Reflections on learning: widening capability and the student experience

This paper argues for a more nuanced perspective on learning that takes account of the real and situated contexts of student experience. It is presented against a backdrop of the agenda to widen participation in higher education (HE) in the UK, which has led to a rise in students from non-traditional backgrounds entering into HE. Responding to this, an argument is made in favour of widening 'capability' in learning, to produce a more socially just pedagogy. Drawing on examples of the student learning experience a series of reflections is produced from an undergraduate programme of education studies. Such reflections, linking personal knowledge with wider social and cultural practices, are used to produce notions of 'cultural wealth' across informal and formal learning contexts. It is argued that by creating choice and freedoms in student learning the exclusivity of university education may be challenged and a more socially just pedagogy usefully considered.