From barriers to capacities: reconcieving aspiration-focused student - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

… redefining student equity in higher education … From barriers to capacities: reconcieving aspiration-focused student equity strategy Sam Sellar National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education Hawke Research Institute University of South Australia sam.sellar@unisa.edu.au

Reconceiving the problem 1. Problem: Persistent low rates of participation in HE among people from low SES backgrounds, partly due to motivational barriers. 2. Tension: Raising aspiration removes motivational barriers to participation in HE but places excellence in question if aspiration outstrips achievement 3. Reconception: Aspiration not simply the means to realise ends , but the capacity to influence them 4. Implication: Outreach activity should develop research capacities that support people to plan, articulate and realise socially valuable ends

From motivational barrier… Aspiration an issue of individual motivation • – ‘The major barriers to increased higher education participation by students from low socio-economic backgrounds include previous educational attainment … [and] little aspiration to participate’ (Australian Government 2009:13) Negative freedom: ‘consists just in there being no obstacle’ • (Taylor 1985: 213) Student equity is a question only of means and can place the • ends at risk

…to aspirational capacity Aspiration is a cultural capacity to (a) navigate normative • contexts toward desired ends and (b) to participate in shaping these contexts and ends (positive freedom) Strengthening the capacity to aspire: • (1) Challenging deficit views; (2) teaching and learning; (3) linking • immediate desires to broader narratives; (4) cultivating voice Positive freedom: ‘[O]ne is free only to the extent that one • has effectively determined oneself and the shape of one’s life’ (Taylor 1985: 213) Student equity is a question both of means and ends •

Aspiration demands research • Aspiration and research: – ‘Without aspiration, there is no pressure to know more. And without systematic tools for gaining relevant new knowledge, aspiration degenerates into fantasy or despair’ (Appadurai 2006: 176-177) • A broad definition of research: – ‘the capacity to systematically increase the horizons of one’s current knowledge, in relation to some task, goal or aspiration’ (Appadurai 2006: 176) • The quality of social scientific knowledge production is dependent upon its inclusivity (Connell 2007)

Conclusion Strengthening the capacity to aspire and the capacity for • research: 1. A strong social justice strategy 2. A sound approach to preparing citizens for knowledge economies 3. Opens up new ways of thinking the relationship between increasing participation and increasing the quality of knowledge production