Inclusive higher education learning outcomes for rural and township youth: developing a multi-dimensional capabilities-based higher education index

南非高等教育的特点是入学、参与和成功不平等，因此青年处于不利地位，但它也被视为经济发展和社会流动的核心。这项研究的目的是建立一个综合性的、以政策为导向的学习成果路径理论，以突出农村和城镇青年在准备上大学时的平等和高质量、他们在大学的经历和他们的毕业成果，并了解是什么使他们能够实现高等教育对他们的变革潜力。该项目将提高学习成果概念化为多维“能力”的扩展和实现多元价值的“功能”的过程。通过使用能力方法，可以理解各种因素如何相互作用，以抑制或启用对个人和建设体面社会有价值的能力。该项目将揭示相互关联的个人、教育和社会挑战，这些挑战解释了来自具有挑战性背景的年轻人所经历的结果不平等，并阻碍了全民有质量的高等教育。特别是，该项目将重点关注由图萨纳尼基金会(http://www.thusananifoundation.org)，)支持的高等教育学生，该基金会是一个青年领导的非营利性组织。与基金会合作提供了接触弱势青年及其进入、进入和超越高等教育的教育途径的途径，并是一个可以获得重要用户见解的网站。这项混合方法研究将探索背景因素--家庭、学校、大学教育和社会安排以及为工作做好准备的活动--这些因素对这些学生的高等教育途径有促进作用，也有抑制作用。特别是，它将调查学生自己和其他利益相关者重视什么学习成果，为什么重视这些学习成果，以及它们是否以及如何实现。与利益攸关方的接触和影响活动从一开始就纳入了项目；掌握证据的协商进程将产生实践建议和政策选择。主要的研究参与者是图萨纳尼基金会资助的学生，他们就读于四所历史悠久的大学，从高等教育第二年到毕业后的四年时间里。在对不平等和学习结果的文献、文献和国家统计数据进行分析(队列分析)的背景下，我们将使用定量(调查700名图萨纳尼资助的学生；最后一年的学生n=1600)，纵向定性方法(生活史；访谈，n=48×4年)，以及利益攸关方会议的笔记和可视化方法，以在宏观和微观层面探索学生经验和学习结果。该方法包括让年轻人(学生和导师)作为研究人员(n=32)和他们进行的访谈(n=40)的参与性因素，以便共同构建想法，并探索参与研究如何提高学习成果。对基金会学生导师的访谈(24人)；基金会董事会成员(5人)；以及基金会与学校学生合作的民族志实地笔记将提供对提高学习结果的动机、策略和可能性的洞察。因此，该项目提供了对入学机会、高等教育经历和毕业生成果的综合分析，并注意到教育、社会和经济影响。这些数据将从以下方面进行分析：(1)机会和成就的结构分布模式，包括对图萨纳尼基金会所作差异的分析；(2)能力抑制和扩展框架，归纳和演绎；以及(3)多维高等教育学习成果指数，以供政策制定者和发展机构实际使用，超越了狭隘的完成率衡量标准。

South African higher education (HE) is characterised by inequalities of access, participation and success, and hence youth disadvantage, yet it is also seen as central to economic development and social mobility. The aim of the research, captured in the production of an innovative HE Index, is to develop an integrated, policy-oriented theorisation of pathways to learning outcomes that foregrounds equality and quality for young people from rural areas and townships when they are preparing for university, their experiences at university, and their graduate outcomes, and to understand what enables the realization of the transformative potential of HE for them. The project conceptualises raising learning outcomes as a process of multi-dimensional 'capabilities' expansion and realization of plural valued 'functionings'. Using the capability approach allows an understanding of how various factors interact to inhibit or enable capabilities that are valuable to individuals and to building a decent society. The project will uncover interrelated personal, educational and social challenges that account for the inequities in outcomes experienced by young people from challenging backgrounds, and standing in the way of quality HE for all. In particular, the project will focus on HE students supported by Thusanani Foundation (http://www.thusananifoundation.org), a youth-led not-for-profit organisation. Working with the Foundation provides access to disadvantaged youth and their educational pathways into, in and beyond higher education, and is a site through which important user insights can be gained. The mixed-method study will explore contextual factors - families, schools, university educational and social arrangements, and work-readiness activities - that enable and inhibit higher education pathways for these students. In particular, it will investigate what learning outcomes are valued by students themselves and by other stakeholders, why they are valued, and whether and how they are achieved. Engagement with stakeholders and impact activities are built into the project from the outset; the evidence-informed and consultative process will generate practice recommendations and policy options. The main research participants are Thusanani Foundation supported students, attending four historically diverse universities, over four years from 2nd HE year to post graduation. Against a backdrop analysis of documentation, literature and national statistical data of inequalities and learning outcomes (cohort analyses), we will use quantitative (survey of n=700 Thusanani supported students; final year students n=1600), longitudinal qualitative methods (life histories; interviews, n=48 x 4 years), as well as notes of stakeholder meetings and visual methods to explore, at macro and micro levels, student experiences and learning outcomes. The methodology includes a participatory element with young people (students plus mentors) as researchers (n=32) and the interviews they conduct (n=40), to allow co-construction of ideas and to explore how participation in research might enhance learning outcomes. Interviews with Foundation student mentors (24); Foundation Board members (5); and, ethnographic field notes of Foundation work with school pupils will provide insight into the motivations, strategies and possibilities of raising learning outcomes. The project thus provides an integrated analysis of access, higher education experiences and graduate outcomes, with attention to educational, social and economic impacts. The data will be analysed in terms of: (1) structural distributive patterns of opportunities and achievements, including an analysis of the differences made by Thusanani Foundation; (2) a framework of capabilities inhibition and expansion, profiled inductively and deductively; and, (3) multi-dimensional HE learning outcomes Index of practical use to policy makers and development agencies, going beyond narrow measures of completion rates.