Higher Education Close Up (HECU) #8 was a wonderful conference that examined the theme of social justice in depth and from multiple angles and perspectives. Bringing together higher education researchers from the UK, South Africa, Australia, the U.S., and beyond, this conference wrestled with difficult questions about the purpose of the university. We discussed the extent to which we are researching how to develop higher education institutions that are socially just and/or whether higher education can lead to the development of a more socially just world. This conference raised so many deep and important questions about social justice and higher education that will take us all quite some time to think through, but below I have attempted to summarise some of my reflections from the past few days.
Jenni Case set the scene with her keynote asking whether we are asking the right, forward-thinking, impactful education questions to fully understand the current context that is rapidly changing. She highlighted how 'close up' research is undervalued, and how academics need to not just write opinion nieces, blog posts, and social media posts that are short-term and focused on the moment at hand; we need to not lose sight of the long-term aims and conduct forward-thinking research about social justice in higher education. Similarly, Monica McLean suggested that higher education is of diminishing importance for disadvantaged groups, and students from lower socioeconomic status are more likely to enroll in lower-ranked and lower prestige universities. She highlighted the need to understand in a nuanced way what epistemic injustice looks like, and also what justice and spaces for hope look like in within higher education.
During the three days of the conference there was a range of presentations about inequalities in higher education, as well as hope by seeing some very positive projects. For example, Kirsty Finn highlighted that some student mobility focuses on maintaining or reproducing class, power, and privilege. She showed that this is seen especially within discourses of cosmopolitanism about students who have the ability to move within the country or around the world to pursue educational opportunities. However, she used the capabilities approach to try to shift the debate about student mobility and show the advantages for student commuters who can see their long commutes as opportunities to create physical and symbolic distance between their home and university which allows them to reflect on ideas during their time commuting. Other talks looking at inequalities in higher education included Kelly Coat who is researching gendered inequalities of prestige for mid-career female academics, Samuel Dent who is researching support for and recognition of students who care for children, and Joanne Doyle who is exploring the challenges of bringing higher education learning initiatives to incarcerated students in Australia and the benefits when they have fewer instances of being re-incarcerated. In addition, research from Kingston university showed attainment gaps for white and black students although there is hope because they have introduced successful ways of developing students' social capital which appear to have improved attainment rates for all students.
Paul Ashwin and Rachel Sweetman's talk on the stability of higher education ranking systems that reproduce prestige was also fascinating, and they suggested more socially just measures of teaching quality. They highlighted the importance of looking at students' perceptions of their learning experiences and their reports of whether transformative learning takes place in their classrooms. They also highlighted the public perception of precision in ranking systems, but they showed that this is not the case in reality so it is more advantageous to use blunt measures of teaching quality so that the public can more easily recognise the obvious benefits and limitations of university ranking systems.
Another theme of the conference was the importance of developing strong student-teacher relationships in socially just higher education that minimizes inequalities. Her her keynote, Jan McArthur highlighted that self-realisation and social inclusion are interconnected, encouraging both students and teachers to give and receive in learning and teaching. She emphasised three aspects of mutual recognition in higher education: love, rights, and merit. This included emotional support to develop self-confidence, equal treatment including cognitive respect and moral responsibility that encourages self-respect, and social solidarity that develops self-esteem by contributing to society. She questioned, 'if assessment is so important, why can't it be more socially just?' And highlighted lack of trust and honest in assessment from the plagiarism industry's effect on assessment to inappropriate emphasis on knowledge that priviledges economic value (such as employability). Jan stated that, to promote social justice in higher education, we need to have assessment that promotes self-confidence, self-respect, and self-esteem. Furthermore, Jan called for social justice work in higher education that to be in conversation with the world as it is currently, and as it might be if it is indeed socially just.
Jenni Case set the scene with her keynote asking whether we are asking the right, forward-thinking, impactful education questions to fully understand the current context that is rapidly changing. She highlighted how 'close up' research is undervalued, and how academics need to not just write opinion nieces, blog posts, and social media posts that are short-term and focused on the moment at hand; we need to not lose sight of the long-term aims and conduct forward-thinking research about social justice in higher education. Similarly, Monica McLean suggested that higher education is of diminishing importance for disadvantaged groups, and students from lower socioeconomic status are more likely to enroll in lower-ranked and lower prestige universities. She highlighted the need to understand in a nuanced way what epistemic injustice looks like, and also what justice and spaces for hope look like in within higher education.
During the three days of the conference there was a range of presentations about inequalities in higher education, as well as hope by seeing some very positive projects. For example, Kirsty Finn highlighted that some student mobility focuses on maintaining or reproducing class, power, and privilege. She showed that this is seen especially within discourses of cosmopolitanism about students who have the ability to move within the country or around the world to pursue educational opportunities. However, she used the capabilities approach to try to shift the debate about student mobility and show the advantages for student commuters who can see their long commutes as opportunities to create physical and symbolic distance between their home and university which allows them to reflect on ideas during their time commuting. Other talks looking at inequalities in higher education included Kelly Coat who is researching gendered inequalities of prestige for mid-career female academics, Samuel Dent who is researching support for and recognition of students who care for children, and Joanne Doyle who is exploring the challenges of bringing higher education learning initiatives to incarcerated students in Australia and the benefits when they have fewer instances of being re-incarcerated. In addition, research from Kingston university showed attainment gaps for white and black students although there is hope because they have introduced successful ways of developing students' social capital which appear to have improved attainment rates for all students.
Paul Ashwin and Rachel Sweetman's talk on the stability of higher education ranking systems that reproduce prestige was also fascinating, and they suggested more socially just measures of teaching quality. They highlighted the importance of looking at students' perceptions of their learning experiences and their reports of whether transformative learning takes place in their classrooms. They also highlighted the public perception of precision in ranking systems, but they showed that this is not the case in reality so it is more advantageous to use blunt measures of teaching quality so that the public can more easily recognise the obvious benefits and limitations of university ranking systems.
Another theme of the conference was the importance of developing strong student-teacher relationships in socially just higher education that minimizes inequalities. Her her keynote, Jan McArthur highlighted that self-realisation and social inclusion are interconnected, encouraging both students and teachers to give and receive in learning and teaching. She emphasised three aspects of mutual recognition in higher education: love, rights, and merit. This included emotional support to develop self-confidence, equal treatment including cognitive respect and moral responsibility that encourages self-respect, and social solidarity that develops self-esteem by contributing to society. She questioned, 'if assessment is so important, why can't it be more socially just?' And highlighted lack of trust and honest in assessment from the plagiarism industry's effect on assessment to inappropriate emphasis on knowledge that priviledges economic value (such as employability). Jan stated that, to promote social justice in higher education, we need to have assessment that promotes self-confidence, self-respect, and self-esteem. Furthermore, Jan called for social justice work in higher education that to be in conversation with the world as it is currently, and as it might be if it is indeed socially just.
In alignment with this, I did clearly see a case for hope. I presented on how I see co-creation of the curriculum as an opportunity to promote a social justice purpose of higher education:
- by creating inclusive and safe spaces for students and academics to work in partnership,
- by increasing student and staff engagement with learning and teaching, and
- by modeling democratic engagement and social justice in the classroom with the hope that what is learnt can be taken forward to tackle complex global problems and inequalities.
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