Student engagement, pedagogical imaginaries and the future of arts and humanities teaching and learning in higher education

Abstract

This article sets out a methodology for integrating a focus on the student voice in deliberations about the future of teaching and learning in the Arts and Humanities. Qualitative data gleaned from JISC’s 20/21 Student Digital Experience Insights Survey and feedback collected from students studying on undergraduate programmes in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom (UK) is used to sketch out pedagogical imaginaries of the future that can be used heuristically by universities as they work their way through the pandemic and out the other side. The imaginaries, it argues, act as tools to kickstart debates, underpin experimentation and inform pedagogical planning and design. To address questions of credibility and plausibility, the imaginaries are rooted in the present, embody empirical trends and are consistent with practices, structures and technologies that have come to prominence during the pandemic.

A Normal University’s Disciplinary Instruction: A Close Look at Book Lending

“…Universities have come under fire for failing to implement changes in response to student feedback. Students' failure to complete the loop can be a source of dissatisfaction and is frequently cited as one of the causes of their low response rates to surveys and other types of consultation (Hughes, 2023).…”

“…Since the lack of novelty in the issue materials and the alienation of scenarios from real-life difficulties frequently result in a calm and drowsy classroom environment, according to these scholars, any significant and long-lasting movement in this direction depends on a fundamental cultural transformation within universities that is characterized by a shift in authority away from academics and university administrators towards students (Hughes, 2023). The degree to which students' fundamental psychological demands for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are met during collaborative learning may be what makes these distinctions (Leeuwen, Hornstra, & Flunger, 2023).…”