The landscape of higher education has undergone change and transformation in recent years, partly as a result of diversification and massification. However, persistent patterns of under-representation continue to perplex policy-makers and practitioners, raising questions about current strategies, policies and approaches to widening participation.
Presenting a comprehensive review and critique of contemporary widening participation policy and practice, Penny Jane Burke interrogates the underpinning assumptions, values and perspectives shaping current concepts and understandings of widening participation. She draws on a range of perspectives within the field of the sociology of education - including feminist post-structuralism, critical pedagogy and policy sociology - to examine the ways in which wider societal inequalities and misrecognitions, which are related to difference and diversity, present particular challenges for the project to widen participation in higher education. In particular, the book:
The book will be of great use to all those working in and researching Higher Education.
Penny Jane Burke is Professor of Education, Roehampton University, UK.
Introduction Part One: Contextualising Widening Participation 1. Deconstructing the Discourses of Widening Participation 2. Re/conceptualizing Widening Participation 3. Subjects of Widening Participation: identity and subjectivity Part Two: Methodologies and Approaches 4. Methodological approaches 5. Researching widening participation Part Three: Widening Participation Strategies and Practices 6. Raising aspirations: challenging discourses of deficit 7. Fair Access: challenging discourses of fairness and transparency 8. Lifting Barriers: conceptualising inequalities and misrecognitions 9. Professional subjectivities and practices Part Four: Imagining the future 10. Conceptualising WP differently 11. Beyong Widening Participation