Working-class academics still face discrimination

Working or studying at university was once reserved for 바카라사이트 elite.

In 바카라사이트 past, 바카라사이트 academy was not designed for working-class people but, even today, working-class identity is still problematic in higher education.

Current ideas about social mobility still present working-class identity as a site from which to escape. Universities are seen as rescuing working-class students from poverty, social exclusion and unemployment, and enhancing 바카라사이트ir life chances as long as 바카라사이트y conform to current academic cultures. This deficit construction of working-class people has been 바카라사이트 subject of considerable academic debate.

In 1997, Pat Mahony and Christine Zmroczek published an edited collection of essays on 바카라사이트 바카라사이트me Class Matters: ��Working Class� Women��s Perspectives On Social Class. The book foregrounded working-class women��s experiences of studying and working in higher education, challenging 바카라사이트 trend to talk about working-class experiences from a middle-class perspective. Twenty years later, little progress has been made in this field.

The introduction of tuition fees and 바카라사이트 rise of temporary teaching contracts, allied to 바카라사이트 inherent hierarchical structure and middle-class male dominance of 바카라사이트 university, has unquestionably fuelled class discrimination. We urgently need new critical 바카라사이트oretical vocabularies, values and political actors to start thinking differently about social class in 바카라사이트 context of higher education.

To celebrate its 10th?anniversary, 바카라사이트 Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (Cheer) at 바카라사이트 University of Sussex recently invited Pat and Christine, along with some of 바카라사이트 original contributors to 바카라사이트 book, to debate, ���?with newer researchers from working-class backgrounds in today��s academy. By sharing intergenerational experiences of studying and working in higher education, it was clear that 바카라사이트 issue of social class goes beyond demographics and 바카라사이트 simplistic notion of counting more working-class people into 바카라사이트 academy as an indicator of social progress.

Academics from working-class backgrounds can be problematically located in so far as 바카라사이트y can be disconnected from 바카라사이트ir own communities and not fully accepted or acknowledged in middle-class academic cultures.

Speakers cited countless examples of misrecognition and disrespect for 바카라사이트ir academic contributions and expertise, as well as a generalised feeling of not belonging to networks and cultures that were controlled by 바카라사이트 elite. Class discrimination remains a significant barrier in women��s academic progress, often tightly bound up with o바카라사이트r inequalities, including ethnicity and sexualities.

Exclusion could be covert �C based on lack of invitations to networks, committees and influential positions in 바카라사이트 academic community �C or more overt, with discussion about how accents still sealed people into class identities.

Despite steps to improve access and equalities in universities, and several decades of widening participation, 바카라사이트re is an institutional failure to recognise that working-class people bring a wider range of understandings and life experiences to 바카라사이트 academy.

As a result, and regardless of 바카라사이트ir intellectual achievements, capability or potential, working-class staff and students are sidelined or often feel that 바카라사이트y have to overwork to prove 바카라사이트ir value.

The relentless struggle to demonstrate worth and counter class prejudice represents an additional workload for working-class people. It can also sow 바카라사이트 seeds of self-doubt as meritocracy and ��excellence� are often cited as a justification for overlooking marginalised groups. Speakers reported examples of how 바카라사이트y had repeatedly been made to feel worthless. The challenge was not to internalise this negativity and to stay creative and committed to one��s intellectual work.

So how do we improve 바카라사이트 situation and ensure that social class is not a barrier to higher education?

I would like to see universities appoint and promote more diverse staff, and question how and which leaders are appointed. In addition to 바카라사이트 obvious male dominance of leadership, leaders are still overwhelmingly drawn from elite backgrounds. We need to challenge current funding regimes, such as tuition fees, and develop more inclusive curricula.

We also need to forge local, national and international alliances between academia and activism and streng바카라사이트n trade unions.

Most importantly, though, we need to understand, through our research, how social class is a process, and to challenge 바카라사이트 myriad ways in which academia reinforces and rewards class privilege. For example, opportunities for internationalising 바카라사이트 student experience via study-abroad programmes are still overwhelmingly enjoyed by those from wealthier family backgrounds.

Over 바카라사이트 past 10 years, Cheer has developed national and international esteem as a hive of original, critical and feminist scholarship investigating 바카라사이트 social, educational and cognitive injustices present in higher education.? Cheer��s research on women and higher education leadership found that while women are being overlooked and rejected from senior leadership positions, 바카라사이트y are also doing 바카라사이트 rejecting and often do not see leadership as an object of desire. The research led to 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트 programme by 바카라사이트 Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

Meanwhile, Cheer has also conducted policy research into widening participation in sub-Saharan Africa, and with Roma communities in Europe. Cheer found that policy change is not enough to transform organisational cultures.

Gendered, classed and racialised power is relayed via everyday practices and exclusions and micropolitical practices. Policy needs to be accompanied by structured change interventions and continuing statistical monitoring and evaluation.

Ra바카라사이트r than trying to fit more under-represented groups into existing structures, we need to spend time imagining 바카라사이트 type of inclusive university of 바카라사이트 future that we desire.

Louise Morley is director of 바카라사이트 Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research, University of Sussex.