Faith Mkwananzi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Faith Mkwananzi
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities
International Journal of Heritage Studies
Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning
Abstract There has been limited research to date that takes account of marginalized migrants’ edu... more Abstract There has been limited research to date that takes account of marginalized migrants’ educational aspirations in the Global South using a human development lens. There is thus a need to consider where aspirations and education fit into processes of development among and for youth, particularly in the South-to-South migration context. This chapter conceptualizes the formation of educational aspirations among marginalized migrant youth. The emphasis is on higher education, with a focus on educational aspirations, because of the importance of higher education for both intrinsic and instrumental development of individuals in equipping them for multiple futures. Using the human development and capability lens for analysis, we argue that to understand educational aspirations we need to take account of material resources as well as the interaction between individual agency and structural conditions. The chapter argues that the formation of higher educational aspirations is complex, as is the environment that shapes them. Such a complexity requires an in-depth and comprehensive analysis to take account of the lived realities of marginalized groups.
Education, Migration and Development
Cambridge Journal of Education, Oct 9, 2021
This paper focuses on the experiences of out-of-school girls in Zimbabwe. It draws on a research ... more This paper focuses on the experiences of out-of-school girls in Zimbabwe. It draws on a research strand of SAGE (Supporting Adolescent Girls' Education), a UKAid programme funded through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) Girls' Education Challenge (GEC) initiative. Using a digital storytelling approach the research highlights critical events that have changed girls' lives and impacted on how they see their futures. The paper explores insights made possible by this alternative methodology. Crucially, it challenges the often-static representation of 'marginalised' and 'out-of-school' girls in Sub-Saharan Africa by illustrating the unpredictability of individual circumstances and girls' perceptions of these, within broader contexts of persistent vulnerability factors. Drawing on the capability approach the paper also offers new insights into the perceived value and purpose of school for out-of-school girls. The findings have implications for conceptualising more creative, contextually appropriate policies and practices for young people who miss out on formal school.
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the contribution of the capability approach (CA) i... more This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the contribution of the capability approach (CA) in researching education, youth and migration. In doing so, Mkwananzi displays the comprehensive nature of the framework in looking at complex and multidimensional phenomena such as migration, cutting across and beyond social, political, cultural and economic contexts. In addition to acknowledging the complex nature of migration, Mkwananzi illustrates that migration is an integral part of human development. Interconnections between CA and migration show how the two relate to each other and are clearly articulated. Discussed in detail is also the importance of education in human development, as it forms people’s existing capacities into developed capabilities and expands human freedoms.
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
The chapter demonstrates the interaction of capabilities and conversion factors and details how t... more The chapter demonstrates the interaction of capabilities and conversion factors and details how these two concepts relate to, and interact with, aspirations. The chapter also discusses the aspirations gap as well as the aspirations window and how it plays out for different individuals, thereby creating an awareness of what a complex analysis of aspirations and disadvantage can look like. Using intersectional analysis, Mkwananzi highlights the gendered aspect in aspirations formation, which marks the disparate values and aspirations between young men and women. Finally, the illustration of the role of agency in the interaction of capabilities and conversion factors provides an illustration of the complexity of aspirations formations in an environment with multiple factors.
Journal of Global Ethics, 2018
This article provides a Global South perspective on marginalised migrant youth and higher educati... more This article provides a Global South perspective on marginalised migrant youth and higher educational aspirations, with a specific focus on South Africa. We use data from a case study in Johannesburg to illustrate how marginalised migrant youth experience particular forms of disadvantage in their endeavours to realise their educational aspirations. Yet, educational opportunities and the achievement of educational aspirations may enhance dimensions important for individual wellbeing. Through education, marginalised migrant youth become better positioned to pursue what they have reason to value, including escaping poverty in both their home and host countries. Using the human development and capability lens, the paper also presents what the disadvantages experienced by marginalised migrant youth may mean for human development. We argue that constrained educational aspirations can result in corrosive disadvantage and ultimately systemic poverty. We conclude the paper by highlighting how the capability approach (CA) could be used to inform social and educational policies in contexts of marginalisation.
Journal of Global Ethics, 2019
The paper explores the possibilities for promoting epistemic justice in a South African universit... more The paper explores the possibilities for promoting epistemic justice in a South African university setting through a participatory actionbased photovoice research project in which university researchers worked alongside undergraduate students with no prior experience of doing research. The student voices are employed to understand how learning as capability development and agency expansion can advance epistemic justice in a university setting of hierarchical relationships that make participatory action research challenging. The paper considers how, in this project, spaces of epistemic democracy intersected with the expansion of multidimensional functionings, resulting in more epistemic justice for the student-researchers. The paper considers the possibilities for change through a participatory project toward promoting epistemic justice at the individual level. It also explores some criticisms of the limits of such individual development in the face of structural challenges.
Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 2019
Youth, Gender and the Capabilities Approach to Development, 2017
International Journal of Educational Development, 2015
In this article, we used the capability approach as normative grounding to analyse a particular f... more In this article, we used the capability approach as normative grounding to analyse a particular faith-based intervention targeting ‘youth at the margins’ – in this instance, marginalised migrant youths from Zimbabwe living in Johannesburg, South Africa. We used Albert Street School (AS School), run by Johannesburg’s Central Methodist Church, as our case study to show how this faith-based organisation, through its focus on education, created not only spaces for marginalised youths to aspire towards a better life but also practical opportunities to convert their aspirations into action. Drawing on first-hand accounts of 12 Zimbabwean migrant youths who had completed schooling at AS School, as well as of representatives of both the school and the CMC, the article first sketches the Zimbabwe-South Africa migration context post 2000. A discussion then follows of AS School as a faith-based intervention which addresses the constrained capability for education amongst marginalised migrant y...
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2019
This is a book review of Unfolding narratives of Ubuntu in Southern Africa, edited by Julian Mull... more This is a book review of Unfolding narratives of Ubuntu in Southern Africa, edited by Julian Muller, John Eliastam and Sheila Trahar, UK, Routledge, 2019. ISBN 1138483095.
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
Mkwananzi draws on theoretical and empirical reflections to illustrate how the discussions throug... more Mkwananzi draws on theoretical and empirical reflections to illustrate how the discussions throughout the book may contribute to higher education, migration and development policy. Also helpful is the reminder that addressing the subject of marginalised migrants cannot be seen as a task to be carried out by a single state only, but requires regional effort, including by the migrant-sending countries. The emphasis is on the potential contribution of the engagement of multiple actors in constructing a society favourable for local, regional and international development. Furthermore, Mkwananzi explores the role of international migration in reducing and/or intensifying poverty and what role education may possibly play within this nexus to improve the well-being of individuals.
Perspectives in Education, 2015
This paper sketches an innovative conceptualisation of disadvantaged youth, shaped dialogically b... more This paper sketches an innovative conceptualisation of disadvantaged youth, shaped dialogically by the interactions of theorising and data from a case study at Orange Farm informal settlement in South Africa in 2013. The study focused on the challenges for the young people in this area in accessing higher education. Drawing on Sen's and Nussbaum's capability approach, complemented by a theorisation of vulnerability by Misztal and of oppression by Young, the study illustrates how the concepts should be interconnected to generate a framework for understanding the experiences of multiply disadvantaged youth, as well as issues of equity for them in accessing HE. The paper highlights the need to understand young people's experiences and aspirations using multidisciplinary theorising, in conversation with empirical lives. Overall, advantage is understood as having the freedoms (or capabilities) to live a life each person has reason to value, with genuine opportunities for secu...
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
Focusing on the capabilities and barriers to higher educational aspirations formation, the author... more Focusing on the capabilities and barriers to higher educational aspirations formation, the author brings to the fore key challenges experienced by youth in contexts of disadvantage. An orientation to pre-migration illustrates the impact of economic and political structural on schooling experiences and how they influence educational aspirations and agency. The author’s use of Amartya Sen’s (1999) five instrumental freedoms (political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security) demonstrates the conditions that either support or hinder capabilities formation among migrant youth. This helps to understand the current external capability context of these youth and the author discusses how fostering the conditions for these instrumental freedoms is key for development interventions directed at marginalised migrant youth.
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
Mkwananzi provides an original contribution by conceptualising the formation of higher educationa... more Mkwananzi provides an original contribution by conceptualising the formation of higher educational aspirations among migrant youths in disadvantaged contexts. The fourfold conceptualisations of resigned, powerful, persistent and frustrated illustrate what happens at the intersection of diverse contextual environments and different levels of agency. The chapter illustrates that, although material support is important for the youth, it is inadequate on its own and may fail to prepare them fully for their future. It is therefore essential to understand the diverse conversion factors that influence the formation of migrants’ educational aspirations and what this may mean for their plans in relation to human development. Through this comprehensive analysis of the sometimes overlooked lived realities of disadvantaged groups, Mkwananzi provides a starting point for engaging with various structures under which these aspirations are formed.
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities
International Journal of Heritage Studies
Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning
Abstract There has been limited research to date that takes account of marginalized migrants’ edu... more Abstract There has been limited research to date that takes account of marginalized migrants’ educational aspirations in the Global South using a human development lens. There is thus a need to consider where aspirations and education fit into processes of development among and for youth, particularly in the South-to-South migration context. This chapter conceptualizes the formation of educational aspirations among marginalized migrant youth. The emphasis is on higher education, with a focus on educational aspirations, because of the importance of higher education for both intrinsic and instrumental development of individuals in equipping them for multiple futures. Using the human development and capability lens for analysis, we argue that to understand educational aspirations we need to take account of material resources as well as the interaction between individual agency and structural conditions. The chapter argues that the formation of higher educational aspirations is complex, as is the environment that shapes them. Such a complexity requires an in-depth and comprehensive analysis to take account of the lived realities of marginalized groups.
Education, Migration and Development
Cambridge Journal of Education, Oct 9, 2021
This paper focuses on the experiences of out-of-school girls in Zimbabwe. It draws on a research ... more This paper focuses on the experiences of out-of-school girls in Zimbabwe. It draws on a research strand of SAGE (Supporting Adolescent Girls' Education), a UKAid programme funded through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) Girls' Education Challenge (GEC) initiative. Using a digital storytelling approach the research highlights critical events that have changed girls' lives and impacted on how they see their futures. The paper explores insights made possible by this alternative methodology. Crucially, it challenges the often-static representation of 'marginalised' and 'out-of-school' girls in Sub-Saharan Africa by illustrating the unpredictability of individual circumstances and girls' perceptions of these, within broader contexts of persistent vulnerability factors. Drawing on the capability approach the paper also offers new insights into the perceived value and purpose of school for out-of-school girls. The findings have implications for conceptualising more creative, contextually appropriate policies and practices for young people who miss out on formal school.
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the contribution of the capability approach (CA) i... more This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the contribution of the capability approach (CA) in researching education, youth and migration. In doing so, Mkwananzi displays the comprehensive nature of the framework in looking at complex and multidimensional phenomena such as migration, cutting across and beyond social, political, cultural and economic contexts. In addition to acknowledging the complex nature of migration, Mkwananzi illustrates that migration is an integral part of human development. Interconnections between CA and migration show how the two relate to each other and are clearly articulated. Discussed in detail is also the importance of education in human development, as it forms people’s existing capacities into developed capabilities and expands human freedoms.
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
The chapter demonstrates the interaction of capabilities and conversion factors and details how t... more The chapter demonstrates the interaction of capabilities and conversion factors and details how these two concepts relate to, and interact with, aspirations. The chapter also discusses the aspirations gap as well as the aspirations window and how it plays out for different individuals, thereby creating an awareness of what a complex analysis of aspirations and disadvantage can look like. Using intersectional analysis, Mkwananzi highlights the gendered aspect in aspirations formation, which marks the disparate values and aspirations between young men and women. Finally, the illustration of the role of agency in the interaction of capabilities and conversion factors provides an illustration of the complexity of aspirations formations in an environment with multiple factors.
Journal of Global Ethics, 2018
This article provides a Global South perspective on marginalised migrant youth and higher educati... more This article provides a Global South perspective on marginalised migrant youth and higher educational aspirations, with a specific focus on South Africa. We use data from a case study in Johannesburg to illustrate how marginalised migrant youth experience particular forms of disadvantage in their endeavours to realise their educational aspirations. Yet, educational opportunities and the achievement of educational aspirations may enhance dimensions important for individual wellbeing. Through education, marginalised migrant youth become better positioned to pursue what they have reason to value, including escaping poverty in both their home and host countries. Using the human development and capability lens, the paper also presents what the disadvantages experienced by marginalised migrant youth may mean for human development. We argue that constrained educational aspirations can result in corrosive disadvantage and ultimately systemic poverty. We conclude the paper by highlighting how the capability approach (CA) could be used to inform social and educational policies in contexts of marginalisation.
Journal of Global Ethics, 2019
The paper explores the possibilities for promoting epistemic justice in a South African universit... more The paper explores the possibilities for promoting epistemic justice in a South African university setting through a participatory actionbased photovoice research project in which university researchers worked alongside undergraduate students with no prior experience of doing research. The student voices are employed to understand how learning as capability development and agency expansion can advance epistemic justice in a university setting of hierarchical relationships that make participatory action research challenging. The paper considers how, in this project, spaces of epistemic democracy intersected with the expansion of multidimensional functionings, resulting in more epistemic justice for the student-researchers. The paper considers the possibilities for change through a participatory project toward promoting epistemic justice at the individual level. It also explores some criticisms of the limits of such individual development in the face of structural challenges.
Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 2019
Youth, Gender and the Capabilities Approach to Development, 2017
International Journal of Educational Development, 2015
In this article, we used the capability approach as normative grounding to analyse a particular f... more In this article, we used the capability approach as normative grounding to analyse a particular faith-based intervention targeting ‘youth at the margins’ – in this instance, marginalised migrant youths from Zimbabwe living in Johannesburg, South Africa. We used Albert Street School (AS School), run by Johannesburg’s Central Methodist Church, as our case study to show how this faith-based organisation, through its focus on education, created not only spaces for marginalised youths to aspire towards a better life but also practical opportunities to convert their aspirations into action. Drawing on first-hand accounts of 12 Zimbabwean migrant youths who had completed schooling at AS School, as well as of representatives of both the school and the CMC, the article first sketches the Zimbabwe-South Africa migration context post 2000. A discussion then follows of AS School as a faith-based intervention which addresses the constrained capability for education amongst marginalised migrant y...
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2019
This is a book review of Unfolding narratives of Ubuntu in Southern Africa, edited by Julian Mull... more This is a book review of Unfolding narratives of Ubuntu in Southern Africa, edited by Julian Muller, John Eliastam and Sheila Trahar, UK, Routledge, 2019. ISBN 1138483095.
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
Mkwananzi draws on theoretical and empirical reflections to illustrate how the discussions throug... more Mkwananzi draws on theoretical and empirical reflections to illustrate how the discussions throughout the book may contribute to higher education, migration and development policy. Also helpful is the reminder that addressing the subject of marginalised migrants cannot be seen as a task to be carried out by a single state only, but requires regional effort, including by the migrant-sending countries. The emphasis is on the potential contribution of the engagement of multiple actors in constructing a society favourable for local, regional and international development. Furthermore, Mkwananzi explores the role of international migration in reducing and/or intensifying poverty and what role education may possibly play within this nexus to improve the well-being of individuals.
Perspectives in Education, 2015
This paper sketches an innovative conceptualisation of disadvantaged youth, shaped dialogically b... more This paper sketches an innovative conceptualisation of disadvantaged youth, shaped dialogically by the interactions of theorising and data from a case study at Orange Farm informal settlement in South Africa in 2013. The study focused on the challenges for the young people in this area in accessing higher education. Drawing on Sen's and Nussbaum's capability approach, complemented by a theorisation of vulnerability by Misztal and of oppression by Young, the study illustrates how the concepts should be interconnected to generate a framework for understanding the experiences of multiply disadvantaged youth, as well as issues of equity for them in accessing HE. The paper highlights the need to understand young people's experiences and aspirations using multidisciplinary theorising, in conversation with empirical lives. Overall, advantage is understood as having the freedoms (or capabilities) to live a life each person has reason to value, with genuine opportunities for secu...
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
Focusing on the capabilities and barriers to higher educational aspirations formation, the author... more Focusing on the capabilities and barriers to higher educational aspirations formation, the author brings to the fore key challenges experienced by youth in contexts of disadvantage. An orientation to pre-migration illustrates the impact of economic and political structural on schooling experiences and how they influence educational aspirations and agency. The author’s use of Amartya Sen’s (1999) five instrumental freedoms (political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security) demonstrates the conditions that either support or hinder capabilities formation among migrant youth. This helps to understand the current external capability context of these youth and the author discusses how fostering the conditions for these instrumental freedoms is key for development interventions directed at marginalised migrant youth.
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage, 2018
Mkwananzi provides an original contribution by conceptualising the formation of higher educationa... more Mkwananzi provides an original contribution by conceptualising the formation of higher educational aspirations among migrant youths in disadvantaged contexts. The fourfold conceptualisations of resigned, powerful, persistent and frustrated illustrate what happens at the intersection of diverse contextual environments and different levels of agency. The chapter illustrates that, although material support is important for the youth, it is inadequate on its own and may fail to prepare them fully for their future. It is therefore essential to understand the diverse conversion factors that influence the formation of migrants’ educational aspirations and what this may mean for their plans in relation to human development. Through this comprehensive analysis of the sometimes overlooked lived realities of disadvantaged groups, Mkwananzi provides a starting point for engaging with various structures under which these aspirations are formed.