Abstract:
This paper is based on an ethnographic study of a group of mature women students who have recently transited to tertiary education. The study endeavours to interpret what happens to such students and to account for a perceived high level of academic discomfit and anxiety. In general, the outcome shows that women students, particularly if they are mature aged, have been formed by what I have termed a tertiary preparation paradigm. This can be designated as competitive, requiring the attainment of a vocabulary of technical jargon and based on progressive assessment. Once they have entered the tertiary system, they are confronted by what I term a technological paradigm. This is characterised by a stress on information technology, creativity, technical know-how and a new vocabulary of technical jargon. Previously this would have been accommodated by such students as a subset of the tertiary preparation paradigm. Now it confronts them as a full fledged and autonomous paradigm. The need for professional achievement impels students in the cohort under study to adopt the technological paradigm and this results in a number of possibilities. For some there is a complete paradigm shift, for others there is a partial adaption of their tertiary preparation paradigm, for others there is inability to adapt with consequent drop-out.