Out of step but stepping up? : following a group of students negotiating university and beyond.
Date
2015
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Abstract
This study holistically explores the experiences at university and the effects of a
university education for students at a South African university. Literature on students
in higher education has generally been focused on ‘traditional’ students and graduates
in the first world. This research advances understanding of students and graduates in a
unique way.
The study has used qualitative data generated from focus groups, extensive interviews,
diaries and photographs of a small sample to uncover student narratives, which offer
insights into the ways in which the participants negotiated their way through
university, graduation and the early stages of their working lives. The participants
showed evidence of remarkable resilience in navigating higher education and the job
market without the requisite economic, cultural or social capital. Similar fortitude was
also revealed in the attempts to fulfil the expectations of significant individuals and
social groups. The findings from the research suggest that the impact of university
education on social and economic mobility in the South African context is more
complex than often assumed. The participants describe their unique positioning within
inimical impulses of: progress and tradition, independence and belonging, conventional
success and inner fulfilment. With regard to identity and emerging identities, the
participants conveyed a need to create coherent links between their past, their present
and their future selves. A sense of isolation emerged for the participants as a function
of uneven and incomplete upward economic and social mobility, and the expectations
of such mobility.
Description
Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.
Keywords
College graduates - Vocational guidance., College graduates - Employment., Theses - Sociology.