rural students' habitus & technology practices
DESCRIPTION
Paper and presentation on research of students' habitus and technology practices, a case study of a rural student. Paper included as notes under each slide.Presented at HELTASA November 2012.TRANSCRIPT
Laura Czerniewicz & Cheryl Brown
28 November 2012
THE HABITUS AND DIGITAL PRACTICES OF RURAL STUDENTS:
A CASE STUDY
THE STUDY
o 1st year students’ technology practices
o 23 studentso 4 South African universitieso 5 self-declared rural studentso Semi-ethnographic• Interviews, self recording, focus group,
access to social media
RURAL EDUCATION: SCHOOLS
o Rural schools continue to suffer poor conditions
o Worse conditions than their urban schools
o More out of school children in rural areas
RURAL EDUCATION: WORSE RESULTS
o Department Basic Education Grade 3 & 6 tests rural schools fare worst
o Many rural schools in Quintile 1• In Free State 61% of schools in Quintile
1
RESULTS
o In 2009, 7.7% of learners in Quintile 1 schools passed National Senior Certificate
o Hard to ascertain % of rural students in universities• A study on Medical studies found
proportionately fewer medical students from rural backgrounds
REAP
o Rural Education Access Programme (REAP)• reports that rural background can have
a negative impact on university experience
• student feedback after first year that technology is a real challenge
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
o Interested in technological practiceso Bourdieu
[(habitus) (capital)] + field = practice
BOURDIEU: CONCEPTS
o Habitus ‘a system of durable, transposable dispositions which functions as the generative basis of structured, objectively unified practices’ • ways of acting, feeling, thinking and
being….how [they] carry [their] history, how [they] bring this history into [their] present circumstances, and how [they] then make choices to act in certain ways and then not others”
o Habitus as reproductive or transformative
BOURDIEU: CONCEPTS
o Economic capital • assets either in the form of or convertible to cash
o Social capital • the sum of the resources that accrue to an individual
/group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition
o Cultural capital • embodied cultural capital “long-lasting dispositions of the
mind and body” , expressed commonly as skills, competencies, knowledge and representation of self image”.
• Objectified cultural capital physical objects as “cultural goods which are the trace or realization of theories or critiques of these theories”
o Symbolic capital - recognition, value and status
BOURDIEU CONCEPTS
o A field is a distinct social space consisting of interrelated and vertically differentiated positions, a ‘network, or configuration of objective relations between positions’
CASE STUDY
o Analysis of a single student case study
o Multiple sources of datao Theory – framed data analysis
JAKE’S STORY
o 1st year Humanities student, age 19o Mother died when he was 12o Father self employed, 2nd wifeo 3 siblingso Attended 2 rural, Quintile 1 schoolso Trilingual
ECONOMIC CAPITAL: ICT ACCESS
o Computers new at universityo School had 2, untouchedo 1st cell phone in Grade 10o Bursary• Bought own laptop (“individualistic”)
• Different discourses (its old, its rare)
• Bought Blackberry
ECONOMIC CAPITAL: INTERNET ACCESS
o Use of internet framed by economics• Peers at home have cell phones with
Internet access but not funds to exploit• Students on campus
• It ws a shock @ first 2 notice dat many of my frnds r no longer updating anythng on fb, bt then again I got reminded of da fact dat skuls r closed. Whch minz no more easy access 2 free computers on campus. Only dose wit smartphnes r beatin da recession. # shame #
SOCIAL CAPITAL
o Online networks expanded• Says he knows personally 15 of his
300+ FB connectionso Uses Mxit for small group of church
friendso Changed dynamics within existing
relationshipso Calls on university friends for ICT
help
CULTURAL CAPITAL
o Did not know how to use computers before university• “In my community technology is not that
important as people lack the skills to use it”
o At home • a radio only, laptop dream
o Computer Literacy programme at university a challenge
THE TRANSITION
My rural background was very challenging upon my arrival …The Computer Literacy was like rocket science to me. To top it up, lecturers had started making use of Blackboard for notifications. It was a real challenge. Typing assignments in accordance with the required formats was even more threatening.
Universities are congested with computers and it is unwittingly assumed that all students can use those computers beneficially; which is not the case.
Rural students feel estranged and depressed by these technologies. Setting appointments via email, checking emails from the varsity, and doing research for assignments are scary activities to rural students.
OBJECTIFIED CULTURAL CAPITAL
o Computer valuable artefact• Important to have his own• Not ruined by gaming• Essential for academics• Also for entertainment esp music
o Uses computer 80 hours a week• So, my laptop, it has to do its job; assist
me academically and entertain me.
OBJECTIFIED CULTURAL CAPITAL
o Cellphone indispensable• Never off• About status and trends• Concerned about the effects on his
studies
DIGITAL PRACTICES: ACTIVITIES
o Multi taskso Multi deviceso Assignments, notes, typingo Browsing and searchingo Not Excel or Powerpoint
DIGITAL PRACTICES: SOCIAL MEDIA
o Social media personal o Also academic, esp. affective
Study hard n al shall follow")
Stop whining n study
Good luck 4 da second semester
“I so wish textbooks were designed lyk magazines. Ten years frm nw u probably wud stl rememba da story of Kelly Khumalo in Drum Magazine, whch minz evn chapters wud last 4eva in one's mynd”
I'm studyin nw. Procrastination is a rapist of tym
DIGITAL PRACTICES: SOCIAL MEDIA
o Does not like TwitterI jst cnt connect with Twitter. Its so shortcut n complex. @ Jake..@ [email protected] titles n da scribblings confuse me
Twitter is more competitive than Facebook, Facebook is how you feel
THE FIELD: HIGHER EDUCATION
o Since campuses appear to be sophisticated, rural students prefer to abstain from exploring them with the fear of their rural mentality being exposed. Apart from technology, lecturers make it tough for rural students because these lecturers are used to Model C schools and the way those schools teach. As a result, their tone suits private school graduates. Their language and examples are in line with these urban students. No one seems to understand township or homeland students
o I am comfortable with technology now I love it
THE FIELD: RURAL COMMUNITY
o At home he is “the ICT mastermind”o He has a kind of freedomo His teachers are not ICT literateo He may not even use ICTs when he
goes home
o Music is the one continuity
CONCLUSION
o Bourdieu useful for practices ito habitus, capitals, field• Not enough for specifics of agency
o Jake’s story- tranformative habitusI'm not sorry of myself, despite my regrettable background. Actually, it's that background which keeps reminding me that I have to work even more harder to stay competitive
