Connecting inclusive learner participation within culturally responsive teaching in Higher Education

What we think we know about student retention and progression in UK Higher Education has largely been informed by three writers in the field, Vincent Tinto, Professor Mantz Yorke, and Professor Bernard Longden. Established literature also exists around cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986). Yet it is not clear that there is any sense of a cohesive theoretical framework for examining issues of access to and participation in Higher Education (HE). This paper challenges the basis for institutional level strategic interventions which seek to improve access to and participation in Higher Education in the UK. The notion of cultural capital is examined in relation to a specific diverse and multicultural community, where this aligns within a conceptual and ideological framework surrounding the widening access and participation agenda. It uses a specific example of a widening participation intervention, and focuses on one northern town in England.