Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 6(1) 2018, 117–119 | 2307-6267 | DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v6i1.3074   117

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Book review

Bangeni, B. & Kapp, R. (Eds.). (2017). Negotiating 
Learning and Identity in Higher Education: Access, 
Persistence and Retention. London: Bloomsbury.
Reviewed by Taryn Bernard*

*   Dr Taryn Bernard is Lecturer and Course-Coordinator, Extended Degree Programme, Faculty of Arts and 
Social Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Email: tbernard@sun.ac.za

Negotiating Learning and Identity in Higher Education: Access, Persistence and Retention is the 
first in a Bloomsbury series, entitled “Understanding Student Experiences in Higher 
Education”. It consists of nine chapters, all of which report on research that was conducted 
using qualitative, longitudinal data at the University of Cape Town (UCT) – an elite, 
English-medium, and historically white South African University. The participants in the 
research are all part of a generation of young black people who have grown up in the new 
South Africa and are mostly first generation, working class and from single-parent families. 
In addition to this, they are all bilingual or multilingual and English is generally used as a 
second or third language. 

By collecting and analysing data over a period of eight years the book offers a rich 
understanding of the identities and experiences of this important group of university 
students. The approach adopted by the editors and authors when representing participants 
in the study is also of significance: in the Introduction, Kapp and Bangeni (2017, p.  2) 
draw the reader’s attention to the fact that many public textual representations in South 
Africa construct black working-class youth as failures or victims, as disadvantaged and 
as marginalised. In this book, the researchers can be commended for the necessary step 
of moving away from such deficit constructions to rather focus on the agency of the 
participants, and conducting research that highlights the agentic and enabled subject positions 
of the participants. This is done by avoiding a static notion of identity from the outset, and 
by adopting a poststructuralist approach to identity that acknowledges that identity changes 
over time and in accordance with the context in which the individual is situated. 

Overall there were twenty participants included in this study from the period 2002 to 
2005, and another hundred participants from the period 2009 to 2012.  The participants 
were registered in a range of faculties and for a range of degrees. The researchers draw on 
a number of data-collection methods and texts such as questionnaires, semi-structured 
interviews, written reflections and assignments that had been selected by the students 
themselves. In this way, the voices of the participants have been traced throughout their 
journey through the higher education system. This longitudinal perspective offers insight 

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118   Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 6(1) 2017, 117–119 | 2307-6267 | DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v6i1.3074

into how and why students persist and engage with their studies and UCT as an institution, 
or why they deregister or disengage. More specifically, the book sets out to answer three 
extremely pertinent questions in higher education contexts today: 

1. How does a particular group of students can gain meaningful access to 
institutional and disciplinary discourses? 

2. How can the knowledge, languages, resources and discourses that the students 
bring with them be recognised and valued; and 

3. How can important role players address the practices and resources that 
marginalise particular groups of students? 

In addressing these questions the researchers work towards facilitating more meaningful 
approaches to access in an effort to transform discourses that exclude, silence and marginalise.

The chapters in the book are arranged in order to focus on the experiences of one 
small, typical sample of participants at a time and the approach to analysis differs from 
chapter to chapter, depending on the aims of the author(s). Throughout the nine chapters, 
the contributors are able to cover a variety of contexts and subject positions, including 
the working-class township schooling context (Kapp, Badenhorst, Bangeni, Craig, Janse 
van Rensburg, Le Roux, Prince, Pym & Van Pletzen, Chapter  1), the Engineering 
Extended Curriculum Programme context (Craig, Chapter 7), subject positions regarding 
mathematics (Le Roux, Chapter  2), the experiences of a young working-class Muslim 
woman registered for a social science degree (Sacks & Kapp, Chapter  3), Humanities, 
students’ understanding of language, literacy and identity (Kapp & Bangeni, Chapter  4), 
the role of religion in framing students’ experiences of higher education (Bangeni & Pym, 
Chapter 5), the factors shaping the degree paths of black students (Bangeni, Chapter 6), and 
finally, the impact of previous experiences and social connectedness when transitioning to 
higher education (Pym & Sacks, Chapter 8).

There are a number of prominent issues that are raised in this book, and which 
stand out for me as being worthy of further exploration – ideally in terms of comparable 
research emanating from other universities in South Africa. I refer specifically here to topics 
and symbols that reoccur across text types and during diverse processes of analyses. Of 
particular significance is the participants’ notion of ‘the university’, of ‘home’, of English 
and of religion and religious practices. For example, the authors are able to reveal the 
extent to which UCT is conceptualised as a site of privilege and excellence, wherein 
English is conceptualised as both a portal for access and a gatekeeping mechanism, and 
perceptions of learning academic English are constructed around contrasting binaries of 
loss/gain, whiteness/alienation and upward mobility/exclusion. These findings should 
have a significant impact on how academic literacy development is conceptualised and 
implemented at tertiary level. 

Adding to this, the longitudinal data were able to highlight connotations around 
the notions of ‘home’, where home remained a significant aspect of the participants’ 
identity even while away from home and at University.  The chapters all make a valuable 
contribution to understanding the paradigms and discourses with which the students 

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Taryn Bernard: Negotiating Learning and Identity in Higher Education: Access, Persistence and Retention   119

enter University, including religious paradigms, which are often challenged in disciplinary 
discourses (particularly those of Philosophy and Science). Many students maintain their 
religious beliefs as a framework that enables them to stay positive and maintain a good 
working ethic in the context of challenging home and academic environments. The 
manner in which this issue is dealt with within the book is so convincing and authentic 
that it works as a cautionary tale to academics who may disregard religious beliefs as such 
beliefs may contribute to persistence and retention, particularly amongst a vulnerable group 
of students. 

Overall, the book makes an extremely important contribution to the global conversation 
around widening access and participation by offering an in-depth understanding of student 
experiences at UCT. Over and above this, each aspect of the research project is able to 
critique the dominant, yet deficit, assumption that students will be passively assimilated 
into disciplinary discourses after they have been rehabilitated in adjunct, first-year practices 
without any changes to mainstream teaching practices and institutional culture. This then 
offers an important commentary on approaches to teaching and learning, and academic 
development which are commonplace at many South African universities. 

How to cite:
Bernard, T. (2018). Review on Bangeni, B. & Kapp, R. (Eds.). Negotiating Learning and Identity in Higher 

Education: Access, Persistence and Retention. London: Bloomsbury. (2017). Journal of Student Affairs in 
Africa, 6(1), 117–119. DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v6i1.3074

http://dx.doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v6i1.3074

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