The Work and Benefits of Student Engagement

It’s been nearly five months and the big day has nearly arrived – in this time, I have not only been researching student engagement as a PhD student and working full time, but I have also been working with three other PhD colleagues (Carla, Krystallia, and Rebekah) to apply for funding and plan an innovative storytelling workshop for our colleagues. As I’m pretty busy with my job and PhD (some say I'm crazy!), I was at first apprehensive about taking on the extra commitment of helping in this endeavor. However, I felt I should practice what I preach and do a bit more engaging in my student role to contribute to the PhD community at Moray House Graduate School of Education and Sport.

Carla, Krystallia, Rebekkah, and I have written four funding proposals, three of which came together from the EUSA Schools’ Fund, EUSA Global, and the Graduate School to generously fund our endeavor. Throughout this time, it has been a great opportunity for me as a part-time PhD student to get to know these colleagues better and work collaboratively with them which has been beneficial when PhD work can be so solitary. It has helped us develop our resilience and perseverance to write the funding requests, liaise with funders, the storyteller, caterers, etc. When we launched the event, it was fantastic to see all the spaces fill up within 24 hours showing great demand even in the midst of summer holidays. It is now with great anticipation and satisfaction that we’re looking forward to seeing our event come together tomorrow as ‘Telling the Story of Your Research: A 1.5-Day Storytelling Workshop for Academics’. You can follow our journey at #MHresearchstories on Twitter to see how we get on.

We’re hoping to see many benefits of the workshop tomorrow, seeing our PhD community come together whilst learning about each other’s research. We will also learn to communicate more effectively, reflect more on our research journey, construct new knowledge, and capture the complexity of our research in an audience-friendly manner (not bore them!). Personally I’m hoping this workshop will help me to improve my presentation skills in telling the story of my research to engage various audiences, and I look forward to hearing feedback from my peers whilst enjoying the event.

I hope we will see more such student-organised events in our community soon!

World Yoga Day

Happy World Yoga Day! I used to wonder what all the fuss was about yoga, thinking it was a fad for people who wanted to pretend that they were working out. When I tried yoga ten years ago, I felt the pace was too slow for my body and mind since I religiously went to the gym every day and preferred intense spinning or circuits classes. Now, thanks to discovering Yoga with Adriene last year, I've come to really value yoga. Here's why:

1. Playtime: I love that Adriene emphasises that yoga means taking time to explore your body, how you move, and what you're capable of. It's a time to experiment and try new things, both physically and mentally. 

2. Me time: I've come to value more diversity in my workouts, not only doing hardcore cardio but also time to build my core strength and balance, physically and mentally. Now that I'm working full time and doing a PhD at the same time, I value that yoga helps give my mind a break from academic work and challenges me in new ways. Yoga with Adriene does a great job in helping me to foster 'self-love' as she calls it and to love my body in new ways.

3. New challenges. I'm not very flexible and am not terribly good at all the yoga poses, but it's a great new challenge for me. I love that Adriene is so supportive and accommodating (she always says, 'If you fall, I'll catch you'), and that I can do her free yoga videos in my own time on my living room floor before work or after work, squeezing them into my daily life. 

I'm not being compensated in any way for promoting Yoga With Adriene, but she has done so much for me in this last year by providing her free 30 Days of Yoga and thirty YogaCamp videos all for free on YouTube that I want to spread the word to help others learn about her great work and the supportive community she fosters. I the last year, I've enjoyed doing her yoga videos at home in Edinburgh, with my Mom in Boston, and while travelling in Europe and the U.S.!

World Yoga Day

Happy World Yoga Day! I used to wonder what all the fuss was about yoga, thinking it was a fad for people who wanted to pretend that they were working out. When I tried yoga ten years ago, I felt the pace was too slow for my body and mind since I religiously went to the gym every day and preferred intense spinning or circuits classes. Now, thanks to discovering Yoga with Adriene last year, I've come to really value yoga. Here's why:

1. Playtime: I love that Adriene emphasises that yoga means taking time to explore your body, how you move, and what you're capable of. It's a time to experiment and try new things, both physically and mentally. 

2. Me time: I've come to value more diversity in my workouts, not only doing hardcore cardio but also time to build my core strength and balance, physically and mentally. Now that I'm working full time and doing a PhD at the same time, I value that yoga helps give my mind a break from academic work and challenges me in new ways. Yoga with Adriene does a great job in helping me to foster 'self-love' as she calls it and to love my body in new ways.

3. New challenges. I'm not very flexible and am not terribly good at all the yoga poses, but it's a great new challenge for me. I love that Adriene is so supportive and accommodating (she always says, 'If you fall, I'll catch you'), and that I can do her free yoga videos in my own time on my living room floor before work or after work, squeezing them into my daily life. 

I'm not being compensated in any way for promoting Yoga With Adriene, but she has done so much for me in this last year by providing her free 30 Days of Yoga and thirty YogaCamp videos all for free on YouTube that I want to spread the word to help others learn about her great work and the supportive community she fosters. I the last year, I've enjoyed doing her yoga videos at home in Edinburgh, with my Mom in Boston, and while travelling in Europe and the U.S.!

Dewey: Education, Social Justice, and Democracy

Today I participated in the conference 'Education, Social Justice, and Democracy: Critical Issues in 21st Century Education'. This was a Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain event celebrating the centenary of John Dewey's influential text Democracy and Education, focusing on social justice and inclusion in 21st century education. I was delighted to have the opportunity to present preliminary findings from my own research in a talk called Co-Creation of the Curriculum: Living Democratic Values in Learning and Teaching, drawing on Dewey's democratic ideals and showing how many academic staff participants in my study were motivated to co-create the curriculum with their students by wanting to facilitate democratic engagement in the classroom. Furthermore, co-creation of the curriculum helps students draw on past experiences inside and outside of the classroom to engage them with current learning that is more accessible, inclusive, and rewarding since it is relevant to their own goals and interests.

Several of the talks focusing on primary and secondary education helped me reflect in new ways on my own research. In particular, I saw parallels between Diana Murdoch's research on inclusive education and themes in my work including the feelings of isolation and invisibility when a learning environment doesn't foster care and the inclusion of all voices in the classroom at any level of study. I see co-creation of the curriculum as an opportunity for developing community, care, and inclusion in education. Furthermore, co-creation of the curriculum is often referred to as a fun and creative process that engages both students and staff to learn from each other. The presentation by Adrian Skilbeck highlighted Dewey's notion that play should occur across the curriculum by engaging students imaginatively and creatively to combine work and play in learning. I was particularly struck when he noted Dewey's idea that the role of teachers is to foster engagement, inquiry, and playfulness; I would like to explore these concepts in my own research. Furthermore, Holly Linklater showed her work in which pupils have 'co-agency' in primary school classrooms alongside staff so that pupils' exploration, choices, and reflections create dynamic learning environments when teachers build community in the classroom and attend to the imagination, individuality, and co-agency of children. It is great to see co-creation of the primary school curriculum and to think about why co-creation of the higher education curriculum is considered more controversial.

A keynote address by Prof Leonard Waks who summarised Dewey's ideas that education should emphasise engaging experiences that help students to practice democratic means that help them develop as stronger actors in a democratic society. Like I do in my work, Waks highlighted the necessity of engaging students in learning and continuous readjustment within the context of an ever-changing world. Waks then tried to relate Dewey's ideas of democracy in education to the idea that the Internet has produced Education2.0 which is liberating students from a reliance on single sources of information and single conceptions of knowledge. However, Waks' superficial and idealised view of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) stimulated good critique from the audience of why we need to look more closely at some undemocratic aspects of MOOCs.

Another theme that I took away from a different set of sessions was how Dewey's work on democracy and education highlights the importance of informed participation of citizens in multicultural democracies. Presentations highlighted the importance of multiculturalism and informed learning about Islam in American schools to recognise cultural diversity and accept differences (Liz Jackson), using education to understand the causes of injustices against women in Iran and look at how to include them more widely in the workforce (Hoda Mobasseri), and using citizenship education in Pakistan to promote social justice (Khurshid Sana Kahn).

QAA National Enhancement Themes Conference

Yesterday I attended and presented at the QualityAssurance Agency (QAA) Scotland’s national Enhancement Themes conference focusing on student transitions into, through, and out of university. It was helpful that the first keynote speaker, Professor Trevor Gale, challenged this notion of student transitions by clarifying and widening out his definition of transitions. In his talk ‘Resourcing the capacity to navigate change: a typology of student transitions’, Prof Gale highlighted how transitions can be experienced vertically and horizontally, over time and across different spaces, by both students, staff, and institutions. He described T1 as a transition of induction, with an implied linear progression of students as they are inducted into higher education through a pedagogy of regulation. Next, he described T2 as a transition of development, with distinct stages of student maturation along trajectories of transformation as they develop new identities as students, researchers, and professionals. Finally, Prof Gale describes T3 as a transition of becoming, with a perpetual series of fragmented movements zigzags that recognise the messiness of life and subjective experiences through higher education. I was particularly struck by Prof Gale’s emphasis on how not only students need to transition, but also institutions need to transition to foster T3 with more flexible modules, systems of choice, and ways to adapt to accommodate diverse student needs. This flexibility and transition of institutions embraces diversity, with significant benefits for all. Therefore, it was wonderful to see Prof Gale’s critique of traditional universities and I personally saw the need for institutions to transition as a call for student-staff partnerships and projects such as co-creation of the curriculum which allow students and staff to work together to rethink the student experience of higher education which can have a significant impact on developing social justice within institutions.

At the conference sessions, I enjoyed sharing the work of my team, meeting others from different institutions in Scotland, and hearing about some new initiatives. It was a fantastic time to celebrate my student staff and their great work in our Academic Representation team at EUSA this year to make a significant impact in terms of implementing Class Rep online training and open badges, and it was fantastic to have them lead our workshop which stimulated interesting discussions about how technology can be used effectively at other institutions to support the transitions of students in different areas.

See the PowerPoint slides for our presentation Using technology to support Class Representatives transition into, through, and out of their role.

 The conference was also helpful for thinking critically about the flipped classroom and what models of this are most effective, engaging, and producing highest learning gain. It was also fantastic to learn about student-led projects such as a student professional development society and working group which helped students develop leadership, networking, analytical skills. I also enjoyed learning about the Aberdeen University and Robert Gordon University interdisciplinary and collaborative CityLabs co-creation of the curriculum project, and the University of Glasgow Let’s Talk about X interdisciplinary conference which gave me lots of ideas for a Student Rep Conference I’m hoping to run next year. All in all, it was a good day and an interesting conference!

Take a Break to Rejuvenate

In academia, it's easy to become a workaholic because the system expects it of you. For academics, pressure is high to be excellent in not only teaching but also research. For students, too, there's never a break with academic work always hanging over you. Even when you want to have a night off an enjoy time with friends, I often feel as a PhD student that I should be reading or transcribing or coding instead.

Now that the academic year has finished for undergrads (although of course it ramps up for Masters students working on their dissertations and always continues for PhDs), I think it's important to take a break. For me, this helps me to give closure to the last few months which have been very intense and allow me some space to think, come up with new ideas, plan for and gain energy for the busy year ahead. Summertime is the perfect time to do this. 

Even though I always bring one academic book with me to read on the plane, I've been relishing the time to catch up with my parents, go hiking in Cinque Terre, try delicious local foods, and explore new areas. Italy has been a fantastic place to help me rejuvenate so that, when I'm back, I can pour my new energy into the conferences I will be presenting at as well as some time to think about writing journal articles. I'd encourage everyone in academia to indulge themselves by enjoying some time off this summer, and resist the urge to take your work with you since, if you do, you will feel some much more relaxed and rejuvenated when you return. I certainly do!