‘I have some trauma responses, but it’s not my identity’: furthering social justice for care experienced and estranged university students

Care experienced and estranged students encounter profound material inequalities throughout their higher education journeys which demand our attention. However, cultural discriminations also pose problems. Both operate as social injustices which preclude them from being included, valued or seen as ‘ideal’ students, contributing towards inequitable outcomes. Drawing on feminist methodologies, this paper analyses 11 narratives of care experienced and estranged students at a post-1992 English university. This offers confirmatory evidence of material inequalities, including financial precarities and mismatched wellbeing provision. It also adds new insights into how such students are simultaneously subjected to processes of misrecognition. This includes being misinterpreted, disrespected or rendered invisible, excluding them from university lifeworlds and undermining a sense of belonging. Inspired by Nancy Fraser, the paper concludes that we must (continue to) tackle material exclusions alongside processes of misrecognition in order to further a social justice agenda for care experienced and estranged students in higher education.