The complexity of educational aspiration formation among young asylum seekers in South Africa

Stuart Hall, Level 2, Room 3, The Open University, Milton Keynes

Dr. Faith Mkwananzi, University of the Free State, South Africa, will be giving a seminar as part of the RITES (Research Group on International Development in Teacher Education across Societies and Cultures) series.

Drawing on a project on marginalised migrant youth in South Africa, this presentation is based on conversations with the youth about their higher educational aspirations. The overall aim of this presentation is to highlight the complexity of aspirations formation among marginalised young people, and specifically asylum seeking youth. To do this, the migration context in South Africa will be provided, as well as the challenge of categorising refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants. This will be followed by a four-fold conceptualization of higher educational aspirations formulation influenced by agency and conversion factors, and different refugee stories will be used as illustrations. A further focus on this intersection is aimed at highlighting how aspirations formation is context specific, yet the complex and the fluid nature of aspirations formation may be applicable to other vulnerable young people, beyond marginalised migrant youth. It is the overall aim of the presentation to stimulate an engaging discussion about aspirations and marginalised migrant youth.

This is an internal OU event, please contact Gina Sharp if you would like to attend.