Abstract
This article critiques representations of black South African students as victims, as colonised by academic discourse or as entitled millennials in the current debates about decolonisation in higher education. It argues that, albeit from different ideological perspectives, such representations depict black students’ experiences as homogenised and reified, and separate identity from the processes of learning. We draw on data from two qualitative longitudinal studies to analyse the ways in which black working-class students are positioned by the expected subject positions within the academy and at home. We illustrate the diverse and contradictory ways in which the participants reposition themselves as they straddle the boundaries of home and the academy over time. The article argues that the activity of straddling boundaries and making meaning from a diversity of positions is situated agentic work, and is central to learning, to critical engagement, and to enabling new ways of knowing and being.
Highlights
Recent South African university protests, namely #Rhodesmustfall and #Feesmustfall, have had the welcome effect of raising consciousness around issues of alienation, belonging and social positioning in relation to black students in higher education in South Africa
On the basis of findings from two qualitative longitudinal research projects which explored how black working class students negotiated identity and learning (Bangeni and Kapp, 2017), and drawing on insights from other recent research on students’ experiences in higher education, we describe and analyse some of the complex and contradictory ways in which students engage with ‘socially and discursively available resources’ (Thomson, 2009: 160)
Using the metaphor of boundaries drawn from the work of Carter (2006), Mbembe (2017), Ramphele (1995), and Thornton (1988), we present data from the longitudinal studies and examine the interplay between agency and structure, in order to understand how the ‘specifics of context and history translate, in dynamic and unstable ways, into multiplicity and difference in the lives of situated individuals’ (Haggis, 2004: 337)
Summary
Recent South African university protests, namely #Rhodesmustfall and #Feesmustfall, have had the welcome effect of raising consciousness around issues of alienation, belonging and social positioning in relation to black students in higher education in South Africa. On the basis of findings from two qualitative longitudinal research projects which explored how black working class students negotiated identity and learning (Bangeni and Kapp, 2017), and drawing on insights from other recent research on students’ experiences in higher education, we describe and analyse some of the complex and contradictory ways in which students engage with ‘socially and discursively available resources’ (Thomson, 2009: 160).
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