Re-imagining Success: Narratives of Enabling Students in Higher Education

<p dir="ltr">The measures used by government and policymakers defines student success in higher education as units passed and programs completed (Department of Education, 2017; Oh & Kim, 2016; York, 2015). According to this definition, the inverse of student success is units and programs not passed and/or not completed. Such fixed measures of student success, however, has wide-scale equity implications (Taylor, 1992). Students from non-traditional backgrounds, or those who have had negative experiences of schooling, may find the attainment of success by this definition either more difficult to achieve, or at odds with the successes that are valuable to them (May et al., 2016).</p><p dir="ltr">The following findings from my research, undertaken for my doctoral thesis, offers an analysis of 19 interviews with 10 students who had enrolled in an Australian university enabling program. An enabling program is "a course of instruction provided to a person for the purpose of enabling the person to undertake a course leading to a higher education award" (The Higher Education Support Act, 2003, p. 384). Interviews with participants took place close to the commencement of their program, and again approximately 12 months after their completion or withdrawal.</p><p dir="ltr">Students who entered higher education through a non-traditional pathway, and largely from an under-represented background, disclosed their lived experiences of powerful discourses that they described as shaping the common image of the ideal student. They also described the impact of discourses of 'lack' pertaining to their sense of belonging, confidence, and capability to succeed. However, participants also spoke of becoming empowered in other ways as a result of their educational experiences. Success took on different meanings for different students (May et al., 2016). While some students' definitions aligned at times with more traditional markers of success, others viewed success in ways that disrupts conventional interpretations.</p><p dir="ltr">At the time of this study, Australian higher education policymakers are urging for increased student enrolments, with a particular focus on increasing students from under-represented backgrounds (Department of Education, 2024; Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), 2020). The findings from my study substantiate the need for greater educative approaches to understandings of 'disadvantage' that pertain to the perception of lack (Smit, 2012), and an appreciation of the power and value of diverse knowledges and experiences that all students bring to and gain from education. My research also substantiates that an alternative re-thinking of success and its associated measures should be considered in higher education.</p><p dir="ltr">Success is not a fixed or simply quantifiable term. It is fluid, compound and highly complex. The treatment of success as such, in all areas of education, will help to ensure that all students' educational outcomes are recognised and valued, and that success is attainable to all students, regardless of their backgrounds.</p>