Research finds that participation in higher education is generally empowering for mature students but that it can also create tensions in their off-campus relationships. This article reports on findings from an ongoing study of the experiences of mature students at university in Ireland and draws from interviews with 15 such students in the final…

ConscienceRebels are women of African descent who align themselves with the struggles of working class/working poor black communities and intentionally counter and re-script exclusive, dominant discourses. Any self-identified black female college student who focuses on the black poor or working class in their writing forms the basis of this study…

This paper examines linguistic diversity among minority ethnic undergraduate students categorised as from widening participation backgrounds in a new university in London. All students are British born and educated and from working-class families. The paper considers how the students negotiate multilingual and bidialectal identities within the…

Establishes that there are different ways of conceiving of time and that they are class-based. Illustrates in part the history of one working-class student struggling to make sense of middle-class affiliations with academic discourse and middle-class understandings of time. Proposes that writing teachers make more explicit the ways that narrative…

Constructs narratives concerning working class students to highlight the difficulties of negotiating academic codes and the necessity for writing teachers to strive to provide the space for working class students to "speak differently." Finds the negotiation must flow in two directions: the academy cannot take over a text without being…

For many teachers and theorists of composition, the ingrained reluctance to use "I" came to stand as a powerful symbol of all that was alienating and disenfranchising about an institutionalized educational system that seemed more concerned with student discipline than empowerment. Consequently, the cultivation of the use of "I"…

Diversity in higher education, most everyone would agree, is a positive. Janet Galligani Casey, who serves in the capacity of visiting associate professor at Skidmore College in New York, agrees with it, but she thinks that sometimes all the talk about it hides complicated realities, especially for the working-class student. This article describes…

Drawing on students' literacy autobiographies, this article critiques the premise that academic discourse and working-class identity are not only static but also in complete opposition. The author argues for a more performative theory of class, a theory that would, she explains, recognize that academic discourse creates social class distinctions…

For two working-class academics/editors, the book they co-edited, "This Fine Place So Far from Home: Voices of Academics from the Working Class," is a working-class book masquerading as a traditional scholarly work. Over 100 submissions were received for the collection, and most were autobiographical and did not resemble scholarly essays…

Describes a program for adults in which they read about working class people like themselves and then respond in writing. Argues that while they became initiated into the academic community, they also felt powerless to change their situations. Emphasizes the importance of not destroying students' histories while teaching them academic discourse.…