Since the 2000s, successive governments in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have embraced the idea of ‘raising aspiration’ among young people as a solution to persisting educational and socio-economic inequalities. Previous analyses have argued that these policies tend to individualise structural disadvantage and promote a ‘deficit’ view of working-class youth. This paper adopts a novel approach to analysing aspiration discourses combining Michel Foucault’s four dimensions of ‘ethics’ and Mitchell Dean’s notion of ‘formation of identities’. Applying Foucault’s and Dean’s work in this way provides a new lens that enables an examination of how policy encourages particular forms of subjectivation, and, therefore, seeks to govern individuals. The findings presented in the paper complicate previous research by showing that raising aspiration strategies portray disadvantaged youth both in terms of ‘deficit ‘and ‘potential’, resulting in a requirement for inner transformation and mobility through attitudinal change. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for the identity formation of young people and for conceptualising contemporary forms of governmentality
This paper, through a review of recent literature and policy documents, highlights: the rates of participation in higher education in the UK; the widening participation agenda and the potential impact of key financial changes in the funding of higher education, particularly for students from lower socio-economic groups.
In 2004 the Schwartz Review advised English higher education institutions that their admissions systems should: be transparent; select students who are able to complete their courses based upon achievements and potential; use assessment methods that are reliable and valid; minimise barriers to applicants; be professional; and be underpinned by appropriate institutional structures and processes. These five principles were only expressed as recommendations, reflecting the reluctance of policy makers to interfere with individual higher education institutions' admissions policies. This article analyses the results of research that reviewed the progress that English higher education institutions had made in implementing the Schwartz recommendations and assess whether a more interventionist stance is required to achieve 'fair admissions '. Higher Education Quarterly,
This paper, through a review of recent literature and policy documents, highlights: the rates of participation in higher education in the UK; the widening participation agenda and the potential impact of key financial changes in the funding of higher education, particularly for students from lower socio-economic groups.
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