Access to university in South Africa has been, and continues to be, a highly contested area
that is plagued with many layers of complexity rooted in the social, political and educational
past and present. Situated within an overarching commitment to fair and just higher education,
in this thesis I have attempted to understand the complex field of access to university. I have
done this by focusing on the transition from school to university, through the lens of the
capabilities approach as developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. The capabilities
approach provides a framework for seeking to understand what young people entering
universities are able to be and to do and what limits their being and doing. As such, the
capabilities approach requires us to move beyond measurable access statistics to a more
nuanced understanding of the agency and well-being of students admitted to university.
Four research questions guided the study.
1. How do first-year students at the UFS experience the transition to university in
their first year of study?
2. How do learners in Grades 10, 11 and 12 from local UFS feeder high schools
experience the process of preparation for and access to university?
3. How can these experiences of the interface between school and university be
theorised using a capabilities-based social justice framework?
4. Based on the evidence from the research, what interventions could support efforts
towards a more socially just transition for these students?
Working within a pragmatic paradigm, the study employed a mixed methods research
design. My starting assumption was that in order to thoroughly understand the transition to
university, it is necessary to study both the final years of schooling and the first-year at
university. As such, the study focused on the University of the Free State (UFS) and a sample
of 20 feeder schools. A total of 2816 learners in Grades 10, 11 and 12 completed the
quantitative South African High School Survey of Learner Engagement (SAHSSLE) (adapted
from the version used in the United States) in September 2009. The SAHSSLE provides a
wealth of data regarding educational practices at school as well as learnersâ experiences and attitudes towards their education. A smaller sample of 33 learners also completed qualitative
reflections on their school experience, plans for universities and their âuniversity knowledgeâ.
At the university level, I collected qualitative data from 128 first-year students in 2009 using
focus group methodology. In 2010 an additional sample of 142 first-year students were asked to
provide a written description of their first month at university and to draw a picture of how
they experienced the transition.
The thesis covers much theoretical ground related to higher education and social justice
as well as in the specific study area of access. In the access domain I make use of Conleyâs
multidimensional model of university readiness together with research on effective educational
practices that underpins the student engagement literature and instruments. Drawing on the
theory and literature, I propose an ideal theoretical capabilities list for the transition to
university. Following a detailed presentation of the empirical results structured in two main
sections, namely: transition to university experiences and readiness for university; I then make
use of the capabilities framework to theorise the transition to university.
Taking the well-being of students as the starting point, the capabilities framework for the
transition to university asks what the outcome of a successful transition should be. Rather than
defining success merely as measurable performance (such as changing enrolment demographics,
credits passed in the first-year or progression to the second year of study for example) which
does not take student well-being into account; the capabilities framework presented argues that
educational resilience should be regarded as the outcome of a successful transition to university.
In this context, resilience is defined as follows:
⢠Being able to navigate the transition from school to university within individual
life contexts;
⢠Being able to negotiate risk, to persevere academically and to be responsive to
educational opportunities and adaptive constraints; and
⢠Having aspirations and hopes for a successful university career.
A pragmatic capabilities list and framework for the transition to university is proposed
and defended, together with specific recommendations for how this framework could be applied
to facilitate the transition to university. The seven capabilities for the transition to university
are as follows:
1. Practical reason
2. Knowledge and imagination
3. Learning disposition
4. Social relations and social networks
5. Respect, dignity and recognition
6. Emotional health and reflexivity
7. Language competence and confidence.
These seven capabilities encompass the lessons learned from the literature review of
university access and the first-year at university, the capabilities literature, and the empirical
data within an overarching commitment to social justice and the promotion of the well-being of
students. The thesis ends by considering what the UFS could do differently to facilitate the
transition as well as what the UFS could do in partnership with schools.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07192013-085834 |
| Date | 19 July 2013 |
| Creators | Wilson-Strydom, Merridy |
| Contributors | Prof HR Hay |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07192013-085834/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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