Culture, Change and Community in Higher Education

Building, Evolving and Re-Building Learning Environments

Dawne J. Gurbutt, Rachel M. Cragg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429590504
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Addressing the contemporary issues relating to the delivery of education, Culture, Change and Community in Higher Education explores the challenges of creating effective learning communities.

Focusing on the creation and implementation of strategies which permeate and influence culture and enable staff to innovate, this book:

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• considers the balance between a focus on people, places, pedagogy and technology

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• encourages the reader to explore the steps that can be taken to inspire creativity, collaboration and connectivity through the provision of learning environments which are both accessible and engaging

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• employs case studies and examples to consider ways to support the creation of an effective and inclusive learning community

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• offers both strategic and operational perspectives into creating learning spaces and evoking effective change

Culture, Change and Community in Higher Education offers insight into a topic that is becoming ever more important with the implementation of the Teaching Excellence Framework. It is a must-read for Higher Education managers looking to implement effective and inclusive learning environments within their university.

1 Introduction

The context of higher education in the UK

Dawne J. Gurbutt and Rachel M. Cragg

Dictionary definition of learning

Learning can be a conscious act: an intent to develop one’s knowledge or expertise. Learning can be an unconscious process, by which one becomes more expert or knowledgeable as a result of experience. Learning is not bound to a physical place or mind set, it is part of our every day. Some seek to learn; others experience it. The opportunity for deep learning comes from the spaces, the places, and the environments to reflect and consolidate.

The physical and virtual spaces of the modern university are the environments through which those who choose to study at a higher level enhance their knowledge, skills and experience. In these spaces learning is far more than the content of a course or programme, it is about feeling included in an environment that enables the student to learn. The role of a contemporary university is to recognise how and where learning occurs and create physical and psychological spaces to enable effective learning. This community of learning succeeds through the active engagement of students and staff with a common purpose to make a positive contribution to society through knowledge, innovation and skills.

In this book we explore ways in which contemporary higher education (HE) has and is adapting to change. Learning and digital technologies have shaped many of the pedagogic transformations in education over the past decade. Here our lens focuses on organisational culture and its community recognising the need to build, evolve and rebuild learning environments.

For centuries, a ‘learning environment’ was depicted in art and literature as a communal space, probably filled with books and texts, usually conceived as quite formal in nature and most usually places to acquire knowledge from the written or the spoken word. An example would be the depiction of learned environments in which discourses take place (Shapin and Schaffer, 1985). Traditional universities across the world created such spaces, many of which still remain in active use today. Spaces that were made for individual study, such as the library, were still, in essence, communal places for solitary study. Other spaces included communal classrooms, halls and lecture theatres. These were, and still are, locations set aside for the purpose of learning. The traditional design of classrooms and lecture theatres were predicated on the need to focus on the ‘performance’ of an expert at the front, closely watched by learners. Acoustics would have also played a part: the ‘teacher’ or expert would need to be located in a space where their unamplified voice could be readily heard. However, there has always been an acknowledgement that diversity exists in relation to learning spaces. Historically, the anatomical theatre in the University of Padova, dating back to 1594, and scientific laboratories are an example of diverse learning settings which did not share the seating arrangements of the theatre or areas for public entertainment.

In previous centuries there was also, for many disciplines, the boundary and distinction between knowledge and skills; knowledge acquisition occurring in one type of setting and skills in another, an example of which would be the work of the physician (and later the surgeon) and the apothecary where multiple settings developed for learners to learn their craft. For some, knowledge and skill acquisition was sequenced, such as the ‘Articled’ approach to Law or Finance. It could be argued that the learning of skills has always relied to some extent on more contextual spaces. An early example of context-based learning is the medieval activity of jousting. The joust was itself a simulation of a heavy cavalry charge, but novices were introduced to the activity using a fixed target and a wooden horse, i.e. a simulation to prepare for a larger simulation which ultimately would prepare for the real world scenario. The training for the practice of law in the UK by barristers began as ‘trial by battle’, which evolved into lawyers becoming ‘champions’ who could win a case with words alone (Leeson, 2011). This demonstrates how the skills required for professions change dramatically with context.

As the education sector has developed, this boundary between the separation of skills and knowledge acquisition has been rendered increasingly more permeable. Universities are a setting for both types of learning. In recent years, the link between the need to be close to physical books and resources in order to learn has been broken by the portability of learning materials via digital connectedness and this, alongside other factors, has irrevocably changed the understanding of the concept of a learning environment. These changes have also challenged the assumptions about how and where learning takes place. Information is readily available to all, the learner’s task is to codify and apply; learning is deeper, skills are more valued. The workforce of the present needs to be able to continue to learn, develop new skills and adapt at pace.

Higher education does not operate in a vacuum. There are a number of drivers operating at different levels which have had an impact on the nature of learning. These include, global, national, regional and local drivers for change in the recognition of learning needs and the search for ways to meet these dynamic and evolving societal demands. These will be discussed in the following chapters.

Global drivers for change

Developments in one location can have a global impact as higher education is increasingly becoming an international endeavour with mobile students, both geographically and in on-line settings. The sector is now no longer solely concerned with meeting the needs of the local or even national workforce, but is paying attention to the development of the ‘global citizen’. This specialised attention pertains not only transferable skills, but also ethical and moral insights, cultural awareness and resilience to be able to work in multiple different settings. League tables have been globalised, as have national and educational developments, which are rapidly shared and emulated in a variety of settings worldwide. At one time becoming a graduate would have been perceived as sufficient preparation for a graduate role. However, the global expansion of higher education and stronger links to industry and employers has led to an enhanced focus on the types of skills, knowledge and experiences deemed integral not only to the undergraduate programme but also to the global transferability of knowledge and skills. Therefore, employers and industrial leaders continue to remain focused on specific subject knowledge, but have added to this the desirability for graduates to be able to demonstrate cross-cutting skills that will enable them to exemplify their abilities in decision making, problem solving, communication, time management and team work. In addition, it could be argued that employers are increasingly looking for resilient graduates who are able to manage their own professional relationships and care for their personal and professional wellbeing. Today’s global graduate, needs to be prepared for an interconnected workplace in which they may work in teams that will never meet face-to-face, in roles that will constantly evolve throughout their working lives. Therefore, resilience and agility between settings are key skills that need to be learned alongside standard disciplinary content.

The challenge of managing social media is also for the most part a global one. In an interconnected world, students can find it challenging to find the inclination and the space to be able to build a rapport with strangers, or to begin new friendships with previously unknown contacts when they remain in constant social media contact with a specific set of pre-existing friends who may be elsewhere. Coupled with the need to provide a social media presence, which asserts a somewhat aspirational identity alongside the persistent reminder of other’s carefully selected achievements, these factors have the capacity to impact not only a student’s resilience, but also their capacity to develop the social communication skills that are necessary for team working, and in particular for the caring professions. There is another associated factor with the rise in pervasiveness of social media: there is a slippage between access to information and the need for education. One of the constant challenges in building learning communities is deciding how best to convey to learners the difference between receiving information and learning. A similar challenge is raised in regards to helping a learner to understand the difference between merely reading about a discipline and applying their acquired knowledge in collective endeavours with others. Learning spaces can be provided, but the cultural narrative needs to include a reasoned argument for why participation on campus, where relevant, is beneficial. This narrative reflects the development of ways of creating learning spaces that transition from knowledge acquisition to the application of skills. One iteration of this is the ‘flipped classroom’, in which knowledge is transferred on-line, through a variety of modes such as information access, ELearning, or discussion with an eye to problem solving and solution-focused collectives in shared learning spaces. Employers (Universities UK, 2015) articulate that they find both aspects of this type of learning experience compelling; firstly, the ability to process information, learn independently and draw out issues or difficulties for discussion and clarification and secondly the ability to work efficiently and collaboratively to identify solutions and approaches.

National context

The UK higher education sector has experienced and, at the time of writing, is still facing, significant change and challenges.

Universities remain an aspiration for families, a priority for a modern economy and a major export business. But somewhere along the way they seem to have suffered some kind of identity crisis. What are they for? Who are they meant to serve? And who should pay for them? Maybe their biggest challenge is to find a renewed sense of purpose and to make a new contract with the public about how they can support one another.

(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42413636)

The relationship between students and the institutions in which they study has been strongly impacted by the introduction of student tuition fees, which are fees paid by the student to the higher education institution. This payment scheme was recommended by the Dearing Report (1997) and fundamentally changed the model of higher education. As a consequence, it also changed the ways in which students see themselves. No longer are students perceived as mere recipients of higher education, but rather the new funding model rendered students as ‘customers’ who are making direct payments in exchange for education provision. Cost and value have increasingly become the norm around the boardrooms of higher education providers.

This overall alteration in identity, and the impact on the student/institution relationship is not one-way; it has reconfigured the ways in which universities and the wider sector sees students, it affects the way the public perceives higher education. In 2012 the cost of university tuition fees tripled over the course of a single year to a level which has subsequently remained relatively constant. The rapid escalation in the costs demanded of a student has resulted in an increasingly consumerist approach to educational provision, which in turn has undeniably impacted the lived experience of being a student.

This has nevertheless had a positive impact on the student experience and the ever increasing focus on student partnership, satisfaction and outcomes. Through mechanisms such as the Teaching Excellence Framework (GovUK, 2017) efforts are being made to understand what constitutes and acknowledges a ‘good student experience’ – something that is extremely diverse, with multiple variables affecting students, multiple provider types and multiple philosophies and definitions of what constitutes good.

Integral to this approach are attempts to quantify the extent of ‘learning provision’, an example being the National Student Survey, which was introduced in 2005, an annual cycle of data gathering (HEFCE, 2017) together with more specific evaluation initiatives such as the research into student contact hours (NUS/QAA, 2012). However, these measures do not easily take into account the full range of supplementary learning provision and opportunities provided by institutions.

Learning gain exists within the wider context of the role of the higher education institution. Teaching, research and knowledge exchange are intertwined within the higher education environment, valued at public policy level with real value coming through the synergy and alignment of activity. Universities may have different strengths in each of these domains; rarely can they exist in isolation of each other. Exemplified by the increased emphasis on the role of employability and enterprise in preparing students for the workplace after graduation (Butcher et al., 2011) and the benefits derived from working collaboratively instead of working alone (Spelt et al., 2009; CAIPE, 2012).

Access to higher education has been a government policy commitment for some time. In 1999, the Labour government articulated the importance of education, including a commitment to expand higher education to include 50% of school leavers (BBC, 1999). This aspiration has largely been met, with a recorded 49% of school leavers entering higher education (Guardian, 2017). The expansion to meet the 1999 pledge has widened the diversity of young people entering higher education, but this is not spread evenly across the system. Some universities focus on ‘widening participation’, choosing to admit a disproportionate number of learners from disadvantaged backgrounds in contrast to other universities. Student diversity is no longer limited to school leavers; there has also been a rise in mature students returning to study. This is part of a wider social change, in which universities have the opportunity to play an instrumental part. Many UK universities originated from industrial links. Post 1945, higher education came to be seen more as a social instrument, and one linked to equality of opportunity; the Labour government policy of expansion in 1999 was initially seen as focused on skills development for a prosperous economy, but included an increasing recognition of the role that higher education plays in increasing social inclusion (Williams and Cochrane, 2010). Higher education has a role in not only enabling access to qualifications, but also ensuring real social mobility, opening access to professional career opportunities for all regardless of background. The inclusion and engagement agenda considers students as learners and the links to industry, the workplace and the locality. The availability of degree apprenticeships are an initiative in this arena that combine salaried employment with study options, thus removing a barrier to those who feel unable to take on a student debt whilst also providing additional opportunities to those who do not want to defer work experience (Office for Students, 2018). Degree apprenticeships also require employers to be co-partners in education, as they should actively provide workplace education. This subtly shifts the balance of educational determination and responsibility to a wider group of educators working co-operatively to create varied learning environments.

Higher education in the UK, from January 2018, has for the first time been regulated by the Office for Students. This moves ensure accountability for the ways in which higher education providers are governed, for the quality of outcomes and in protecting the interests of students.

Regional and local drivers

Universities are increasingly recognised as civic institutions Often they are one of the largest employers in the city, bringing wealth to the region through the resident student population and the graduates that remain in the location.

Regional initiatives therefore both shape and are shaped by the activities of higher education institutions within the region via reciprocal knowledge exchanges, and in different ways that demonstrate the importance of engaging with local stakeholders.

For example in the north-west of England initiatives such as the Northern Powerhouse (NP, 2018), s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the authors
• 1. Introduction: the context of higher education in the UK
• 2. Collaborative education
• 3. Creativity, community and curriculum
• 4. Transformative learning: case studies
• 5. Learning in different contexts: the case for socially-immersive learning
• 6. Continuity and change
• 7. A community within a community
• 8. Communities of practice and continuing professional development for the real world
• 9. Conclusions
• Index