Students as partners in research in higher education: the views of students from a socio-economicallydisadvantaged area

• S. O’Sullivan ^[1] ; M. Cullinane ^[1]
  1. [1] University College Cork

     University College Cork

     Irlanda

     
• Localización: Ikaskuntza-irakaskuntza akademikoaren eremu berriak arakatzen / Universidad del País Vasco - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (aut.), 2019, ISBN 978-84-1319-033-4, págs. 190-196
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro (pdf)
• Resumen

  • Higher education in recent years has seen the expansion of active and collaborative teaching andlearning and there is an emerging discourse in SoTL on ‘students as partners’. These initiatives are diverse,including for example the co-construction of curriculum design and co-inquiry in research andevaluation. The principle of inclusion of hard-to-reach students and previously excluded groups hasbeen highlighted as being of particular importance (Bovill, 2017). However, evaluating the impact ofsuch partnerships has thus far received less systematic attention. This paper argues with Bender andGrey (1999, 4) that teaching, like other forms of scholarship ‘must not only be reflective, systematic andreplicable, but public’. It thus presents an evaluation of a participatory research project where academicspartnered with students in one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged estates in Cork City,Ireland which is currently undergoing regeneration.The project involved 15 mature students enrolled in a part-time Diploma (60 ECTS credits over twoyears) with the centre for Adult Continuing Education, UCC. Most were early school leavers and faced barriersengaging in higher education, including financial and socio-cultural. A module was specifically designedwhereby the students and academics co-constructed a household survey and became field researchersto gather the views of fellow residents on the regeneration of their area. The paper analyses the studentsexperience of partnership with academics from their own point of view to assess what difference their engagementin the project made to them. Overall, the paper documents the process of co-inquiry with studentsfrom a disadvantaged area and aims to ascertain how meaningful was their learning experience.