Diverse Higher Education Context Research Articles

Perspectives from community partnerships in three diverse higher education contexts


 
 
 Asset-based Community Development (ABCD) approaches in higher education have the potential to benefit a diversity of higher education settings and partners, but they can also present challenges and opportunities for growth in higher education institutions. Co- curricular community engagement and academic service-learning programs may struggle to balance the broader political and logistical constraints imposed by the university with equitable, long-term, community-guided relationships that reflect a genuine commitment to ABCD. Extension programs may face difficulty engaging community members and maintaining their commitment to the long-term nature of ABCD in an environment where ABCD is not universally utilised. Although these challenges may seem daunting, partners in all three contexts can draw on a wealth of ABCD tools and resources, including case studies like those anchoring this discussion, in order to answer the question: How can ABCD approaches be utilised most effectively in higher education contexts to address challenges and improve outcomes? Specifically, can an asset-based orientation help position community participants as peer ‘experts’ alongside their academic partners, share power and authority in the collaboration? If so, how? If not, why not? The authors explore these questions using a case study methodology, allowing for nuanced portraits of three different contexts depicting interactions among community and university partners seeking to ground their collaborations in the mobilisation of assets, gifts and strengths. This article also seeks to identify key lessons learned in each setting of the three participating United States universities – the public, four-year research institution, the private religious university and the land-grant college/cooperative extension in order to make recommendations on using ABCD to build and nurture academic-community partnerships that are generalisable across other contexts.
 
 

Refining the Spady–Tinto approach: the roles of individual characteristics and institutional support in students’ higher education dropout intentions in Luxembourg

ABSTRACT Based on the classic models developed by Spady and Tinto on the link between social and academic integration and dropout, we propose a refined model to explain dropout intentions – relating to dropout from higher education (HE) and dropout from a specific study programme – that more strongly emphasises individual background characteristics (e.g. gender, social origin, and immigration background). Additionally, we consider students’ satisfaction with the institutional support structures. Using Eurostudent survey data, this conceptual model was tested using structural equation modelling in the international and diverse HE context of Luxembourg. While the fitted model confirmed most of the expected associations of the conventional Spady–Tinto approach, initial study commitment was not linked to social integration (contacts with fellow students). We were able to identify satisfaction with institutional support as a key factor in explaining dropout intention, thus contributing to existing knowledge. In addition, we found that the link between socioeconomic factors and dropout intention from a study programme is not entirely mediated by the Spady–Tinto factors of commitment and integration.

Language policy and planning for English-medium instruction in higher education

AbstractThis article presents English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education (HE) from a language policy and planning (LPP) perspective. Based on a review of EMI policy research in diverse higher education contexts, we address several key contemporary policy tensions in EMI such as English native-speakerism, English monolingualism, and language education with attention to corpus, status and acquisition planning as well as the role of individual policy actors. In light of this review, we argue for an orientation to policymaking for EMI-HE institutions that acknowledges the value of individuals as policy arbiters and aligns institutional goals with “on the ground” needs and practices. We also point to areas of future research that would benefit all EMI stakeholders, in particular critical engagement with the nature of language competence in EMI settings and the enhanced development of evidence-based EMI learning outcomes. Finally, we propose an ecological framework for EMI-HE policy development that could be employed as a heuristic to guide universities in designing concrete EMI policies for their local contexts. As an extension, we also offer an inventory of reflective questions to guide key university stakeholders in effectively engaging in EMI policy processes.

Solution-focused approach in higher education: a scoping review

ABSTRACT As students populating higher education (HE) are becoming increasingly diverse, there is a growing need to equip educators with learner-centred communication skills. A solution-focused (SF) approach represents one attractive option to equip HE instructors and supervisors with strengths-based, goal-oriented communication techniques. This scoping review maps the current use of SF approaches in HE, explores key SF tenets and techniques compatible to HE, identifies knowledge gaps, and suggests recommendations for future research and professional development. From an initial yield of 7941 citations, 17 peer-reviewed articles published between 2001 and 2018 were included in the review. The majority of reviewed articles embraced strengths-based tenet of the SF approach as conducive to enhancing learners’ engagement and self-efficacy, and improving learner–educator collaboration. SF techniques such as scaling and goal settings were used to support learners in setting individualized goals and actionable steps toward the goals. The pragmatic focus of the SF approach on solutions and multiple pathways to goal attainment was also considered helpful for academic and clinical supervisors facing time constraints. More rigorous empirical research is needed on appropriate application of the SF approach in diverse HE contexts, and on evaluation of potential mediators of change between the approach and learner/educator outcomes.

Using multimodal pedagogies in writing centres to improve student writing

This paper focuses on the affordances of multimodal pedagogies in writing centre environments to improve student writing. Writing centres have the potential to function as change agents, contributing towards changing the dominant attitudes to language and texts. Multimodal pedagogies encourage the use of a range of modes (such as talk, writing, music and images) and a range of resources (including multilingual, experiential, embodied and technology-enriched resources). This paper explores how consultants and students use a range of modes and ensembles of modes to develop thinking and learning in a multilingual and diverse higher education context. The dual role of consultants, being both ‘reproducers’ and ‘interrogators’ of academic discourse, is touched upon, and the importance of ‘recognising’ and drawing on the ‘brought-along’ resources in the training of consultants is highlighted. The unique nature of one-on-one consultations in the tertiary environment is explored, as well as the ways in which this pedagogical space can be enhanced through the use of multimodal pedagogies. To this end, the paper examines talk as an important mode in improving writing. It also interrogates working on the screen versus the page, the affordances of mind mapping, and the balancing of creativity and constraints in the writing consultation. The aim is to theorise a multimodal approach to improving student writing through the examination of practice. The contention is that multimodal pedagogies can acknowledge consultants and students as agentive, resourceful and creative meaning-makers. This is particularly relevant in a context in which autonomous and decontextualised models of student support persist and students continue to be constructed as ‘lacking’ in resources.

Benefits of Group Learning As a Collaborative Strategy in a Diverse Higher Education Context

This paper explored students’ perceptions of group work in advancing their communication, participation, understanding and overall learning following a compulsory collaborative exercise. An explora...

Benefits of Group Learning As a Collaborative Strategy in a Diverse Higher Education Context

Benefits of Group Learning As a Collaborative Strategy in a Diverse Higher Education Context

Where’s the Transformation? Unlocking the Potential of Technology-Enhanced Assessment

This study provides insight into technology-enhanced assessment (TEA) in diverse higher education contexts. The effectiveness of using technology for assessment in higher education is still equivocal, particularly in regard to evidence of improvements in student learning. This empirical research explores the affordances that technology offers to assessment for transforming student learning. A systematic literature review, guided by an analytic survey tool, was used to identify and interrogate recent scholarly articles published in 19 international journals. From a total of 1713 articles, 139 articles were identified as being focused on the use of technology for assessment. The analytic tool guided the rigorous exploration of the literature regarding the types of technology being used, the educational goal, the type of assessment, and the degree of “transformation” afforded by the technology. Results showed that, in the sample investigated, TEA is used most frequently for formative peer learning, as part of the task design and feedback stages of the assessment cycle, and that social media has been a major affordance for this. Results are discussed with a view to fostering a future culture of inquiry and scholarship around TEA in higher education.

Constructing and protecting identity in a diverse higher education context

UK higher education (HE) has become increasingly diverse. Despite the clear social, economic and pedagogical benefits of diversity, it can also be challenging for identity as it may bring about psychological change and compel both the ‘dominant majority’ and ‘minorities’ to adjust to the presence, identities and worldviews of the other. Drawing upon Identity Process Theory from social psychology, the present article explores the potential challenges to identity in a diverse HE context and how students may subsequently cope with these challenges. After a brief overview of Identity Process Theory, two case studies are presented that focus on how social class and ethnic/religious diversity can impact identity. The more general aim of this article is to develop the basic tools for enhancing students’ learning experience in a diverse HE context. It is suggested that HE institutions need to support students from diverse backgrounds in ways that are conducive to a positive identity, and that they must facilitate a shared superordinate identity which can be viewed as inclusive and available to all, regardless of class, ethnicity, religion or any other identity.

Evaluability Assessment in Higher Education: Supporting Continuous Improvement, Accountability, and a Culture of Assessment

Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe the use of evaluability assessment, an approach to program evaluation, to inform continuous improvement efforts, support accountability requirements, and facilitate a culture of assessment in higher education. Examples of two evaluability assessments conducted in a college of education are discussed, including the key activities carried out for each component of the evaluability assessments, findings and recommendations from each evaluability assessment, and how results of the evaluation work have been used. The examples demonstrate the utility of evaluability assessment as part of a higher education assessment system. They further highlight the value of stakeholder involvement, initiation of assessment by leadership based on need, and use of results in supporting a culture of assessment in higher education. Future research is needed to better understand the utility of evaluability assessment in other program evaluation approaches in diverse higher education contexts.

Evaluability Assessment in Higher Education: Supporting Continuous Improvement, Accountability, and a Culture of Assessment

Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe the use of evaluability assessment, an approach to program evaluation, to inform continuous improvement efforts, support accountability requirements, and facilitate a culture of assessment in higher education. Examples of two evaluability assessments conducted in a college of education are discussed, including the key activities carried out for each component of the evaluability assessments, findings and recommendations from each evaluability assessment, and how results of the evaluation work have been used. The examples demonstrate the utility of evaluability assessment as part of a higher education assessment system. They further highlight the value of stakeholder involvement, initiation of assessment by leadership based on need, and use of results in supporting a culture of assessment in higher education. Future research is needed to better understand the utility of evaluability assessment in other program evaluation approaches in diverse higher education contexts.

Curriculum Analytics: Application of Social Network Analysis for Improving Strategic Curriculum Decision-Making in a Research-Intensive University

This paper provides insight into the use of curriculum analytics to enhance learning-centred curricula in diverse higher education contexts. Engagement in evidence-based practice to evaluate and monitor curricula is vital to the success and sustainability of efforts to reform undergraduate and graduate programs. Emerging technology-enabled inquiry methods have enormous potential to inform evidence-based practice in complex curriculum settings. For example, curriculum analytics, including data from student learning outcomes, graduate qualities, course selection and assessment activities, can be mined from various student learning systems and analysed to inform curriculum renewal strategies and demonstrate impact at both the program and course level. Curriculum analytics can serve to foster a culture of inquiry and scholarship regarding program improvements that is characterised by information sharing within and across disciplinary borders. This paper presents an innovative technology that draws on social network methodologies for assessing and visualising the integration and linkages across individual courses that ultimately form a student’s complete program of study. Insights are grounded in the literature and curriculum leadership experiences in a Canadian research-intensive university setting.

Editorial

Academics throughout the world are increasingly under pressure to demonstrate the quality of their teaching and, by extension, the quality of their pedagogical understandings (Ory, 1991; Wiers- Jenssen, Stensaker, & Grogaard, 2002). Within institutional frameworks designed to support stu- dent learning, emphasis is commonly placed on the importance of improving 'overall student satisfac- tion'. Such an outcome, it is often claimed, is most likely to be experienced in learning environments that are student centered; technologically medi- ated; socially, culturally and emotionally support- ive; conceptually and pedagogically innovative; engaging, inspiring, motivating; and, of course, responsive to both local and global imperatives (Appleton-Knapp & Krentler, 2006; Bedggood & Donovan, 2012; Teichler, 1996).While each of these claims appear, on the sur- face, to be logical and, perhaps, even self-evident, every one of the terms at the heart of the discussion - quality, pedagogy, innovation, technology and so on - are open to multiple and competing inter- pretations. Something that is regarded as a qual- ity learning experience in one context may not be held in the same regard in a different location (Ory, 1991; Ramsden, 1991). Similarly, the extent to which any educational environment is seen to be 'student centered' may be directly dependent upon what students we are talking about in the first place and how we go about measuring the phenomenon of 'centredness'. In addition to this, even where an experience is rated as high quality by students, the experiences of the staff members involved in its delivery may raise questions about whether it has been, overall, a quality (and desirable) experience. The key point here is that any claims made about 'quality' pedagogy, educational innovation, or stu- dent satisfaction in any university environment need to be carefully examined in order to highlight the key definitions (implicit or explicit) they are underpinned by.This special edition proceeds from the belief that opening up debates about terms that are often used uncritically - quality, pedagogy, learning - is necessary if universities are going to respond in any meaningful way to the diverse range of staff, students, and environments that they are com- posed of (McWilliam, 2004).The papers in this special issue work together to ask a range of questions:* What counts as quality pedagogy in universities of the 21st century, and which voices feature most prominently in related efforts to 'measure' or determine quality?* To what extent do dominant discourses about quality pedagogies or innovation recognize and respond to diversity in student and staff popula- tions, and the range and variety of higher edu- cation institutions?* How does the increasing pressure to develop new modes of delivery (intensive, flexible, online) complicate attempts to define 'quality pedagogies' for diverse cohorts?* How do debates about, and scrutiny of peda- gogical quality and teaching performance impact upon academic identity?The papers in this special edition explore these questions - and the debates and opportunities they highlight - through reference to a variety of national and international activities within diverse higher education contexts. Together they provide a range of conceptual frameworks to support reflec- tion upon what 'quality pedagogy' might, can or should mean for academics and for students in contemporary higher educational environments.The special edition begins with various explo- rations of the broad issue of pedagogy and what counts as good, valuable or effective pedagogy in diverse educational environments.In the opening paper, Sharn Donnison and Margaret Marshman (pp. 58-65) explore the often overlooked relationship between curriculum and pedagogy making explicit the ways in which different curriculum models impact upon a student's learning journey. …