Getting In: understandings of potential, talent and ability, and access to HE for Scottish young people from areas of high deprivation

Reid, Catherine (2024) Getting In: understandings of potential, talent and ability, and access to HE for Scottish young people from areas of high deprivation. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Widening Participation for young people from areas of high deprivation is an ongoing concern for the Scottish government. However, the attainment gap between the least and most affluent young people in Scotland persists. Using the theories of Ziegler and Philipson, Bronfenbrenner and Bourdieu, this research examines how Scottish young people from areas of high deprivation, their teachers, parents, and other key professionals understand potential, talent and ability and the relationship between this understanding and Higher Education choices and experiences. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, using secondary data, survey data and interviews with students (n=26) and adults (n=11). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse quantitative data, and reflexive thematic analysis was deployed for interview data.

Secondary and survey data indicated potential barriers to attainment for young people from lower SIMD quintiles. Interview data indicated restrictions on subject and level choice for this group. Survey data indicated similar attitudes to HE between SIMD quintiles across almost all measures. Interview data suggested that SIMD 1 and 2 students tended to see themselves as more committed and passionate students than their more affluent peers. Interviews indicated fractured, unstable, and sometimes self-contradictory understandings of potential, talent and ability amongst students, teachers, parents, SDS workers and WP workers. A range of attitudes was also found towards WP to HE and to HE itself. Survey data and interview data indicated that a surprisingly wide range of students had accessed WP, including students from SIMD quintile 3, 4 and 5. Students’ focus on HE as pleasurable and the purpose of HE contrasted with that of teachers and SDS workers who understood HE as primarily vocational.

This thesis shows that the multiple contradictory and sometimes self-contradictory understandings of potential, talent and ability allow groups and individuals with very different understandings of key concepts to believe they are using shared language to reach a shared goal, while in fact their perceptions, beliefs and aims are very different. This could facilitate the reproduction of existing educational inequity.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Supervisor's Name: Sutherland, Professor Margaret and Boeren, Professor Ellen
• Date of Award: 2024
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2024-84483
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 09 Aug 2024 13:54
• Last Modified: 09 Aug 2024 14:15
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84483
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84483