There is an interesting dynamic here. People report how courses have “opened up
doors” for them, giving them exciting perspectives for the future. One even referred to
the prospect of going to university as a “golden apple” that was now within her grasp.
But balancing this is also the notion that education allows people to develop a focus,
and in that sense to close off some avenues and concentrate on a narrower range of
options.
This sense of hope and purpose was also important for respondents who had come to
this country without much English. Several respondents had been well-qualified in
their own countries and arrived in England without a means of communication, and
without recognition of their previous achievements. Many of those in this category
were seeking asylum or had refugee status. Participation in courses in ESOL and other
basic skills had given them hope for their futures in this country.
6.3 Structure
Education is flexible but nevertheless provides a structure to their daily or weekly
lives that respondents appreciated. This helped respondents to cope with their lives in
a number of ways:
“ Waking up in the morning ...you didn’t have a schedule .. It was like
dropping the children off but then coming back .. You don’t have to do the
Hoover because I’m in all day anyway .. There is no timetable, andIfound
myself not really motivating myself and I knew I could do better. ” (Kali)
Doing a course improved her psychological health enormously.
Denise was not in danger of developing depression, but she had expected life to be
wonderful as a parent not in employment, and when it came to it, she felt the need of
some external stimulus to give her life structure:
“ You’re at home with the children, so you can’t do anything .. Ifyou don’t do
anything, nothing’s going to happen .. That’s when I started getting involved in
mother and toddler group, and then I was on the Playgroup Committee .. and
doing the Learning through Play course and the Child Development course. ”
Mandisa also appreciated the structure that college provided:
“It was nice because it was routine. ”
The routine, clearly, was different from the daily round of domestic work.
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