1,721,006 research outputs found
Epilogue : continuing the conversation
No full textTo close this work, we provide an epilogue that looks towards the implications of academic identities research in university contexts internationally. As is customary in an epilogue, here we take stock of the contributions to this volume, and offer comment about what might be ahead for those who remain concerned about, and interested in, the state of academic identities and its attendant practices, research and scholarship
Exploration of how curriculum co-creation advances student and staff aims for Scottish higher education
Get PDFThe Scottish higher education landscape has been evolving to place a greater
emphasis on student engagement, in common with the higher education sector
internationally. In the last ten years, discussion of curriculum co-creation and
student/staff partnerships in learning and teaching have become increasingly
prevalent in facilitating high levels of both student and staff engagement. My study
seeks to provide a deeper understanding of what curriculum co-creation means in
practice at Scottish universities, and how this approach affects students, staff, and
their higher education institutions.
My thesis focuses on how undergraduate students and staff at Scottish universities
conceptualise co-creation of the curriculum, and how these conceptualisations relate
to their aims for students within higher education. I draw on a wide range of
interdisciplinary literature to examine aims for higher education and key themes in 21st
Century higher education. I position co-creation of the curriculum within the wider
literature on student development, student engagement, and student/staff
partnerships while also looking at how different conceptualisations of the higher
education curriculum affect how it can be co-created.
I integrate different methodologies into my multi-phase, qualitative study. Through
criterion and snowball sampling, I identified 24 staff and student co-creation
practitioners at five Scottish universities who engaged in 15 curriculum co-creation
initiatives. I conducted 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and one focus group
discussion with these individuals during Phase 1. In Phases 2 and 3, I incorporated
photo-elicitation methods embedded in an arts-based approach within four further
focus group discussions and worked with two undergraduate student co-researchers
using co-inquiry methods to learn from 25 students and staff who were not co-creating
curricula. Drawing on aspects of a constructivist grounded theory approach, I
analysed cross-cutting themes which emerged. My findings focus on participants’
aims for higher education, conceptualisations of student engagement and curriculum
co-creation, and the benefits and challenges of co-creating curricula.
I offer a new definition of curriculum co-creation that extends beyond broad notions of
student/staff collaborations in curriculum development. I define the term as the
values-based implementation of an ongoing, creative, and mutually-beneficial process of staff and students working together to share and negotiate decisionmaking about aspects of higher education curricula. Examining further the notions of
creativity in curriculum development, innovation to develop enjoyment of learning and
resilience, and democratic engagement to promote positive civic impact are particular
contributions that my research makes to deepen current understandings of cocreation of the curriculum. I advance connections between risk in curriculum cocreation and the development of self-authorship to help individuals face complex
challenges and develop stronger democratic societies. Curriculum co-creation enacts
participants’ aims to foster not only individuals’ personal and professional
development but also their ability to advance social justice and have a positive impact
on their communities
Experiences of Muslim academics in UK Higher Education Institutions
Get PDFThe intertwining of political, economic, societal and global changes has resulted in
accentuating even more so the ‘Muslim question’, both domestically and globally.
Research has shown that the negative focus Muslims and Islam receive in the West is
becoming increasingly mainstreamed, not only through the media, but principally
through mainstream political discourse. This mainstreaming is within a global and
local narrative of a ‘war on terror’. The former followed 9/11 at the outset of this
millennium and the latter is represented in the myriad of ‘anti-terrorism’ initiatives
recently augmented in the UK by the Prevent duty. This intensely hostile backdrop
has nurtured ‘normative truths’ about Muslims / Islam. Although Islamophobia did
exist long before 9/11, it has now become commonplace and, even, legitimised
within the context of tackling terrorism, affecting the experiences of the majority of
Muslims in the West and elsewhere in diverse ways.
British academia has opened its doors to non-traditional academics, including those
from racial and/or ethnic minority backgrounds. Equality policies have been
developed, particularly subsequent to the Race Relation Amendment (2000), which
has sought to fulfil the recommendations of the Macpherson report (1999).
Nevertheless, inequalities do permeate British academia and the experiences of non-traditional
academics have been tainted by institutional racism, in both quantity and
quality. Statistics attest the former, highlighting the underrepresentation of non-traditional
academics in British academia, more particularly in senior leadership and
professorial positions. Empirical research findings attest the latter through citing
several factors, including career trajectory barriers and the double standards racial
bias that operates in a subtle way within higher education institutions (HEIs).
These broader and institutional dimensions set the scene for this thesis, the aim of
which is to examine the experiences of Muslim academics. The particular
experiences of this group of academics have been ignored in previous research, as
faith/belief matters have largely been overlooked in studies that explored the
experiences of minority academics.
This thesis adopts a qualitative approach utilising theoretical bricolage that
principally draws on Critical Race Theory (CRT). The notion of race in CRT is,
however, expanded to include faith/belief. The thesis also draws on Post-colonial and
De-colonial theories, Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’ and Fraser’s model of ‘status
recognition’. It explores the perceptions of Muslim academic participants regarding
their own personal/professional identities and how Muslim academics negotiate their
Muslim-ness in academia and considers how wider narratives have influenced how
they speak about their ‘Muslim identity’. The views of the participants are
particularly important to examine the extent to which, if any, the ‘normative truths’
have penetrated academia. This thesis also examines the perceptions of the
participants regarding their career experiences and considers whether the experiences
of this group of Muslim academics corresponds to, or differs from, the experiences of
their fellow non-traditional academics.
The Whiteness of the academy was an overarching theme, under which the
participants’ experiences of racism vis-a-vis job opportunities, career advancement
and the multi-faced forms of epistemic racism were discussed. Exceptionalism
seemed to be a pre-requisite of gaining a positive experience. Not only did
exceptionalism temper perceptions of ‘otherness’, but being exceptional was an
aspect that advanced the career trajectories of some of the participants. Silence was
another major theme that recurred in various forms across the fieldwork. These
silences appear to have been a consequence of the wider stigmatisation of the
Muslim identity, which became evident in the ways some of the participants chose to
go about interpreting, or declaring, their Muslim-ness in their workplace. While
being Muslim created challenges and required some of the participants to exert
substantive negotiations and efforts to fit in, it was advantageous for others, in terms
of their career trajectories. Religious micro-aggressions were habitual to the
participants with regards to their interactions with staff, and this was particularly
acute for females wearing the hijab, where the religious micro-aggressions in HEIs
took on a gendered aspect of the ‘Muslim problem’. Silence also penetrated the
narratives in relation to issues of institutional racism. Networking with other non-white
academics was another main theme that featured in the accounts. Muslim
academic participants, like other non-traditional academics seek support and
mentorship from other minoritised academics to be able to survive in academia.
The current study concludes by suggesting that there is a need for more consideration
to be given to the aspects of faith/belief in HE policy and practice. This needs to be
conducted within a framework that acknowledges the existence of religious
microaggressions and the overwhelming normativism of Whiteness in academia
What can academic development learn from the Health Humanities?
Get PDFThe Health Humanities is a movement that seeks to promote engagement with arts and humanities disciplines as a way of helping professionals, patients, informal carers and members of the public to understand healthcare more fully. In this paper I draw parallels between health and learning and suggest that a similar approach would be of value for academic developers working with colleagues and students. I indicate the potential scope for the Learning Arts and Humanities, and provide examples of existing practice, in which the methods and sensibilities of literary studies are shedding light on learning and teaching in Higher Education.<br/
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Transformation and Stoic pedagogy in Seneca's Epistulae Morales
No full textPutting ourselves in the picture: art workshops in the professional development of university lecturers.
Get PDFNurse education is characterised by dissonance, ambiguity and uncertainty. Such a context makes demands on the educator’s authenticity or sense of self. This paper reports an attempt to provide a space where dissonance, ambiguity and uncertainty could be held, tolerated and examined and where authenticity could be recovered or developed through the practice of artistry. Three art workshops were offered to 8 nurse educators over a period of three months. Each of the participants and the co-facilitator were subsequently interviewed. All welcomed the opportunity to find meaning in their practice and to be listened to in a climate of empathy, acceptance and congruence. They undertook novel activities that allowed for discovery and surprise. They explored their sense of self and coined fresh metaphors to communicate their experiences. The paper argues that there is room for approaches to academic staff development that go against the mainstream
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Surprising spaces : artistry in university lecturers' professional development
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