A Capabilities List for Equitable Transitions to University: A Top-down and Bottom-up Approach

Wilson-Strydom, Merridy

doi:10.1080/19452829.2014.991280

Cited by 28 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The evidence presented supports the views of Walker (), Crocker and Robeyns () and Wilson‐Strydom (, ); they state that providing a student with agency, including the freedom to decide and ‘the power to act and be effective’, can support the capability to aspire. The students in this case study have the scope to develop autonomy through leadership roles, new mentor relationships and exploration of college courses and campuses.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…The literature on the capability approach in education has expanded significantly in recent years. In combination with theories of social and cultural reproduction, education researchers have operationalised the capability approach as a useful framework for understanding the complexities of ‘meaningful’ access to university, and argued that it should be used to consider how education impacts on human development (Unterhalter, ; Walker, ; Biggeri, ; Walker & Unterhalter, ; Wilson‐Strydom, , , ). Watts and Bridges () contend that for some young people, the challenge of pursuing higher education lies both in the financial implications and in the lack of available social and cultural capital within their community; they assert that the capability approach provides an alternative lens through which to consider long‐standing theories of social and cultural capital formation.…”

Section: The Capability Approach Capital Theories and Widening Partimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These include human agency and autonomy, hope and voice, identity and knowledge. According to Walker (), providing a student with agency, including the freedom to decide and ‘the power to act and be effective’ (Crocker & Robeyns, , p. 75; Wilson‐Strydom, , ), is essential for education progression. Similarly, Robeyns () states that autonomy is important in education as it relates to the student's capacity to make informed choices, including decisions regarding planning a life after school, having space for reflection, independence and empowerment.…”

Section: The Capability Approach Capital Theories and Widening Partimentioning

confidence: 99%

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Widening the educational capabilities of socio‐economically disadvantaged students through a model of social and cultural capital development

Hannon

Faas

O’Sullivan

2017

British Educational Res J

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Widening participation programmes aim to increase the progression of students from low socio‐economic status (SES) groups to higher education. This research proposes that the human capabilities approach is a good justice‐based framework within which to consider the social and cultural capital processes that impact upon the educational capabilities of young people from low SES groups. It presents a case study which examines the developing capability set of Irish students from a representative sample of schools participating in a university‐based widening participation outreach programme aimed at increasing social and cultural capital constructs. Qualitative analysis is presented from four schools; four student focus groups with 22 student participants, and 15 individual student interviews. Findings focus on the developing capabilities of autonomy, hope, voice and identity, as well as on the relationship between specific widening participation activities and the developing capability set. The findings highlight the development of college‐focused knowledge and how this impacts upon students’ aspiration to participate in higher education. The idea of ‘widening capability’ is discussed in relation to the potential of the capability approach to contribute an additional dimension to a mainly neoliberal policy rhetoric, which emphasises the market value of higher‐education participation. In doing so, it explores how widening participation activities can influence the widening capability set of low SES students, and its relationship with what the students deem to be ‘a life of value’.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: The Capability Approach Capital Theories and Widening Partimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Capability Approach Capital Theories and Widening Partimentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Widening the educational capabilities of socio‐economically disadvantaged students through a model of social and cultural capital development

Hannon

Faas

O’Sullivan

2017

British Educational Res J

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“…Earlier in this paper, we introduced Sen and Nussbaum's capabilities approach to understanding inequalities, as well as Wilson-Strydom's (2016) suggested list of capabilities for engaging with inequality in HE participation. These provide a helpful language and lens to examine how bursaries impact on students' lives.…”

Section: Using the Capabilities Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We can therefore also infer the capabilities valued by the students through their choice of functionings; as Wilson-Strydom and Walker (2017, p. 228) argue, 'Each person's functionings […] provides a window on to their achieved well-being'. Table 2 seeks to map the key functionings emerging from our data onto a reduced version of Wilson-Strydom's (2016) list of capabilities that should be made available to students within a fair and equitable HE system.…”

Section: Using the Capabilities Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Access, participation and capabilities: theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success

Harrison

Davies

Harris

et al. 2018

Cambridge Journal of Education

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For the last ten years, universities in England have been expected to offer financial support to low income students alongside that provided by government. These bursaries were initially conceived in terms of improving access for under-represented groups, but attention has turned to their role in supporting student retention and success. This paper reports two qualitative studies undertaken by contrasting universities that have been brought together due to their complementary findings. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a total of 98 students. Students views on bursaries and how they impact on their lives are reported and used to develop a descriptive model of the web of choices that students have in balancing finances and time. This is contextualised within Sen's 'capabilities approach', to argue that providing access to higher education is insufficient if disadvantaged students are not able to flourish by participating fully in the university experience.

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Legal apprenticeships: Enhancing capabilities, wellbeing, and diversity in the profession?

Casey,

Mountford‐Zimdars

2024

British Educational Res J

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This original study presents findings from a study of members of the first cohort of legal degree apprentices. Introduced in the UK in 2016, legal degree apprenticeships (LAs) remove uncertainty towards legal qualification in an otherwise competitive graduate recruitment environment and could help to increase social mobility into the professions. We examine the impact of the LA pathway on the development of wellbeing and capabilities of apprentices and traditional law students through the following research questions: does it enhance wellbeing when instead of loans, debt and insecurity, aspiring lawyers have a salary, no debt and secure job prospects through an apprenticeship pathway to qualification; and does using a capability framework offer a meaningful lens for understanding the experiences on different pathways? The analysis adopts a capabilities approach, intersected with an inequalities lens, to explore interviews with 23 aspiring solicitors, from different social backgrounds and at different stages of progression on the traditional university and LA pathways in England. The interviews explored access to and experiences of both pathways, particularly how participants were able to develop and convert their social and cultural resources into key capabilities. This provided a meaningful way to make sense of participants’ experiences. Capabilities were enhanced for LA students by removing stress and uncertainty around employment. This wellbeing gain was corroded for some by long commutes into work—often centred in London. Future quantitative research could establish whether, on balance, the majority of LA students experience an overall wellbeing gain. The capability framework usefully showed how across the LA and university pathways, all participants valued agency and developing all capabilities. Social capital was a key resource for creating opportunity and a desired capability that participants sought to develop.

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A Capabilities List for Equitable Transitions to University: A Top-down and Bottom-up Approach

Cited by 28 publications

References 39 publications

Widening the educational capabilities of socio‐economically disadvantaged students through a model of social and cultural capital development

Widening the educational capabilities of socio‐economically disadvantaged students through a model of social and cultural capital development

Access, participation and capabilities: theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success

Legal apprenticeships: Enhancing capabilities, wellbeing, and diversity in the profession?

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