(Un)Limited choice: analysing the strategic choices of first-in-generation students in neoliberal higher education

Guzmán-Valenzuela, Carolina

Keywords: chile, qualitative study, First-in-generation students, neoliberal higher education, strategic choosers

Abstract

In highly marketised higher education systems, massification has afforded greater access, particularly for first-in-generation students. Generally, this expansion has been fuelled by neoliberal ideologies that valorise the notion of choice and promise of social mobility. In this study, using interviews with 25 first-generation students, the issue of choice is critically examined in one of the earliest arenas of neoliberal experimentation: the Chilean higher education system. The study found that these first-in-generation students encountered complex and multi-levelled challenges in making higher education choices. Such choices were firmly anchored in differing levels of aspiration, and were strongly mediated by both family and school social capital. As a result, we propose an addition to traditional conceptions of choice: students (and their families) who act as strategic choosers. This outcome challenges the notion that first-in-generation students encounter unitary trajectories or equitable choices in encountering higher education.

Más información

Título de la Revista: BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Editorial: Taylor and Francis
Fecha de publicación: 2022
Idioma: English
URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01425692.2022.2080045?journalCode=cbse20