Recognising poor black youth from rural communities in South Africa as epistemic contributors

Abstract

In South Africa, students who are poor, black and come from rural communities with poorly resourced schools are vulnerable to being victims of epistemic injustice. This is because they are usually seen as under-appreciated knowers who have low (English) language proficiency and deficits in academic literacy. In an attempt to provide a nuanced characterisation of youth from rural areas, this paper reflects on one student's life-history interviews and his photo-story that form part of data collected since 2017 for Miratho-a project on achieved higher education learning outcomes for low-income university students. The paper uses a capabilities approach as an interpretive framework for the qualitative data and theorises that students' linguistic capital and narrative capital are epistemic materials that can be mobilised into the 'capability for epistemic contribution' as conceptualised by Miranda Fricker. The paper thus makes a case for higher education researchers and educators to recognise poor black youth from rural communities as both givers and takers of knowledge or 'epistemic contributors'. It argues that doing so constitutes an ethical response to the structural inequalities that limit equitable university access and participation for youth in this demographic.

Curricular change for social justice: Teaching science by drawing on students’ lived rural home experiences in higher education

“…In relation to this point, Mathebula (2019) argues that university spaces can provide opportunities for epistemic contributions for rural youth by enabling this youth to draw on valuable capitals that they can mobilise for gaining university knowledge. When these subordinated students fail, the dominant discourse is likely to be that the problem lies with the student without realising that black students and students from rural areas in particular are enrolled in an academic cultural system that privileges particular ways of being, such as middle class, English speaking, often white, and Western (Bernstein, 1999;Bourdieu, 2002;Gee, 1990).…”

“…But it does describe general trends and provide some background context about students who participated in this study. Coming from a rural area and be categorised as working class does not signify that these students are deficient as they can have the necessary cultural capital for educational success (Fataar & Fillies, 2016;Mathebula, 2019).…”

Conceptualising (dis)advantage in South African higher education: A capability approach perspective

“…Moreover, while some students may not have the social and cultural capital universities look for, they may have linguistic and navigational capital that are valuable in other ways as forms of advantage, albeit not well-recognised by universities (Mathebula, 2019). These resources, however, are significant within supportive structures that are unracialised universities.…”

The question of access and spatial justice in universities in sub-Saharan Africa: A capabilities approach

“…There has been copious research on issues related to the former, but not much on the latter. For example, researchers, such as Martinez-Vargas, Walker and Mkwananzi (2020), Mathebula (2019) and Alger (2018), map the various contextual factors that limit access to higher education of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and their success in this area. Some such researches critique the under-preparedness of students at school level to transition smoothly to university (Mendaglio 2013;Nel, Troskie-de Bruin & Bitzer 2009;Walker 2019;Wilson-Strydom 2015.…”