‘Power to empower’: conceptions of teaching and learning in a pedagogical co-design partnership

ABSTRACT

This study is an autoethnographic reflection on power and expertise in an evolving student/staff partnership. The partnership was initiated as pedagogical co-design in the development and implementation of a peer-assisted learning programme. Through a process of critical reflection that linked our partnership experience with themes from relevant literature, we (the staff and student authors) became co-researchers of our practice. The evolution of the partnership provided a unique perspective from which to compare our experiences of power and expertise across both contexts. We characterised our pedagogical co-design partnership as a shift from the more traditional ‘power over’ model of delivery towards ‘power to empower’ where both student and staff partners had agency and voice. Key to this important transition was a shared philosophy of student-centred teaching. As the partnership transformed from co-teaching to co-researching we needed to re-negotiate power dynamics; while our different pathways had converged on a common view of student-centred learning, our research expertise remained disparate. We were able to negotiate this challenge by drawing on our existing relationship based on respect, reciprocity and responsibility, reinforcing views of partnership that value equality of opportunity and a focus on learning and process, rather than equality of contributions and outcomes.     

Governance of higher education — the role of proximity in teaching quality

The starting point of this article is the relation between teaching quality and expectations by different governance actors in higher education. Managing a department in a public university is, to a large extent, about the coordination of governance actors, involving government authorities as well as the university and the faculty. Internally, the departmental management has to act strategically to achieve this coordination, especially in relation to teachers who expect resource allocation to ensure teaching quality, expressed in terms of academic requirements. To explore this, the concept of proximity is introduced. The study points out the importance of organizing teaching activities to create proximity, as well as that the context and conditions for creating proximity are important for teaching quality, thus achieving coordination with governance actors.     

Examining interest throughout multiple text use

Reading and Writing - Prior work has examined the role of interest in students’ single text processing and comprehension, but interest has been under-examined within the context of multiple...     

The Effectiveness of a Large‐Scale Language and Preliteracy Intervention: The SPELL Randomized Controlled Trial in Denmark

The present article reports results of a real‐world effectiveness trial conducted in Denmark with six thousand four hundred eighty‐three 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds designed to improve children's language and preliteracy skills. Children in 144 child cares were assigned to a control condition or one of three planned variations of a 20‐week storybook‐based intervention: a base intervention and two enhanced versions featuring extended professional development for educators or a home‐based program for parents. Pre‐ to posttest comparisons revealed a significant impact of all three interventions for preliteracy skills (= .21–.27) but not language skills (d = .04–.16), with little differentiation among the three variations. Fidelity, indexed by number of lessons delivered, was a significant predictor of most outcomes. Implications for real‐world research and practice are considered.     

Statistical alternatives for studying college student retention: A comparative analysis of logit,probit, and linear regression

While higher education researchers have long been concerned with the development and application of methods to adequately assess the impact of college on students, strong advances in statistical theory and computational practice have shifted this focus from the fundamental issues of research design to the application of appropriate statistics. This study focuses on the practical implications of applying logistic regression, probit analysis, and linear regression to the problem of predicting college student retention. Rather than simply assuming that one technique is analytically superior to others based on theoretical grounds, this study explores how these techniques compare in predicting student retention using data provided by registrars from a national sample of colleges and universities. Results indicate that despite the theoretical advantages offered by logistic regression and probit analysis, there is little practical difference between either of these two techniques and more traditional linear regression.     

The role of service in higher education

Alexander Astin gives an update on what the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA is learning about volunteerism and community service on campus. What promotes participation? Who benefits? How does participation affect leadership development?     

Career Attractions for Social Subjects Teachers of the 1990s

This study explores the reasons why 32 student teachers in the Postgraduate Diploma in Education course at the University of Queensland claim that they want to be teachers. All 32 student teachers were part of a social education curriculum cohort. The study was largely informed by the work of Lortie (1975) though the instrument used to measure attractions to teaching was considerably different and the results of our study were strikingly different. Among the findings are that the student teachers in our sample were motivated by altruism. Interesting differences based on age and gender are noted.     

Regional lifelong learning policies and the social vulnerability of young adults in Girona and Vienna

ABSTRACT

This article explores the interface between lifelong learning policies and the definition of social vulnerability of young adults in two regions located within the European Union. Girona comprises a constellation of small towns with important industry, service and hospitality sectors. Vienna is a global city where many key international operators are based and employ a large number of highly qualified professionals. The article explores to what extent the meta-governance and the ‘causal narratives’ of lifelong learning policies contribute towards shaping the prevailing images of youth vulnerability in these regions. In Girona, bureaucratic governance patterns lifelong learning policies, which strongly rely on the potential of career guidance to encourage the youth to undertake further education. Correspondingly, policy designs and professional discourses emphasise that the beneficiaries previously failed at school. In Vienna, authorities govern lifelong learning by means of both bureaucracy and complex networks of employers and non-profit organisations. The ‘causal narrative’ of the policies straightforwardly claims that all youth must have an experience with employment, whether in apprenticeships or in transitional workshops that emulate real jobs. There, policies portray beneficiaries according to their capacity to undertake and finish apprenticeships.