What’s in a Name?  Unpacking Students’ Roles in Higher Education through Neoliberal and Social Justice Lenses

Lucy Mercer-Mapstone,Mollie Dollinger

doi:10.20343/teachlearninqu.7.2.5

What’s in a Name? Unpacking Students’ Roles in Higher Education through Neoliberal and Social Justice Lenses

Lucy Mercer-Mapstone, Mollie Dollinger

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.7.2.5

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Abstract

There has been an increase in research and practice exploring how students can gain agency to shape higher education experiences. Numerous terms evoking certain metaphors have entered the discussions around engaging students, from students as consumers or producers, to students as creators, partners, or change agents. There is scope within the evolving literature to explore the differentiations between these metaphors and how underlying assumptions ultimately shape our practices and research. We thus unpack the above five metaphors frequently used to redefine students’ roles in higher education. We then engage in a dialogue across differences: highlighting how our own two distinct perspectives on the research area and practice – grounded in neoliberalism and social justice – align, overlap, differ, and provide constraints or affordances for student engagement. We offer a critical and reflective commentary questioning the drivers of students’ changing roles in higher education in the hope of inviting others into generative dialogue toward expanding the evolving field of student engagement.

Highlights

In recent decades, there has been a plethora of terms used to describe the changing roles of students in terms of their engagement, participation, and agency in higher education, among them consumers, partners, co-creators, change agents, and producers (Kay, Dunne, & Hutchinson, 2010; Kay, Owen, & Dunne, 2012)
Through the co-creation of this article and our shared belief in the importance of students’ engaging meaningfully and actively within their university experience, we argue that our two distinct lenses are not necessarily oppositional, but rather are often intertwined in student engagement practices
We introduce, define, and differentiate five metaphors used in literature and practice to discuss students’ changing roles in higher education: students as consumers, producers, cocreators, partners, and change agents

Summary

Introduction

There has been a plethora of terms used to describe the changing roles of students in terms of their engagement, participation, and agency in higher education, among them consumers, partners, co-creators, change agents, and producers (Kay, Dunne, & Hutchinson, 2010; Kay, Owen, & Dunne, 2012). The growing emphasis on metaphoric representation, for example situating students as partners or producers, “prompts us to re-envision our roles, relationships, and work in teaching and learning” The language we use to describe such work can provoke selfreflection, practice, and theory, as each term often takes on complex meanings and perspectives in how one sees students’ changing roles.

Objectives

Conclusion