"Re-Placing" Aspirations in a Postindustrial Context

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In a post-industrial context, higher education outreach to widen participation has been critiqued for building from a ‘deficit discourse’ around ‘raising aspirations’ amongst disadvantaged young people. Linked to ‘therapeutic education’, young people are assumed to begin from a point of ‘weakness’ and ‘aspiration raising’ represents a policy ‘quick fix’ for social mobility. Recent studies show that disadvantaged young people don’t fail to participate in education because they lack ambition. Acknowledging changes that a 4th Industrial Revolution may bring, this interdisciplinary symposium disrupts historical links between education, work and raising aspirations that propagate a diminished view of human potential. Instead, the notion of ‘re-placing’ aspirations theoretically, geographically and practically in post-industrial contexts is explored.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Paulo Freire, Critical Pedagogy, and Emancipation

Chair

• Bradley J. Porfilio, San Jose State University

Papers

• "Re-Placing" Aspirations in Higher Education Policy Discourse - Sarah Hayes, University of Wolverhampton

• "Re-Placing" Student Aspirations in the Postindustrial North of England - Michael Jopling, University of Wolverhampton

• Aspiring to Aspirate: Learning in Foams - Derek R. Ford, DePauw University

• The Role of Posthuman in Fourth Industrial Revolution - Marek Tesar, The University of Auckland; Sonja Arndt, University of Melbourne

• Poverty, Education, and the Sublation of Postdigital Capitalism - Curry Stephenson Malott, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Discussant

• Petar Jandric, Polytechnic of Zagreb