ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the narrative methods used in the project inequality in higher education. It aims to track students' experiences of schooling before they enter university. The chapter demonstrates how educational and social structures enable and constrain individual agency and freedom. Student narratives informed a nuanced approach to injustice that examined individual lives within the context of economic, social and political forces that shaped freedoms and aspirations in complex ways. Student narratives were constructed using a process of participatory research that aims to make research 'more rational and reasonable, more productive and sustainable, and more just and inclusive'. Important aspect of participatory parity that emerged in student narratives is the development of aspirations for higher education. Using the digital narratives, the chapter investigates themes around capabilities and functionings for higher education, which deepened the author understanding of structural and individual conversion factors that influence the freedom to participate.
