Space Of Higher Education Research Articles

Listening to locals: Regional spaces in higher education in the global south

One of the contemporary trends in global higher education is the emergence of regional spaces that transcend national boundaries, fostering cross-border integration and cooperation. This paper presents original data from surveys of university international officers and interviews with national policy-makers to explore regional spaces in higher education across the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan). The findings unveil a complex landscape of spatial identities marked by diversity and tensions. The European space is recognised as by far the most important space in higher education. At the same time, the Eurasian/the Commonwealth of Independent States’ space(s) remain to be prominent in higher education, albeit to a varying degree in different countries. The study also observes the nascent development of immediate geographic spaces in Central Asia and the Caucasus, where participants express enthusiasm for collaborative efforts with neighbouring countries to advance common interests in higher education and research.

Exploring student teachers’ experiences of vulnerability in higher education spaces

Recently, scientific interest in higher education students’ wellbeing has increased. The highlighted issues include professional development, professional identity, and personal behaviour. The significance of this study relates specifically to supporting students’ wellbeing by gaining an understanding of factors contributing to their experiences of vulnerability. Through the arts-informed methodology of Photovoice, which emerges from community-based participatory research, 16 student teachers explored the concept of vulnerability in the context of a higher education institution. The research project required student teachers to take photos of that which represents what they perceive as vulnerability. Student teachers explored their personal, school and campus space with this project. Ultimately, this research speaks to the Sustainable Development Goal of good health and wellbeing, which seeks to promote wellbeing across the individual life span, and ensure healthy lives, as well as the Sustainable Development Goal of quality education, which emphasises the need to improve quality of life and quality teacher training.

The Incremental Role of Higher Education in the Soft Power Milieu: Impressions From China and India

This paper will trace trends in cooperation and contestation in the higher education space, as a possible driver of wider change in the soft power of a nation. While countries in North America and Europe increasingly contend with the idea of knowledge societies, emerging countries such as China and India are found to be building their own capacities and staking claims for leadership in various ways. One of the important aspects of Chinese and Indian attempts towards developing an effective knowledge society for the holistic development of the two countries is to build a network of quality higher education Institutions through path breaking schemes and subsidiaries ultimately benefiting their Universities and Institutions to be globally benchmarked. This includes Chinese initiatives like Project 985, C-9 League and Project 211 (as well as programmes within the umbrella of Belt and Road) and Indian Initiatives like the Institutions of Eminence and Study in India to name a few. The paper also proposes to analyse the changing mind-set of the two Governments especially CPC in China towards the need of projecting its knowledge society at the global platform. Given this scenario, the paper will outline patterns of change and continuity, hoping to stimulate a more dynamic debate on diverse notions of order articulated through processes of knowledge creation and dissemination. The recent experience of Higher education and its internationalisation being no longer immune from systemic forces and developments in geopolitics and diplomacy, we will argue that the potential of education to shape and reshape the global order demands closer, longue duree investigation.

Humanizing with Humility: The Challenge of Creating Caring, Compassionate, and Hopeful Educational Spaces in Higher Education

Leading with care and compassion, critically reflecting on our teaching practices, and collaboration has always been central to our pedagogical practices. Participating in the #ONHumanLearn project, an initiative designed to humanize learning in higher education, we began to notice a growing divide between our engaged and disengaged students. As we learned/unlearned/relearned to take our professional practice one step further, we started to notice our own sense of powerlessness intensify alongside feelings of fatigue and frustration for our inability to reach the disengaged. We wondered what we could be doing differently to reach them. As we reflect on the process, we humbly accept that leading with care also means caring for ourselves, and that any initiative working to humanize higher learning ought to firmly embed and embody co-learning as a relational and reciprocal approach. In this paper we pay attention to inequities that became more apparent or were created as we sought to humanize education, the opportunities we have found, and our developing awareness of what is needed to sustain change.

Creating Brave Spaces in Higher Education: A Short Interprofessional Education Exchange to Support Refugees’ Psychosocial Needs

Potential traumatic experiences, prior, during and after migration, are the most common risk factors consistently associated with higher rates of mental disorders among refugees. The complex nature of refugee social and health challenges requires a holistic and comprehensive approach to achieve health equity. That is why, interprofessional education and collaboration among health and psychosocial care professionals is becoming increasingly crucial to build strong foundations for socially relevant work for refugees. Academic institutions can provide learning activities to advance students’ interprofessional knowledge and competences before they enter the workforce. This study explored higher education students’ experiences and reflections on a short-term interprofessional exchange that aimed to promote mental health and psychosocial support for refugees. Participants were higher education students from Germany, Greece, Sweden, and Spain representing the fields of psychology, occupational therapy, social work, pedagogy, medicine, and nursing. A qualitative study compromising two focus groups carried out at the end and 18 months after the interprofessional exchanges. Thematic analysis resulted in four themes: a) from curiosity to responsible action, b) my cultural humility journey, c) companion stories, and d) brave spaces and a sense of hope. Interprofessional collaboration emerged as a key strategy in protecting human rights and providing equal opportunities in psychosocial support of refugees. Findings highlight the value of short-term interprofessional exchanges for preparing higher education students in health and social care to move and be responsive in intercultural societies and contexts.

Purpose, process, place, pedagogical affordance and product (5Ps) of student learning in higher education: beyond Beckers

PurposeUniversities are investing billions of dollars in building infrastructure, with the design of learning spaces driven by technological developments and long-standing changes in pedagogical theory and practice. The aim of the study is to investigate the alignment between pedagogy and space by responding to a single research question: What is the relationship between the purpose, process, place and product of student learning in higher education?Design/methodology/approachDrawing on Beckers et al.’s (2015) purpose–process–place framework, the study uses an online survey and photo elicitation method to gather perspectives from educators and students in one Australian university about their learning spaces. A hybrid approach consisting of inductive and deductive coding to thematic analysis was used to find repeated patterns of meaning.FindingsA total of 24 images of learning spaces were received from 8 educators and 16 students. Thematic analysis of the images and responses by participants highlights the importance of the pedagogical affordances of the learning environment and the product of learning, which are aligned to the purpose–process–place of learning.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provided a robust approach grounded in data to understand the alignment between space and pedagogy. Articulating students learning as an output of the alignment between space and pedagogy has important implications for the design of learning spaces and pedagogical practices in higher education. One limitation to the study, however, is noteworthy. The surveys had limited responses. Whilst the small response rates may not necessarily lead to biased results, it is acknowledged that a larger sample is likely to give more reliable results to enable the theory to be generalised.Originality/valueThe study’s findings extend the purpose–process–place framework to include pedagogical affordances and the product of learning. The purpose, process, place, pedagogical affordance and product framework posits that pedagogical affordances within a place must be deployed in such a way so that teaching and learning processes can contribute to enhancing educational goals or purpose to improve student learning outcomes, i.e. product. This framework provides a context for understanding the relationships between pedagogy and space in higher education.

Engaging Paulo Freire on deliberative democracy: Dialogical pedagogy, deliberation and inclusion in a transformative higher education online education space

An effective education system is an environment where students feel cared for, included and are able to deliver critical dialogical input in their learnings on Learning Management Systems (LMS) platforms. The article aims to epitomizes quality education where skills, values and equal distribution of resources can be accessed by all. This includes effectively trained lecturers who manages diversity and teach effectively, to foster success, and to provide a safe and friendly classroom environment for students. This article comes from a larger work done on how to administer clear dialogical and caring aims (policy) in higher online education spaces where students grow holistically and critically. The paper focuses on the kind of space lecturers need to create online in-order to provide students the opportunity to be part of a caring teaching and learning process in order to form part of an active citizenry beyond their immediate context. This article employed a qualitative research methodology, where a questionnaire was used for lecturers at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of the Free State. These questionnaires covered 30 lecturers who made use of the University’s LMS’ platform. The data was analyzed through the interpretivist paradigm. The finding in this article reveal that the little to no cultivation of critical pedagogical action vis-à-vis the enactment of activism and justice in and through higher education in the context of real pedagogical action in online (LMS) higher education spaces are important. The study is significant because it emphasizes a topic that are helpful in understanding how critical pedagogical action through Freire’s dialogical theory in the online (LMS) higher education platforms ought to be engaged.Contribution: The contribution in this article is an amendment to Freire’s pedagogy frame work framed with the Faculty of Theology and Religion and extending his notion of dialogical engagement to deliberative action in the online (LMS) higher education space is critical tenant for student wholistic growth.

Satisfaction on Online Learning during Covid-19 Pandemic: Perspective of Malaysian students

This study investigated the determinants of students’ satisfaction with their online learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected among 241 undergraduates enrolled in information management from a selected universities in Malaysia. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) results revealed that the independent variables, namely course design and digital resources, influenced students’ satisfaction with their new online learning experience. The findings have several implications for developing and maintaining practical and student-friendly online learning spaces in higher education. Keywords: Online learning; digital resources; Malaysian students; Higher education eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by E-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behavior Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioral Researchers on Asians), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behavior Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

Space and scale in higher education: the glonacal agency heuristic revisited

The 2002 ‘glonacal’ paper described higher education as a multi-scalar sector where individual and institutional agents have open possibilities and causation flows from any of the interacting local, national and global scales. None have permanent primacy: global activity is growing; the nation-state is crucial in policy, regulation and funding; and like the other scales, the local scale in higher education and knowledge is continually being remade and newly invented. The glonacal paper has been widely used in higher education studies, though single-scale nation-bound methods still have a strong hold. Drawing on insights from human geography and selected empirical studies, the present paper builds on the glonacal paper in a larger theorization of space and scale. It describes how material elements, imagination and social practices interact in making space, which is the sphere of social relations; it discusses multiplicity in higher education space and sameness/different tensions; and it takes further the investigation of one kind of constructed space in higher education, its heterogenous scales (national, local, regional, global etc.). The paper reviews the intersections between scales, especially between national and global, the ever-changing ordering of scales, and how agents in higher education mix and match scales. It also critiques ideas of fixed scalar primacy such as methodological nationalism and methodological globalism—influential in studies of higher education but radically limiting of what can be imagined and practised. Ideas matter. The single-scale visions and scale-driven universals must be cleared away to bring a fuller geography of higher education to life.

Experiences of B. Ed Students on the use of E-Learning as a Vehicle to Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic

E-learning has become a standard dialect nationally and internationally, particularly during the COVID-19 context. During the lockdown period in South Africa, e-learning, which was experienced differently by different Higher Education Institutions and students, became one of the preferred ways students could access learning. Therefore, e-learning as a vehicle for quality education became a human rights issue in the Higher Education space. Consequently, literature seems to imply that lack of access to e-learning, internet laptops and smartphone connectivity and online gadgets may be an exclusionary learning factor for the majority of students. Underpinned by Engestrom Activity Theory, this qualitative study used telephonic assisted open-ended interviews to provide the four selected Bachelor of Education students with the opportunity to share their experiences on how they have experienced the use of e-learning in a South African university. It emerged from the data that even the students from the same institution had varied experiences in terms of e-learning. Furthermore, the findings revealed that students’ social realm, such as internet connectivity and lack of online gadgets such as laptops and smartphones influenced their e-learning. This study concludes that the students’ experiences suggest that the university should respond to the students’ contextual factors and make appropriate sustainable teaching and learning plans post-COVID-19 era. Keywords: E-learning, Learning experiences, Diversity, Learning tools, Teaching and learning

Gender Inequalities in University Teaching Practice: An Innovative Project at the University of the Basque Country

Feminist research on gender inequalities in academia has demonstrated the need for policies in universities and scientific institutions to be oriented towards institutional and cultural change in order to promote gender equality. It has also highlighted the role of women ’s representative groups and the strategies and lines of action that organizations for equality develop through equality plans. This article describes the training experience carried out with teaching staff of the UPV/EHU, as a result of the Educational Innovation project aimed at incorporating the gender perspective in university teaching. This action is included in the Training axis of the III Equality Plan of our university. The participating professors have expressed the great value and their willingness to implement the gender perspective in all those activities that are included in the teaching practice in a reflexive way to achieve more democratic educational spaces in higher education.

Atomic Research Centres to Intensify Research – An Innovative Approach of Srinivas University, India

Purpose: To find an innovative way to boost research work and contribution by individual faculty members of higher education institutions including universities by creating their own micro-research centre. This should also help faculty members to plan and intensify their research at low cost and internally available resources and to contribute to the research output of their institutions, and society in a micro but effective way. Methodology: Proposing and implementing micro-research centres in individual departments of universities by individual faculty members. This centre is independently coordinated by an individual faculty member along with colleagues and students at research, Post-graduate, and Undergraduate levels. The research methodology consists of developing a case study by collecting information about individual efforts of innovative research and crystalizing such efforts to be a systematic innovation as best practice in the higher education space. Information is collected from the research and innovation council of Srinivas University through its website and by interviewing its faculty members. The collected information is analyzed using ABCD analysis framework and presented in scholarly article format. Results & Outcome: This case study on innovation in research efforts by motivating faculty members to develop and coordinate a micro-research centre called Atomic Research Centre to carry out intensive and focussed research on a micro-topic by individually and through a micro-team consisting of self, colleagues, and students at research, Post-graduate, and Undergraduate levels. This best practice speeds up and intensifies the research activities of individual faculty members in many micro-research areas without the huge investment in research as research funding. This best practice of individual research contribution through Atomic research centres (ARCs) also allows the faculty members to coordinate on one or many research topics at a time, individually or with different small teams. Based on an intense search in the literature, it is found that initiation and implementation of Faculty level Atomic Research Centre to promote and intensify departmental research is a unique innovative best practice in HEIs and Universities. Originality: Studying the initiation, formation, modalities, and details of faculty-initiated Atomic Research centres and their success in contributing to departmental research is studied systematically and analysed using ABCD analysing framework. Type of Research: Case Study & Analysis.

Examinations in the Higher Education Space

Universities are central to society in that they contribute extensively to the delivery of competencies, skills and knowledge essential to the hi-tech world we have developed since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The Covid pandemic has forced academe to rethink the strategies that are used to assess students' competence. The purpose of this interpretive paper is to reflect on online examinations. In this paper, a short outline of traditional examinations is considered and compared with current examinations. This is important because it appears that examination strategies have not sufficiently evolved over the years to reflect the current circumstances. The different issues that affect the digital learning space are examined and some of the challenges are assessed. The practical implications of this research are that we as academe need to co-create the learning journey with our students.

Social Role and Role Congruity Influences on Perceived Value of Women’s Leadership at Southwestern Research Universities

This qualitative survey study, framed by social role and role congruity theories, explored the perceptions and experiences of 33 women faculty and academic administrators at doctoral-granting highest research-intensive universities located in the Southwestern region of the U.S. The purpose of the study was to expand on our understanding of how social role and role congruity theories can explain and further our understanding of how women are perceived to be valued as leaders in the higher education space, and how society supports this continued valuation. For purposes of this study, social value is explored through the operational processes of higher education organizations. Findings from this study show that the participants perceived that women’s credibility as leaders continues to be questioned, resulting in less perceived value; the accepted role of women as leaders in higher education continues to be influenced by greater society; society continues to perceive leaders should be men; and organizational practices continue to support systemic barrier to women’s leadership success. By understanding the perceptions and experiences of women regarding their perceptions of value as leaders in higher education, we can begin to address and eliminate systemic barriers to further better support their advancement into leadership roles.

Benefits of Community: Students-as-Partners Work by an Undergraduate Student, a Graduate Student, and a Faculty Member

Unfamiliarity and uncertainty can be disorienting, but when provided space to collectively navigate such challenges, opportunities arise for novel ways of engaging, collaborating, and navigating in our varied communities—including those in higher education. This article builds on previous students-as-partners (SaP) research by describing a collaborative investigation into teaching and learning and how the three authors of this article (an undergraduate student, a graduate student, and a faculty member) worked together to address challenges in their personal and professional spheres. We recount exploratory mixed-methods work that highlights the natural evolution of a unique community of practice (CoP) through a SaP partnership, and the collaborative benefits for teaching, learning, and research that developed within this “partnership learning community” over the course of a semester. Analyzing systematic discussion mappings of our meetings, transcripts from those meetings, and personal reflections, we describe our developing roles through sharing and listening to each other. Even though our CoP was set within the space of higher education and grounded by goals of SaP research, this community building partnership, in which members move beyond novice/expert relationships, has implications beyond higher education.

Research Collectives With, For, and By Undocumented Scholars: Creating Counterspaces for Revelation, Validation, Resistance, Empowerment, and Liberation in Higher Education

We use a testimonio methodology to examine how engaging in a research collective designed with and for, and comprised by current and former undocumented scholars promoted our development, persistence, and professional preparedness. We argue that research collectives initiated through participatory action research serve as counterspaces for revelation, validation, resistance, empowerment, and liberation for undocumented students. We conclude with recommendations on how faculty can become empowerment agents and create these critical spaces in higher education.

Holistic Integrated Student Development Model & Service Delivery Model – A Best Practice of Srinivas University, India

Purpose: To showcase an innovative higher education training model at the university level for students’ all-round holistic development by studying an existing university model as best practice in the university system. Methodology: As an exploratory case study methodology is followed for the collection of information from university personnel, University website, faculty members, and students and analysed the information under the best practice model and ABCD framework. Results & Outcome: An effective innovation and best practice for the all-round development of students to improve graduate attributes. The models support to create quality graduates with employability and entrepreneurability skills to make them independent, confident, and successful citizens of the country. Originality/Value: The paper contains identification, analysis, and interpretation of two successful innovative models in the higher education space with quality training and quality service to make it student centered. Type of Paper: Case Study on Best Practice.

Students’ E-Learning Domestic Space in Higher Education in the New Normal

The objective of this study is two-fold. Firstly, to analyse and discover the ability of HE students to use the physical home context for e-learning via ICT during the new normal; and secondly, to ascertain the underlying patterns of the adequacy of such domestic spaces. The authors offer a multidisciplinary approach combining pedagogic, architectural backgrounds with considerable experience in didactics, organization management of education, and ICT applied to education. A qualitative, arts-based research methodology that analyses photographs was used. A total of 220 domestic work environment photographs sent by higher education students were analysed. Results and conclusions show that students are able to attend virtual classrooms in a domestic atmosphere. Bedrooms and studies are usually the most-used spaces. Laptops and smartphones are the most frequent central hubs of student learning sessions. Students use other training resources (desktop computers, tablets, etc.) to supplement the most common digital devices. An intense relationship is observed between Space (bedroom and other rooms) and the Sofa and Beds variables, while a moderate one is observed between Age and Care items. The relationship between other variables is weak or non-existent.

Relationship between Project Space Types, Optimize Energy Performance Credit, and Project Size in LEED-NC Version 4 (v4) Projects: A Case Study

A previous study (Pushkar 2021) showed a significant non-parametric correlation between the Optimize Energy Performance credit from the energy and atmosphere category (EAc7) and project size in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction and Major Renovations version 4 (LEED-NC v4) office space projects. However, in such an empirical analysis, there are at least two problems: the choice between parametric and non-parametric statistics, and the choice between the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney (WMW) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) non-parametric tests. This study aims to evaluate EAc7 credit achievement for different types of spaces in LEED-NC v4 projects. We show that, in order to evaluate the differences between two LEED data groups, (1) a non-parametric procedure is preferable to a parametric one, and (2) if there is Spearman’s correlation between EAc7 credit achievement and project size for the same LEED-NC v4 project, then Quade’s ANCOVA is preferable to WMW. The results of these tests show that, in two out of three cases, office space projects had better EAc7 credit achievement than higher-education spaces at the gold certification level and public assembly spaces at the silver certification level.

PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION OF DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL SPACE TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF TRAINING OF FUTURE EDUCATORS

The article is devoted to the analysis of the theoretical foundations of the formation of digital educational space in higher education institutions in order to improve the quality of training of future educators. The aim of the article is a thorough theoretical analysis of the conceptual foundations of the formation of digital educational space in higher education to improve the quality of professional training of students, including future educators of preschool education. The following theoretical research methods were used in the work: analysis, synthesis, generalization, induction and deduction, comparison, concretization. The article proposes the substantiation of the problem of digitalization of education, the relevance of digital educational space in higher education, highlights the impact of information and communication technologies on expanding the content and capabilities of educational space, in particular in the training of future educators. A number of conditions have been proposed, the observance of which can increase the efficiency of digital modernization of the educational process of a higher education institution. The publication summarizes the goals (for the applicant, the customer and the educational institution) and the principles (uniformity, openness, accessibility, competitiveness, responsibility, validity, usefulness) of digital technology use in higher education by future educators. The article proposes a number of tasks that will improve the educational process and quality of training of future educators through the introduction of innovative information systems, including: development of new regulations and principles of data processing. formation of the list of data potentially subject to exchange; development of digital educational space architecture; development of data exchange protocols and approval of relevant standards; revision of the normative base of document circulation and organization of the educational process in order to eliminate conflicts of previous norms and modern electronic document circulation.