Restructuring the Habitus: the case of Open Foundation students with a (dis)ability

Universities now strive to make reasonable accommodations for the circumstances of students with disabilities through enhanced disability support, but this was not always the case. This paper analyses the stories of thirty eight (38) such students who completed the Open Foundation Program (OFP) at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, between 1985 and 2011. These students had a range of conditions including mental health issues, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, hearing and sight impairments. They spoke of their reasons for enrolling, their experience of undertaking the program, about further study and, in many cases, successful career outcomes. The majority of these former students indicated their lives had undergone mostly positive change as a consequence of undertaking OFP. The research survey sample was collected from the University of Newcastle's Potential Enabling Program Participant Research (PEPPR) volunteer register and includes the responses of 28 women and 10 men aged in their 20s to 50s which, for the majority, focus on their abilities rather than their (dis)abilities. The analysis of their stories utilises the notion of habitus as described by Bourdieu. He wrote that habitus was a predisposition toward certain ways of behaving that are expected of 'people like us' (1990b, p. 77). He claimed habitus excluded certain practices which are unfamiliar to the cultural groupings to which people belong but that it otherwise has no specific rules and is not predictable (1990a, p. 355). In taking a strengths-based approach, the paper argues that these students¿ habitus, as Bourdieu & Wacquant (1992, p. 133) suggested, is not static or immutable, it can evolve in response to changing experiences and circumstances and often lead to more fulfilling and satisfying lives due to educational enrichment. Likewise, their stories reflect that the habitus of universities is also changing as the enactment of equity agendas challenges and expands notions of the able student.