Advancing Theory and Research in Widening Participation

Ellen Boeren, Nalita James

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781351028400
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Issues of access, social exclusion and widening participation dominate educational policy agendas and are a shared global challenge. Participation in higher education and adult lifelong learning activities can be a life-changing experience that opens up new opportunities. However, access remains unequal. People from lower socio-economic backgrounds, those living in the most deprived areas and people from minority ethnic groups are underrepresented.

In this book, we focus on how we can move the field of widening participation forward, paying specific attention to the theories and methods we can use to better understand and tackle the problem of underrepresented groups in post-compulsory education, and how individuals and institutions can be supported. We argue that in order to make sense of these issues, it is important to engage in both the findings of widening participation research and the theoretical foundations which underpin them. This way, alternative perspectives on the widening participation agenda and emerging research and policy can be explored from alternative perspectives.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Studies in Continuing Education.

Beyond aspirations: deploying the capability approach to tackle the under-representation in higher education of young people from deprived communities

Laurie Anne Campbell

and John H. McKendrick

ABSTRACT

This paper re-examines the low participation of young people from deprived communities through the lens of the capability approach. A fundamental problem for tackling widening participation is that much of the thinking of policymakers is grounded on the flawed ‘poverty of aspiration thesis’. This paper contends that Sen’s [1992. Inequality Re-Examined. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1999. Development as Freedom. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press] capability approach offers a better way of theorising and understanding the persistent under-representation in higher education of young people from deprived communities. A comparative case study approach was conducted in two secondary schools in Scotland, each serving a deprived area, each of which has an intervention programme that promotes higher education. The study employed mixed methods (i.e. questionnaires and interviews) to investigate young people’s aspirations and perceptions of their capabilities. The findings confirm findings from previous studies that are critical of the ‘poverty of aspirations’ thesis, which suggest that young people have high aspirations. However, an understanding of this is enriched when appraised within the framework of the capability approach, as aspirations are rationalised against findings, which demonstrate that these same young people are also confident in their capabilities and that social arrangements are instrumental in supporting capability development.

Introduction

Widening participation has been at the forefront of higher education strategies and policies in advanced economies such as the UK for the last 20 years. The fundamental premise of ‘widening participation’ is that there is a population that has the potential to achieve more from the education system than at present. The ‘participation gap’ has been rationalised through deficits models, whereby progress toward more equitable outcomes tends to be articulated in terms of either addressing the problems of under-achieving young people (e.g. raising aspirations, raising attainment) or reconfiguring the education system to avoid disadvantaging able candidates from more deprived backgrounds who tend to be less well positioned in terms of criteria traditionally used to determine eligibility (e.g. introducing contextualised admissions, articulation from college). The interconnections between this double deficit are acknowledged and embedded in many of the widening participation projects initiated by universities (Bok 2010; Gale and Parker 2015). Some observers acknowledge the underlying structural causes of inequitable educational outcomes (Sellar, Gale, and Parker 2011; Sellar 2015), although these are, at best, accorded a marginal role in policy and strategy to widen participation in higher education.

In particular, ‘raising the aspirations’ of under-achieving young people from deprived backgrounds has been a cornerstone of widening participation policy (Sinclair, McKendrick, and Scott 2010), despite an accumulated body of research that suggests that the ‘poverty of aspirations’ thesis is inherently flawed (McKendrick, Scott, and Sinclair 2007; Sellar, Gale, and Parker 2011; Spohrer 2011, 2015; Schischka 2014; Zipin et al. 2015).

Following Hart (2016), this paper argues the need for a more nuanced interpretation of aspirations in debates on widening participation; it is proposed that there is a need to move beyond both unquestioning belief in the ‘poverty of aspirations’ thesis on one hand, and outright dismissal of it on the other, to appreciate the way in which it is entwined as both cause and effect of young people’s preparedness for higher education, and inclination toward it. A practical application of Sen’s capability approach (1999) is offered, which provides a richer conceptualisation of, and the means to better understand, the now persistent under-representation of young people from deprived communities in the case study of Scottish higher education.

Briefly, by way of introduction, the context for the case study is presented. Next, the paper reviews deficit thinking in widening participation debate, paying particular attention to how the ‘poverty of aspirations’ thesis has persisted, despite critique. The capability approach is then proposed as a means of providing a more fruitful way to rationalise aspirations in widening participation work. An illustration is then provided of how the capability approach can be operationalised to better understand young people from a deprived community’s post-school aspirations and how social arrangements impact on capability development and aspiration formation. The wider significance for policy is considered in conclusion.

The Scottish context

Education is a devolved responsibility of the Scottish Government within the UK political system (Keating 2005). Nevertheless, there has been a shared concern throughout the UK with widening participation for several decades, the early commitments to which were strengthened by both governments in the UK and Scotland sharing similar political complexion and educational philosophy in the early years of Scottish devolution. Widening participation initiatives such as the Excellence in Cities directive (DfES 2005) and Aim Higher (HM Treasury 2007) were developed on the understanding that widening participation would increase employment, improve productivity, and promote social justice by narrowing the class gap in educational attainment (Burke 2012). The pinnacle of ‘widening participation’ as an education policy goal was articulated in the form of a target (never attained) by the then Labour government to achieve 50% of young people aged 18–30 in higher education by 2010 (Public Accounts Committee 2009). Indeed, the Scottish Funding Council (2015) reports that there has only been a 1% increase in the number of young people partaking in higher education from the top 20 most deprived areas since 2010, with Parker (2012) observing that the higher education participation rates of young people from deprived communities are lower than anywhere else in the UK.

In recent years, there has been more policy divergence between the UK and Scottish governments (Keating 2005). Against a weakening of social justice objectives for the UK as a whole (MacKinnon 2015), the nationalist Scottish Government has strengthened its commitment to widen participation through measures such as the Scottish Attainment Challenge (Education Scotland 2016), which aims to close the gap in attainment between secondary schools and by requiring higher education institutions to specify activity leading toward and targets to measure progress in widening participation for Scottish domiciled students (Scottish Funding Council 2016). The ongoing commitment to widen participation in Scottish higher education necessitates a rethinking of the deficit thinking that has, as yet, failed to deliver a step change in widening participation outcomes.

Deficit thinking in and beyond the ‘poverty of aspirations’ thesis

The ‘poverty of aspirations’ thesis is built upon the premise that young people from deprived communities have absolutely low aspirations and relatively lower aspirations than their non-deprived peers. Some rationalise this ‘poverty of aspirations’ in the context of wider changes in global society (Bauman 1998; Brown 2011, 2013) in which neoliberal thinking and a belief in meritocracy asserts that aiming high and working hard will result in economic rewards (Spohrer 2015; Zipin et al. 2015). Failure to aspire is then more often than not attributed as the failing of an individual, rather than a structural condition (Archer 2007).

The ‘aspirations deficit’ has been a pervasive grounding for policymakers in the UK, embraced both by those concerned to promote social justice and, more recently, by those more concerned to transform failing families (Shildrick, MacDonald, and Furlong 2016). A key goal of the widening participation agenda becomes the quest to instil a culture of aspirations among young people from deprived communities to raise educational attainment and achieve progression to more advanced levels of learning. Early discourses of the poverty of aspirations thesis began to appear in policy documents from around 1997, most notably in the Dearing Report (National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education 1997) and in From Elitism to Inclusion: Good practice in Widening Access to Higher Education (Woodrow et al. 1998). In 2008, the UK government did acknowledge that aspirations among young people from different socio-economic backgrounds were, in fact, similar: ‘[D]isadvantaged young people do not have fundamentally different aspirations from their more adapted peers’ (Social Exclusion Task Force 2008, 10). However, the following year in a report to the Cabinet Office, the focus of the same Taskforce reverts back to raising aspirations: ‘[U]ltimately, it is the aspirations people have to better themselves that drives social progress’ (Millburn 2009, 6). The framing of aspirations remains a key driver of political agenda and policy, despite a growing body of literature demonstrating high aspirations among disadvantaged young people (Cuthbert and Hatch 2009).

It would be wrong to dismiss the relevance of low aspirations to educational outcomes. For example, studies have reported relationships between low aspirations and educational achievement (Gutman and Akerman 2008), as well as subjective poverty (Copestake and Camfield 2010). It is also suggested that parental influence affects aspiration formation; Aiming High (HM Treasury 2007) states that parents from lower socio-economic groups or with lower level qualifications are more likely to think their children will ‘peak’ at General Certificate of Secondary Education level than parents from higher social classes or those with higher qualifications. Similarly, Goodman and Gregg (2010) found that mothers’ aspirations are especially important during a child’s primary school years with 81% of the affluent mothers anticipating that their nine-year-olds would attend university, compared with 37% of less affluent mothers. Of particular note is that these later studies tend to suggest a positive correlation between parental socio-economic background and aspirations. On the other hand, not all would concur with this evidence (and therefore that parental attitudes contribute to variances in aspirations or achievement): Cuthbert and Hatch’s (2009) longitudinal case study concluded that almost all parents projected positive aspirations for their children regardless of their social position, contradicting the evidence which suggests that low parental aspirations will lead to low aspirations for children.

Studies working with young people also question the existence of a ‘poverty of aspirations’. Atherton et al. (2009) reported that at the age of 12, disadvantaged young people have high aspirations. Similarly, Cummings et al. (2012) found that most youth (and their parents) have high aspirations and attach great importance to education and want to go to university or to attain professional jobs irrespective of barriers and constraints they may face. Furthermore, Gutman and Akerman (2008) argue that although constraints have a major impact on aspirations, these do not materialise until the post-school years (between the ages of 18 and 21) as low-paid/skilled jobs become a reality for some.

For the avoidance of doubt, critiquing the ‘poverty of aspirations’ thesis is not to dismiss the existence of any social patterning in aspirations. Indeed, analysis of large-scale datasets (Croll 2009; Strand 2014) has demonstrated that there is a class differential; more young people from more economically advantageous backgrounds aspire to continue with post-school education. Rather, it is primacy of the ‘poverty of aspirations’ thesis, with its presentation as the explanatory framework to guide interventions that is so problematic. As both research with children from multiply deprived neighbourhoods and comparative research across the socio-economic spectrum confirm, the vast majority of young people from deprived neighbourhoods have what might be considered ‘high aspirations’, the levels of which are far in excess of the numbers who progress to post-school education.

Furthermore, ‘poverty of aspirations’ is not the only deficit that has been identified in aspirational research. St Cla...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction – Special Issue: advancing theory and research in widening participation
• 1 Beyond aspirations: deploying the capability approach to tackle the under-representation in higher education of young people from deprived communities
• 2 Thinking with and beyond Bourdieu in widening higher education participation
• 3 Understanding adult lifelong learning participation as a layered problem
• 4 Systemic obstacles to lifelong learning: the influence of the educational system design on learning attitudes
• 5 Recognition of prior learning: the tensions between its inclusive intentions and constraints on its implementation
• 6 Accessing and assessing appropriate widening participation data: an exploration of how data are used and by whom
• Index