Making inclusive student engagement happen: Reflections on experiences from an LU research training module on decolonising higher education

Abstract

In this paper, we bring together three different perspectives in relation to examining what makes for meaningful student engagement in the context of a Research Training Module on decolonising Higher Education (HE) which is open to all postgraduate researchers across Lancaster University. One perspective is from a postgraduate researcher who registered for the module, another from a graduate teaching assistant who co-taught the module, and a third from a lecturer who co-designed the module. Decolonising HE aims in part to dismantle and transform traditional power-hierarchies associated with conventional approaches to teaching and learning practices. One way of doing this is by creating opportunities for students from different backgrounds to both co-design and co-produce teaching and learning content. We each share our perspectives on ways in which we aimed to do this, how this was received by students who participated in the module and what we have learnt on the journey so far. 

References

Bhambra, G. K., Gebrial, D., & Nişancıoğlu, Kerem. (Eds.). (2018). Decolonising the University. Pluto Press.

Brooman, S., Darwent, S., & Pimor, A. (2014). The student voice in higher education curriculum design: is there value in listening? Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 52(6), 663–674. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/10.1080/14703297.2014.910128

Campbell, P.I. (2024). Race and Assessment in Higher Education: From Conceptualising Barriers to Making Measurable Change. Leeds: Emerald Publishing.

Connell, Raewyn (2014). Using Southern Theory: Decolonising Social Thought in Theory, Research, and Application. Planning Theory 13 (2).

Denscombe, M. (2024). Decolonial research methodology: an assessment of the challenge to established practise. International Journal of Social Research Methodology,1-10.

Freire P. (2005). 30^th Anniversary Edition, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Continuum.

Galamba, A., & Gandolfi, H. (2023). Critical Pedagogies in STEM Education: Ideas and experiences from Brazil and the UK. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Autografia.

HESA. 2024. Higher Education Student Statistics: UK 2022/23 released https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/08-08-2024/higher-education-student-statistics-uk-202223-released (Accessed 7 October 2024)

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge

Jansen, J. (2023). The problem with decolonisation: entanglements in the politics of knowledge. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 61(1), 139–156. https://doi:10.1017/S0022278X23000162

Kincheloe, J. L. (2005). Critical Pedagogy Primer. New York: Peter Lang.

Mejía, A. (2020). Paulo Freire, las pedagogías post-críticas y el dilema pedagógico. Teoría de la Educación: Revista Interuniversitaria. 32(2), 51-63. http://dx.doi.org/10.14201/teri.22718

Office for Students. 2023. The Office for Students Annual Review 2023: A statistical overview of higher education in England https://www.officeforstudent.org.uk/publications/annual-review-2023/a-statistical-overview-of-higher-education-in-england/ (Accessed 7 October 2024)

Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. (2012). Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, & Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1–40.