Glimpsing Student Engagement
There is a very large body of research on student engagement in higher education. This book summarizes and builds on that literature by exploring a new direction for student engagement. This first chapter overviews the book by introducing some of its key
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Glimpsing Student Engagement
Abstract There is a very large body of research on student engagement in higher education. This book summarizes and builds on that literature by exploring a new direction for student engagement. This first chapter overviews the book by introducing some of its key features. It summarizes the main ideas informing the engagement construct, identifies shortcomings with it and argues for the need of new thinking. It grapples with the thorny issue of defining student engagement, discusses theoretical assumptions supporting it and details the purposes, assumptions and structure of the book. The chapter makes clear that this is not an empirically driven ‘how to do’ engagement book. While it does not ignore practice, the book is developed as a result of an ongoing and in depth engagement with theory.
Student engagement is a major area of research about student success and quality learning and teaching in higher education. Maiers (2008) identified it as a hot topic; Weimer (2012) called it a popular buzz phrase; Reschly and Christensen (2012) see it as a burgeoning construct. Kuh (2009) saw engagement as pervasive in conversations about higher education policy, in research, and even in the general media. This view of engagement as ever-present in the learning and teaching literature is supported by the amount of engagement research published between, say 2000 and 2010. For example, Wimpenny and Savin-Baden (2013) found 2530 articles published on the subject in these years. Trowler (2010) identified more than 1000 items. In their review of Australasian research on the first year experience, Nelson et al. (2011) found almost 400 empirical and conceptual studies. Linda Leach and I (2010) included almost 300 research reports in our synthesis of the engagement literature. Foci and methods in these reviews varied. Wimpenny and Savin-Baden’s review used qualitative studies about learners’ experiences. Trowler (2010) on the other hand, excluded most qualitative and ‘grey’ studies as lacking robustness. Nelson et al. (2011) were interested in any studies dealing with engagement and learning that contributed to a successful first year experience. Our own review synthesized both quantitative and qualitative studies that focused on engaging teaching. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 N. Zepke, Student Engagement in Neoliberal Times, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3200-4_1
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1 Glimpsing Student Engagement
These four literature reviews synthesize what I consider to be mainstream research on student engagement. Such research attempts to meet the world-wide higher education community’s expectation of evidence based, practical and largely uncritical research into how to facilitate learning that achieves student success. Governments, institutions and teachers are keen to accept and implement its findings. They consider engagement research useful in helping higher education achieve its mission of quality learning and teaching that helps learners into productive employment. In this chapter 1 introduce some key aspe
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