Paper short abstract:

This paper describes how emotional illbeing manifests in the everyday experiences of low-income university students in South Africa. The paper also reflects on how being stoic during research processes can weaken forms of human association that are crucial for developing emotional balance.

Paper long abstract:

The final paper of this panel draws on work by Walker et al. (2022) who identify ‘emotional balance’ or ‘being free from fear or anxiety that constrains learning’, as a valued capability for inclusive learning outcomes for low-income university students in South Africa. Empirically, the paper is based on data (and personal experiences) from a series of life-history interviews (2016-2021) that were carried out in 'Miratho', a longitudinal project on the university access, participation and success journeys of 66 rural and township youth from low-income households in South Africa. The paper also draws on the follow-on project that explores through narrative inquiry, the post university trajectories of 34 rural youth (2021-2023).

The paper presents data that were gathered to construct one student’s (Anathi) higher education story, which contains poignant examples of emotional illbeing or imbalance. A source of this illbeing for Anathi, and many other low-income students, is related to finances, where lack of income produces worries about how to pay for university studies and how to assist family members who are in need (Walker et al., 2022). For example, Anathi used part of her scholarship funds to make financial transfers to family members whilst she was at university. The paper focuses on her story alone because she was a participant in both the Miratho and follow on projects, which has allowed a particularly rich and layered exploration into and the retelling of her university trajectory. The paper also focuses solely on her story because it most acutely captures the ‘relational, material and emotional dynamics’ (Mangoma & Wilson-Prangley, 2019: 455) of financially caring for family members whilst at university.

This paper thus situates emotions in the financial decisions made by low-income students. In doing so, it describes how emotional illbeing manifests as a crisis in the everyday experiences of being a low-income university student in South Africa. The paper also critically reflects on researchers being stoic during emotive life-history interviews and in the interpretation of emotive data, and questions whether this weakens forms of human association that are crucial for emotional balance. The paper thus argues that emotions can be valuable and meaningful in research not only for the sake of producing compelling accounts of student experiences that resonate with diverse audiences, but also to acknowledge and bring clarity to interpretive biases and thus encourage more authenticity in academic voice (Laugran & Mannay, 2018).