Inspiration From Home: Understanding Family as Key to Adult Women’s Self-Investment

As the number of nontraditional-age students grows on college campuses, it is essential for higher education practitioners to understand if and how older students, especially women, become and remain engaged in their education. A review of the educational engagement literature reveals images of disengaged adult learners whose work and family responsibilities inhibit them from fully focusing on school. Yet other literature shows adult women excelling beyond their traditional-age peers. This qualitative study sought to better understand educational engagement for older women students. Overall, study findings revealed that although family can be a greedy institution, kin also served as a source of educational inspiration for women. A concept called self-investment is introduced as an alternative to educational engagement.