Abstract
M.Ed. (Curriculum Policy Evaluation)
The aim of this study is to investigate how successful undergraduate students from disadvantaged backgrounds have managed their studies at the University of Johannesburg. It addresses the following main research question: How do successful undergraduate students from disadvantaged backgrounds negotiate their performance at university? ’’Successful’’ denotes positive achievements in their development and academic performance.
Snowball sampling was used: nine students were chosen in the Faculty of Education from the 2007-2012 student intake to participate in individual interview sessions. This study only considered students who had performed extremely well, and excluded any student who had failed any of their years. The data was collected through interviews, transcribed, coded, analysed and interpreted using an interpretive thematic lens. The themes which emerged showed that students from disadvantaged backgrounds brought different kinds of assets to those of the university’s average students. Consequently, their academic integration and success depended on these assets (capital).
The first significant finding was that the background of these students equipped them with the ability to respond to the many and varied challenges in their educational environment so that they emerged as ‘victors’. Their backgrounds had moulded them. They had to cope with the academic rigours of a higher education institution: they were resilient, self-determined and intrinsically motivated. Their life experiences gave them ‘compensatory skills’ (coping mechanisms) which they used when confronted with educational difficulties. The second finding revealed that an understanding of their backgrounds more than adequately explained their success. These students had to negotiate their way through academia very differently. They had to make different choices when faced with the problems of who could help them or where they should go for assistance with their academic work (whether peers, lecturers, tutors or other people).