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Avoiding The Manufacture Of 'Sameness': First-In-Family Students, Cultural Capital And The Higher Education Environment, Sarah Elizabeth O'Shea

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Drawing upon Bourdieu's theories of social and cultural capital, a number of studies of the higher education environment have indicated that students who are first-in-family to come to university may lack the necessary capitals to enact success. To address this issue, university transition strategies often have the primary objective of 'filling students up' with legitimate forms of cultural capital required by the institution. However, this article argues that such an approach is fundamentally flawed, as students can be either framed as deficit or replete in capitals depending on how their particular background and capabilities are perceived. Drawing on interviews conducted …