Detailed View

Export the results of this page in detailed view as PDF
V. Foreign Higher Education and Education Systems, International Relations, Bilateral Relations
B. Essays, Commentaries, Statements
Author GOURLAY, Lesley
Title Student engagement, learnification and the sociomaterial : critical perspectives on higher education policy / Lesley Gourlay
Publication year 2017
Source/Footnote In: Higher education policy. - 30 (2017) 1, S. 23 - 34
Inventory number 45056
Keywords Studentenschaft : politische Aktionen ; Studentenschaft : Selbstverwaltung und Mitbestimmung
Abstract The term ‘student engagement’ has become ubiquitous in mainstream discourses concerning higher education in the UK and beyond. The term is used to denote a desirable set of practices and orientations in students which should be worked towards or encouraged in order for teaching in higher education to be deemed successful — as such, it has enormous influence in the higher education (HE) as part of a discourse which carries powerful ideological force in the sector. However, as Kahn (Br Educ Res J 40(6):1005–1018, 2013) points out, it is a concept which is weakly theorised in the literature. This paper will interrogate the concept in order to deepen understanding of how the term operates. I will argue first that the notion often relies on typological categories which tend to posit the individual as the primary site of student engagement and secondly that this is primarily identified in interlocution or observable interaction. Drawing on the work of Gert Biesta, I will argue that this position reflects a broader trend towards ‘learnification’ in higher education, which positions teaching as problematic and inherently repressive. I seek to build on this critique by arguing for a reframing which recognises the sociomaterial and radically distributed nature of human and non-human agency in day-to-day student engagement. (HRK / Abstract übernommen)