An exploration of the educational engagement practices of first generation disadvantaged students at a university

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT : This dissertation focuses on the educational engagement practices of first generation disadvantaged students at a higher education institution. It responds to the question: How do disadvantaged students use their resources to navigate the university and optimise their education?The starting assumption of this dissertation is that research in higher education lacks a comprehensive account of the resources and cultural capital that disadvantaged students bring with them to university study. This is based on the view that disadvantaged students possess valuable resources and assets that are not recognised by higher education institutions.The dissertation is presented in the form of three articles and an Introduction and Conclusion chapter, which serve as its wraparound chapters. The Introduction chapter gives an account of the conceptual underpinnings of the dissertation as well as the rationale and aims for the study. The Conclusion chapter provides an analysis of the main conceptual arguments of the dissertation in response to the main research question. It includes a summary of the intellectual contribution of the research study on which the dissertation is based.Methodologically, the three articles are based on a qualitative study on selected students at one university in Cape Town. The first article focused on the pre-university pathways of disadvantaged students for gaining entry into university study. The second article discussed the ways in which the students engaged with the institutional spaces of the university to establish their educational engagements. The third article concentrated on how the students engaged in their learning at the university.The theoretical framework for the study was informed by Bourdieu's theory of practice and the associated concepts of field, hysteresis, capital and habitus. Based on the three articles, I offer the view that the selected disadvantaged students developed a particular 'logic of educational engagement practice' which placed them in a position to construct a pathway for successful engagement at the university.I conclude the dissertation by arguing that the students in this study developed mediating capacity to engage in their university education and that they went on to establish horizontal field-based engagement practices that enabled them accumulate the capital necessary to engage with the university's formal educational processes. Finally, I present the argument that the students worked out how to achieve success in their studies via embodied learning practices that were key to the formation of a successful learning habitus at the university.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University