The landscape of higher education has undergone change and transformation in recent years, partly as a result of diversification and massification. However, persistent patterns of under-representation continue to perplex policy-makers and practitioners, raising questions about current strategies, policies and approaches to widening participation. Presenting a comprehensive review and critique of contemporary widening participation policy and practice, Penny Burke interrogates the underpinning assumptions, values and perspectives shaping current concepts and understandings of widening participation. She draws on a range of perspectives within the field of the sociology of education – including feminist post-structuralism, critical pedagogy and policy sociology – to examine the ways in which wider societal inequalities and misrecognitions, which are related to difference and diversity, present particular challenges for the project to widen participation in higher education. In particular, the book focuses on the themes of difference and diversity to shed light on the operations of inequalities and the politics of access and participation both in terms of national and institutional policy and at the level of student and practitioner experience. draws on the insights of the sociology of education to consider not only the patterns of under-representation in higher education but also the politics of mis-representation, critiquing key discourses of widening participation, such as ‘raising aspirations’ and ‘fair access’, which might operate to reinforce deficit discourses of the ‘disadvantaged groups’ targeted by widening participation policy. interrogates assumptions behind WP policy and discourse, including assumptions about education as an unassailable good and critically reflecting on what is meant by educational participation. provides an analysis of the accounts and perspectives of students, practitioners and policy-makers who are subject/ed to the discourses of widening participation through in-depth interviews and email discussions, as well as reflective journal entries. This will add an empirical layer to the book to bring to life the conceptual and theoretical issues under discussion as well as to emphasise the importance of bringing together theory and practice in relation to the project to widen participation. offers insights for future developments in the policy, practice and strategies for widening participation, including practices beyond entry to higher education, for example pedagogical and assessment practices. The book will consider ways of reconceptualising WP and aims to provide reflexive and dialogic spaces to explicitly connect theory and practice. The book should appeal to all those working in and researching Higher Education.
