Social justice or 'human capital' development through higher education: experiences of scholarship students in Lebanon

Nimer M., Celik C.

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION, cilt.29, sa.4, ss.366-384, 2020 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 29 Sayı: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/09620214.2019.1672574
  • Dergi Adı: INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.366-384
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Higher education, common sense, human capital development, Gramsci, Bourdieu, capital, employability
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

While literature documents how the employability agenda has become the new neoliberal common sense in universities much less attention has been given to the mechanisms of adaptation by students. Utilizing a four-year longitudinal case study of scholarship students at an elite university, this paper focuses on the process through which this 'meritocratic' program normalises neoliberal common sense in higher education. We put into question the principle of positive discrimination, considering the limited number of beneficiaries. Our findings illustrate that, instead of minimizing inequalities, this scholarship program contributes in strengthening the neoliberal ideology within the education system. We further demonstrate that students' backgrounds influence their adaptation into the program and access to employment. In addition, we argue that urban-rural differences among others have more explanatory power than class differences in understanding the complex adaptation of students into the program in the Lebanese context.