Understanding How Mature Students Make Sense of Success in the Social Work Programme at the University of Otago

[摘要] My thesis explores how mature students, those aged 25 or older, understand the knowledges necessary for success in the social work programme at the University of Otago.In this thesis I argue that there is a social logic that underpins the programme which sits below the awareness of all involved and acts to marginalise those who lack the knowledges privileged by that logic.In turn, I propose that when staff, mature and non-mature students, the university, and the social work profession make use of this information, they can foster an environment where student success is revolutionised.My vision is a programme where everyone is successful and no one is marginalised.As a starting point, I have included a table of contents of a student success guide for future discussion.The use of Pierre Bourdieu’s thinking tools allow this social logic to be revealed in all its complexity.As such, my study was conducted as a qualitative research endeavour, where the work of Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) informed an analysis of the social work programme at a government, profession and programme level to reveal the social logic in operation.I then utilised an online survey combined with follow-up focus group and semi-structured interview events to determine how staff and students made sense of my findings for maximising student success.My thesis contributes to the debates on 1) using the work of Bourdieu to analyse the dynamics of power in an education context to bring to the surface the social logic of a field of interactions, 2) using that knowledge as a basis for bringing about the positive social transformation of those in marginalised positions by equipping struggling agents to play the social game better, and by changing the game itself to be more supportive of struggling, and, 3)how the transformation of the experience of struggling agents requires the enabling actions of those in positions of power.

[发布机构] University of Otago

[效力级别] Education

[关键词] Social Work;Education;Mature Students;New Zealand;Student Success;Pierre Bourdieu;Capitial;Habitus;Field