Abstract
Equity of access to post-secondary education for all groups in American society has been a focus of policymakers in the United States since the Second World War. Target groups have changed over time from veterans just after the War, women, then African Americans and members of other minority groups. Participation has increased for all groups, but unevenly, so that minority groups are now known in higher education (HE) as ‘under-represented’ since their share of earned bachelor’s degrees is less than the representation of these groups in the total population. Women also remain ‘under-represented’ in many fields of study and in higher degree programmes. Because of this unequal distribution, women and students of colour are still considered as non-traditional students and all too often treated as outsiders. Current trends, of increasing poverty, under-funding of primary and secondary education and vitriolic attacks on HE with drastic cuts in funding of public colleges and universities, are intensifying exclusion. Women and students of colour will not only remain ‘non-traditional’ students, but ‘standing on the outside looking in’ at middle-class life, as Mary Howard-Hamilton and Merlon-Quainoo (2009) described it in the title of her compendium of studies on this phenomenon.
Keywords
- Community College
- Black Student
- Stereotype Threat
- Graduation Rate
- Community College Student
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© 2012 Anne J. MacLachlan
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MacLachlan, A.J. (2012). Women and Students of Colour as Non-Traditional Students: The Difficulties of Inclusion in the United States. In: Hinton-Smith, T. (eds) Widening Participation in Higher Education. Issues in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283412_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283412_16
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