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Reframing student performance in South African technical and vocational education and training colleges: A realist capability approach

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This article examines the factors influencing student performance in South Africa’s vocational education and training colleges, reframing achievement not as an individual outcome but as a function of students’ capabilities to convert educational opportunities into meaningful success. Grounded in the realist capability approach, the study developed a four-dimensional framework. These dimensions emerged both from conceptual reasoning and through principal component analysis of survey data supported by interviews with college students and staff. Findings show that performance is shaped by factors such as student support and English-only instruction, alongside students’ own motivation and resilience, poverty, insecure housing and gendered vulnerability. This study offers a multidimensional and justice-orientated perspective on student success. It calls for a systemic shift from evaluating students in isolation to recognising the relational, institutional and social ecosystems that shape their real opportunities to thrive.

Source: Journal of vocational, adult and continuing education and training

DOI: 10.14426/jovacet.v8i1.488

Authors: Lesley Powell, Francis Muronda, Shawn Tini

Institutions: University of Cape Town, Nelson Mandela University

Language: English

Topic: Higher Education Research Studies

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: National Science Foundation, University of the Western Cape, Department of Higher Education and Training