This study set out to investigate how students construct their identities. Throughout their
socialisation into academia, students are confronted with the paradox of learning as they negotiate
the opposing discourses of enslavement and mastery that construct higher education. Utilising a
critical discursive psychology approach this research aimed to examine the implications this
paradox holds for the development of students’ identities. In-depth interviews with five master’s
degree students allowed for an examination of the linguistic resources available for students to draw
on in constructing their accounts of student-hood. Analysis of the interpretive repertoires and
ideological dilemmas in the text revealed the uptake of contradictory subject positions in
participants’ navigation of academic discourse. In order to address the inconsistencies associated with these conflicting ways of being a student, participants ‘worked’ a face in their interactions
with academic discourse. Their face-work served to address the paradox by integrating the
contradictory positions evident in their accounts. It is in the agency displayed in the integration of
these disparate positions that the emancipating student is revealed. / Psychology / M.A. (Research Consultation)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/20000 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Hagen, Sean Noel |
| Contributors | Van Deventer, Vasi, 1952-, Ochse, Caryl |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (viii, 118 leaves) |
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