HEAPS

ABOUT

Supported by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund, ‘HEAPS’ is a participant-centred research project focusing on inequalities (access and attainment) in Higher Education in South Africa with the view to inform impactful interventions fostering greater equity and success for all.

Context

South Africa occupies a distinctive position within the Global South, shaped by a complex colonial legacy and characterised by persistent inequalities across race, gender, and geography. These structural injustices present significant challenges to the country’s progress toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Among the national priorities outlined in the National Development Plan: Vision 2030, the South African government has identified Quality Education (SDG 4) and Gender Equality (SDG 5) as critical areas for development. In particular, the government acknowledges the widespread and entrenched poverty experienced by single-mother households, and has committed to raising living standards, expanding access to public services, and reducing severe poverty and inequality (Laframboise, 2019).

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Project

Forty-two percent of South African youth grow up in single-headed households, with 90% headed by Black African women (Dawood, Seedat-Khan, 2023) – 82% live in poverty (Statistics South Africa, 2018). Caught within interlocking systems of gender, race, and class inequalities that severely limit their life prospects, these children and young people face significantly worse educational outcomes than any other demographic (Statistics South Africa, 2018).

HEAPS explores how growing up in single-headed households affects students’ access to and success in South African Higher Education (HE), particularly in the context of historical and systemic inequalities. By focussing on the lived experiences of Higher Education students and staff/alumni from single-headed households, HEAPS examines how socio-economic background, race, gender, and family dynamics intersect to influence educational trajectories.

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Approach

HEAPS takes a Bourdieusian, constructivist, structuralist approach which regards social practices as the outcome of the dialectic between social structures and agency. Considering the exploratory dimension of the study and its focus on the perceptions and narratives of a hitherto understudied social group, the team has designed a qualitative, narrative-based methodology, using in depth semi-structured interviews to elicit rich, reflective personal narratives.

Research participants will be the primary beneficiaries of this project – from voicing their stories, knowledge and experiences with the research team to identifying critical challenges in the collaborative online workshop and co-creating a clinical model enabling them to access solutions and existing resources. We strive to develop capacity building through a partnership that is equitable and sustainable, demonstrated by a series of planned activities in research, further funding and networking.

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Cited Sources

Attributions