THE CAPABILITY APPROACH AND HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH SRHE

THE CAPABILITY APPROACH AND HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH, SRHE Seminar, London, 7 June 2017 Melanie Walker (walkermj@ufs. ac. za) Centre for Research on Higher Education & Development (CRHED)

Outline • Core ideas (Robeyns) • Selecting capabilities: • 1) Employability and human development project • 2) Gender, agency and empowerment project • Added value of the CA?

Capabilities & functionings C and F both have intrinsic value. Say which Cs and Fs matter and why. Resources and basic capabilities? Means (R) -ends (C and F) distinction Conversion factors, personal and social; Structures Human diversity Agency Normative claims and the good: C and F matter; but which capabilities matter; process freedoms matter Disagreements: 1. Normative individualism 2. Economiic resources/ capabilities

Two disagreements • Does normative individualism exclude relational ontologies? • Economic capabilities not specified (although module included on selecting capabilities; non-prescriptive selection offers a weak view of the right) - but seems foundational to education inequalities. • Cf Therborn 92013): Vital, existential and resource inequalities. • Robeyns - an incomplete ethical theory, may not be helpful for addressing the right (morality). • CA will not be useful for all our questions and other theories need to be added in.

Employability project: South Africa case study • 4 universities • Survey • Interviews – students, lecturers, university managers, policy makers • Employability conceptualised as human development and capability expansion • Focus on what universities do - and could do - even if they cannot do everything to expand economic and labour market opportunities.

Personal Social–External Social–University Socio-economic background (and Historical patterns of disadvantage Quality of teaching and learning; financial resources), including quality of shaping higher education including inclusive access prior schooling in the form of academic geographical location of the university grades achieved for access to programmes; family influences; race; gender; urban or rural Acquisition of knowledge and Subject knowledge valued; practical ‘Thick’ participatory pedagogies to experientially putting knowledge into applications valued enable critical disciplinary and technical practice knowledge; theory–practice alignment (through internships, work-integrated learning and so on) – for all students Genuine opportunity to choose Employer perceptions of university Perceived reputation of university and/or degree programme; reputation and quality of graduates and (international and national rankings; field of study ‘ideal’ graduate preferences historically shaped)

Social capital (conversion factor, structure of social class) • If you are from a poorer background and probably black or previously disadvantaged, then the likelihood of you having strong contacts is unlikely. If you are from a wealthier white or advantaged background then it’s ten times easier…Just from the people I graduated with from high school, you can just tell that certain people are set from the get go. Irrespective of what they are studying , they always land on their feet. So you may be lucky and have a contact or two in a very influential position, it’s not impossible, it does happen, but the likelihood isn’t strong [if you are from a disadvantaged background]. (quoted in Walker 2015, 17)

CAPABILITY INDICATIVE FUNCTIONINGS Subject knowledge, Planning and reflecting on career and life plans. critical thinking and Open-minded and appreciating diversity of viewpoints - reasoning in a critical and informed way. autonomy Participation in learning, voice, confidence and language Economic Able to get careers advice, able to apply theoretical knowledge in practical settings, able to develop employer contacts opportunities (social capital) , fair access to employers. Affiliation Being able to exercise a narrative imagination. Able to form friendships at university and experience generative pedagogical relationships with peers and lecturers. Able to show respect and recognition towards others and experience the same oneself Social commitments to making disadvantaged lives go better. Aspiration Able to review career aspirations and imagine future possibilities, able to have aspirations which slide forward.

GEAHE • to understand the development of diverse women’s well-being over time: to consider the specific contribution made by their university education; to examine women’s agency and that barriers which stand in the way of their human development. • 100 life grid interviews in 2013 • 57 qualitative interviews in 2013 and 2014 with women and men, black and white • 9 further follow-up interviews in 2015. • Surveyed 843 students at the University.

Name Ethnicity School type Mother’s occupation Nadia Afrikaans Model C Pre-school teacher Relebohile Sotho Model C School principal, Hons degree in education Sarah Afrikaans (attended Model C English school) Teacher, now counsellor and studying towards psychology hons degree Thandi Pedi/Tswana but grew up in Sotho culture Private, catholic Accountant; step-mother a teacher Jessica Afrikaans Model C, Housewife, MSc Agriculture Dineo Sotho/Tswana Township Domestic worker, Grade 2 education, Khetiwe Swati/Zulu Township; Domestic worker, Grade 8 education private Catholic school from grade 10 Thumi Xhosa Township Domestic worker, Grade 10 education

University makes a difference… • ‘Getting an education, getting a life, getting established, starting your career and just being independent. . . you can stand up for yourself now. …The more you are educated the more liberated your mind is and you see things in a different way…. you realise, my goodness, there's still more that I can do’.

‘Negofeminism’ (Nnmaeka) • Productively negotiating patriarchal cultures and university-home tensions: • ‘you can’t just go home with three degrees and think you can change everything’ [At university] I think it’s more or less equal [gender]. Maybe it’s because of the environment we find ourselves in. …When we go back home it’s more visible. Obviously there are certain duties that you have to fulfil at home that you don’t necessarily have to fulfil here. ’

Critical agency • University a ‘safe’ place • Bodily integrity compromised but not viewed critically, ambiguities • ‘This guy, he is doing his CA, and he said he doesn’t want to get married to a CA, and when I asked why, he said, “No, what’s the point if I am a CA and you are a CA. No, my position has to be bigger than yours. You have to be beneath me somehow”’. She notes that, ‘sometimes we as women allow that’, but then she also says, ‘our university has a lot of respect for women so no I don’t think in terms of gender and everything that I’ve been affected’, and then immediately adds, ‘besides that thing of guys thinking they can own you’.

Capability (normative) Functioning example (contextually realized) having a higher getting a degree education economic security sufficient material resources for studies voice speaking out over injustices affiliation having relationships of respect, recognition and dignity; respecting others aspirations achieved aspirations tenacity bouncing forward in the face of challenges and setbacks; being resilient and determined Gender awareness: a) bodily safety; b) bodily integrity a)being physically safe on and off campus; b) being free from sexual harassment

Name Having a higher education Economic Voice Affiliation Aspirations security Tenacity (bouncing forward) Gender awareness a. bodily safety b. bodily integrity Buhle 5 5 5 5 Jessica 5 5 5 5 4 Relebohile 5 5 5 4 4 4 5 2 Nadia 4 5 2 4 3 2 5 1 Sarah 5 5 4 5 5 3 5 2 Thandi 5 5 5 4 5 4 Khetiwe 5 5 3 5 5 1 Thumi 5 5 4 5 5 3 Dineo 5 5 3 5 5 4 5 1

Added value of the capability approach Alternative imaginary to human capital approach/ economic growth policy. Foregrounds freedoms and meaningful choices to enable us to judge how good a deal each person has; freedom is also good for society. Plurality and the multidimensional aspects of well-being and agency. Addresses intersecting socially constructed enablers or obstacles to capabilities. Capability gaps alert us to structures and conversion factors Higher education research in conversation with development ethics/ what kind of development. Concern with change – the actual lives people are able to live – and not only with critique. Human development values anchor well-being to avoid domestication of the approach. Relevance across global South and Global North contexts - potential to scale the walls and build the bridges (Naidoo 2017) which currently facture higher education globally and nationally. Needs to work with complementary approaches e. g. decoloniality, political economy, sociology.

References • Robeyns, I. 2016. Capabilitarianism, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 17 (3), 397 -414 • Walker, M. 2017. Aspirations and equality: gender in a South African university, Cambridge Journal of Education. http: //dx. doi. org/10. 1080/0305764 X. 2016. 1254159 • Walker, M and Fongwa, S. 2017. Universities, employability and human development. Palgrave Mac. Millan