Sara Ranatunge awarded 2020 Carolyn Allport Scholarship

Helena Spyrou, Union Education Organiser

Sara Ranatunge is the 2020 recipient of the Carolyn Allport Scholarship, for postgraduate work in feminist studies.

Sara is undertaking a PhD at Victoria University exploring the impact of the Victorian Government’s Free TAFE initiative in empowering socio-economically disadvantaged women who completed a Certificate III or IV in Education Support between 2019–2021

Sara is a teacher in the TAFE sector with a passion for improving the education outcomes for learners from culturally and linguistically diverse and underprivileged backgrounds.

'I could see that I and my students were travelling a parallel path,' she says. 'I was 19-years-old when I came to Australia as a migrant with my family from Sri Lanka. I began studying teaching at Melbourne University, but when I fell pregnant, I left study to look after my daughter.'

'I too returned to study as a mature age student when my eldest daughter started attending high school.

In 2012, Sara completed her undergraduate degree at Victoria University and went on to complete a Masters, where she focused on the experiences of refugees and migrants studying in Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) courses.

Sara then worked as a trainer and assessor for the Certificates III and IV in Education Support. This course is what was formally known as a Teacher Aide Course and the participants were placed in primary and secondary schools and in TAFEs for their work experience.

'Inspired by the transformation of the students I was teaching and assessing, I decided to make this group of women the focus of my PhD which I started earlier this year,' she says.

In her application, Sara outlined that, in 2019, 118% more women enrolled in TAFE compared to 2018 since the introduction of Free TAFE. A high number of students who took advantage of Free TAFE study are women returning to study after years of absence and women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and underprivileged backgrounds.

In her PhD study, Sara sets out to explore race and gender as simultaneously lived experiences for women undertaking vocational education. 'As a woman of colour, I am interested in social activism and particular forms of intersecting oppressions – and since oppression cannot be reduced to one fundamental type – I bring a feminist intersectionality lens to the data collected because gender discrimination is shaped equally by racism and class inequality.'

In describing the demographics of the group of women who studied Educational Support, Sara highlighted that most always wanted to study but never had the opportunity and most had minimal technology skills. Some hadn’t studied for decades and those who were struggling in their personal life, persevered.

'I watched their confidence and self-esteem boom, especially during placement. For many it was a transformation.' She says.

'I can already see how being able to study at TAFE for free has made it possible for many women to undertake useful study that they would have otherwise not been able to afford. This Education Support course is a steppingstone for the women to get a job and for some to undertake further study.'

Sara hopes this research will contribute to knowledge in three areas: informing the development of future government education policies; enhancing the capacity of women from social and economic vulnerable backgrounds; and improving the quality of the educational support students are receiving. ◆