Participatory Pedagogical Approaches in Higher Education: Understanding from the Practices in Bangladesh, the UK and the USA

Abstract

Participatory pedagogical approaches stand as the core driving force behind transforming individual student’s learning journeys into more active, enjoyable, and effective ones. Participatory pedagogy motivates students to participate willingly and actively in their learning and to take ownership of their educational journey. This shift in pedagogy impacts students’ enrolment, progress, and retention. The relevance of this shift from teacher-led to student-led practices became particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, which substantially challenged the traditional roles of teachers and students for the first time in recent years, placing teachers aside and allowing students to take agency over their learning. Given this reality, this chapter explores the main facets of participatory pedagogies. It discusses diverse emerging pedagogical approaches being used at the higher education level in the contexts of Bangladesh, the UK, and the USA to develop an understanding of the best practices. This chapter also highlights the process of co-creating knowledge with students during their learning journeys at higher education institutions. After analysing the related literature, it is apparent that incorporating participatory pedagogies into educational practices provides opportunities to nurture teachers’ and students’ critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, problem-solving abilities and lifelong learning. Furthermore, participatory approaches empower individuals to contribute actively to their learning communities.