The right to higher education

Penny Jane Burke

"The landscape of higher education has undergone change and transformation in recent years, partly as a result of diversification and massification. However, persistent patterns of under-representation continue to perplex policy-makers and practitioners, raising questions about current strategies, policies and approaches to widening participation. Presenting a comprehensive review and critique of contemporary widening participation policy and practice, Penny Burke interrogates the underpinning assumptions, values and perspectives shaping current concepts and understandings of widening participation. She draws on a range of perspectives within the field of the sociology of education - including feminist post-structuralism, critical pedagogy and policy sociology - to examine the ways in which wider societal inequalities and misrecognitions, which are related to difference and diversity,...