Theorising multiply disadvantaged young people’s challenges in accessing higher education
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Date
2015
Authors
Walker, Melanie
Mkwananzi, Faith
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
This paper sketches an innovative conceptualisation of disadvantaged youth, shaped
dialogically by the interactions of theorising and data from a case study at Orange
Farm informal settlement in South Africa in 2013. The study focused on the challenges
for the young people in this area in accessing higher education. Drawing on Sen’s and
Nussbaum’s capability approach, complemented by a theorisation of vulnerability by
Misztal and of oppression by Young, the study illustrates how the concepts should be
interconnected to generate a framework for understanding the experiences of multiply
disadvantaged youth, as well as issues of equity for them in accessing HE. The paper
highlights the need to understand young people’s experiences and aspirations using
multidisciplinary theorising, in conversation with empirical lives. Overall, advantage
is understood as having the freedoms (or capabilities) to live a life each person has
reason to value, with genuine opportunities for secure functionings now and in the
future. A disadvantaged life, by contrast, would have less or neither.
Description
Keywords
Higher education, Youth, Disadvantage, Capability approach, Vulnerabilities, Oppression
Citation
Walker, M., & Mkwananzi, F. (2015). Theorising multiply disadvantaged young people's challenges in accessing higher education. Perspectives in Education, 33(1), 12-25.