Recognising and reimagining mature students’ unpaid care work as a form of work-based learning
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Abstract
This research paper explores how unpaid care work is positioned on mature students’ undergraduate degrees in English further education (FE) colleges. It offers a new perspective by considering the impact of this form of labour on learning in the home during COVID-19 lockdowns, presenting both narrative data and I-poems created using the Listening Guide. The paper calls for care work to be reimagined as a legitimate type of work-based learning which can make valuable contributions to higher education (HE) degrees. The paper also adds to existing theoretical perspectives on mature students by exploring Gouthro’s (2005; 2009) critical feminist theory of the homeplace. Her theory is applied to a mixed group of mature students in a range of family units and evaluated. Findings indicate that home-schooling became another form of care work in students’ homes. Care work was gendered and existing scripts about the roles of ‘proper mams’ reinforced the expectation that women should prioritise their families. This affected the female students’ autonomy as learners. The article discusses why institutional recognition of unpaid work is necessary for gender equity and argues for the promotion of critical social literacy about gendered work to counter individualised deficit understandings. As hybrid work and study modes continue, the recommendations have ongoing implications for HE provision.
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References
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