Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Programme (MMUF)

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Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Programme
(MMUF)

• Part of UCTs Equity Development Programme (EDP)
• 2 UCT Prog co-ordinators
• 5 students selected per year high academic
  merit social responsible
• Only black students (inclusive)
• Goal is to
• recruit promising black undergraduates
• interest in academic careers
• encourage support the completion of PhD
• swell the ranks of black underrepresented
  groups in academy

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MMUF as research site

• PILOT PROJECT 2003 2004
• 2 x Black African students
• Class, Language, Mentorship issues
• stressed the heterogeneous nature of black
  experiences
• through a comparison of different types of
  Capital (Bourdieu)
• Aim to show how undervalued capital translated
  into worth
• Underlying claim
• Specific types of capital smooth successful
  transitions into H.E.
• BUT initial absence of capital does not
  necessarily spell failure or reproduce existing
  patterns of domination in society.

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• Findings of pilot
• extent to which different types of capital
  impact on black student experiences of h.ed
• struggle for recognition of undervalued capital
  
• strategies for converting undervalued capital
  into gain
• MMUF context as stimulus reflective practice
• Formed basis for the PhD
  research

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• Thesis Title
• The Discourse of Being Successfully black
  (Re)constructing an understanding of black
  South African student identity within an Equity
  Development Programme at UCT.
• Research Question
• How do critical events and experiences impact on
  the nature of the choices that black students
  make, and what types of identity transformations
  occur in the process?

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Framework

• Qualitative
• Social constructionist view of ID
• Data collecting Reflective essays
• Observation
• Interview
  transcripts
• Conceptual tools
• Fateful moments
  transformation in ID

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Fateful moments

• are those when individuals are called on to take
  decisions that are particularly consequential for
  their ambitions, or more generally for their
  future lives. Fateful moments are highly
  consequential for a persons destiny have a
  particular relation to risk decisions measured
  against possibilities of success and failure!
  (Giddens 1991 112).
• E.g Divorce medical results crime
• Giddens vital to manage risks life appears
  normal

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(No Transcript)