful comments and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful suggestions.