Deconstructing the discourses of widening participation

• Published in: The Right to Higher Education pp. 11 - 32
• Main Author: Burke, Penny Jane
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2012
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: WP Policy; Higher Education; Good Life; Non-academic Characteristics; Higher Educational Access; Aimhigher Partnerships; Case Study Higher Education Institutions; Vice Versa; Federal Student Financial Aid Programmes; Higher Educational Participation; Tr Ac; WP Policy Agenda; Widening Participation Discourses; Widening Participation Practitioners; Young Men; WP; Lo Ca; Student Subject Positioning; Widening Access; Cross-boundary Professionals; Mass Higher Education System
• ISBN: 0415568242; 9780415568241; 0415568234; 9780415568234
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203125571-3

Despite the political commitment expressed through numerous international and national policies to widen educational access and participation, we are living in a time of increased, and widening, social and economic inequalities. Although we have largely moved from an elite to a mass higher education system in England and in many other countries, those benefitting the most from policies to expand HE are those with relative social, economic and cultural advantages, i.e. in the English context this would be those categorized in middle-class and/or professional groups.