“I was giving someone who didn’t have a voice a voice”: exploring qualitative mini-research projects as a tool to teach students about aging

ABSTRACT

In the study of gerontology, fieldwork with older adults is often used to enhance students’ understanding of the aging process. While assignments based on interactions with older adults are a common practice in teaching students enrolled in gerontology studies, we know less about the impact of such activities on students from other disciplines. This paper summarizes students’ experiences with an assignment offered to a diverse cohort of undergraduate students who took a course in social gerontology. To complete this assignment, students had to interview an older adult, summarize the life story of the participant, apply a theoretical perspective to the older adult’s life story, and reflect on the process. Analyzing data derived from 72 assignments and 10 semi-structured interviews with students who were enrolled in the course, this paper examines students’ experiences with this assignment. Specifically, we identify what aspects of the assignment students found beneficial, what aspects they found challenging, and in what ways this assignment helped students to enhance their understanding of aging. Our findings suggest that students found it challenging to recruit an older adult for an interview and struggled with the semi-structured nature of the interview process. All students found the actual interview process to be extremely rewarding and beneficial for their learning. In discussion, we provide some recommendations on how to offer this type of assignment to a diverse group of students enrolling in the courses on social gerontology.     

Research in non-university higher education institutions. The case of the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences

This paper presents the development of research in the Swiss non-university higher education sector and frames it in the debate on the organization of higher education systems in Western Europe and on the dynamics between university and non-university sector. It shows that, in the Swiss case, the applied research mandate has been used to differentiate these institutions from universities and that this endeavor has been to a large extent successful in technology, while it has been a source of major tensions in the other domains. I conclude that the development of research in the non-higher education leads to complex dynamics of convergence and of differentiation and that this process is strongly influenced by the specificities and differences between different subject domains.     

全球化与大学--不平等世界的神话与现实

关于全球化对高等教育的影响,已经有许多讨论了。有人认为,全球化、互联网与科学共同体可以使各国在知识相互依存的新时代,在高等教育这一竞技场获得平等的机会。有人则宣称,全球化不但意味着世界性的不平等,而且会导致大学“麦当劳化”。也有人认为,当前高等教育所面临的压力,从高等教育大众化到私立高等教育的增长,都是全球化的结果。在这些假设中,有些是正确的、符合实际的,但是也存在不少误解。本文的目的在于“揭示”高等教育全球化与国际化的真实状况,着重讨论全球化对高等教育的一些影响方式。本文特别关注的是:全球化在怎样影响着发展中国家,特别是那些在未来几十年面临着高等教育规模扩展的国家。