Higher Education Researcher

In this episode, Professor Velda McCune talks about the wicked problems project. This project is about how teachers in higher education prepare students for wicked problems. Wicked problems are messy real-world problems that lack obvious solutions and often involve stakeholders with contrasting world views. Examples of wicked problems include the climate emergency, conflict and pandemics. Vel and her colleagues interviewed teachers who taught about these problems, asking them what they did in their teaching and what sort of learning they hoped would happen.

Wicked problems project website link: http://www.wickedproblems.ed.ac.uk/

Talking to Sylvie is Olga Rotar, a doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU.

Sylvie Lomer is a Lecturer in Education at the Manchester Institute for Education, University of Manchester. In this episode, Sylvie talks about her programme of research building on her critical study of UK policy on international student recruitment. Two linked projects are currently running with colleagues from UoM, one focusing on pedagogy (with Dr Jenna Mittelmeier),and one focusing on institutional policies (with Dr Steve Courtney and Dr Jenna Mittelmeier). Both projects look to examine how dominant narratives about international students shape academic environments, from the classroom to the university as a whole.

Twitter handle: @SE_Lomer

Project website link: https://internationalpedagogies.home.blog/

Talking to Sylvie is Olga Rotar, a doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU.

Sina Westa is a research associate at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. In this episode, Sina talks about her research on academic freedom, conducted during her PhD at the University of Ljubljana within the Marie Curie ITN framework (Universities in the Knowledge Economy). Sina highlights that academic freedom is a highly political concept that is dependent on time and space. On the one hand, exercising this right is connected to a high degree of social responsibility; and on the other hand, it needs to be exercised continuously to be safeguarded. Especially in times of the current COVID pandemic and the connected impetus of science and research, more attention needs to be given to an open discussion of academic freedom and individual freedoms in more broadly.

Talking to Sina is Dr Janja Komljenovic from CHERE@LU.

Lynn McAlpine is Visiting Professor in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University. Lynn has a long and distinguished career as a higher education researcher and academic teacher. Her recent research looks into various aspects of early career researchers, issues of identities and the PhD process generally. In this episode, she addresses this question: What are the key messages from the literature for those embarking on their supervised PhD research? In doing this, she draws on what is known from research about successful PhD completion and how doctoral researchers can have a fruitful, even enjoyable PhD journey. The episode is introduced by Professor Paul Trowler; there is a brief discussion between them of Lynn’s comments towards the end of the episode. Lynn’s advice will be of interest and benefit to anyone on the traditional route PhD or entering or in thesis research of a structured PhD programme.

Professor Paul Trowler is the Director of the PhD in Higher Education: Research, Evaluation and Enhancement, and a member of CHERE@LU.

Jan McArthur is a Senior Lecturer at the Educational Research Department at Lancaster University and an Editor of Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. Informed by critical theory, her work “Assessment for Social Justice: achievement, uncertainty and recognition” advocates a philosophical re-interpretation of the role of higher education assessment in furthering social justice. Jan argues that assessment is a powerful force in shaping how and what students learn. Because of this, assessment is therefore also key to the social justice mission of the university.

Talking to Jan is Olga Rotar, a doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU. 

Adam Matthews is a researcher at the University of Birmingham. In this episode, Adam talks about his paper co-authored with Dr Ben Kotzee: The rhetoric of the UK higher education Teaching Excellence Framework: a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of TEF2 provider statements. A key methodology in this work is discourse analysis using the methods of corpus and computational linguistics. The paper concludes that employment, employability and outcomes are the key themes of successful Teaching Excellence Framework submissions, made by UK universities in 2017. Adam expands on some of the issues and contradictions at play when we conceptualise employment as the primary identifier of teaching excellence.  

Talking to Adam is is Olga Rotar, doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU.

Olga Rotar is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Educational Research. In this episode, Olga talks about the results of her PhD project. She explains alternative ways of experiencing online learning by the adult student population and suggests that online educators should promote high-level learning experiences that lead to high-level learning outcomes. Olga argues that there is a need to expand a definition of “success” in online higher education. 

Talking to Olga, is Dr Janja Komljenovic, a Lecturer of Higher Education at Lancaster University and the Director of CHERE@LU. 

In 2020, we are celebrating 25 years of the Doctoral Programme in Educational Research - Higher Education (DPER).  Throughout this time, the programme has offered students an opportunity  to become higher education researchers. It was one of the first  doctoral programmes in the field of higher education research.

We organised the celebrations through a webinar series. The kick-off panel was held on 2 September. It was focused on higher education as a research field more  broadly, and how it has developed in time. The speakers also reflected on the role  of doctoral programmes and research centres in establishing higher  education as a research field. The speakers were:

The panel was chaired by Dr Janja Komljenovic (Lancaster University). Janja is Director of DPER, and of the CHERE@LU. 

This episode is the recording of the panel. 

Murat Öztok is a Lecturer at the Social Justice and TEL Doctoral Programmes at Lancaster University. In his episode, Murat talks about his book, The Hidden Curriculum of Online Learning: Understanding Social Justice through Critical Pedagogy, which challenges the current understandings of social justice in the field of online higher education. Murat explains his perspective on equity, provides examples of how cultural hegemony creates unfair learning experiences, and argues that while online learning spaces are frequently promoted as inclusive and democratic, these clams are not necessarily true.

Talking to Paul is is Olga Rotar, doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU.

This is a special episode serving as an introduction to the webinar series celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Doctoral Programme in Educational Research - Higher Education (DPER). A series of webinars is organised throughout September 2020 starting with the kick-off panel on 2 September. In this episode, Dr Janja Komljenovic, the Director of the programme, is joined by Dr Jan McArthur and Dr Ann-Marie Houghton, who are both teaching staff, as well as alumni of the programme. They are in a unique position to share their experience, thoughts, and views. 

DPER is one of the first doctoral programmes in the field of higher education research and is designed so that doctoral researchers remain employed in their work environment and travel to Lancaster for regular residential sessions. This supports students to undertake rigorous research into the higher education contexts in which they work. The Educational Research Department and Lancaster University are incredibly proud of the programme and the achievements of its alumni.

To join our celebratory webinar series focused on the field of higher education research, the experience of students and staff of the programme, its impact on careers and personal lives, and research of its members, please see our webpages: https://bit.ly/3hxupCv