Students make a plan: understanding student agency in constraining conditions

dc.creator	Laura Czerniewicz
dc.creator	Kevin Williams
dc.creator	Cheryl Brown
dc.date	2009-12-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:15:55Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:15:55Z
dc.identifier	10.3402/rlt.v17i2.10866
dc.identifier	2156-7069
dc.identifier	2156-7077
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/c92a2c562aa44fbf8eb798aaa1db3692
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/18031
dc.description	Drawing on Archer's perspectives on the agency/structure relationship, this paper explains situations where students in varied, challenging circumstances find ways to negotiate difficult conditions. It reports on a 2007 study undertaken through a survey at three quite different universities in three South African provinces, addressing inter-related questions on access and use. Our findings are that on-campus access is generally reported favourably, and off-campus access is problematic and uneven. There is a cluster of students using their cell phones to access the Internet, and using their cell phones for academic purposes, and this is true across socio-economic groups (SEGs). It is especially striking that students from low SEGs do so. The findings show the choices students are prepared to make and the strategies which they find in order to engage online or access the Internet to support their studies. Archer's nuanced approach to agency and structure helps us begin to make sense of the way that students exhibit a more complex and nuanced way of engaging with the availability of different kinds of technologies, as well as making considered decisions about using ubiquitous technologies in unexpected ways and for purposes for which they may not have been intended. Her concept of reflexivity provides a way of describing how those choices are made in relation to structural conditions and enables us to explain how students are ‘persons' showing an inventive capacity to circumvent the constraints imposed by structures.
dc.language	English
dc.relation	http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/10866
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/2156-7069
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/2156-7077
dc.rights	CC BY
dc.source	Research in Learning Technology, Vol 17, Iss 2 (2009)
dc.subject	students
dc.subject	Archer
dc.subject	agency
dc.subject	higher education
dc.subject	access
dc.subject	use
dc.subject	ICTs
dc.subject	information and communication technologies
dc.subject	South Africa
dc.subject	cell phones
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Students make a plan: understanding student agency in constraining conditions
dc.type	article