Successful students’ negotiation of township schooling in contemporary South Africa
This article draws on data from a larger longitudinal qualitative case study which is tracking the progress of students over the course of their undergraduate degrees at a South African university. For this paper, we used background questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with 62 first-year s...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of the Free State
2014-09-01
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| Series: | Perspectives in Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/1871 |
| _version_ | 1797270895355494400 |
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| author | Rochelle Kapp Tracy S. Craig Robert Prince Elmi Badenhorst Viki Janse van Rensburg June Pym Bongi Bangeni Kate le Roux Ermien van Pletzen |
| author_facet | Rochelle Kapp Tracy S. Craig Robert Prince Elmi Badenhorst Viki Janse van Rensburg June Pym Bongi Bangeni Kate le Roux Ermien van Pletzen |
| author_sort | Rochelle Kapp |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This article draws on data from a larger longitudinal qualitative case study which is tracking the progress of students over the course of their undergraduate degrees at a South African university. For this paper, we used background questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with 62 first-year students from working-class, township schools who were first registered for Extended Degree Programmes in 2009. The article draws on post-structuralist theory on learning and identity to describe and analyse the participants’ perspectives on how they negotiated their high school contexts. We analyse the subject positions in which participants invested, as well as how they negotiated their way through social networks and used resources. Our data illustrate the ways in which students had to carry the burden of negotiating their way through home, school and neighbourhood spaces that were generally not conducive to learning. Nevertheless, participants consciously positioned themselves as agents. They were resilient, motivated and took highly strategic adult decisions about their learning. We argue that a focus on how successful students negotiate their environments challenges the pathologising paradigm of “disadvantage” that characterises research and debates in higher education. It also offers an additional lens for admissions processes and for providing appropriate intervention strategies in the tertiary setting.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T04:40:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-30a3028e42c442f4b9c8b59b96ef7e7d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0258-2236 2519-593X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-25T02:11:32Z |
| publishDate | 2014-09-01 |
| publisher | University of the Free State |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Perspectives in Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-30a3028e42c442f4b9c8b59b96ef7e7d2024-03-07T11:17:33ZengUniversity of the Free StatePerspectives in Education0258-22362519-593X2014-09-01323Successful students’ negotiation of township schooling in contemporary South AfricaRochelle Kapp0Tracy S. Craig1Robert Prince2Elmi Badenhorst3Viki Janse van Rensburg4June Pym5Bongi Bangeni6Kate le Roux7Ermien van Pletzen8University of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownUniversity of Cape Town This article draws on data from a larger longitudinal qualitative case study which is tracking the progress of students over the course of their undergraduate degrees at a South African university. For this paper, we used background questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with 62 first-year students from working-class, township schools who were first registered for Extended Degree Programmes in 2009. The article draws on post-structuralist theory on learning and identity to describe and analyse the participants’ perspectives on how they negotiated their high school contexts. We analyse the subject positions in which participants invested, as well as how they negotiated their way through social networks and used resources. Our data illustrate the ways in which students had to carry the burden of negotiating their way through home, school and neighbourhood spaces that were generally not conducive to learning. Nevertheless, participants consciously positioned themselves as agents. They were resilient, motivated and took highly strategic adult decisions about their learning. We argue that a focus on how successful students negotiate their environments challenges the pathologising paradigm of “disadvantage” that characterises research and debates in higher education. It also offers an additional lens for admissions processes and for providing appropriate intervention strategies in the tertiary setting. https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/1871working-class township schoolingdisadvantageagencyidentityschool-university transition |
| spellingShingle | Rochelle Kapp Tracy S. Craig Robert Prince Elmi Badenhorst Viki Janse van Rensburg June Pym Bongi Bangeni Kate le Roux Ermien van Pletzen Successful students’ negotiation of township schooling in contemporary South Africa Perspectives in Education working-class township schooling disadvantage agency identity school-university transition |
| title | Successful students’ negotiation of township schooling in contemporary South Africa |
| title_full | Successful students’ negotiation of township schooling in contemporary South Africa |
| title_fullStr | Successful students’ negotiation of township schooling in contemporary South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Successful students’ negotiation of township schooling in contemporary South Africa |
| title_short | Successful students’ negotiation of township schooling in contemporary South Africa |
| title_sort | successful students negotiation of township schooling in contemporary south africa |
| topic | working-class township schooling disadvantage agency identity school-university transition |
| url | https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/1871 |
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