عنوان

Accessing Oxbridge :

TLets514301

Accessing Oxbridge :

[Thesis]

Watts, Michael F.

a capability assessment of the widening participation agenda

University of East Anglia

2009

Ph.D.

University of East Anglia

2009

This thesis examines the enduring issue of widening participation at the Universitiesof Oxford and Cambridge (commonly elided as Oxbridge) and considers: the realopportunities students from non-traditional backgrounds have to consider, apply toand progress to Oxbridge; and what enhances and inhibits those opportunities. Thethesis draws on two research projects. The first specifically addresses these issues.The second, and more recent, addressed them as part of its remit to consider wideningparticipation and the pedagogies of higher education at Cambridge. Both studiesmade use of life history research and the thesis incorporates the life histories of six ofthe participating students. Analysis of the data makes use of the capability approach,developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, which is concerned with thesubstantive freedoms - that is, the capabilities -people have to choose and lead livesthey value and have reason to value. The capability approach de-emphasises theimportance of commodities in well-being assessments but it has been criticised forfailing to pay proper attention to the social structures which influence the relativevalue of educational commodities and the consequent freedom individuals have tomake use of them. Bourdieu's sociology of education is employed to address thisissue of social discipline. The data are analysed using his concept of capital -specifically academic, cultural and symbolic capital - and the findings are thendiscussed in relation to the preference deformation that inhibits the progression ofstudents from non-traditional backgrounds to Oxbridge and then the enhancement oftheir capabilities. The capability focus on opportunity presents an even bleakerassessment than the Bourdieusian focus on outcome: not only do proportionatelyfewer students from the state-maintained sector progress to Oxbridge, the opportunitygap is disproportionately greater when compared with their peers from theindependent sector. Nevertheless, successful interventions can enhance the freedomsof individual widening participation students to take part in the life of the Oxbridgecommunity.

Watts, Michael F.

University of East Anglia

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

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