Abstract
As the penultimate chapter, the focus is on what aspects of their lives the scholarship recipients, reflecting back, feel have changed over time as a result of their experiences in the elite school field. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, the discussion in this chapter is analyzed and discussed in relation to the “malleability” and “layering” (Wacquant, Body Soc, 20(2):3–17, 2014) of habitus. Sections within this chapter for this discussion are presented under the headings of: Embodying “a certain quality”; Develo** beyond a” box-mentality”; Living a” bipartite life”; and Benefitting from” a certain type of status.” Further, under these headings the chapter data discussion highlights the complexities involved in habitus adaptations, requiring considerable effort on the part of the individual, as well as highlighting that the degree to which change may take place thus differs from one individual to another depending on their ability and willingness or openness to change (Bourdieu, Pascalian meditations. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2000).
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter expands upon the work of the PhD thesis, “The Gift of a Scholarship: The reflective accounts of scholarship recipients attending elite secondary schools in post-apartheid South Africa,” by Wallace (2020).
- 2.
In the students’ final year of schooling in South Africa – referred to as Grade 12 or “Matric” – the students write internal preliminary examinations in the third term of the year to prepare them for their final examinations which are external examinations set and marked by the Department of Basic Education.
- 3.
Redbull, Powerade, and Energade are all over-the-counter energy drinks containing high levels of caffeine and sugar.
- 4.
One of South Africa’s 12 official languages.
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Wallace, J., Feldman, J. (2022). Changing Habitus?. In: Scholarship Students in Elite South African Schools. Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education, vol 16. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7536-3_7
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