Contextualizing rationality: Mature student carers and higher education in England
批评英格兰高等教育政策将学习视为无风险个人投资，忽视成熟学生照顾者因照顾责任而做出的非经济理性选择，对政策制定者和教育研究者有参考价值。
Abstract In England, the Government has implemented policies to increase and diversify participation in higher education (HE). Changes in funding arrangements that shift the burden of paying for education from the state to individuals have also been introduced. To reconcile the contradiction between widening participation and the individualization of the costs of study, HE is being framed as a risk-free and individualized financial investment. Informed by critiques from feminist economics and the philosophy of “rational economic man,” this paper argues that the government's HE policies are permeated by a narrow concept of reason and presuppose highly individualized, instrumental, and economic actors. Drawing on the findings from two studies conducted at the University of Hull, this paper demonstrates how this understanding of human behavior is incongruent with the experiences of one group of students – mature student carers – whose life choices are informed by their caring responsibilities.