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The purpose of this paper is to argue for a transformative education that acknowledges and values the capacities of mature students, where higher education institutions reflect on their own assumptions and practices in order to become more inclusive and open to difference.

The stories told by Eliza, a mature student, are analysed through narrative inquiry; this approach uses a narrative as a means of capturing and analysing experience. In this case, Eliza’s stories about transition and transformation were collected over three years. Eliza made the transition from her “Access to HE course” to a degree programme in textiles. She was crossing a boundary between further and higher education, a time which could impact positively or negatively on her future achievements. The conclusions drawn from this study are not easily turned into generalisations or “truths” as they are contingent on the contexts in which the narratives were produced. Narrative is a representation of experience which is mediated by the social and cultural positions of the narrators and their audiences.

This study found that Eliza was confronted by many difficulties and misunderstandings around time management, pedagogy and assessment. Ineffective communication between Eliza and her tutors led to a growing frustration resulting in her considering leaving the course. Eliza’s institution sometimes seemed inflexible and was unable to respond effectively to her needs as a part-time student.

The implications for educators are that they should think about strategies for adapting to a diverse student body.

The previous experiences and backgrounds of “newcomers” should be celebrated rather than being perceived as “issues” that need to be fixed. In other words, when “non-traditional” students move through the stages of their education, their learning contexts may also need to be transformed.

Across the USA, local municipalities and providers struggle to reliably supply water and electricity when faced with severe weather events induced by climate change. Previous research suggests those at higher risk for experiencing the detrimental effects of climate change have higher climate-related concerns. Additionally, research demonstrates variation in trust in institutions and perceptions of environmental justice along racial lines, which can influence concern for access to resources. Informed by this research, the authors ask two questions: how do Oklahomans’ trust in institutions, environmental justice perceptions and global climate change risk perceptions differ based on race, and how do these factors influence concern for water and electrical infrastructure? The purpose of this study is to better understand Oklahomans’ trust in information from institutions, environmental justice perceptions, global climate change risk perceptions and concern for water and electrical infrastructure.

This study uses a series of nested regression models to analyze the survey responses of 2,687 Oklahoman adults. The data were pulled from Wave 3 of the Oklahoma Meso-scale Integrated Socio-geographic Network survey, which is part of the National Science Foundation EPSCoR S3OK project.

The findings demonstrate the complex interplay of riskscapes – or risk landscapes – that encompass institutional trust, perceptions of environmental justice, climate change and infrastructure in Oklahoma. The authors find evidence that education and income are better predictors of institutional trust and environmental justice than race among our respondents. Political ideology emerges as a significant predictor across all hypotheses.

This study contributes to the understanding of complex dynamics involving race, perceptions of environmental justice, trust in information from institutions, risk perceptions of climate change and concerns for water and electrical infrastructure in Oklahoma.