The Rhetoric of Widening Participation in Higher Education and its Impact

Description

This book offers a critical investigation of the exclusion of individuals described as having ‘learning difficulties’ from participation in higher education. Using a postmodernist framework, the author explores the insights and experiences of a theatre group attempting to develop an undergraduate degree programme in the performing arts. In doing so, he provides a theoretical map of insights into discourses of power and knowledge, and makes transparent competing and contradictory discursive practices. Suggesting that ‘learning difficulties’ is a constructed and re-constructed discourse serving normative interests, the author demonstrates that despite the rhetoric of widening participation, individuals are intentionally beset by barriers, silenced and excluded from degree level participation. The author calls for a radical re-think of the notion of ‘learning difficulties’, segregated provision, access to employment in theatre, and critically questions the notion of participation in higher education. This pioneering volume will appeal to students and scholars of inclusive education, (critical) disability studies, cultural studies and the sociology of education. Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii Introduction (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 1-19 Cutting Edge Theatre Initiative: Setting the Scene (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 21-55 Producing and Reproducing ‘Learning Difficulties’ (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 57-89 The Struggle for Performance and Revealing the Past (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 91-116 Disability and the Turn to Postmodern Perspectives (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 117-146 The Rhetoric of Widening Participation (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 147-183 Ending the Barriers Against Disabled People (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 185-214 An Act of Resistance (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 215-234 Conclusion (Navin Kikabhai)....Pages 235-240 Back Matter ....Pages 241-266