Using Academic Research to improve the learning experiences of diverse student groups

1. Using Academic Research to improve the learning experiences of diverse student groups Presentation to HEA conference Promoting Equity in Higher Education January 27th 2010 Miriam E. David, AcSS, FRSA Institute of Education University of London m.david@ioe.ac.uk www.tlrp.org

2. Summary of Promoting Equity in Higher Education presentation • A brief context and critique of UK policies and practices on widening access or participation in HE • Social diversity intersecting with gender as critical to expansion of global HE in the 21st century but how? • Research evidence from the UK government’s ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme • Learn that changing policy contexts had contradictory and inequitable effects on individuals and institutions. • Lessons from research evidence on inclusive, connectionist or new social diversity pedagogies and practices for learning in HE in the 21st century

3. Introduction • Given socio-economic global transformations, including in women’s lives, changing methodologies in global HE (Morley & David 2009; Weiler & David 2008) • Theoretical diversity but commitment to gender and social justice based upon robust theories and research as evidence-informed practices • TLRP role was to synthesise research on diversity and equity, with 15 projects on post-compulsory and higher education (HE), including 7 projects on widening participation (WP) • David ed. Improving Learning by Widening Participation in Higher Education (Routledge 2009)

4. Conceptual considerations • Global socio-economic transformations contested meanings of • contexts of globalization, market economy, marketization and neo-liberalism • concepts of post-compulsory or post-secondary further, tertiary or higher education versus universities and • access to or ‘participation’ in HE • teaching and learning, ‘pedagogies’ and/or academic practices or educational development • Diversity, equity and inclusion: from ethnicity/race (EU/nonEU) to • age (young versus mature students), • social class or disadvantages • dis/abilities - gender or women

5. International research debates on transformations of global HE • Contested debates about mass or global HE and diversity versus equity • Comparative international studies of expansions of HE (eg Shavit, Arum & Gamoran eds 2007; Rhoads & Torres eds 2006) that focus on social inequalities and their persistence • Specific research question about equity and diversity including gender in the social transformations and pedagogies of global HE • Leathwood & Read (2008) argue there is now a ‘anxiety’ or fear of a feminist future, given how HE is feminised. • So what is the evidence in the UK?

6. Theories about intersections of Diversity, Equity and Gender • Use evidence from the 7 WPinHE projects about diversity and equity in access and (non)-participation in HE • Complex evidence about intersections of diversity and gender in types of involvement and participation • as learners or students • as gendered or feminist teachers or pedagogues • ‘Closing the Gender Gap’ (Arnot, David and Weiner 1999) • HEFCE (2005) pointed to closed gender gap in HE ‘enrolments’ and asked how to involve young and disadvantaged men in further and higher learning by changing institutional policies and practices: the reverse ‘gender gap’

7. Research Evidence from TLRP about equity and diversity • The 7 interdisciplinary project teams, commissioned by HEFCE, collaborated to study the policies, institutional practices and pedagogies of widening access to, and participation in, English HE • Found that: Widening access to and participation within HE does not increase ethnic, gender or social equity (David et al 2009): • Systematic forms of inequality for individuals and institutions across subjects and levels of education

9. Highlights from chapter 2 about the research findings • Policy contexts: differentiation, competition and policies for widening participation – by Gareth Parry • Distinctive features of policy enterprise, including genesis and politics of English higher education • Universal Access and Dual Regimes of FurtherHigher Education: • systemic differences between universities and colleges especially future size, structure and shape on funding and through deregulation • Use of differentiation and stratification theories • Democratisation of access and reinforces diversion

10. Highlights from chapter 3 about the research findings • Individual access, participation and diversity and institutional practices in different types of HE: • Quantitative Analysis of Students’ Access and Participation in HE: prior school experiences esp. class and ethnicity; based on analysis of UCAS/HESA data; gender differences assumed • Socio-cultural & Learning Experiences of Working Class Students in Higher Education: learner and institutional different expectations but working class female students’ resilience • Learners’ transitions from Vocational Education and Training: male students predominate in VET and VET students attend lower status HEI; choice for social rather than economic reasons • Seamlessness or separation: negotiating further and higher education boundaries in dual sector institutions

11. Highlights from chapter 4 on pedagogies for social diversity • Pedagogies for diverse subjects within HE, especially for science and technology (STEM) • Learning and Teaching for Social Diversity & Difference in HE: use of theories of academic engagementwithin context of increasing student diversity: teaching socially diverse students in 4 subjects – IT, science, health and social policy; business – 2 universities (old versus new) – importance of inclusive pedagogies for ways of thinking for socially diverse students • Mathematically Demanding Subjects for HE: a cultural model of value: importance of gendered identities at A level and, using CHAT, connectionist not ‘teaching to the test’ pedagogies for maths education in FE colleges

12. Highlights from chapter 5 on age-based participation • Diversity of experiences in HE: • Statistical mapping of progress through HE as a prelude to the labour market – administrative evidence about retention, ‘drop out’ or ‘staying on’ in diverse HEI. Focus on socio-economic disadvantaged students • Educational decision-making, social networks and the new WP • Networks of Intimacy: routes to participation or non-participation? why some qualified adults especially women do not participate: Relevance of HE to social as well as economic life and family networks

13. Highlights from part 3 chapter 6evidence-informed policies • Implications for policy and research, problematics • Dynamic and changing field • Global contexts • Methodological problems re data collection: 2 gaps • Need for open research agenda from UCAS and HESA • No single agency with responsibility for increasing and widening participation in HE across the life course • Implications of policies on fair access and WP • Question of conceptualisation of ‘fair’ access or diversity • Contribution to people’s economic lives or involvement in the labour market whether graduate or professional

14. Highlights from part 3 chapter 6evidence-informed policies • Systematic and systemic forms of inequality for individuals and institutions across subjects and levels of education • A greater diversity of students (classed, gendered and raced) is now participating in some form of post-compulsory or higher education. • Equitable or fair access is not achieved at the point of entry or transition to HE • Target population for policies and practices remains complexly linked to government, institutional or individual practices, identities and perspectives • Findings in relation to policy (9), practices (11)and pedagogies (7) • Implications for policy (12), practices (11)and pedagogies (4)

15. Highlights from part 3 chapter 7 on improving learning by WP • Transforming institutional practices and developing sustainable pedagogies for social diversity and learning across the life course, including schools • Pedagogy in university preparation (Williams et al) • Perceptions and expectations of university(Crozier) • Perceptions and practices of HE lecturers about VET (Hayward) • Pedagogies for social diversity – inclusive learning environments, student centred strategies, connecting with students’ lives, cultural differences, teacher developments (Hockings)

16. Highlights from part 3 chapter 7 on improving learning by WP • Go beyond ‘reducing achievement gaps’ • Opportunities, outcomes and obstacles to their achievement • Inequitable pathways for diverse [women] students into highly stratified systems of HE • Pedagogies and practices can lead to meaningful educational engagements across the life course • Critical, connectionist and inclusive pedagogies can reverse patterns of differential participation (Crozier, Hayward, Hockings and Williams especially)

17. TLRP’s evidence-informed principles for higher education 1 1. Effective pedagogy demands consistent policy frameworks, with support for learning for diverse students as their main focus. Policies at government, system, institutional and organisational level need to recognise the fundamental importance of learning for individual, team, organisational, institutional, national and system success. Policies should be designed to create effective and equitable learning environments for all students to benefit socially and economically.

18. TLRP’s evidence-informed principles for higher education 2 2. Effective pedagogy depends on the research and learning of all those educators who teach and research to support the learning of others. The need for lecturers, teachers and trainers to learn through doing research to improve their knowledge, expertise and skills for teaching should be recognised and supported.

19. TLRP’s evidence-informed principles for higher education 3 • Effective pedagogy recognises the importance of prior or concurrent experience and learning. Pedagogy should take account of what the student as learner knows already to plan strategies for the future. This includes building on prior learning but also taking account of the emerging concurrent learning in context, and the personal and cultural experiences of different groups of students as learners.

20. TLRP’s evidence-informed principles for higher education 4 • Effective pedagogy engages with expertise and valued forms of knowledge in disciplines and subjects. Pedagogy should engage students with the concepts, key skills and processes, modes of discourse, ways of thinking and practising and attitudes and relationships which are most valued in their subject. Students need to understand what constitutes quality, standards and expertise in different settings and subjects.

21. TLRP’s evidence-informed principles for higher education 5 10. Effective pedagogy equips learners for life in its broadest sense. Learning should help individuals develop the intellectual, personal and social resources that will enable them to participate as active citizens, contribute to economic, social or community development, and flourish as individuals in a diverse and changing society. This means adopting a broad conception of worthwhile learning outcomes and taking seriously issues of equity and social justice for all, across social, economic, ethnic and gender differences.

22. What have we learnt about HE policies: inequalities persist • We concluded that: ‘equity and diversity ... processes lead to different and frequently inequitable pathways for diverse and nowadays a majority of female students into highly stratified systems of HE (defined in terms of international league tables or ‘metrics’). • Mass HE has been critical to the global knowledge economy: supplying knowledge and professional workers for corporate or academic capitalism through individualization and competition • All classes have been afforded more education and so benefits remain inequitable between different forms of elite and mass HE • So we emphasize the importance of dealing with prior educational experiences, in schools, FE colleges, and through family networks for participation in diverse HE institutions and subjects

23. Lessons for engaging in learning in intercultural and ethnic contexts. • The academic labour market has been transformed with women as • students (undergraduate and postgraduate) within HE, • Teachers and academic developers, developing inclusive pedagogies • Reducing male disadvantage within access to elite forms of undergraduate HE would not address the scope of the dilemmas and contradictions across all forms and levels of HE. • Power differentials and forms of privilege remain as individualized competition increases affecting professional and personal identities in HE and learning and earning across the life course. • The forbidding uncertain global economic and UK HE policy context remains a constraint on imagining progressive interdisciplinary intercultural or multicultural learning in HE across the life course

24. Challenging lessons for equity, diversity and gender in HE • A vision for the future would not only entail the production of knowledge for policy but collaborative professional practices and forms of educational or academic development and would incorporate: • maintaining high expectations of all students as learners, whilst recognising the diversity of their needs, cultures and identities. • diverse perspectives on pedagogies, institutional and cultural practices. • inclusive, collaborative or collective or connectionist, and personal - pedagogies, to ensure that diverse people’s lives across the life course were enhanced.