Imagined social capital in the transition from school to university in Chile: narratives of first generation university students
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education
ISSN: 2050-7003
Article publication date: 16 August 2022
Issue publication date: 9 June 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to analyse first-generation Chilean students' transition experiences from secondary school to university.
Design/methodology/approach
This article presents the analysis results of 12 visual narratives of first-generation Chilean university students, who provided an account of their transition experience from secondary school to university. Participants explored the connections between their most valuable learning experiences during photo-elicitation interviews. The study used Quinn's notion of imagined social capital to understand the transition experience.
Findings
The analysis reveals the significance of secondary school experiences in understanding students' attitudes toward the university. In an extremely segregated school system, participants' secondary school experiences demonstrated a strong bond with classmates from their social class and a feeling of distance from institutions and their hierarchical structure. In this context, the university space is symbolically recreated into a learning space consistent with their social background.
Social implications
The research study highlights the need to increase understandings of school experiences and how these shape university transitions in order to effectively support students during the first years of university. In addition, it draws attention to the need to develop strategies that recognize the complex, collective and contextualized understandings of students' transition.
Originality/value
The research aimed to understand the experience of transition of first generation students from their own narratives and relational perspectives in contrast with the prevailing paradigms which are often individualized and linear.
Keywords
Citation
Garcia, A. and Wood, B.E. (2023), "Imagined social capital in the transition from school to university in Chile: narratives of first generation university students", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 905-918. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-12-2021-0466
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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