Widening Participation, Aimhigher and the Coalition Government: Narratives of Freedom and Efficiency

Passy, Rowena

doi:10.2304/power.2012.4.1.83

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…believe, is where contention with the discourse of Aimhigher lies: while I concur with Passy's (2012) point, apropos of Aimhigher, that few would disagree that the opening up of opportunities for HE study to disadvantaged groups is a good thing, it must also be noted that the social progressiveness and emancipatory potential of widening access may result in social coercion if HE study is presumed to be the only show in town.…”

Section: Concluding Remarks and The Con-lib Coalition And Beyondmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The other document was a publication aimed at mature students. It was decided not to include this publication for discussion within this article as the principal target group for Aimhigher was 18-19 year-old school-leavers (Passy, 2012). All three documents indicate that they were updated in September 2009 and thus were the most current publications prior to the ending of Aimhigher.…”

Section: Aim Highermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, I discuss three publications that were available as PDF documents on the Aimhigher website, and also that of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, from 2009: Help Your Child into Higher Education, a parents' guide to HE (Aimhigher, 2009b); Your Future Your Choice, a guide for young people aged 16 and over (Aimhigher, 2009c); and Don't Stop Doing What You Love, a guide for school pupils aged 14 (Aimhigher, 2009a). These documents were selected from four IAG documents available from the same websites; the fourth was a publication aimed at mature students and it was decided not to include this for discussion here as the principal target group for Aimhigher was 18-19-year-old school-leavers (Passy, 2012). All three documents indicate that they were updated in September 2009, and thus were the most current publications prior to the termination of the Aimhigher programme at the end of the 2010-11 academic year.…”

Section: Aimhighermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hegemony through Responsibilisation: Getting Working-Class Students into Higher Education in the United Kingdom

Morrison

2014

Power and Education

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This article examines the role of the New Labour governments' agenda for widening participation in higher education as a form of responsibilising discourse of working-class young people. Under the New Labour administrations of 1997-2010, a concerted attempt was made to attract working-class students into higher education through promotional initiatives such as the Aimhigher programme. Drawing from Raymond Williams' discussion of hegemony and also from Nikolas Rose's concept of the 'enterprising self', this article examines three explanatory/promotional documents from the Aimhigher programme aimed at working-class young people and their parents. The documents are analysed as materialisations of a powerfully hegemonic discourse of 'responsibilisation' towards participation in higher education. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the widening access agenda has shifted since the coalition government came to power in 2010.

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Section: Concluding Remarks and The Con-lib Coalition And Beyondmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Aim Highermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Aimhighermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hegemony through Responsibilisation: Getting Working-Class Students into Higher Education in the United Kingdom

Morrison

2014

Power and Education

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“…Through such examinations the political, economic and social agendas that drive higher education equity policy have been revealed as central to understandings of how policies are formed, how they will eventually be implemented and what they mean for practice (Passy, 2012;Rizvi and Lingard, 2011).…”

Section: Wp Equity and Policy Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional statements of commitment and widening participation policy in Australia

Chapman

Mangion

Buchanan

2015

Policy Futures in Education

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This article describes ways in which the equity agenda, as outlined in the Bradley Review of Higher Education (Bradley et al., 2008), is translated into action in one Australian university. Drawing on the conceptual work of Ahmed (2012) to elaborate institutional life, we investigate the effects of the widening participation policy. Ahmed (2012) provokes us to consider institutional commitment as a non-performative in order to examine the association between names and effects as central to institutional cultures. This is achieved through a focus not only on what documents circulating within institutions say but what they do from the perspective of those working with them. The paper draws on three statements of commitment made by various Australian universities in the form of publicly available mission statements and strategic plans to explore how universities value, construct and authenticate their role in widening participation. It then proceeds by supplementing these texts with qualitative data gathered through semistructured interviews with academic and professional staff in one Australian university to examine how such statements of commitment inform us of the extent to which they are practised or utilised as demonstrations of action in and of themselves. Drawing on Rizvi and Lingard's (2011) work on social equity in Australian higher education, we argue that statements of commitment to equity and widening participation from universities in the current neoliberal policy assemblage can function to mask the ways in which universities continue to redefine educational values in terms of economics (Rizvi and Lingard, 2011).

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“…Despite the global educational focus on the development of meritocracy (Allen, 2012) and widening participation agendas for higher education (Passy, 2012), there has been an imbalance of entry to university, with an under-representation of students from low-income families in the United Kingdom, USA and Australia (Power et al, 2003;Pearce et al, 2008;Reay et al, 2010;Wilks & Wilson, 2012). Against this background, research has explored the dynamics between structural and cultural influences on working-class relationships to education through the study of educational biographies using the interview method (see, for example, Power et al, 1998aPower et al, , b, 2003Reay, 2001Reay, , 2006Aries & Seider, 2005Pearce et al, 2008;Davey, 2009;Reay et al, 2009Reay et al, , 2010Hernandez-Martinez & Williams, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Replacing the Misplaced: Power, Autobiography and Learner Identity

Choi

2014

Power and Education

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This article is concerned with examining how social class as a key aspect of learner identity is modified, reinforced or transformed through educational progressions, whereupon relationships change, power is redistributed and different forms of capital are prized. The dynamics between structural and cultural influences on working-class relationships to education are explored by way of autobiographical writing, and analysed through the lens of habitus and field. In operationalising habitus, the indeterminacy of the concept rejects a close, unproblematic connection between class and education, questions the assumed homogeneity of class dispositions, and renders a more fluid and dynamic working of class and learner identity. Arguing against the synchronic view of language characterised by regularity and internal consistency, this methodological orientation of habitus chimes with a textual approach that values inferential enrichment and indeterminacy. Using critical discourse in genre analysis offers space for potentially subversive interpretations, or for playing with evaluative meanings, of an autobiographical account rooted in the local and particular, but also sets great store in understanding constraining and transformative courses of action. This modest inquiry illuminates the relevance of autobiographical reflection to the development of agency and educational capital, with an emphasis on temporality, continuity and change.

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Widening Participation, Aimhigher and the Coalition Government: Narratives of Freedom and Efficiency

Cited by 10 publications

References 14 publications

Hegemony through Responsibilisation: Getting Working-Class Students into Higher Education in the United Kingdom

Hegemony through Responsibilisation: Getting Working-Class Students into Higher Education in the United Kingdom

Institutional statements of commitment and widening participation policy in Australia

Replacing the Misplaced: Power, Autobiography and Learner Identity

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