Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College | Bryn Mawr College Research

Taplin-Kaguru, Nora E.

Bryn Mawr College 
Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College 
Sociology Faculty Research and Scholarship Sociology 
2023 
Review of 'Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, Race Brokers: Housing Markets 
and Segregation in 21st Century Urban America' 
Nora E. Taplin-Kaguru 
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For more information, please contact repository@brynmawr.edu. 
 
Race Brokers: Housing Markets and Segregation in 21st Century Urban America, by Elizabeth 
Korver-Glenn. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021. ISBN 0190063874; 240 pp. 
$99.00 hardcover. $27.95 Paperback 
 
Reviewed by  
 
Nora Taplin-Kaguru 
 
Bryn Mawr College 
 
For urban sociologists, Race Brokers: Housing Markets and Segregation in 21st Century Urban  
America is a book we needed. This comprehensive and in depth mixed methods study of housing 
market professionals provides an essential contribution to the literature on housing and racial 
segregation. While quantitative and qualitative urban researchers have documented the extent of 
racial segregation, its persistence overtime and its consequences for neighborhoods and 
individuals, and a growing literature is investigating the role of the housing search process in 
perpetuating contemporary racial segregation, we knew very little about the practices of the 
professionals who clearly play an outsized role in shaping the housing market. Previous 
quantitative work has demonstrated effects of racial discrimination from housing market 
professionals but there has been limited quantitative work uncovering how discrimination 
happens. Recent qualitative work from Max Besbris has also focused on real estate agents but 
only in the particular context of very high end real estate markets. Korver-Glenn expands on the 
limited previous work in this area with one year of ethnographic data from following 13 housing 
market professionals, in depth interviews with 102 housing market professionals and consumers 
and quantitative analysis of housing market data.  
In this ground breaking and highly accessible book, Elizabeth Korver-Glenn describes these 
housing market professionals as “race brokers”, gatekeepers who are especially influential in 
shaping ideas about race and the ways those ideas shape who gets access to resources through 
their professional role. In the case of housing market professionals, these race brokers uphold 
and build on (or in some more rare cases intervene in) a system of racial segregation and racial 
inequality by acting on their own ideas about race in their professional activities.  
As a discipline we are often focused racism as social structure, which is essential for explaining 
the pervasiveness and persistence of this social force in our society.  While, Race Brokers, never 
loses site of the structural forces upholding racial inequality, it also reckons with the ways in 
which housing market professionals overtly and covertly engage in racism at a microlevel. This 
project demonstrates how racial inequality on a large scale is produced through the racist actions 
of individuals. Ultimately this analysis that accounts for both structure and agency, allows for 
real insight into racial processes and lays the ground work for understanding how we could 
intervene in those processes.  
Most of the housing market professionals examined in this project (developers, real estate agents, 
lenders and appraisers), in particular almost all White housing market professionals, used a racist 
market rubric, or a racial frame specific to understanding the housing market, to guide their 
professional actions. Using the racist market rubric, these race brokers applied the idea that 
White neighborhoods and individuals are the most desirable, valuable, and lucrative. By contrast, 
most professionals of color in the study used a counter frame, a people oriented market rubric, 
that resisted the dominate racist frame by affirming the value of neighborhoods and individuals 
of color.  
The first chapter, H-Town, provides an overview of some of the neighborhoods discussed in the 
book, how they are racialized by market professionals and the housing market dynamics that 
shape them. Korver-Glenn makes a convincing case for why Houston is a great case for this 
study. It is both highly racially diverse, and highly racially segregated, while also being a 
relatively affordable housing market, so it provides opportunities to look at the role of more 
direct effects of racism on housing outcomes.  
The second chapter looks at the role of developers in shaping racialized space. I believe this is a 
particularly innovative section of the book, as housing developers have been especially 
understudied in the urban sociology literature. The book demonstrates how developers support 
racial segregation and racial inequality through their choices of where to build and who to build 
for. Most developers, especially White developers consciously choose to build in White 
neighborhoods in an effort to appeal to white buyers. Some developers also engaged in a practice 
Korver-Glen calls “reverse block-busting” where they targeted homeowners of color when 
buying land, encouraging them to sell their homes quickly on terms that were favorable to the 
developers, a practice that likely contributes to gentrification.  
“Brokering Sales”, the third chapter,  investigates how real estate agents act as race brokers. Real 
estate agents relied on personal networking to build their clientele and connect to other kinds of 
housing professionals, and those networks were highly racialized, with White real estate agents 
in particular seeking White clients and excluding non-White professionals from their networks. 
They then maintain these networks by tolerating the racism of their clients and offering their own 
racially charged opinions about neighborhoods and schools.  
The fourth chapter, “Lending Capital” demonstrates how mortgage lenders imprint their racial 
ideas on to the housing process. White mortgage lenders worked to sustain racially segregated 
networks of buyers, agents, lenders and loan opportunities. They also applied a racist market 
rubric when using their discretion to evaluate the risk of buyers and homes, which advantaged 
White buyers and homes in White neighborhoods and disadvantaged buyers of color and homes 
in neighborhoods of color.  
Chapter Five, “Appraising Value” interrogates the role that appraisers play in furthering racial 
inequality in the housing market and demonstrates that racial inequality in appraisals is produced 
not just by historical legacies but through the active application of racist rubrics by contemporary 
appraisers.   
Finally, the sixth chapter, presents innovative solutions for intervening in this racially structured 
market. By studying all four types of housing market professionals, Korver-Glenn is able to offer 
suggestions for how federal, state and local governments could audit and enforce fair housing 
practices for developers, appraisers and lenders, in addition to real-estate agents. She argues for a 
more systemic approach to fair housing which would include intervening in racialized housing 
market routines, including racially segregated industry networking and racial logics in appraisals. 
Some creative proposals coming out of this approach are implementing penalties for “pocket 
listings”, the practice of real estate agents showing homes to their networks that are not publicly 
listed and ending the neighborhood based sales comparison approach to appraisals. These policy 
solutions hold a lot of promise, because they are based on such fine grained analysis of the 
racialized patterns of these influential actors and so I hope that both urban scholars and policy 
professionals take note of these ideas.  


English

Review of \u27Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, Race Brokers: Housing Markets and Segregation in 21st Century Urban America\u27

Brown, Jasmin

Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education 
Volume 1 
Issue 40 Fostering Inclusive Learning 
Communities Together 
Article 12 
July 2023 
Inclusivity of University from a Minority Student's Perspective 
Jasmin Brown 
Northumbria University 
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Brown, Jasmin "Inclusivity of University from a Minority Student's Perspective," Teaching and Learning 
Together in Higher Education: Iss. 40 (2023), https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss40/12 
INCLUSIVITY OF UNIVERSITY FROM A MINORITY STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE 
 
Jasmin Brown, Health and Lifestyle Sciences, Northumbria University, Class of 2023  
 
 
‘Inclusivity’ in the Oxford English Dictionary is defined as “the practice or policy of providing 
equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or 
marginalized.” When asking whether a university is inclusive to its students, it is easy to say 
“yes.” However, this is not entirely the case. The expectations and needs of minority students are 
always changing and the education sector’s policies may only be suitable to those students 
without any physical or mental needs. In regard to Northumbria University, it is apparent that the 
staff actively seek new ways to change and improve how they reach minority students, and to 
ensure those students are provided with equal opportunities and quality of learning. Overall, 
universities are inclusive only to an extent. It is important that staff are provided with ways to 
ensure that any educational policy they are implementing can be tailored to meet the needs of all 
minority students.  
 
 
Improving Inclusivity at University 
 
Starting university for any student can be a daunting experience. For minority students there are 
further challenges which they have to take into consideration—whether that is ensuring a 
requirement for a disability is met or looking into what support is available to help with a 
learning difficulty. Northumbria University is actively seeking ways to improve equality and 
inclusivity for its students. I was provided with the opportunity to become one of the university’s 
student inclusion consultants, working with different departments to find areas which could be 
improved, and provide recommendations for such improvements.  
 
According to the UK government, in 2019/20 27.4% of students who started full-time or part-
time undergraduate study in the UK were non-white (Ethnicity facts and figures, 2022). When I 
began my first year of university, I did not consider myself a minority student. Despite having a 
DSSR (Disabled Students’ Support Recommendations report) in place for mental health 
problems, I did not know that being a first-generation student from a low-income background 
made me a minority student. Initially, finding this out did knock my confidence and I felt as 
though the opportunities that I would be offered would not be equal opportunities. I felt as 
though I was put in a position where I would have to work harder to prove myself to my 
professors. This was not the case.  
 
We have all been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and particularly so minority students. A 
study by Evans et al. (2021) looked at student well-being during the pandemic, exploring 
whether particular groups of students experienced heightened risks to well-being. While the 
study found that work-related burnout was lessened (because of the social isolation strategies 
associated with lockdowns), separation from loved ones proved to have a negative effect upon 
well-being. As such, this impacted students’ studies.  
 
1
Brown: Inclusivity of University from a Minority Student's Perspective
A paper by Saenz, Wyatt, & Reinard (1998) looked into increasing the recruitment and retention 
of underrepresented minority students in higher education. The paper states that to recruit and 
maintain minority students, faculties in university training programs should increase their 
awareness of minority students’ needs and expectations. The researchers suggested using a 
questionnaire to identify the needs of minority students and open up communication between the 
faculty and students. They provided an example of how the faculty of the Department of 
Communicative Disorders at California State University used such a strategy to improve the 
recruitment and retention of minority students—as there was a dynamic relationship between 
faculty, students, and institutional requirements. 
 
Northumbria University provided me with an outstanding opportunity to work alongside 
academic staff across different departments to assess which areas could be improved in terms of 
inclusivity for minority students. I was shocked at how many requests we received from 
departments wanting student perspectives. It was encouraging the see that different departments 
truly cared about wanting to increase their inclusivity to minority students. It took away the 
feeling of university being a cold and isolating place. One area which surprised me the most 
about how much university had to offer minority students was the study abroad scheme. Before 
coming to university, I had completely ruled out the option of studying abroad for myself, due to 
lack of finance. When conducting the review, I extensively looked into the study abroad section 
of the university’s website. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the study abroad scheme 
has multiple schemes and scholarships to help students financially. Although the information for 
minority students required quite a bit of effort to find, it was well written and easy to understand. 
In regard to students who may be physically disabled and may require further support, the 
information did not seem to be there. While there was the option to arrange a one-to-one meeting 
with people working within the department to gather information, this may not be practical for 
some students and, as such, limits the inclusivity. My recommendation for this was to rearrange 
the layout of the website to ensure that minority students can find relevant information easily and 
so are not discouraged because they cannot find it. I also found that in the student testimonies 
section, there were not any testimonies from minority students. Personally, I think this limits the 
inclusivity and equality of the scheme. Having those experiences available for minority students 
to read will boost their confidence in schemes such as this and heighten the percentage of 
minority students choosing to engage in the scheme.  
 
Going forward, I think it is vital that the communication between the faculty and minority 
students continues to be encouraged and improved upon. From personal experience, even 
opportunities which are offered on most university courses, such as study abroad, are not really 
spoken about by the different departments. My course only briefly mentioned that study abroad 
was an option, not really giving any information about the procedure or what it would involve. I 
think this limited how inclusive such a scheme seemed. I think if a faculty is not communicating 
with its students about different opportunities across the university, the inclusivity of students is 
greatly limited. That is why internships such as the student inclusion consultant is a great asset to 
the university, as it allows for recommendations to be made directly from student experience. 
 
A paper by Hamilton et al. (2021) researched the experiences of higher education for students 
with chronic illnesses. The researchers noted that such students reported misconceptions 
surrounding chronic illness, a sense of inequality, and of feeling undervalued. It was found that 
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Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 40 [2023]
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many staff members lacked understanding, and enforced academic regulations rather than 
accommodating students’ illnesses. Some students in this study reported that social groups acting 
as ‘allies’ helped them to deal with the emotional repercussions of such feelings. Overall, it 
appears to be vital that staff within education learn about chronic illnesses and are taught ways to 
make academic regulations accommodating to such students. The use of social groups is also 
something which should be considered, allowing students to have someone that they can share 
their feelings with.  
 
 
References  
 
Ethnicity facts and figures. (2022). First year entrants onto undergraduate study. 
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/higher-
education/first-year-entrants-onto-undergraduate-degrees/latest 
 
Evans, K. E., Holmes, M. R., Prince, D. M., & Groza, V. (2021). Social work doctoral student 
well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: A descriptive study. International Journal of 
Doctoral Studies 16: 569–592. 
 
Hamilton, P. R., Hulme, J. A., & Harrison, E. D. (2021). Experiences of higher education for 
students with chronic illnesses. Disability & Society. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2021.1907549   
 
Saenz, T. I., Wyatt, T. A., & Reinard, J. C. (1998). Increasing the Recruitment and Retention of 
Historically Underrepresented Minority Students in Higher Education. American Journal of 
Speech-Language Pathology 7(3): 39–48  
 
3
Brown: Inclusivity of University from a Minority Student's Perspective


Inclusivity of University from a Minority Student\u27s Perspective

Cowley, Nicola D

Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education 
Volume 1 
Issue 40 Fostering Inclusive Learning 
Communities Together 
Article 21 
July 2023 
"Everyone will Realize I Don't Belong Here:" On the Support of 
Students Experiencing Imposter Syndrome 
Nicola D. Cowley 
Northumbria University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe 
 Part of the Higher Education and Teaching Commons 
Let us know how access to this document benefits you. 
Recommended Citation 
Cowley, Nicola D. ""Everyone will Realize I Don't Belong Here:" On the Support of Students Experiencing 
Imposter Syndrome," Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education: Iss. 40 (2023), 
https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss40/21 
“EVERYONE WILL REALIZE I DON’T BELONG HERE:” ON THE SUPPORT OF STUDENTS 
EXPERIENCING IMPOSTOR SYNDROME 
 
Nicola Dawn Cowley, Postgraduate (PhD) Research Student, Department of Applied Sciences, 
Northumbria University, Class of 2023  
 
 
Impostor syndrome, or the feeling of fraudulence and not belonging in one’s role, is commonly 
experienced by university students. Despite the term ‘syndrome’ to describe this psychological 
phenomenon, external environment can play a contributory role, such as a student fearing they 
will face unconscious bias later in academic life. It is my opinion that a supportive relationship, 
with open communication, between lecturer (or doctoral supervisor) and student can significantly 
mitigate these distressing feelings and enable the student to feel comfortably integrated into their 
academic environment. 
 
 
An Introduction to Impostor Syndrome 
 
Throughout my life in higher education, I have continually experienced self-critical thoughts and 
emotions. Every academic milestone I reached, which resulted in my attainment of a Bachelor’s 
degree in Applied Biomedical Sciences and then a Master’s degree in Microbiology—and my 
current position as a PhD student in Biomedical Sciences—has been accompanied by the 
persistent feeling that my achievements were not my own; that I did not ‘deserve’ to have 
reached the milestones I did, and that it was only a matter of time until everyone around me 
came to the same conclusion. I have come to learn that this phenomenon is not unique to me, but 
manifests in a wide range of people, and is commonly known as impostor syndrome. 
 
Impostor syndrome refers to a self-perception of fraudulence, which may be contextualized by its 
prevalence in people who perceive their roles to be unwarranted by their own competency or 
external evidence of suitability for the role, and that instead they find themselves in such 
positions by oversight or chance; hence they feel themselves to be ‘impostors’ in their roles 
(Feenstra et al., 2020; Hawley, 2019). Traits of impostor syndrome have been quantified by the 
Perceived Fraudulence Scale. Among others, these traits include self-criticism, social anxiety, 
and depressive tendencies (Kolligian & Sternberg, 1991). It has been extensively described in 
people working in academia (Jaremka et al., 2020). The term ‘syndrome’ implies a problem with 
an individual’s self-esteem, to be overcome by them alone, but the external environment can 
contribute (Hawley, 2019). Doctoral students in particular face unique challenges of independent 
research. In my experience, doctoral studies bring with them a transitional feeling; due to the 
passage of time, accumulation of experience, and the unique structure of a laboratory-based PhD, 
which involves largely solitary experimenting under the guidance of a small supervision team led 
by a principal investigator, I no longer feel like a typical university student, as I did to a large 
extent during my Bachelor’s degree and to a lesser extent during my Master’s degree. My role 
comes with almost exclusive involvement with staff in a range of roles, including laboratory 
technicians, postdoctoral fellowship holders, lecturers, senior lecturers, and professors. However, 
as a registered student with limited time to complete my PhD, I do not feel fully integrated into 
this environment. A constant sense that one’s role is limited feeds back into the worries 
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Cowley: "Everyone will Realize I Don't Belong Here"
associated with impostor syndrome: the sense that ‘any time now’ I will cease to belong in the 
laboratory and won’t be able to finish my PhD; in other words, I won’t be ‘successful.’ My idea 
of short-term success, once I complete my PhD, is to have continued a career in academia 
through postdoctoral fellowships and be on my way to complete financial independence. My idea 
of long-term success is to be fully financially independent and well established in academia, with 
lower levels of clinical anxiety and greater confidence in my abilities. In my experience, 
supportive supervision and empathetic colleagues make all the difference. The ability to go to 
my principal investigator (PI—the principal member of my supervision team) to discuss any 
moments of lapsed confidence with her, and her ability to notice and understand when this is 
happening to me, has greatly helped me, and enabled me to take some time away from the 
laboratory when I needed it. The influence of the supervisors cannot be underestimated—nor can 
acknowledgement and support of mental health problems that are experienced by students. 
 
 
Impostor Syndrome and Unconscious Bias in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math 
(STEM) Careers 
 
My worries for my academic future on the grounds of self-confidence are somewhat 
compounded by a sense that at least at some point during my academic career, I may face 
additional unjust barriers beyond my control. This stems from the understanding that despite a 
relatively even ratio of males and females in STEM from undergraduate to postgraduate doctoral 
level, the retention of female scientists drops sharply after attainment of a PhD and the gender 
balance skews heavily to favor men. At the professorial level (in the UK, the title of professor is 
obtained by promotion through lectureship and senior lectureship; I am aware the definition 
differs between countries), the ratio of men to women is even higher. While I am white and not 
under personal detriment by the following intersectional perspective, I am nonetheless troubled 
by the often-publicized statistic stated in a report by Advance HE that in 2019 there were only 25 
UK black women with full professorship status in British universities (Rollock, 2021). This 
further evidence the persistence of favored demographics in academia, even if in the 21st century 
this is specifically legislated against, suggesting an unconscious bias. Fortunately, a mixed-
methods study of 216 PhD students found no statistically significant difference in the severity of 
impostor syndrome between black women PhD students and other PhD students (Simon, 2020). 
This pattern of gender imbalance is replicated at the highest level. There exists a heavily skewed 
gender ratio among Nobel laureates in the sciences: from 1901 to 2018, only 21 science laureates 
were women, representing only 3.5% of the total 601 laureates over this period (Grogan, 2019). 
Even in the 21st century, it appears that women still face a choice between career progression in 
STEM and a role as spouse and parent; milestones in life that their male counterparts seem to 
embrace together, as female Nobel laureates are significantly more likely to be unmarried and 
not to have children than male laureates (Charyton et al., 2011). This suggests that women still 
have a higher burden placed upon them to fulfil domestic and family responsibilities than their 
male counterparts and may feel pressure to choose between career advancement and establishing 
a new family.  
 
Perceiving that one may have to work harder than a large proportion of one’s colleagues to 
achieve the same level of success may have a demotivational or an anxiety-inducing effect, 
depending on personality type. A study of 631 Austrian doctoral students, of whom 389 
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Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 40 [2023]
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(61.65%) were female, found that female students experience more feelings of being an impostor 
than male students (Jöstl et al., 2015). To that end, self-affirming one’s social identity as a 
scientist can increase confidence and reduce the effects of impostor syndrome (Ysseldyk et al., 
2019). It is my opinion that all lecturers can encourage students, starting at first entry, by sharing 
anecdotes of their own background and experiences, within reason, as entry is the point at which 
students compare themselves to their classmates and try to develop their identities at university. 
Hearing stories from lecturers of a wide range of socio-economic, ethnic, and cultural 
backgrounds, as well as different genders and ages, will help; if students from marginalized 
communities see lecturers of the same community, it should help them feel enfranchised. In 
addition, if lecturers are appointed as personal or pastoral tutors for specific students, they should 
encourage the student to engage in regular one-on-one meetings and to engage in open dialogue, 
encouraging them to build confidence and affirming that they deserve to be at university. 
Positive encouragement will help new students to put aside any burgeoning impostor syndrome 
thought patterns and enable them to feel empowered.  
 
 
References 
 
Charyton, C., Elliott, J. O., Rahman, M. A., Woodard, J. L., & DeDios, S. (2011). Gender and 
Science: Women Nobel Laureates. Journal of Creative Behavior 45(3): 203–214. 
 
Feenstra, S., Begeny, C. T., Ryan, M. K., Rink, F. A., Stoker, J. I., & Jordan, J. (2020). 
Contextualizing the Impostor “Syndrome”. Frontiers in Psychology 11. 
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.575024 
 
Grogan, K. E. (2019). How the entire scientific community can confront gender bias in the 
workplace. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 3–6. 
 
Hawley, K. (2019). I – What is Impostor Syndrome? Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 
93(1): 203–226. 
 
Jaremka, L. M., Ackerman, J. M., Gawronski, B., Rule, N. O., Sweeny, K., Tropp, L. R., Metz, 
M. A., Molina, L., Ryan, W. S., & Vick, S. B. (2020). Common Academic Experiences No One 
Talks About: Repeated Rejection, Impostor Syndrome, and Burnout. Perspectives on 
Psychological Science 15(3): 519–543. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619898848  
 
Jöstl, G., Bergsmann, E., Lüftenegger, M., Schober, B., & Spiel, C. (2015). When Will They 
Blow My Cover? The Impostor Phenomenon Among Austrian Doctoral Students. Zeitschrift für 
Psychologie 220: 109–120. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000102  
 
Kolligian, J. Jr., & Sternberg, R. J. (1991). Perceived fraudulence in young adults: is there an 
“imposter syndrome”? Journal of Personality Assessment 56(2): 308–326. 
https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa5602_10  
 
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Cowley: "Everyone will Realize I Don't Belong Here"
Rollock, N. (2021). “I Would Have Become Wallpaper Had Racism Had Its Way”: Black 
Female Professors, Racial Battle Fatigue, and Strategies for Surviving Higher Education. 
Peabody Journal of Education 96(2): 206–217. 
 
Simon, M. (2020). STEMming Within a Double Minority: How the Impostor Syndrome Affects 
Black Women Ph.D. Students. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches 12(2): 
185–201. 
 
Ysseldyk, R., Greenaway, K. H., Hassinger, E., Zutrauen, S., Lintz, J., Bhatia, M. P., Frye, M., 
Starkenburg, E., & Tai, V. (2019). A Leak in the Academic Pipeline: Identity and Health Among 
Postdoctoral Women. Frontiers in Psychology 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01297 
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Everyone will Realize I Don\u27t Belong Here:  On the Support of Students Experiencing Imposter Syndrome

Sousa, Cindy

Stein, A.

Shapiro, Janet

Shanfeld, G.

Cristaudo, K.

Siddiqi, M.

Hatfield, M.

Reddy, H.

Life becomes about survival\u27: Resettlement, integration, and social services among refugee parents

Hayward, Lorna

Cheerman, Heidi

Addison, Isabella

Zeng, Lucy

Empowering Diverse Student Voices through Pedagogical Partnership: Expanding Perspective for Increasing Relevance and Access to Curriculum and Learning

Houghteling, Sylvia W.

The Filaments of the Textile Trade: Subtle and Broad Trends in Exports from South Asia to Martime Southeast Asia. Part I: Researchers int he Field

Liang, Yifei

Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education 
Volume 1 
Issue 39 Spring 2023 Article 2 
May 2023 
Reflecting on the Influence of Involution to the Shaping of 
Pedagogical Partnerships in Chinese Universities 
Yifei Liang 
University of Queensland 
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Recommended Citation 
Liang, Yifei "Reflecting on the Influence of Involution to the Shaping of Pedagogical Partnerships in 
Chinese Universities," Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education: Iss. 39 (2023), 
https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss39/2 
REFLECTING ON THE INFLUENCE OF INVOLUTION TO THE SHAPING OF PEDAGOGICAL 
PARTNERSHIPS IN CHINESE UNIVERSITIES   
 
Yifei Liang, PhD Candidate, University of Queensland 
 
 
Throughout the last four years, I have been working on my doctoral studies at the University 
of Queensland. These studies focus on exploring how to understand conceptions of 
pedagogical partnership in Chinese universities. In my exploration, I have raised challenging 
questions regarding the role of culture and the necessity of creating discourses that support 
cultural understanding in shaping partnerships as a global scholarship. However, in this 
reflective essay, I will not delve further into the discussions around culture that have already 
been presented in my doctoral thesis and publications (e.g., Liang & Matthews, 2021, 2022). 
Instead, I will reflect on a thought-provoking motivation of Chinese university students I 
learned about when the student participants in my studies discussed how they engaged in 
pedagogical partnerships and collaborative learner-teacher interactions – driven by the 
phenomenon we may call “involution” or “rat race,” which I will explain. This is a hot 
phenomenon that is currently appearing in many areas of Chinese society, including 
university teaching and learning. In this essay, I explore what I see as the implications of this 
phenomenon for the shaping of pedagogical partnerships in Chinese universities.  
 
 
Context 
 
As a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) student, my engagement in learning and researching 
pedagogical partnerships began with my PhD studies in mid-2019. The theorisations, 
practices, and guiding principles that had emerged in partnership literature initially sparked 
my interest, as they suggested the potential for innovative changes to teaching and learning 
that could benefit both students and teachers. This excitement filled me with anticipation and 
curiosity regarding the offered opportunity to engage in scholarship and contribute to the 
broader conversation on pedagogical partnership. It equally compelled me to consider the 
unknown possibilities of exploring the conceptions of pedagogical partnership in the context 
of Chinese higher education.  
 
Although I was holding that excitement, as a native Chinese person who has undergone 16 
years of education in China, spanning primary school through university, I was never told or 
taught about such creative learner-teacher relationships. Therefore, when I was a Chinese 
university undergraduate student, I never imagined that students could be partners of teachers 
to contribute to teaching and learning processes. Instead, my experience was largely 
dominated by the examination system, which served as the primary measure of learning 
outcomes and student success. As a result, students were encouraged to follow instructions 
from teachers or institutions in order to obtain higher grades on exams. This situation created 
a significant power dynamic and identity divide between students and teachers, which was 
not conducive to the shaping of pedagogical partnerships, as also addressed in Western 
partnership literature. Therefore, prior to collecting data for my PhD studies, I was concerned 
about these potential limitations and challenges that such a situation might pose to my 
research.   
 
However, as a PhD student in an Australian university studying pedagogical partnerships in 
Chinese universities, I found myself in the position of an outsider looking in. I was unsure of 
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Liang: Reflecting on the Influence of Involution to the Shaping of Pedagogical Partnerships in Chinese Universities
the changes that had taken place inside and outside Chinese university classrooms since I 
graduated from a Chinese university undergraduate program four years prior. To address this 
gap in my knowledge and experience, I conducted a scoping review of partnership literature 
in Asian countries with one of my supervisors (Liang & Matthews, 2021). One aim of the 
scoping review was to investigate whether partnership practices had gained traction among 
Chinese scholars and universities. Surprisingly, our scoping review found half (nine) of the 
identified studies were conducted in China, with six from Mainland China. Subsequently, the 
survey data we collected from three different tiered Chinese universities further confirmed 
that partnership practices are unfolding in Chinese universities, with both student and 
academic participants indicating a willingness to grow such learner-teacher interactions. 
Interestingly, though, during follow-up interviews, a significant portion of student 
participants strongly expressed a sense of “forced engagement” when engaging or desiring to 
engage in such interactions.  
 
 
“Forced engagement” as a product of involution 
 
Before elaborating on my own thoughts, I would like to briefly explain the concept of “forced 
engagement.” The phrase “forced engagement” does not refer to pressure exerted by teachers 
but rather the peer pressure that compels students to engage in certain activities. I consider 
this notion to be highly related to the situations I experienced in the Chinese university as 
described above. In China, the sense of being “forced” to engage can be attributed to the 
phenomenon of neijuan. In English, the term neijuan can be translated as involution or rat 
race, and in this reflective piece, I use involution to capture this term.  
 
Originally, involution was an anthropological term used to describe the issue of long-term 
intensive cultivation and investing a large amount of labour in agricultural societies without 
achieving economic breakthroughs (Geertz, 1963). Today, the concept of involution has been 
expanded to a phenomenon in which a model can neither stabilise nor transform or evolve 
into a new form after reaching a certain form, but instead continues to become more complex 
internally.  
 
In Chinese universities, students gradually use involution to refer to the irrational internal 
competition or being volunteered into competition among students for limited resources, 
which can be regarded as the inflation of effort. The prevalence of this phenomenon has led 
to the occurrence and perpetuation of “forced engagement.” To provide further insights into 
the experiences and feeling of students in this situation, I present two cases shared by the 
participants in my PhD studies.  
 
 
Case one: “I have to do that as everyone else is doing more.” 
 
When I communicated with students in the interviews, certain participants recounted a 
common experience with regard to their engagement in partnership practices in teaching and 
learning processes. I share the reflection of a student participant (pseudonym: Tang) from a 
top research-intensive Chinese university who was the first person to talked about involution 
in the interviews.  
 
When we had a conversation on the motivation of students to engage in such learner-teacher 
interactions, Tang said involution is currently the biggest motivation for students to engage in 
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these interactions in the university he was studying at. In doing so, teachers need not worry 
about the engagement of students. Tang then gave a simple example to explain this 
phenomenon: for an essay assignment requiring a minimum of 3000 words, students who 
wrote about 8000-10000 words received much higher scores than those who wrote about just 
4000 words. This left Tang feeling confused, as he believed if the higher word count, the 
higher score, the initial requirement of 3000 words should not be required.  
 
Unfortunately, this situation has worsened over time, and students appear to be forced to 
engage in more activities and to complete extra work above the required standard, to do more 
than peers, in order to achieve higher grades and to gain favour with teachers. Although Tang 
was uncomfortable with this phenomenon, he resolved to follow the crowd and do more in 
the face of the pressure brought by involution, as he said that he has to do that as everyone 
else is doing more. 
 
 
Case two: “I am refusing as the waves will overwhelm students out of breath.” 
 
In the same environment as presented in the previous case, some student participants in my 
PhD studies also expressed strong dissatisfaction and resistance toward the phenomenon of 
involution. A student participant (pseudonym: Niu) from a leading provincial Chinese 
university expressed that she hates the word involution, and she thinks that many students are 
deeply affected by this phenomenon.  
 
Niu reflected students always regarding teaching and learning activities and learner-teacher 
interactions solely as tools for achieving higher scores and gaining more attention from 
teachers is far from the original intention of these activities. As a result, even if students 
engage in activities and practices and put in lots of effort, it does not necessarily reflect their 
growth and the development of skills and knowledge. Moreover, Niu felt that such 
“unhealthy” competition or “forced engagement” resulting from peer pressure can potentially 
make it difficult for students to balance their time and energy between engagement, studying, 
and life.  
 
Niu indicated that a good way to escape from this predicament is refusing to engage in some 
non-compulsory activities and practices, as once students start to engage, they can easily fall 
into involution and the ever-increasing waves of pressure will eventually overwhelm them 
out of breath. 
 
 
What can involution bring to partnership? 
 
Based on the two cases presented above, my sense is that part of the ultimate aim of students 
caught in the phenomenon is still the pursuit of grades. This observation aligns with my 
personal experience with the education system in China, where grades and examinations are 
the dominant measure of student performance and success. This evaluation system, coupled 
with limited resources for the future development of students, has significantly contributed to 
the emergence and intensification of involution in Chinese universities. In addition, I noticed 
that the desire for increased attention from teachers among students has also played a pivotal 
role in promoting involution, as many of the student participants in my PhD studies truly 
believed that the benefits of such attention-building connection could positively influence in 
their academic performance and future prospects.  
3
Liang: Reflecting on the Influence of Involution to the Shaping of Pedagogical Partnerships in Chinese Universities
 
In light of the phenomenon of involution in Chinese universities, I believe that partnership 
practices can further increasingly emerge in this context, but will be premised on teachers 
exercising their leadership. I believe this because what I found in my PhD studies is that 
many teachers count student engagement in partnership and related pedagogical practices in 
students’ academic performance, and this will be a driving force behind many students falling 
into involution in relation to partnership work. However, this grade-linked approach does 
present plenty of opportunities for teachers to further explore and implement pedagogical 
partnership practices in Chinese universities, as Tang reflected that teachers do not need to 
worry about the issue of lack of student engagement. Nonetheless, the negative impact of 
involution on the meaningful development of partnership in Chinese universities has 
provoked more reflection and concerns from me. 
 
I cannot and should not directly judge whether the growing individualism among students in 
involution is right or wrong; in a highly competitive environment such as Chinese society, 
most people may tend to choose the most advantageous paths for their survival and 
development and continually adapt to changing social norms. However, if we only consider 
the nature of partnership, involution indeed poses many challenges. While I am eager to see 
meaningful exploration and evolution of partnership in Chinese universities, the reality 
contradicts the ideals, and I have thus encountered a paradox. 
 
When I talk about partnership, the first thought that comes to my mind is that partnership is 
fundamentally about meaningful and creative learner-teacher relationships in teaching and 
learning (Matthews et al., 2018). The reason why the learner-teacher relationships are 
meaningful and creative is that the taken-for-granted identities of, and assumed power 
arrangement between, students and teachers are reshaped during the development of 
partnership. These changes bring opportunities for students and teachers to work together to 
co-contribute and bring new awareness of responsibility to rethink how to be students and 
teachers. As Cook-Sather et al. (2014) explained, pedagogical partnership is “a collaborative, 
reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, 
although not necessarily in the same ways, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualisation, 
decision making, implementation, investigation, or analysis” (pp. 6-7).  
 
These partnership ideals seem to me to be unrealistic when partnership is embedded in the 
learner-teacher relationships surrounded by involution. Situated in the context of involution, 
students’ utilitarianism appears to me to be a major challenge to the building of meaningful 
learner-teacher relationships. Even with increased engagement, I am not sure whether 
students’ perceptions of their identity will change. If student commitment to participation in 
partnership work is all an illusion created by utilitarian desire, teachers may be fooled by this 
illusion, even if they have desire to make changes. Even if the illusion is noticed, I worry that 
it may be ignored by teachers’ self-deception brought about by the sense of accomplishment. 
Then, when students and teachers cannot truly resonate with each other, the building of the 
partnership is just a repetition of the previous relationship under a gorgeous appearance.  
 
For these reasons, I am concerned that in Chinese universities, the outcome of simply 
designing expected practices may not align with the nature of partnership. Of course, the best 
solution is to have changes on the student evaluation systems in Chinese universities. 
However, due to the governance structure of Chinese universities, this seems to be beyond 
the ability and duty of students and teachers. Therefore, I think the role of teachers will be 
important in breaking through involution in exploring and enacting partnerships. To my 
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mind, when teachers exercise their leadership, instead of mainly focusing on how to involve 
students into partnership practices, they should pay more attention and think about how to 
take actions to dispel students’ competitive emotions that reduce the influence from 
involution. This could be achieved by removing the ties to student grades, or by creating 
“rules” to maintain an equal and respectful engagement environment. These actions may 
greatly reduce the enthusiasm of students who are embracing utilitarianism, but at least they 
may ensure to a greater extent that those who are genuinely interested in engaging can obtain 
authentic experience and feelings. Although partnership emphasises equal opportunities for 
community members to engage and contribute, in the environment of involution, I think it 
may be a more effective way that a few members to experience and build awareness first, and 
then motivate the majority.  
 
 
References 
 
Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C., & Felten, P. (2014). Engaging students as partners in learning 
and teaching: A guide for faculty. Josey-Bass. 
 
Geertz, C. (1963). Agricultural involution: The processes of ecological change in Indonesia. 
University of California Press. 
 
Liang, Y., & Matthews, K. E. (2021). Students as partners practices and theorisations in Asia: 
A scoping review. Higher Education Research & Development, 40(3), 552–566. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1773771  
 
Liang, Y., & Matthews, K. E. (2022). Are Confucian educational values a barrier to engaging 
students as partners in Chinese universities? Higher Education Research & Development, 1-
14. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2138276  
 
Matthews, K. E., Dwyer, A., Hine, L., & Turner, J. (2018). Conceptions of students as 
partners. Higher Education, 76(6), 957–971. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0257-y  
 
5
Liang: Reflecting on the Influence of Involution to the Shaping of Pedagogical Partnerships in Chinese Universities


Reflecting on the Influence of Involution to the Shaping of Pedagogical Partnerships in Chinese Universities

Chhibber, Anish

Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education 
Volume 1 
Issue 40 Fostering Inclusive Learning 
Communities Together 
Article 5 
July 2023 
The Liberal Politics of Diversity: Behind the Black Square 
Anish Chhibber 
Northumbria University 
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Recommended Citation 
Chhibber, Anish "The Liberal Politics of Diversity: Behind the Black Square," Teaching and Learning 
Together in Higher Education: Iss. 40 (2023), https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss40/5 
THE LIBERAL POLITICS OF DIVERSITY: BEHIND THE BLACK SQUARE 
 
Anish Chhibber, Postgraduate (PhD) Researcher, Department of Geography and Environmental 
Science, Northumbria University, Class of 2024   
 
 
Inspired by scholars such as Stefanie Boulila, Sara Ahmed, and Alana Lentin, the image I created 
draws on Boulila’s Race in Post-racial Europe. The piece, Behind the Black Square, attempts to 
illustrate that liberal diversity paradigms are disconnected from anti-racist, feminist, and queer 
political traditions; act as a shield to avoid accountability for complicity in the oppression of 
marginalized identities; denigrate claims for social justice; and thus perpetuate the status quo 
rather than being counter-hegemonic. 
 
 
Behind the Black Square 
 
Originally this was intended to be an opinion piece, reflecting on my experiences of institutional 
performativity and the liberal politics of diversity in the charity sector and the university. 
However, realizing I could not anonymize the piece, I decided to put together a diagram that 
illustrated the tension between the liberal politics of diversity and the principles and goals of 
anti-racist activism. I found that Stefanie Boulila’s (2019) chapter, ‘But We Are All Different! 
Diversity and the Depoliticization of Anti-Racism,’ resonated with my experiences and provided 
a way to make sense of this tension. 
 
A commitment to diversity becomes shorthand for being against racism, sexism, and 
homophobia—even when that is not the case. However, this commitment has a 
performative character as it creates the institution as a realm that has overcome structural 
inequalities. By embracing diversity’s vagueness and its refusal to account for specific 
histories of oppression, institutions become spaces of cheerful pride (Boulila, 2019, p. 
130). 
 
The suggestion that equality does not require social movements, but merely top-down 
liberal institutional practices, denies the material histories of the transformations that the 
feminist, queer and antiracist movements have brought about (Boulila, 2019, p. 128). 
  
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Chhibber: The Liberal Politics of Diversity
 
 
Fig.1 Behind the Black Square 
 
In an institution that has mastered its language, antiracist, queer or feminist claims can be 
framed as excessive and destructive and thus illegitimate (Lentin, 2011). Within a context 
where a politically empty promise of equality is embraced, antiracist critique quickly 
becomes ‘too extreme’ (Boulila, 2019, p, 129). 
 
Diversity is lacking a radical history indebted to an intellectual and political movement; 
instead it has historically operated as a top-down discourse… whilst feminist, antiracist 
and queer movements are historically marked by social and political struggles oriented 
against dominant structures and norms, diversity has been restricted to a cheerful, 
affirmative language that is ambiguous and decontextualised… An ahistorical account of 
difference allows for the concerns of marginalised groups to be swept aside in favour of a 
liberal political project that allows for hegemonic positions to dominate the space of 
diversity and difference (Boulila, 2019, pp. 128–130). 
 
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Academic Commentary 
 
In the summer of 2020, the violent murder of George Floyd by police officers in the US sparked 
global anti-racist political mobilizations. Whilst protests took place in the streets, institutions and 
corporations across Britain and the world made declarations on social media against racism and 
pledging solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests (some sincere and some performative). 
The image I created (Fig. 1) was inspired by Stefanie Boulila’s book Race in Post-racial Europe, 
specifically the chapter on diversity and the depoliticization of anti-racism. The chapter, largely 
influenced by key scholars such as Sara Ahmed (2012) and Alana Lentin (2011), demonstrates 
how liberal diversity paradigms are disconnected from anti-racist, feminist, and queer political 
traditions; act as a shield to avoid accountability for complicity in the oppression of marginalized 
identities; denigrate claims for social justice; and thus perpetuate the status quo rather than being 
counter-hegemonic.  
 
The image attempts to impose three elements related to the spectacle of social media statements 
on top of each other. The black surface of the cube represents the black squares that were shared 
across social media during this time, where institutions, corporations, and organizations quickly 
reproduced this performative gesture. The inner part of the cube represents deeper manifestations 
of racism that anti-racist movements have highlighted in the past and which liberal diversity 
paradigms often fail to address or consider irrelevant. Finally, the quotes by Boulila that frame 
the image flesh out how and why liberal diversity paradigms are disconnected from anti-racist 
and other political traditions, even though these realms are often presented as one and the same. 
 
 
References 
 
Ahmed, S. (2012). On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham, NC: 
Duke University Press. 
 
Boulila, S. (2019). Race in Post-racial Europe. London: Rowman & Littlefield International. 
 
Lentin, A. (2011). What Happens to Anti-Racism When We Are Post Race? Feminist Legal 
Studies, 19, 159. 
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Chhibber: The Liberal Politics of Diversity


The Liberal Politics of Diversity: Behind the Black Square

Aftab, Zaynah

Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education 
Volume 1 
Issue 40 Fostering Inclusive Learning 
Communities Together 
Article 11 
July 2023 
The Power of University 
Zaynah Aftab 
Northumbria University 
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 Part of the Higher Education and Teaching Commons 
Let us know how access to this document benefits you. 
Recommended Citation 
Aftab, Zaynah "The Power of University," Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education: Iss. 40 
(2023), https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss40/11 
THE POWER OF UNIVERSITY 
 
Zaynah Aftab, Department of Humanities, Northumbria University, Class of 2021  
 
 
Despite the pandemic, the rise and uptake of the ‘class of 2021’ has been incredible, showing 
dedication and commitment throughout university education. Students have graduated with 
degrees, representing a massive stepping-stone to their futures and careers. Universities have put 
students’ health and well-being at the forefront to keep them safe, while some students are living 
at home and others are not. However, online learning has not been effective for all students, 
mainly those from ethnic minorities. As a result, in this creation task, equality, diversity, and 
inclusion have been observed and how this has affected education and mental health. This piece 
comments on two published artworks: The Aesthetics of Nature (Luadthong, 2020) and a 
drawing of a young man smiling, while inside his mind a boy sits alone crying (author and title 
unknown, n.d.). 
 
 
Commentary  
 
The artwork The Aesthetics of Nature (Luadthong, 2020) is meaningful as it represents the future 
lives of university students after their degree. University success in the long term is positive, as 
with a degree and opportunity, students can get good careers and build a future for themselves, 
especially if students specialize in a subject. By working up the career ladder and exploring 
opportunities available, long-term success can be inspirational to others. Short-term success, on 
the other hand, can be a struggle in regard to stepping onto the ‘other side’ straight away and 
getting there with little or no support. The university has opportunities for students and advice 
with this issue, helping them ‘get their foot in the door’ and be the best they can overall. 
Learning difficulties are another factor which should also be taken into consideration. Some 
students may not know about future job prospects in line with their degree and may struggle to 
find opportunities after they graduate. University life introduces students to the adult world and 
helps students develop their social skills through diverse societies. Geographical location has an 
impact on how diverse universities are in general, and can affect the number of students 
attending from ethnic minorities. This, in turn, can have an impact on equality, diversity and 
inclusion.  
 
The second artwork—a drawing of a young man smiling, while inside his mind a boy sits alone 
crying (author and title unknown)—shows that, sometimes, there are barriers that university 
students face in terms of their mental health, racism, and tuition fees. A student can look happy 
on the outside, although on the inside could be burning down. There is still racism and sexual 
harassment that goes on behind the scenes that everyone turns a blind eye to. More must be done 
for people to speak out if they feel targeted or left out from certain projects and courses. They 
need to have a place to go if they feel they are not being heard with their concerns. Tuition fees 
have become a concern during the pandemic, with teaching being transferred to online learning. 
This suggests some learners, such as those who learn best kinesthetically, may struggle to 
develop with this teaching method. Therefore, there should be other opportunities available for 
1
Aftab: The Power of University
face-to-face learning for those who want to receive it. Fees could also discourage students from 
going to university, especially during the pandemic if they have little or no support.  
 
 
References 
 
Author unknown. (n.d.). Available at  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/650629477402393413/  
 
Luadthong, T. (2020). The Aesthetics of Nature. https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-
aesthetics-of-nature-tithi-luadthong.html  
 
 
 
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The Power of University

Ali, Huzayfah

Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education 
Volume 1 
Issue 40 Fostering Inclusive Learning 
Communities Together 
Article 19 
July 2023 
'Seeds of Success:' Short-Term and Long-Term Success, and the 
Barriers that University Students May Face 
Huzayfah Ali 
Northumbria University 
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 Part of the Higher Education and Teaching Commons 
Let us know how access to this document benefits you. 
Recommended Citation 
Ali, Huzayfah "'Seeds of Success:' Short-Term and Long-Term Success, and the Barriers that University 
Students May Face," Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education: Iss. 40 (2023), 
https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss40/19 
‘SEEDS OF SUCCESS:’ SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM SUCCESS, AND THE BARRIERS THAT 
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS MAY FACE 
 
Huzayfah Ali, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, 
Class of 2023 
 
 
We all want to be successful. The problem is that we stay focused on what others do, including 
the grades they get, instead of caring for ourselves. For university students, this can have a 
negative impact on their ability to be successful—as every student is different, the idea that they 
all want to, or can, attain the same goal is ridiculous. Real success, however, is about making 
your own goals and measuring your progress against yourself, so that you can aim towards the 
best possible outcome for yourself. Outside of university, it is important for students to work 
towards their own goals for success and think about how that will help them to grow and 
improve in the future. UK higher education institutions (HEIs) need to acknowledge this and find 
new ways to engage and encourage the ever-changing student body so that they can achieve 
success. This piece examines what HEIs can do to ensure students can succeed, irrespective of 
their circumstances, and how representing differences in students’ success can improve the 
university experience for all. 
 
 
Seeds of Success 
 
Success can be defined in many ways, but I believe that it can be described best as the 
achievement of something that you have been trying to do (Roy, 2019). By this logic, a clear 
understanding of what success ‘is’ should mean that students can more easily attain it. However, 
there are many problems that students face in achieving success, both during and after university. 
Fundamentally, the expectation to be successful in education can be difficult for many students, 
and the pressures they may face can often overwhelm them. The desire and need to be successful 
has been ingrained in many students’ minds from the beginning of their lives. The issue that I see 
with this is that it leads us to lose focus on the other things that are important for our well-being, 
outside of classrooms and exam halls, that can help us to get to a point of success in university 
(University of Western Sydney, 2021). Therefore, I believe that success is like a plant seed that 
is influenced by a variety of factors that can either impede or support the growth of that seed.  
 
For university students, the idea of success needs to be realized at the start of their degree when 
people can set their own realistic goals for success. To care for their ‘seeds’ (continuing the 
analogy) that will lead to success, students need to realize what they need to do within university 
and outside of it to ensure that the seeds grow into their own idea of success (University of 
Western Sydney, 2021). Furthermore, students need to understand that there are barriers to 
success, such as self-doubt when comparing one’s own ideas of success with others. It is 
important to make sure that students stay focused on themselves and not on other people, as this 
helps to ensure that success is truly achieved.  
 
Other barriers to success that I find are overlooked are those related to EDIS (equality, diversity, 
inclusion, and sustainability). Feeling a lack of inclusion has been shown to distance students 
1
Ali: 'Seeds of Success'
during their time at university, impeding their level of engagement, which in turn reduces their 
likelihood of being successful, as they do not aspire to achieve any goals (Bush, 2021). As 
inclusion is strongly influenced by equality and diversity, through the welcoming of people from 
a variety of backgrounds or groups, it can be seen why an inclusive environment is so important. 
Inclusion is therefore an imperative to improve the probability of success for students at HEIs 
(City, University of London, 2020). Through these factors working together, a welcoming 
environment can be created so that success can grow and flourish at university. Another factor is 
sustainability, which may seem at first glance to be unrelated to the topic of success, but in fact is 
just as important as other factors. Sustainability education relates to all school subjects and 
includes knowledge that extends far beyond the classroom, since it educates and gives students 
real-world skills which they can use to enrich their lives by helping the planet (Setó-Pamies & 
Papaoikonomou, 2015). Providing students with broader knowledge about the world around 
them and how they can act sustainably greatly benefits students after university, helping many of 
them to have higher aspirations post-studying. 
 
There are still many barriers that students face at university. While HEIs should be obliged to 
work towards removing these, finding solutions to these problems is not easy. During my time at 
university, I worked as a student inclusion consultant, helping to remove the barriers that 
students faced, hoping that I could help students be more successful by improving their 
university experience. Here I was able to work with staff and help to improve university-
produced materials so that they were more inclusive and useful for students. This experience 
helped me, not only by being able to talk about the issues I faced with inclusion at university, but 
also by allowing me to develop new skills for achieving success, both short and long term. 
 
 
Short and Long-Term Success 
 
Success should be thought of as comprising both short-term and long-term goals, due to the 
amount of work that is required to achieve them. For both time frames, the most important thing 
that I can say about success is that it cannot be achieved overnight, as the work a person does 
throughout their time at university and in their career is what leads to success. This is important 
to remember when defining both sets of goals. Long-terms goals can be described as the goals 
you set for your future, while short-term goals are an integral part of the planning to achieve 
them (Columbia College Calgary, 2018). Short-term goals help as a sort of stepping stone for 
students to achieve their long-term goals. Moreover, the idea of short-term success can be seen 
best when students graduate and leave university to pursue further education or employment, as 
these coincide with their longer-term goals (O’Shea & Delahunty, 2019). On the other hand, the 
routes to long-term success can be just as varied and idiosyncratic as those to achieving short-
term success. Often, the efforts of further work and development can lead to people reaching 
their long-term goals, as the experience and skills that students pick up from university carry 
through into later life—skills such as critical thinking, which can help people be successful in 
other aspects of their lives. It is therefore imperative that students realize a structure for reaching 
success through short and long-term goals. But it is also important not to feel upset or 
disheartened if these goals change due to unforeseeable circumstances, as seen within the global 
pandemic. 
 
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Conclusion  
 
Success is a complex and ever-changing entity, and one that is difficult to define. There are many 
different lenses through which to view success, as it can only be defined based upon what an 
individual thinks it means be successful in their own life. Every student is different, so the idea 
that they all want to, or can, attain the same goal is ridiculous (Smith & White, 2014). Some 
people may prioritize educational success from university, while others will favor financial 
success after completing their degree (University of Western Sydney, 2021). Nonetheless, it is 
possible for everyone to be successful—it just depends on their ability to work towards their 
goals and their ideologies of success. The only benchmark by which you should measure success 
is through your own progress and achievements. It takes time and effort to achieve your goals—
just like it takes time for a seed to grow. 
 
 
References 
 
Bush, M. (2021). Why Is Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace Important? Great Place to 
Work®. https://www.greatplacetowork.com/resources/blog/why-is-diversity-inclusion-in-the-
workplace-important  
 
City, University of London. (2020). Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. 
https://www.city.ac.uk/about/vision-and-strategy/equality/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-
strategy  
 
Columbia College Calgary. (2018). Importance of Having Short and Long Term Goals.  
https://www.columbia.ab.ca/importance-short-long-term-goals/ 
 
O’Shea, S., & Delahunty, J. (2019). What does success mean to you? Be surprised what it means 
to our uni students. EduResearch Matters. https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=4432 
 
Roy, I. (2019). How to define your own version of success. https://imogenroy.com/blog/how-to-
define-success-for-yourself 
 
Setó-Pamies, D., & Papaoikonomou, E. (2015). A Multi-level Perspective for the Integration of 
Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability (ECSRS) in Management Education. 
Journal of Business Ethics 136: 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2535-7 
 
Smith, E., & White, P. (2014). What makes a successful undergraduate? The relationship 
between student characteristics, degree subject and academic success at university. British 
Educational Research Journal 41(4): 686–708. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3158 
 
Western Sydney University. (2021). What is ‘success’ at uni? 
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Ali: 'Seeds of Success'


\u27Seeds of Success:\u27 Short-Term and Long-Term Success, and the Barriers that University Students May Face

Bryn Mawr College

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