The Rhetoric of Widening Participation in Higher Education and its Impact

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. Introduction

   • Navin Kikabhai

   Pages 1-19

3. Cutting Edge Theatre Initiative: Setting the Scene

   • Navin Kikabhai

   Pages 21-55

4. Producing and Reproducing ‘Learning Difficulties’

   • Navin Kikabhai

   Pages 57-89

5. The Struggle for Performance and Revealing the Past

   • Navin Kikabhai

   Pages 91-116

6. Disability and the Turn to Postmodern Perspectives

   • Navin Kikabhai

   Pages 117-146

7. The Rhetoric of Widening Participation

   • Navin Kikabhai

   Pages 147-183

8. Ending the Barriers Against Disabled People

   • Navin Kikabhai

   Pages 185-214

9. An Act of Resistance

   • Navin Kikabhai

   Pages 215-234

10. Conclusion

    • Navin Kikabhai

    Pages 235-240

11. Back Matter

    Pages 241-266

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This book offers a critical investigation of the exclusion of individuals described as having ‘learning difficulties’ from participation in higher education. Using a postmodernist framework, the author explores the insights and experiences of a theatre group attempting to develop an undergraduate degree programme in the performing arts. In doing so, he provides a theoretical map of insights into discourses of power and knowledge, and makes transparent competing and contradictory discursive practices. Suggesting that ‘learning difficulties’ is a constructed and re-constructed discourse serving normative interests, the author demonstrates that despite the rhetoric of widening participation, individuals are intentionally beset by barriers, silenced and excluded from degree level participation. The author calls for a radical re-think of the notion of ‘learning difficulties’, segregated provision, access to employment in theatre, and critically questions the notion of participation in higher education. This pioneering volume will appeal to students and scholars of inclusive education, (critical) disability studies, cultural studies and the sociology of education.

• Disability
• Equal access
• Higher Education
• Elitism
• Disability Studies
• Inclusive Education

“This analysis may be resonant for scholars interested in the discourse and history around expanding postsecondary opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities, as well as practitioners interested in ways of historically and theoretically situating their efforts to expand higher education … .” (Julia Rose Karpicz, Disability Studies Quarterly, dsq-sds.org, Vol. 40 (1), 2020)

“The book not only offers invaluable contributions to modern research but also does an effective job in securing the multidisciplinary nature of disability studies within a wider social and economic context. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, … who is interested in creating, or influencing, true and meaningful social change.” (Lauren Hamilton, Disability & Society, May 03, 2019)

• School of Education, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

  Navin Kikabhai

Navin Kikabhai is Senior Lecturer in Education Studies at the University of Bedfordshire, UK. He is Chair of the Alliance of Inclusive Education.

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