scholarly journals Co-Creation of the Curriculum: Challenging the Status Quo to Embed Partnership

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Lubicz-Nawrocka
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Collaborative Teaching ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Innovative Process ◽  
The Status

Many individuals in the higher education sector claim that co-creation of the curriculum is an innovative process of student engagement in which students and staff members become partners in curriculum development. This research analyses rare instances of co-creation of the curriculum in the Scottish higher education sector to understand individuals’ different conceptualisations of this collaborative teaching and learning practice. The researcher interviewed ten academic members of staff and ten students who participated in co-creation of the curriculum in Scotland to analyse their perspectives of the benefits as well as the challenges of this form of active student engagement. Staff and students participating in co-creation of the curriculum encounter such challenges as staff and students taking on different responsibilities, increased time and effort involved and institutional inertia as they challenge the status quo. This paper will explore how individuals have overcome these challenges to embed partnership and achieve strong benefits of co-creation of the curriculum, including shared ownership and the engagement of both students and staff in the learning community and their increased satisfaction and professional development resulting from working in partnership.

scholarly journals Facebook in tertiary education: The impact of social media in e-Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
Christina Giannikas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Learning Management Systems ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Course Management System ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
The Status ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The Impact

The present study provides insights on the impact of using Facebook in e-learning higher education postgraduate programs. More specifically, the study (1) presents the status quo of Facebook in higher education, (2) explores the nature of Facebook in e-learning, and (3) investigates the effects of Facebook on learning community, focusing on their viewpoints. The findings reveal that the majority of the students think favorably of Facebook groups as they conveniently supplement Learning Management Systems (LMS). The survey also indicates that there was an interactive learning element to the use of Facebook that made it more appealing than their university’s Course Management System (CMS) to use during the course.

scholarly journals Leaning Out in higher education: A structural, postcolonial perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Economic Sphere ◽  
The Status

A new kind of gender equality ideology is rising in popularity in Western societies. While emphasising gender equality for the next generation, this new ideology sees feminism in a pragmatic and simplistic way, as nonthreatening to the status quo, in politics, popular culture, and economy. In the economic sphere, Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” has become well known for aiming to guide women to succeed alongside men in the workplace by changing their behaviours and attitudes. Its recommendations for women have impacted perspectives in the non- rofit and start-up worlds, arts, and more. However, there are some limitations to the kind of feminist thinking exemplified by Lean In. This article critically examines Lean In as a discourse or ideology in relation to higher education within and outside Western societies. I argue first that such ideology employs a deficiency model of gender equality that makes women accountable for sexism by focusing on internal rather than external change. Second, I argue that such discourses essentialize gender. Third, I argue that it is not easy to translate the advice given to women across international contexts, as Lean In reflects cultural conceptions of the workplace.

Mindset and Social Entrepreneurship: Japanese Self-initiated Expatriate Entrepreneurs in Cambodia

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuko Yokoyama ◽  
Sarah Louisa Birchley
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
Extended Study ◽  
The Status ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Context Characteristics ◽  
Initial Research

This research is based on an extended study of Japanese self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs (SIEEs) in Asia. Since 2015 the authors have explored various factors that influence SIEEs when setting up enterprises overseas, including the ability to take initiative; support and encouragement from family, a well-defined career anchor and exposure to overseas in the exploration stage of one’s career. An emerging trend is the desire to engage in social development activities, which has seen increasing numbers of Japanese leave well-paid companies at home to work in NGOs in developing countries. An extension of this can be seen in Japanese who choose to become self-initiated expatriate social entrepreneurs. This article focuses specifically on cases collected in Cambodia and attempts to explain how and why Japanese decide to become self-initiated expatriate social entrepreneurs in Cambodia using the concept of mindsets; entrepreneurial, social, sustainable and global. Initial research shows that some of these individuals exemplify the definition of sustainable entrepreneurship as they are creative and question the status quo in order to seek new opportunities for societal improvement ( Bornstein, 2007 ) and have multiple mindsets behind their actions. This research paper shares the context, characteristics, and outcomes of Japanese self-initiated expatriate social entrepreneurs in Cambodia and concludes by suggesting how knowledge of these SIEEs can be used in higher education contexts in Japan to improve entrepreneurship education.

Professional community and student engagement in higher education: rethinking the contributions of professional staff

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaw Owusu-Agyeman ◽  
Enna Moroeroe
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Culture ◽  
The University

PurposeScholarly studies on student engagement are mostly focused on the perceptions of students and academic staff of higher education institutions (HEIs) with a few studies concentrating on the perspectives of professional staff. To address this knowledge gap, this paper aims to examine how professional staff who are members of a professional community perceive their contributions to enhancing student engagement in a university.Design/methodology/approachData for the current study were gathered using semi-structured face-to-face interviews among 41 professional staff who were purposively sampled from a public university in South Africa. The data gathered were analysed using thematic analysis that involved a process of identifying, analysing, organising, describing and reporting the themes that emerged from the data set.FindingsAn analysis of the narrative data revealed that when professional staff provide students with prompt feedback, support the development of their social and cultural capital and provide professional services in the area of teaching and learning, they foster student engagement in the university. However, the results showed that poor communication flow and delays in addressing students’ concerns could lead to student disengagement. The study further argues that through continuous interaction and shared norms and values among members of a professional community, a service culture can be developed to address possible professional knowledge and skills gaps that constrain quality service delivery.Originality/valueThe current paper contributes to the scholarly discourse on student engagement and professional community by showing that a service culture of engagement is developed among professional staff when they share ideas, collaborate and build competencies to enhance student engagement. Furthermore, the collaboration between professional staff and academics is important to addressing the academic issues that confront students in the university.

A Model to Build an Intercultural Professional Learning Community in a Latin American Higher Education Network

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Piergiuseppe Ellerani
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Video Research ◽  
Education Network

This chapter concerns the research project carried out in a confederation of Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) in seven Latin American countries. Considering the intercultural background of IHE, the universities defined a new profile of their teachers and other human resources by setting up a new model of teaching and learning based on a “learning process” and shifting the paradigm of learning to “centered teaching.” In this chapter, three characteristics of this process are presented: the first one refers to the profile built as the “product” of an Intercultural Community of Thought; the second one refers to a participatory process, called “the value cycle,” as a working model that allows one to co-construct profiles of university teachers, administrative staff, and human resources staff; the third one presents the tools and the technologies using both of them (Personal and Social Virtual Learning Environment based on Web 2.0, the Human Resource Management Tool, Video-Research, E-Portfolio). The project, carried out through action-research, defines a shared idea of the quality of teaching, a research based and supported by tools, that allows teacher self-assessment as well as the possibility to monitor the quality of universities and to develop plans for continuous improvements by building a community of learning. Qualitative and quantitative studies' data are given.

scholarly journals A posthumanist pedagogy using digital text analysis to enhance critical thinking in higher education

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 845-880
Author(s):  
Kieran O'Halloran
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Analysis Software ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Digital Text ◽  
The Status ◽  
Project Assignment ◽  
Independent Thinking

Abstract I model a critical posthumanist pedagogy that uses text analysis software and is aimed at higher education students. A key purpose of the pedagogy is to help students enhance empathetic, critical and independent thinking. For their project assignment, the student chooses an unfamiliar campaign seeking to eliminate suffering and extend rights. They gather all texts from the campaign website into a corpus, which thus represents the campaign writ large. Then they use appropriate software to ascertain, efficiently and rigorously, common campaign concerns across this corpus. This puts students in a position to discern any significant concerns in the campaign corpus that are not addressed in text(s) supporting the status quo which the campaign opposes. Should significant omissions be found, students critically evaluate the status quo text(s) from the campaign’s perspective. Since this perspective derives from the student identifying (at least temporarily) with software generated data, it is a posthuman subjectivity. Engaging digitally and empathetically with a campaign’s data at scale for creation of a posthuman subjectivity can broaden awareness of disadvantage, discrimination, and suffering as well as expand horizons. Moreover, at the end of the assignment, the student is expected to formulate their own position vis-à-vis the previously unfamiliar campaign. Conditions have been created then for the student to enhance independent thinking too.

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

2020 ◽  
Vol 113 (10) ◽  
pp. e51-e57
Author(s):  
Eric Milou
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Mathematics Courses ◽  
The Status ◽  
Innovative Approaches

When so many students fail higher education mathematics courses every year and many more students pass courses that do not prepare them for their future, we need innovative approaches to fixing this significant dilemma.

scholarly journals Identified Challenges from Faculty Teaching at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions after Abrupt Transition to Emergency Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 556
Author(s):  
Blake C. Colclasure ◽  
AnnMarie Marlier ◽  
Mary F. Durham ◽  
Tessa Durham Brooks ◽  
Mekenzie Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Midwest United States ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Faculty Teaching ◽  
Learning Patterns ◽  
Undergraduate Institutions

COVID-19 has been one of the most significant disruptors of higher education in modern history. Higher education institutions rapidly transitioned to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in mid-to-late March of 2020. The extent of COVID-19’s impact on teaching and learning, and the resulting challenges facilitating ERT during this time, likely varied by faculty, institutional, and geographical characteristics. In this study, we identified challenges in teaching and learning during the initial transition to ERT at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) in the Midwest, United States. We conducted in-depth interviews with 14 faculty teaching at Midwestern PUIs to explore their lived experiences. We describe the most overarching challenges related to faculty teaching through four emergent themes: pedagogical changes, work-life balance, face-to-face interactions, and physical and mental health. Five themes emerged that we used to describe the most overarching challenges related to students and their learning: learning patterns, technology access, additional responsibilities, learning community, and mental health. Based upon the identified challenges, we provide broad recommendations that can be used to foster a more successful transition to ERT in unforeseen regional or global crises in the future.

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