Personal sacrifice and corporate cultures: career progression for disabled staff in higher education

Disabled people are under-represented in higher education (HE), especially in senior posts. This article reports research on the perspectives of career progression into leadership held by disabled staff in one post-1992 university. Findings indicated that some participants were already engaged in leadership or aspired to such roles, and reported positive experiences. However, participants also experienced barriers to progression, including a lack of awareness of equality and diversity among managers and colleagues, inadequate professional development opportunities and the competitive organisational culture of management that could impact on their health and work–life balance. We conclude that disabled staff in HE do not yet have equal opportunities for progression into leadership roles compared with their non-disabled peers. There is a need for realignment of the culture of leadership and management to make it more compatible with the full inclusion of disabled staff in HE such that their unique contributions are valued.     

Disability and participation in the professions: examples from higher and medical education

Learners with disabilities remain under-represented in higher education and courses, such as medicine, that grant access to ‘the professions’. National and professional legislation, policy and guidance have changed over the last few decades in response to reforms in the way disability is viewed and valued by society. Principles of equal rights and equality of opportunity inform the negotiation of widened participation in the professions. However, drawing on the example of medical education, it is possible to see that widening participation agendas may be insensitive to the needs of learners with disabilities. Analysing the development of practice and policy from a participation perspective suggests that tokenism may have played a role in deprioritising the voices of individuals with disabilities, rendering policy disconnected from the needs of marginalised groups. The concept of participatory parity may provide an opportunity to readdress this misrepresentation.     

Supporting the transition of disabled students from university to practice placement

A modified action research project was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-placement procedure in facilitating eight disabled physiotherapy students’ transitions from university to practice. Feedback was gathered from the students, practice educators, visiting and academic tutors via questionnaire. Thematic analysis identified four main themes: ‘Procedure’; ‘Student in Control’; ‘Communication’; and ‘Disclosure’. The procedure was generally effective in supporting these students. Recommendations were made for: the need for ownership of the procedure from all stakeholders; the development of more effective communication systems; and the need for appropriate disability awareness training for all academic and practice-based staff.     

Social support,the presence of barriers and ideas for the future from students with disabilities in the higher education system in Croatia

This paper examines how students with disabilities in Croatia perceive support, experience barriers and propose ways forward for equality of opportunities in the higher education system. In qualitative interviews, students were satisfied with the informal support they received from family and friends but dissatisfied with the formal support they received from universities and the government. Obstacles to inclusion included: inadequate transport and finance to attend university and minimal adaptation of buildings, toilets, lifts, classrooms and dormitories. Students proposed: investment in adapting buildings, personal assistants, educational grants and transport; coordination within the formal systems from national government to universities and non-governmental organisations; and measures to increase disability awareness for academics, professionals and other students within higher education. The situation for students with disabilities in Croatia is a reminder for those working in countries where policy and practice is relatively advanced that many disability battles are still to be won in newer nations.     

Experiences of visually impaired students in higher education: bodily perspectives on inclusive education

Although previous literature sheds light on the experiences of visually impaired students on tertiary grounds, these studies failed to provide an embodied understanding of their lives. In-depth interviews with 15 visually impaired students at one university demonstrated the ways in which they experienced their disability and the built environment in their bodies. At the same time, lost, fearful, shameful and aching bodies revealed prevailing gaps in provision for disabled students. Through this research it becomes clear how the environment is acutely felt within fleshly worlds, while bodies do not fail to tell of disabling societal structures. Based on the bodily stories, we thus make recommendations to improve the lives of visually impaired students on tertiary campuses.     

Incorporating disabled students within an inclusive higher education environment

This study investigated disabled students' perceptions and experiences of learning in a single university. The paper reports the views of disabled student volunteers with a range of impairments who were selected to discuss experiences of teaching and assessment that they commonly encountered. Four group interviews were organized in 2002, before the Disability Discriminants Act (DDA) part IV came on stream, in which disabled students were invited to reflect together on their experiences as learners at the case study university. In addition to teaching and assessment, the students also identified issues to do with access to, and the use of, information as important in their learning experience. We conclude that further studies will need to adopt a more integrated approach to understanding disabled students' experiences as learners.     

Housing and transport: access issues for disabled international students in British universities

This article explores two disabled people’s ‘Seven Needs’ to independent living, those of ‘housing’ and ‘transport’ issues, in relation to disabled international students in British universities. Firstly, students’ living arrangements, including issues related to the suitability of university accommodation to their disability-related needs, have been identified. Secondly, the choice and accessibility of transport used is examined. A range of barriers that this group of students encounter based on their double or multiple identities as ‘disabled’, ‘international’ and sometimes ‘mature’ or ‘postgraduate’ students has thus been identified and discussed. The article highlights the barriers that are reinforced and exacerbated by the interplay of students’ different identities, proposing ways of removing these difficulties.     

The experience of disabled and non-disabled students on professional practice placements in the United Kingdom

There are limited comparisons between the experience of disabled students in higher education and their non-disabled peers, particularly on practice placements. This article presents the results of such a comparison, across six professional disciplines in one UK university. The results revealed that both disabled and non-disabled students reported positive placement experiences and also similar difficulties. Such difficulties were exacerbated for some disabled students, however, including as a consequence of the attitudes of others to disability. Recommendations for practice are identified that aim to enhance the placement experience of all students and to remove barriers to access.     

Intercultural competence development via online social networking: the Japanese students’ experience with internationalisation in U.S. higher education

ABSTRACT

This study examines the possibility that interaction through social network platforms can serve as an informal means of developing intercultural competence among international students in higher education settings. Japanese students studying in the United States at a university in the Northwestern US were invited to participate in a mixed-method study involving interviews about their social network use and interactions, and a structured questionnaire measure of intercultural competence development. Overall, the results indicate that those in the top tertile of intercultural competence development tended to describe more proactive social ways and benefits of interacting with potential sources of support over social media, whereas those in the bottom tertile tended to describe the importance and use of social media for passive consumption of information. The implications for the incorporation of social network platforms into higher-education programs for internationalisation and intercultural competence development are discussed.     

The discursive construction of dyslexia by students in higher education as a moral and intellectual good

Interest in dyslexia as a topic of discussion in education, and in the media, runs through peaks and troughs. Dyslexic students in higher education must navigate their way through the possible meanings attached to the label, appropriating some and rejecting others, yet needing the label as a means to access support. The aim of this article is to explore the ways in which dyslexic university students constructed dyslexia and being dyslexic as moral issues during two focus group conversations. These conversations were discursively analysed with reference to Gee and Willig. Three key themes emerged following analysis: the interaction between the power of the grade as a marker of worth and the status of the dyslexia label; the tensions between acknowledging difficulties with writing and the construction of high literacy as morally aspirational; and the uncertain, yet persistent, construction of dyslexia as a valuable label and a moral good.     

The objects of transformation in higher education

This paper reviews the purposes of higher education in South Africa through to lens the 1997 Education White Paper. It is argued that, while the principles of the White Paper have shaped the development of the higher education system over the following decade the primary objectives of transformation have yet to be realized.     

Hearing voices in the archive

This essay is an attempt to fathom the performative and textual potential of historical sound recordings from the Lautarchiv in Berlin, along the available written files and a particular set of acoustic files spoken by an isiXhosa speaker. Read and listened to together, these files document the event and rationale of the recordings of the Phonographische Kommission with a man from the Eastern Cape, who was recorded while being interned as a foreign subject, in a German camp for British civilians in World War I. Following the acousmatic voice that speaks on several recordings, the essay explores the position of the speaker and the enunciation that speaks of the experience of war and displacement, and the complexities of audible traces of imperial knowledge production.     

The social experience of physically disabled Australian university students

Research on the university experience of disabled students has focused on barriers in learning and teaching, while the social world of university has as yet gained little attention as a distinctive object of study. Here we examine social experience and socially imposed restrictions through the lenses of social capital and self-concept. A qualitative study investigated the formation of social capital and changes in self-concept amongst physically disabled Australian university students. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using a grounded theory approach. The study found weak social attachments at university, but stronger attachments outside. Self-concept did not appear to be structured in any direct way by university-generated social capital, partly as a consequence of its weakness.     

Concepts of choice and motivation in the discourse on the globalization of higher education

This paper reviews the findings of a participatory research project conducted with Nepali high school and university students. It examines the feelings and motivations of those students who leave the country in pursuit of higher education, and those who intentionally, or due to circumstances, stay in Nepal. An analysis of the latter is particularly important to the shifting discourse on higher education to the global South. This study promotes the inclusion of those students, and institutions, of higher education in developing nations who have been excluded from the discourse on globalization.     

Facilitating intercultural education in majority student groups in higher education

ABSTRACT

The present article critically analyses the pedagogical efforts of two teachers to promote values education and intercultural reflection in their own educational practice. They teach in higher education in Norway and most of their students have majority backgrounds. Based on their teaching experiences with VaKE (Values and Knowledge education), the article discusses opportunities and challenges when working with values education in majority student groups. It concludes that discussing values is difficult but can be eye opening. It also raises the question of which dilemmas can prevent stereotyping and foster more complex intercultural thinking and shows that intercultural education requires a discussion of one’s own cultural position. The article highlights the teacher’s crucial role in the VaKE-process regarding the aims of intercultural values education.     

Phenomenography: the development and application of an innovative research design in higher education research

This article considers the application of phenomenography, as arguably the only research design (so far) to have been developed substantially within higher education research by higher education researchers. It considers its origins, meaning and application, and the issues and critiques that it has raised. It concludes that, while phenomenography has both acknowledged limitations and undoubted achievements, it still appears to have much to offer to higher education research, and its usage might be extended to other fields.     

English language learning in the Japanese higher education sector: towards internationalisation

The graduate attribute ‘global competence’ is increasingly viewed as a significant learning outcome of a tertiary education. In Japanese higher education, global competence appears to be a lesser priority despite Japan becoming increasingly pluralistic. This article explores how adjunct foreign English language teachers (AFELT) encourage global competency in their classes. Data were drawn from 43 participants across 66 Japanese universities through focus groups and interviews. The research revealed that the positionality of AFELT on the margins institutionally had both affordances and constraints. First, being on the margins meant that AFELT had significantly lower status both institutionally and in students’ eyes, and AFELT were consequently constrained by these views. Second however, and paradoxically, distance from university hegemonic practices also provided affordances for AFELT in disrupting them. AFELT highlight that their pedagogical practices, while constrained, are both subversive and necessary in achieving students’ intercultural and global competencies.     

Discourse and the containment of disability in higher education: an institutional analysis

We use a social model of disability to examine disability discourse at a regional university in the mid-western United States. Using an institutional unit of analysis and several different information sources (e.g. interviews, federal regulations, syllabus texts, surveys), we illustrate the ways in which disability-as-difference is governed by an architecture of containment at the university.     

Dealing with diversity in internationalised higher education institutions

While the economic benefits created by international education export are well documented, few systematic and qualitative analysis studies have been conducted to examine how academic staff perceive the presence of international students in their institutions. Using interview data from 80 academic staff from different disciplines in one higher institution in Australia, this study examines whether the presence of international students has an impact on staff teaching practice. Some of the academic staff reported that they made no adjustments to their teaching. They treated all students as one student group. Other staff members said that there have been changes in their teaching in response to the presence of international students in their classroom. The paper discusses some of the underlying causes of these responses, and implications for the practice of international education. The discussion of the findings is informed by Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, which helps us understand how people respond to cultural differences.