WIDENING PARTICIPATION, EVALUATION AND PERFORMANCE: Using critical discourse analysis to explore performativity within English higher education access and participation plan (2020-2025), regulatory guidance and accompanying texts

Abstract

In England, evidencing impact of higher education widening participation and access activities, such as mentoring programmes, summer schools and school-university partnerships, has become central to conditions of the newly established regulatory body, the Office for Students (OfS). However, evaluation evidence of these activities remains elusive across the higher education sector (Gorard, 2013; National Centre for Research Methods, 2016; Harrison and Waller, 2017). 'Robust evaluation' (University of Exeter, 2019), is now a core element of the regulatory framework in England. English policy makers and Government departments are also keen to see evaluation evidence, highlighted by the formation of a new 'What Works' centre specifically focussed on evaluation of access and student success activities (TASO, 2019). Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this article analyses the English regulator's guidance documentation for higher education providers' Access and Participation Plans. It explores how the language of evaluation is framed within the discourses of widening participation and access. The article argues that current discourses promote performative evaluation methods, rather than an occasion to explore opportunities to develop transformative widening participation (Jones and Thomas, 2005). The article concludes by suggesting that higher education regulators and providers should rethink what constitutes robust evaluation evidence to facilitate equity in progression to higher education for under-represented groups.