Empowerment of women students through educational achievement: A narrative enquiry/ E. M. Lemmer

Education is the basic tool for empowering women, and this is particularly striking among women from deprived economic and social backgrounds. Narratives of women's lives indicate different statuses of self-development, which are further complicated by issues of race, class and socioeconomic position. This paper presents the stories of four black midlife women with a view to examining how women from a background of extreme deprivation construct and give meaning to the story of their educational history and its contribution to their self-identity. Data was collected through written life histories and interviews and analysed according to two narrative models. The findings illustrate how the women made sense of trauma and difficult life transitions, describe their ultimate empowerment through educational and professional achievement, and illustrate the use and value of narrative enquiry in research in education.