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Appreciating, Understanding and Respecting the Cultural and Social Contexts of Learning

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Abstract

In this chapter we outline the relevance of the problem of promoting educational futures and how this problem connects to the efforts to widen participation in higher education. The case is made that the cultural and social contexts of education need to be at the forefront when it comes to devising new ways to change our thinking about how education is promoted. The chapter argues why widening participation efforts also matter for parents with young children. A discussion of ‘thinking about the cultural’ is provided, as well as an outline of how contemporary sociological and anthropological approaches to education provide nuanced views to how educational injustice is produced. A brief overview of efforts of widening participation in university is provided and the argument is made for why we need to remember that educational disadvantage also impacts parents, and how this has repercussions for efforts to widen participation.

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Harwood, V., Murray, N. (2019). Appreciating, Understanding and Respecting the Cultural and Social Contexts of Learning. In: The Promotion of Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25300-4_2

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