- Title
- Social capital and first-generation South African students at Rhodes University
- Creator
- Hlatshwayo, Mlamuli Nkosingphile
- ThesisAdvisor
- Vincent, Louise
- Date
- 2016
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSocSc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/1466
- Identifier
- vital:20060
- Description
- The post-1994 democratic dispensation was presented with a challenge of how to improve equity of access for the incoming Black majority in institutions of higher learning (Cloete and Moja, 2005; Badat, 2010). Democratization of access to institutions of higher learning led to what has been called a “revolution” in the student demographics of higher education institutions in South Africa (Cloete and Moja, 2005). Many of the new entrants, particularly those entering historically white institutions, are from working backgrounds and are the first in their families to have the opportunity obtain a tertiary qualification – they are ‘first generation’ students. This thesis is interested in the experiences of first-generation working class students as they negotiate the terrain of an elite, historically white, South African university. While a prior body of research on first-generation students has focused primarily on the educational, cultural and economic deficits and challenges that these students experience, the present project was interested in the question of social capital in relation to these students. The thesis set out to explore what social networks these students do and do not have access to, and the various ways that they create, access and take advantage of alternative social networks in order to overcome their marginality in their everyday lived experiences at the university. In depth qualitative interviews with 31 participants were employed to gain an insight into the experiences of first-generation Black working class students at one university. The study finds that while first-generation students are not bereft of social capital, their networks are often inward-looking, based as they are on mutual recognition of markers of marginalisation and poverty which risks restricting these students to the margins of university life.
- Format
- 132 leaves, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Hlatshwayo, Mlamuli Nkosingphile
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