Abstract

National equity policy debates in education are often driven by issues of disadvantage, opportunity, and achievement. However, little is known about how a disadvantaged position mediates people’s ability to transform opportunities into valuable achievements. Using African refugees in Australia as an empirical case, and drawing on a mixed method of research, this paper aims to address this knowledge gap. The main sources of data were policy documents, population census reports, and national higher education statistics. The findings highlight limitations with existing higher education equity policies in Australia and the extent to which African refugees have benefited from generic equity programs. In making sense of the data, the paper develops a new conceptual model by innovatively synthesizing the capability approach to social justice and a theory of social reproduction. The model offers an analytical lens to understand the dialectical interplay between objective contexts and subjective conditions that mediate substantive opportunity, conversion ability, and educational choice of the refugee youth.

摘要

教育领域的国家公平政策辩论往往是由劣势、机会和成就问题驱动的。然而，人们对弱势地位如何调节人们将机会转化为有价值的成就的能力知之甚少。本文以澳大利亚的非洲难民作为实证案例，并采用混合研究方法，旨在解决这一知识差距。数据的主要来源是政策文件、人口普查报告和全国高等教育统计数据。调查结果强调了澳大利亚现有高等教育公平政策的局限性，以及非洲难民从通用公平计划中受益的程度。在理解数据的过程中，该论文通过创新地综合社会正义的能力方法和社会再生产理论，开发了一个新的概念模型。该模型提供了一个分析视角，以了解客观环境和主观条件之间的辩证相互作用，这些因素调节了难民青年的实质性机会、转换能力和教育选择。