99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Ignite Talk (20 slides in 5 minutes)
Doing the Right Thing? An Exploration of the Construction of, and Response to, ‘Disadvantage’ by Teachers in English Secondary Schools.
Una Lodge
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Presenting Author: Lodge, Una
Inspired by the Foucault’s observation that ‘People know what they do, they frequently know why they do what they do, but what they don’t know is what what they do does’ (Foucault, cited in Dreyfus and Rabinow 1983, p. 187), I am seeking to understand better what is happening in English schools in respect of a group classified as ‘disadvantaged’, with a focus specifically on teachers’ responses to these individuals.
The research questions for my PhD study are: How is ‘disadvantage’ understood by teachers in secondary schools? How is this understanding reflected in their response to ‘disadvantaged’ students? And what are the effects of this understanding on the teachers and the way in which the school operates?
The word ‘disadvantaged’ is used in English schools to describe those students eligible for free school meals (and thus the payment of additional money in the form of ‘Pupil Premium’ to their schools) because of low family income (2015). However, in common usage, the word also carries with it a range of associations and judgements linked particularly to issues of social class, ethnicity, and conceptualisations of good parenting. Whilst the government investment into the Pupil Premium has established this group of students as a priority focus for schools’ external accountability, the gap in attainment between these students and their peers has persisted (Education Policy Institute, 2020).
Much of the existing research in the area has focused on identifying deficits that the students categorised as disadvantaged present in the school setting, and on assessing the effectiveness of a range of interventions to address these issues. My study, however, informed initially by Bourdieu’s ideas of ‘reproduction’ (1990), turns the focus back on the practices of schooling, and seeks to discover, through empirical enquiry, how teachers understand the ‘disadvantage’ of their students within their school setting, and how this construction of ‘disadvantage’ shapes their response to their students. Foucault’s conceptualisation of power relations and subjectivity (Ball, 2013) are used to inform my understanding of the way in which things come to be the way that they are within the institutions of schooling. I am also using the insights of other poststructural theorists to explore the ethical struggles of teachers who find themselves trying to ‘do the right thing’ in response to the perceived needs of their students, often caught in seemingly impossible places of tension and dilemma, subject to conflicting forces. The ethical responses of teachers are being considered using Derrida’s concept of the aporia, ‘the contradictory double imperatives’ (Allan, 2008), that can be identified as embedded in school practices, alongside Levinas’s concern to ‘see the face of the other’ (Edgoose, 2001) as a framework of ethical responsibility.
Whilst the data were gathered in English schools, the problematisation of the term ‘disadvantaged’ in the study encompasses a broad range of intersecting issues of diversity relevant across international contexts, including social class, ethnicity, cultural capital, and the ways in which the process of schooling positions students, teachers and parents as subjects.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe research is underpinned by a social constructionist approach, which steps back from the idea of being able to get inside social reality, and instead tries to understand how that reality might be brought into being (Holstein and Gubrium, 2008). This has been done by conducting interviews with schoolteachers directly involved in addressing disadvantage, as they perceive it, within the everyday world of their school. I have also gathered policy documentation in the form of strategy documents to address the ‘disadvantage gap’ in attainment, which are required by government to be produced and made publicly available by every state school.
Following ethical clearance from my university ethics committee, the field work was carried out using semi-structured interviews with 22 teachers in all, across five different state secondary schools in the Midlands area of the U.K. The teachers ranged in teaching experience from 3-33 years and taught in a range of subject areas. Some had a specific responsibility for ‘disadvantaged’ students in their schools. All interviews were conducted online using Zoom, and lasted between 20 and 45 minutes. The decision to interview online was determined by the fact that school visits were not allowed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The interviews were transcribed and shared with the participants for checking.
The interviews were structured around a set of question prompts which encouraged the teachers to explain which students in their classes they identified as disadvantaged and why they regarded them as such. The teachers were asked whether they thought there were aspects of their subject that they thought might affect disadvantaged students differently from others. They were also asked how they responded to the needs of disadvantaged students in their lessons and were encouraged to describe a specific lesson or activity to illustrate this.
Analysis of the interview data is ongoing, using the idea of teacher ‘work’ (i.e. the work they ascribe to themselves in their encounters with disadvantaged students) as a frame for analysis.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe recurring theme is of teachers trying to ‘do the right thing’ as they struggle with contradictory imperatives, subject to, and part of creating and perpetuating, a range of discourses related to disadvantage. Four types of self-attributed teacher work have been identified within the data analysis: seeing, sorting, saving and transforming work.
‘Sorting’ work revolves around the paradoxical perception of this ‘disadvantaged’ group as both the same and different to their peers. The effects of policy directives in creating subjects are apparent in the ways in which this group of heterogenous students acquires a collective identity within schools. Whilst the identification of the group as disadvantaged is seen as for the students’ benefit, it nevertheless can invoke an essentialism which ‘others’ some students.
‘Seeing’ work has emerged as integral to the way in which the discourse of disadvantage becomes embedded into the school system. Effects of a performative assessment-driven system (Ball, 2003), in which the attainment of disadvantaged students is monitored by inspection bodies, is reflected in teacher’s everyday practices which ensure the constant visibility of this group, e.g. colour-coding on registers and prescriptive seating plans. Whilst claiming to respond to students as individuals, teachers nevertheless are deeply enmeshed in practices which, in seeking not to ‘overlook’ students, result in a constant ‘looking’ that reinforces categorisation.
‘Saving’ work runs through the responses that invoke deficit discourses of poor parenting, a lack of ‘cultural capital’, and perceived lack of value for education. Accounts include examples of the emotional labour expended in the attempt to rescue students from lives marked by deficit.
‘Transforming’ work can be identified in the discourse of aspiration constantly cited in the responses of the teachers. Teachers wrestle with the need to change their students to make them ‘acceptable bodies’ (Youdell, 2006) within the schooling system.
ReferencesAllan, J. (2008). Rethinking Inclusive Education: the Philosophers of Difference in Practice. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
Ball, S.J. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18, 215-228.
Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J. (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. 2nd edition. London: Sage.
Department for Education (2015) Supporting the attainment of disadvantaged pupils: articulating success and good practice. London: DfE [online]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-the-attainment-of-disadvantaged-pupils Accessed 27.01.23.
Dreyfus H., Rabinow P. (1983). Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics: Michel Foucault. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Edgoose, J. (2001) Just Decide! Derrida and the ethical aporias of education, in: G. Biesta & D. Egéa-Kuehne (eds), Derrida & Education. London, Routledge.
Education Policy Institute (2020). Education in England Annual Report 2020. E.P.I. [online]. Available from: https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/EPI_2020_Annual_Report_.pdf Accessed 27.01.23.
Holstein, J. and Gubrium, J. (2008) ‘Constructionist impulses in ethnographic fieldwork’. In Holstein, J. and Gubrium, J. (eds), Handbook of Constructionist Research. New York: Guilford.
Youdell, D. (2006) Impossible Bodies, Impossible Selves. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Ignite Talk (20 slides in 5 minutes)
Entrepreneurial Universities and Regional Developmental Pathways in German and British Higher Education
Bahar Cemre Karaagacli
University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Presenting Author: Karaagacli, Bahar Cemre
Higher education has acquired a priority in the national policy agendas with its integration into the innovation system by showing certain capacity and capability and claims for impacts on economy and society (Hazelkorn & Gibson, 2019). Accordingly, it is claimed that entrepreneurial university has become a pathway that most of the universities have entered in the discourse of knowledge economy and society (Aarrevaara et al., 2021) and universities are expected to bring a transparent mission and vision forward over this pathway (Secundo et al., 2016). The main rationale of this study refers to the need of understanding the empirical and political implications of the evolving entrepreneurial university model on the economic and social bases. This argument also touches upon the shift towards the engaged university model by keeping the public good as a wider discourse defining the role and responsibilities attached to higher education.
This doctoral thesis, which is designed to be a comparative multiple case study, aims to reveal how regionally engaged universities formulate their missions and revise their actual strategies within the entrepreneurial paradigm. As the British and German higher education systems are regarded to be receptive to innovation and entrepreneurial paradigm on the European level (Etzkowitz et al., 2000), the design is based on the comparison of strategies of two entrepreneurial university contexts from these systems with the lens of neo-institutionalism.
This study perceives entrepreneurial university as a key actor to accomplish national and regional development policy agendas (Pugh et al, 2018). In this agenda, the third mission refers to the innovation-related activities pursued for regional development. Accordingly, third mission policy on the national and regional levels has the direct power to steer university engagement practices. For example, on the European policy level, regional development is incentivized through the funding programmes of the EU Europe 2020 agenda and smart specialization strategies (Trippl et al., 2015). Despite the policy emphasis, universities’ approaches to engage in local/regional development vary in terms of social and economic engagement modes. Keeping these variations in mind, the diversity among engagement practices and the different configurations of entrepreneurial university context in the European context are linked to the differences in policy paradigms, higher education traditions and institutional contexts (Kalar and Antoncic, 2015; Trippl et al., 2015).
Constructed with multi-level qualitative research design across cross-nationally selected universities, this study adopts the lens of neo-institutional theory to advance knowledge regarding the institutional reproduction or transformation in entrepreneurial university concept. Neo-institutional theory will be used as a framework for the analysis of not only differences but also similarities in a cross-national design and denote sociological viewpoint to comparison by displaying isomorphic and culturally shaped transformations across institutions (Wiseman, 2014; 2021). As observed in the literature, the institutional theory has been adopted in relation to the entrepreneurial university for the understanding of the interaction between the micro (individual level) and the meso (institutional level) (Abreu et al., 2016). For this study, the same levels are essential as organisational culture and norms shape everyone involved within the organisation. In line with these core ideas, the research questions below are aimed to be answered.
1. How have the third mission strategies been addressed in the German and UK higher education contexts through national and regional policy levels?
1.1. How are the institutional strategies regarding entrepreneurialism and engagement contextualised within regionally engaged universities?
2. How are institutional strategies enacted by the internal stakeholders in regionally engaged universities?
2.1. What roles do the university actors take for the social and economic development of their regions?
2.2. Which modes of engagement are pursued in both university contexts?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedFor this particular PhD study, the multiple case study design is adopted for in-depth examination of the argument involved. Specifically, the comparative design is built on two cases embedded in regional and national dimensions vertically (Schweisfurth, 2019). Accordingly, this multiple case study entails the comparison of two cases on the meso level strengthened with the analysis of macro- and micro- levels. At the current stage of my doctoral research, I have obtained ethical approval and strive to build contacts with universities. Therefore, the planned design and anticipated findings will be explained.
Firstly, even if it is not selected to be the primary level of analysis, the macro level encompasses two geographically different macro-social units, the German and British higher education systems which possess certain unique characteristics that originated from different historical traditions (Humboldtian and Newmanian) and current dynamics. For this study, these two systems will be explanatory units with all the mutual reliance among the global, the national and the local levels (Kosmützky, 2015). The nested policy levels of national and regional will be analysed through thematic analysis of relevant policy documents to see the trends in regional engagement since regionalisation of the policy agenda has shifted the university engagement patterns (Arbo & Benneworth, 2007).
On the meso-level, two regionally oriented universities that have been awarded as entrepreneurial universities in both higher education systems are to be observational units where empirical study will be conducted. The university types are specified to be university of applied sciences and former polytechnics. Because universities of applied sciences, fachhochschule in Germany (Charles et al., 2021) and former polytechnics in the UK (Sanchez-Barrioluengo et al., 2019) have demonstrated more regional and local engagement in terms of the third mission and entrepreneurial endeavours. The institutional strategies of these two universities will be analysed through document analysis. Besides, to understand the organizational norms, values and traditions in a diverse manner, semi-structured interviews are aimed to be conducted with the academic personnel who have established and pursued regional engagement practices at the university, management-based staff, officers who are responsible for engagement or take responsibilities in technology transfer offices and students who are interested in entrepreneurship.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe entrepreneurial universities participating in this study are expected to embrace the missions of teaching, research and entrepreneurial activities. As Urbano and Guerrero (2013) indicated, these missions encompass the support structures (technology transfer, start-ups), resources (human, physical and monetary), capabilities (networks and status) and lead to the outcomes of talented human capital, created and transferred knowledge, development of academic entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial university culture. Analysing the strategies on the institutional level to reach these outcomes will also show how policy diffusion is observable, especially for the third mission related policies (Ozolins et al., 2018).
It is also anticipated that the findings will contribute to the debate between two schools of thought regarding entrepreneurialism in higher education. As Young and Pinheiro (2022) depicted, entrepreneurialism resides in the sociological and economic schools of thought highlighting respectively the adaptation and transformations over public good and universities as quasi-firms where prestige and bibliometric counts are pursued as power mechanisms other than money. Entrepreneurial university is evaluated to be moving towards the dominant side of the economic/innovation perspective by leaving the sociological origins aside. However, as the engaged university model advocates, the strategies of internal stakeholders can show how the third mission can be less aligned with the economic development perspective, but more inclined to civic service in the shape of community engagement for the regional society and its members through regional development purposes (Moussa et al., 2019; Watson et al., 2011).
ReferencesAarrevaara, T., Finkelstein, M. J., Jones, G. A., & Jung, J. (2021). Universities in the knowledge society: the Nexus of National Systems of Innovation and higher education (Vol. 22). Springer.
Arbo, P., & Benneworth, P. (2007). Understanding the Regional Contribution of Higher Education Institutions. OECD Publishing.
Charles, D., Ahoba-Sam, R., & Manrique, S. (2021). Chapter 1: Introduction. In D. Charles, R. Ahoba-Sam, & S. Manrique (Eds.), Entrepreneurial Universities in Regional Innovation (pp. 5-25). UK Book Publishing.
Etzkowitz, H., Webster, A., Gebhardt, C., & Terra, B. R. C. (2000). The future of the university and the university of the future: evolution of ivory tower to entrepreneurial paradigm. Research Policy, 29(2), 313-330.
Moussa, A., Kesting, T., & Clauss, T. (2019). Embedding Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities—A Holistic View. In T. Kliewe, T. Kesting, C. Plewa, & T. Baaken (Eds.), Developing Engaged and Entrepreneurial Universities: Theories, Concepts and Empirical Findings (pp. 19-42). Springer.
Ozoliņš, M., Stensaker, B., Gaile-Sarkane, E., Ivanova, L., Lapiņa, I., Ozoliņa-Ozola, I., & Straujuma, A. (2018). Institutional attention to European policy agendas: exploring the relevance of instrumental and neo-institutional explanations. Tertiary Education and Management, 24(4), 338-350.
Pugh, R., Lamine, W., Jack, S., & Hamilton, E. (2018). The entrepreneurial university and the region: what role for entrepreneurship departments? European Planning Studies, 26(9), 1835-1855.
Sánchez-Barrioluengo, M., Uyarra, E., & Kitagawa, F. (2019). Understanding the evolution of the entrepreneurial university. The case of English Higher Education institutions. Higher Education Quarterly, 73(4), 469-495.
Schweisfurth, M. (2019). The SAGE Handbook of Comparative Studies in Education. SAGE.
Trippl, M., Sinozic, T., & Lawton Smith, H. (2015). The Role of Universities in Regional Development: Conceptual Models and Policy Institutions in the UK, Sweden and Austria. European Planning Studies, 23(9), 1722-1740.
Urbano, D., & Guerrero, M. (2013). Entrepreneurial Universities: Socioeconomic Impacts of Academic Entrepreneurship in a European Region. Economic Development Quarterly, 27(1), 40-55.
Watson, D., Hollister, R., Stroud, S. E., & Babcock, E. (2011). The engaged university: International perspectives on civic engagement. Routledge.
Wiseman, A. W., Astiz, M. F., & Baker, D. P. (2014). Comparative education research framed by neo-institutional theory: a review of diverse approaches and conflicting assumptions. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 44(5), 688-709.
Young, M., & Pinheiro, R. (2022). The Post-entrepreneurial University: The Case for Resilience in Higher Education. In R. Pinheiro, M. L. Frigotto, & M. Young (Eds.), Towards Resilient Organizations and Societies: A Cross-Sectoral and Multi-Disciplinary Perspective (pp. 173-193). Springer.
99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Ignite Talk (20 slides in 5 minutes)
Perceptions of Democracy and Diversity Among Student Teachers Preparing to Teach in International Contexts
Karianne Helland
University of South-Eastern Norway, Norway
Presenting Author: Helland, Karianne
The link between democracy and education runs through most historical and philosophical accounts of democracy (Sant, 2019, p. 657). Yet, the democratic role of education is often contested (Ávalos & Razquin, 2017; Edling & Simmie, 2020). International schools traditionally build on an 'international ethos' of valuing diversity, international mindedness, critical thinking, and educating global citizens, but these values are often in tension with neoliberal discourses and a predominantly western viewpoint (Cambridge and Thompson 2004; Dvir, Shields, and Yemini 2018, Gardner-McTaggart 2021). However, in order to participate effectively in democratic life in the 21st century, intercultural sensitivities and being able to identify with a global community are essential (Matthews and Sidhu 2005).
The study is based on in-depth interviews with ten student teachers in three different universities in Europe. The participants in this study have chosen to prepare for a teaching career in international schools or other international contexts, and attend teacher education programmes to that aim. 'International' teacher education programmes are rooted in the idea that teaching in international contexts requires a different perspective and other competences than that provided by national teacher education (Levy & Fox, 2016; van Werven, 2016). Through interviews with student teachers preparing to teach in international schools, this study addresses the following research question: what are student teachers in international programmes' perceptions, understandings and practices when it comes to democracy and diversity in education?
Democratic education is a large and long-standing field of educational scholarship, going back to Dewey (1916). Democracy itself is a highly contested concept, leading to different versions of democratic education with differing aims and practices (Sant, 2019). The concepts of international mindedness, global citizenship education, and intercultural education are also contested, may be overlapping, and have a plurality of meanings (Barratt Hacking et al., 2016; Bourn, 2015; Pashby et al., 2020). Studies have investigated the various ways teachers can develop global competences (Parkhouse et al., 2016; Savva, 2017), as well as student teachers’ and teacher educators’ perspectives on democratic and culturally responsive education in national contexts (Kasa, n.d; Pareja de Vicente, n.d.; Stacy, n.d.; Simms, n.d.; Kirkwood, 2001; Gaudelli, 2010; Burner & Biseth, 2016). However, teacher education tends to get less scholarly attention than other educational stages, and international education is also underresearched (Bunnell, 2016).
This paper takes as a starting point a critical pedagogy lens and a ‘thick’ concept of democracy (Gandin & Apple, 2002). This entails a broad view of what may constitute democratic education, which includes e.g. ideas of global as well as local active citizenship, intercultural communication and approaches to diversity in international classrooms. A critical lens allows for investigating structures that reproduce inequality and injustice, and how they might be transformed. Through a critical lens, education can be seen as maintaining inequality and dominant ideologies, but also as a path to breaking free from patterns of oppression (Freire, 2014; Kincheloe, 2012; Apple, 2004; Carr, 2008).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe empirical data consists of semi-structured interviews with 10 students in teacher education programmes which aim at educating teachers for international contexts. The participants are enrolled in three different European universities. Nine of them are studying for bachelors' degrees in international teacher education for primary schools, while one is studying for a postgraduate certificate in international education. The universities are located in Norway, The Netherlands and the UK. The students have a range of nationalities, and some have more than one citizenship. Europeans account for around half, while the others are East Asian and North American. Some of the participants have international school experiences from their own childhood, and some already have international teaching experience. They are at different stages of their teacher education programme. The majority are in their early to mid 20’s, and nine of the ten are women.
The participants were contacted through their universities. A call for participation was sent to all students from contact persons at the universities, and the participating students actively contacted the researcher in response to this call. All participants received an information letter about participation in the project, which explained how interviews would be conducted, how data would be handled, and underlined that participating was voluntary, that data would be anonymized, and that the choice to take part or not would have no impact on their studies or their relationship with the university. The interviews were done online (via Zoom or Teams) and each lasted between 45 minutes and one hour. Questions were open, allowing students to reflect freely on terms like democracy, citizenship and diversity in an international education context, and on their own understandings, opinions, learning, experiences and plans for the future.
I have used a reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022). This is aligned with my position fully in a qualitative paradigm, where my subjectivity and reflexivity are resources to achieve depth and nuance in the analysis. After an initial familiarisation and note taking, the data is transcribed and coded, before themes are developed based on these codes.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe analysis is currently ongoing. Conclusions will be available at the time of the conference. Preliminary analysis suggests that the participating student teachers show a strong engagement with the concepts of democracy and diversity in a pedagogical context, and a particular concern with intercultural education and ensuring the inclusion of all students. They reflect on their own identities as global citizens and as teachers, and grapple with what it means to teach in diverse, complex and changing environments.
ReferencesApple, M. W. (2004). Ideology and curriculum (3rd ed.). RoutledgeFalmer
Barratt Hacking, E., Blackmore, C., Bullock, K., Bunnell, T., Donnelly, M., & Martin, S. (2016). The International Mindedness Journey: School Practices for Developing and Assessing International Mindedness Across the IB Curriculum
Bittencourt, T., & Willetts, A. (2018). Negotiating the tensions: A critical study of international schools’ mission statements. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 16(4), 515-525. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2018.1512047
Cambridge, J., & Thompson, J. (2004). Internationalism and globalization as contexts for international education. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 34(2), 161-175. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305792042000213994
Freire, Ramos, M. B., & Macedo, D. (2014). Pedagogy of the oppressed (Thirtieth anniversary edition.). Bloomsbury.
Gandin, L. A., & Apple, M. W. (2002). Thin versus thick democracy in education: Porto Alegre and the creation of alternatives to neo-liberalism. International studies in sociology of education, 12(2), 99-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620210200200085
Gardner-McTaggart, A. (2016). International elite, or global citizens? Equity, distinction and power: the International Baccalaureate and the rise of the South. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 14(1), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2014.959475
Levy, J., & Fox, R. (2016). Pre-service Teacher Preparation for International Settings. In M. Hayden, J. Levy, & J. Thompson (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Research in International Education (pp. 275-297). SAGE.
Little, A. W. (2010). International and comparative education: what’s in a name? Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 40(6), 845-852. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2010.523264
Pashby, K., da Costa, M., Stein, S., & Andreotti, V. (2020). A meta-review of typologies of global citizenship education. Comparative Education, 56(2), 144-164. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2020.1723352
Sant, E. (2019). Democratic Education: A Theoretical Review (2006–2017). Review of educational research, 89(5), 655-696. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654319862493
99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Ignite Talk (20 slides in 5 minutes)
How do I fit in? A Caribbean Perspective on Social and Personal-Emotional Adjustment to University life.
Stacia Ali
University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago
Presenting Author: Ali, Stacia
Topic: An in-depth investigation into first year undergraduate students’ social and personal-emotional adjustment to the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.
Introduction:
The transition to university expose students to a range of changes whereby students have varying experiences adjusting to university life (Crede & Niehorster 2012). Collie, Holliman, & Martin (2017) noted that understanding adjustment to university required a comprehensive range of factors to understand the phenomenon. Baker and Siryk (1989), as cited in Lenz (2014) identified four distinct dimensions of adjustment: academic adjustment, social adjustment, personal–emotional adjustment, and institutional attachment. The current study is focused on exploring the dimensions of students social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life, since: they are underexplored dimensions, particularly the Caribbean region; to provide an understanding of how these dimensions impact students adjustment to university, and as a corollary their achievement, could help universities provide more inclusive approaches, strategies, support and practices that cater to diversity in education. From an international stance, there is scant research attention focusing on specific dimensions of adjustment. Additionally, much consideration is given to international student’s adjustment to university so there is a gap related to national students’ adjustment. Therefore, this study can be adapted for the international context.
The purpose of the study is to understand first year undergraduate students experience with social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine (UWISTA). Further, to assess the effects of the support UWISTA offer to assist students social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life. Therefore, attention can be drawn to the gaps at UWISTA which may hinder students’ ability to adjust to university and impede students from being successful. Using this evidence to inform policy, UWISTA can promote equity and social justice in education by taking into consideration students’ social and psychological needs to provide the necessary support and mediate some of the challenges students encounter.
Research Questions:
- What are the issues first year undergraduate students experience with social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life at UWISTA?
- In what ways do social and personal-emotional issues of first year undergraduate students affect their ability to adjust to university life at UWISTA?
- What type of social and personal-emotional support is provided by the UWISTA to help first year undergraduate students adjust to university life at UWISTA?
- To what extent does the support UWISTA offer assist first year undergraduate students social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life?
Theoretical Framework
The model for analysing human adaptation to transition (Schlossberg, 1981) provides the theoretical understanding of individuals’ capacity to cope with changes. It outlined the key factors affecting individuals’ adjustment stemming from the transition to a new context. These factors refer to the characteristics of the transition, pre and post-transition environment and characteristics of the individual experiencing the transition. Further, the transition process relies on a range of coping skills to assist in adjustment including four sets of factors: situation, self, support and strategies (Anderson, Goodman and Schlossberg, 2012). Developing on this idea, the characteristic of the transition provides the basis for understanding undergraduate students’ perception of the transition to the university environment (situation). Moreover, pre and post-transition environment relates to social factors affecting the transition such as support from family, peers and the institution. Finally, the characteristic of the individual aligns with the psychological factors affecting adjustment to university (self). This theory examines the factors for understanding individuals’ adjustment to new situations and accounts for both psychological and social influences. In essence, Schlossberg’s theory of transition has provided the necessary theoretical framework to explain the association between psychosocial factors and social and personal-emotional adjustment to university.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedMethod
The study is guided by a qualitative approach for a detailed understanding of the student’s experience with adjustment to university. More specifically, it will utilize an instrumental single case method whereby a small group of first year undergraduate students will be selected to investigate students social and personal-emotional adjustment at UWISTA. According to Stake (1995), an instrumental case study provides the opportunity to investigate a phenomenon through patterns of behaviour. An associated strength with instrumental case study is that it allows for the generation of data patterns which improves generalization of the findings to an extent (Ridder, 2017). The experience of each student from the sample will be used to build a more in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the case social and personal-emotional adjustment at UWISTA. It is grounded in the social constructivist paradigm as the research focuses on how students construct and describe their experience with social and personal-emotional adjustment to UWISTA. The instrumental case study considers multiple realities, the co-construction of knowledge between the students and the researcher and places value on the subjective knowledge of the students.
Sample
The selection of the sample will be from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus using stratified purposeful sampling technique (Teddlie & Yu, 2007). In this manner, the sampling frame will be further divided into specific groups and participants will be deliberately selected from each stratum (Patton, 2015). The first-year undergraduate students will be divided according to faculty and the purposefully selected based on their nationality as it allows for capturing variations across groups. Altogether, two students (national and regional) will be selected from the eight faculty which gives a total of 16 participants. This sample size is adequate to reduce data saturation and information redundancy is found mainly around 9 to 17 participants in interview based qualitative research (Hennink & Kaiser, 2022).
Instrument
Semi-structured interview protocol will be employed to understand first year undergraduate students experience with social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life and to assess the effects of the support UWISTA offer to assist students social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life. The use of semi-structured interview provides the opportunity to delve deeper into understanding adjustment to university. It allows flexibility to the researcher by allowing the use of prompts and probes to guide the interview process to explore the responses in greater depth understanding of students’ experiences with adjustment to university life.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe expected outcome of the research is to identify the issues first year undergraduate students experience with social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life and to understand the ways in which these social and personal-emotional issues affect their ability to adjust to university life at UWISTA. Additionally, an assessment of the type and effects of the social and personal-emotional support provided by UWISTA to assist first year undergraduate students social and personal-emotional adjustment to university life. This increases awareness of the determinants of mental health and wellbeing in education.
Altogether, this study aims to provide an original contribution of research evidence in the Caribbean context. The information gathered from this investigation can be used to develop identification strategies or mechanisms for students facing social and personal-emotional adjustment difficulty. Further, it can assist in informing programmes to facilitate positive social and personal-emotional adjustment to university for undergraduate students. Additionally, it can inform policy development guiding students’ support services at the University of the West Indies to promote the provision of equitable support to students by taking into account the diversity in students’ psychological and social. Further, this study will benefit individual students by seeking to understand challenges associated their experience of social and personal-emotional adjustment to university. The organization of the university seek to benefit too as this would study will provide information that can assist in developing or adjusting the necessary programmes and policies. Finally, contributions will be made to the Caribbean region as an indigenous perspective will be formed as Roopnarine and Chadee (2016) highlighted the need. The Caribbean region’s historical and cultural development influences individuals’ socialization, interpersonal relationships and identity formation. Therefore, it is imperative to gain a context specific understanding.
ReferencesAnderson, M.L., Goodman, J. & Schlossberg, N.K. (2012). Counseling adults in transition: Linking Schlossberg’s theory with practice in a diverse world, 4th Ed. New York: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
Collie, R. J., Holliman, A. J., & Martin, A. J. (2017). Adaptability, engagement and academic achievement at university. Educational Psychology, 37(5), 632-647.
Credé, M., & Niehorster, S. (2012). Adjustment to college as measured by the student adaptation to college questionnaire: A quantitative review of its structure and relationships with correlates and consequences. Educational Psychology Review, 24, 133-165.
Hennink, M., & Kaiser, B. N. (2022). Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research: A systematic review of empirical tests. Social Science & Medicine, 292, 114523.
LaBrie, J. W., Ehret, P. J., Hummer, J. F., & Prenovost, K. (2012). Poor adjustment to college life mediates the relationship between drinking motives and alcohol consequences: A look at college adjustment, drinking motives, and drinking outcomes. Addictive behaviors, 37(4), 379-386.
Lenz, A. S. (2014). Mediating effects of relationships with mentors on college adjustment. Journal of College Counseling, 17(3), 195-207.
Patton, M. Q. (2014). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. Sage publications.
Ridder, H.G. (2017). The theory contribution of case study research designs. Bus Res 10, 281–305 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40685-017-0045-z
Roopnarine, J. L., & Chadee, D. (2016). Introduction: Caribbean psychology—More than a regional discipline. In J. L. Roopnarine & D. Chadee (Eds.), Caribbean psychology: Indigenous contributions to a global discipline (pp. 3–11). American Psychological Association.
Schlossberg, N. K. (1981). A model for analyzing human adaptation to transition. The counseling psychologist, 9(2), 2-18.
Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. London: Sage.
Teddlie, C., & Yu, F. (2007). Mixed methods sampling: A typology with examples. Journal of mixed methods research, 1(1), 77-100.
99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Ignite Talk (20 slides in 5 minutes)
Multicultural Heritage Education: Exploring World-View-Oriented Heritage Education Model of Antonine Wall for New Scots
Hsiao-Chiang Wang, Yen-Ting Lin
University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Presenting Author: Wang, Hsiao-Chiang
World Heritage Site (WHS) is a meaningful place with outstanding universal values that all humans share (Jokilehto, 2008; Labadi, 2013). It is created by and contributes to individuals’ world views. Therefore, it should provide equal opportunity for everyone to learn from and contribute. However, there remains a gap in heritage education to cater for the need of multicultural individuals, especially since the nature of heritage education is to engage participants in the process of heritage-making (Harrison, 2012; Waterton and Watson, 2013; Smith, 2015).
On the one hand, influence from authorised heritage discourse makes the education content focus on materiality, static past, and an expert perspective but overlooks the intangible meanings, dynamic interaction, and personal feelings (Harrison, 2012; Labadi, 2013). Second, WHS reinforces nationalism in most counties under the political system (Winter, 2015; Ray, 2020). Lastly, the rise of tourism directs heritage education to please the mainstreaming market (Smith, 2015). To sum up, the influence of monumentalism, nationalism, and commercialism limit the development of multicultural education in WHS.
On the other hand, Even though the right to participate in cultural life is one of the fundamental human rights (UNESCO, 2019), and the engagement of the community has gradually gained notice in the last two decades (UNESCO, 2007), there remains to be a gap regarding refugee integration in heritage education. Refugees is one of the most vulnerable multicultural groups (UNHCR, 2007). Compared with others, including immigrants, sojourners, ethnic minorities, and indigenous people, their traumatic experiences, involuntary and unsettled conditions and cultural capital loss make them multiple challenges to participate in and enjoy the cultural events.
Therefore, to achieve the goal to engage refugees in heritage-making process, this research examines the underlying mechanism of heritage education while developing curriculums that cater to refugees’ needs through the lens of world view theory (Kearney, 1984), the dynamic World View Model demonstrates the process of shaping and shifting world view and the interrelationship between individuals and the environment, providing a holistic explanation of the interrelationship between visitors and the sites, which could be the backbone of developing the multicultural education model. Understanding and interpreting world heritage comes from individuals’ sensations and imaginative projection. World view plays a substantial role in engaging cultural events. Individual interpretations yield the meanings of heritages and meaning interpretation results from the dynamic shifting process of world views. Only by fulfilling the needs of meaning-making can heritage education integrate multicultural individuals.
The research employs action research as the approach. It recruits “New Scots (The Scottish Government, 2017)”, who are refugees and asylum seekers living in Scotland, as participants and initiates co- creation workshops as the intervention in The Hunterian, one of the preservation institutions. This study explores a world-view-oriented education model developed via action research at Antonine Wall. It identifies the challenges of WHS education from theoretical and practical perspectives; and designs an alternative education plan as an intervention. Then the workshop takes place in the Hunterian through the participation of New Scots (refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland). The action is evaluated by the degree that participants make meanings of the WHS. It expects to enhance the inclusion of WHS, ensuring the cultural rights of refugees, and pave the way for the future research on multicultural education.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedMethodology
Action research is adopted as the approach because is suitable for a collective, self-reflection, democratising, and solution-oriented research design (McNiff and Whitehead, 2011; McAteer, 2013). There are four phases in this research:
1.Identifying dilemma: This study investigates Antonine Wall’s interpretation, critically reviews its engagement strategy and policy, and observes the audience interactions to identify the problems of its on-site heritage education.
2.Designing intervention: Based on world view theory, this study proposes a multicultural heritage education model, encouraging participants to interpret the meanings of Antonine Wall. The approach is individual-oriented, emotionally engaging, story-based, and interactive.
3.Implementing action: Collaborating with The Hunterian, the action is carried out in the permanent display of Antonin Wall, replacing the traditional interpretation of WHS with co-creation approach.
4.Evaluation and reflection: The data is collected through observation field notes and an after-event group interview. Then it employs Qualitative Data Analysis Software NVivo as an useful tool to do thematic analysis and framing theory. The evaluation criteria are set to assess the degree of new information interacting with individuals’ world views and how much they can contribute to the WHS value creation.
Sites and stakeholders
The research is conducted in the Scotland context. The target participants are New Scots, and the WHS is Antonine Wall.
New Scots is the term used in the refugee integration strategy of the Scottish government, referring to individuals who have been awarded refugee status or under other humanitarian protections, those seeking asylum, and those whose asylum claim has been denied but who remain in Scotland (The Scottish Government, 2017; Phipps, Aldegheri and Fisher, 2022).
The Antonine Wall was the most northern frontier of the Roman Empire, which was built around 142AD, and inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Frontier of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site in 2008. The physical challenge of the Antonine Wall is that the fragmentary remains and broad area might not be easily accessible and engageable for the general public (Historic Scotland, 2015). The interpretation emphasises the archaeological value and praises the Roman Empire’s power, resulting in intellectual and emotional hindrances for New Scots. However, Antonine Wall is one of the WHSs that across modern states geographically and the cultural conceptually. Most importantly, the potential to engage audience from the approach of storytelling and emotional engagement is discovered by previous research (Economou, Young and Sosnowska, 2018).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsExpected Outcomes
This study set out to pose the problems in heritage education and propose a pedagogical solution, improving the inclusiveness of WHS and increasing the participation of refugees. Practice-wise, it yields an education plan for engaging New Scots learning Antoine Wall. Theory-wise, it applies world-view theory in heritage education and proposes a world-view-oriented heritage education model, paving the way for future research on multicultural heritage.
The multiple perspective challenges of multicultural heritage education will be identified by conducting action research with four phases cycle. The evaluation of the action will give an account of applying a world-view-oriented heritage education model for multicultural individuals.
Limitation
The intervention of a multicultural approach in heritage begins on a small scale because of time and finical limitations. With a small sample size and single site, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable under other contexts. This paper is a pilot scheme in my ongoing doctoral research. To ensure the external reliability of the world-view-oriented heritage education model and exploratory pedagogical approach needs to be evaluated multiple times with different groups of participants and keep reflecting and optimising the content. Furthermore, the differences in gender, age, and physical and mental abilities within the New Scots group are waiting for further discussion.
ReferencesEconomou, M., Young, H. and Sosnowska, E. (2018) ‘Evaluating emotional engagement in digital stories for interpreting the past. The case of the Hunterian Museum’s Antonine Wall EMOTIVE experiences’, in. 2018 3rd Digital Heritage International Congress (DigitalHERITAGE), pp. 1–8. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/DigitalHeritage.2018.8810043.
Harrison, R. (2012) Heritage: Critical Approaches. London: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203108857.
Historic Scotland (2015) ‘Antonine Wall Visitor Research’. Available at: https://www.antoninewall.org/system/files/documents/9710%20Antonine%20Wall%20Final%20Report%20October%202015%20FINAL_0.pdf (Accessed: 11 December 2022).
Jokilehto, J. (2008) The World Heritage List. What is OUV? Defining the Outstanding Universal Value of Cultural World Heritage Properties. Berlin: hendrik Bäßler verlag. Available at: http://www.international.icomos.org/publications/monuments_and_sites/16/pdf/Monuments_and_Sites_16_What_is_OUV.pdf (Accessed: 7 November 2022).
Kearney, M. (1984) World view. Novato, Calif: Chandler & Sharp (Chandler & Sharp publications in anthropology and related fields).
Labadi, S. (2013) UNESCO, Cultural Heritage, and Outstanding Universal Value: Value-based Analyses of the World Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage Conventions. Rowman & Littlefield.
McAteer, M. (2013) ‘Action Research in Education’, Action Research in Education, pp. 1–192. Available at: https://www.torrossa.com/en/resources/an/5019603 (Accessed: 22 January 2023).
McNiff, J. and Whitehead, J. (2011) All you need to know about action research, 2nd edition. SAGE Publications. Available at: http://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/39884_9780857025838.pdf (Accessed: 22 January 2023).
Phipps, A., Aldegheri, E. and Fisher, D. (2022) The New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy: a report on the local and international dimensions of integrating refugees in Scotland. Research Reports or Papers. University of Glasgow. Available at: https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/286354/ (Accessed: 25 December 2022).
Ray, H.P. (2020) ‘Cultural heritage: From nationalism to internationalism’, in Culture as Power. Routledge India.
Smith, L. (2015) ‘Theorizing Museum and Heritage Visiting’, in The International Handbooks of Museum Studies. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 459–484. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118829059.wbihms122.
The Scottish Government (2017) New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy 2018 - 2022.
UNESCO (2007) ‘Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage’. UNESCO. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/archive/2007/whc07-31com-24e.pdf (Accessed: 10 May 2022).
UNESCO (2019) Right to participate in cultural life, UNESCO. Available at: https://en.unesco.org/human-rights/cultural-life (Accessed: 3 December 2022).
UNHCR (2007) Note on the Integration of Refugees in the European Union.
Waterton, E. and Watson, S. (2013) ‘Introduction: Heritage and community engagement’, in Heritage and Community Engagement: Collaboration or Contestation? London: Routledge, pp. 12–33. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315875064.
Winter, T. (2015) ‘Heritage and Nationalism: An Unbreachable Couple?’, in E. Waterton and S. Watson (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 331–345. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137293565_21.
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