Black students’ perspectives on learning assets at a former white university

Abstract

In view of the challenge which higher education constitutes for most black South African students, this study focuses on study elements and aspects which black students regard as helpful and supportive. Our research question was: What do black students view as assets in their studies at tertiary institutions, specifically at the University of Pretoria? In their model of student development, Chickering and Reisser (1993) identified seven vectors which represent the main aspects of student development, as well as seven institutional influences on student development. We used this model to investigate how the learning assets which our participants identified could provide distinct guidelines for the provision of institutional support to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. A qualitative approach was followed where the ‘photo voice’ method (Olivier et al., 2009), combined with focus group discussions and narratives, was used to collect the data. Three themes emerged from our data. Students viewed their own study inspiration, the encouragement from within the university and from families and community, as well as a sense of physical security, as their main learning assets.