Paper short abstract:

This paper paper analyses students' experiences of emotional distress and illbeing that emerged in their narrated experiences of university life, where unequal access to resources disrupt emotional wellbeing.

Paper long abstract:

In this first paper of the panel, entitled ‘Navigating emotional illbeing and distress: a capability analysis of first-generation South African university student narratives’, Talita Calitz explores how students process emotional illbeing in their experiences of university access and participation, within the context of economically and politically precarious environments. The first part of the paper is an analysis of emotions that emerged in students’ narrated experiences of university life, and in particular, how individuals work through emotions such as shame and fear. While academic and financial stressors are recognised as part of the first-generation student experience (Lincoln & Kearney 2019; Mendzheritskaya & Hansen 2019), less is known about the emotional dimension of students who navigate university life with comparatively fewer financial and psychosocial resources. This paper draws on narrative interviews conducted between 2019 and 2022 with South African students during their undergraduate university trajectory, and into their first years of employment or postgraduate study.

Emotions signal relationships, hierarchies and systemic arrangements that constrain and enable individual freedoms. Emotional distress and illbeing foreground spaces within social structures, including universities, where unequal access to resources and opportunities disrupt emotional wellbeing. Even though emotions may be sidelined as less important than academic freedoms and functionings within an educational setting, the second part of the paper suggests that opening analytical space for emotions within capability research could expand our understanding of structural conditions that impact on individual freedoms. Emotional distress and illbeing are significant indicators of inequality in education, while the freedom to achieve the capability for emotional balance is a valued achievement for university students (Walker et al. 2022). Paying attention to student experiences of emotional distress and illbeing within the research process, and finding ways to ethically engage with emotional vulnerability, could deepen our capability-informed response to multidimensional vulnerabilities. The emotional component of student experiences is analysed within the process of conducting the research interview and data analysis. The paper is concluded with some reflections on how capability researchers could ethically navigate their own and their participants’ emotions during the research process.

Key words: emotional lives; educational inequality; first-generation university students