The (stereo)typical student: how European higher education students feel they are viewed by relevant others

Abstract

There is a growing body of scholarship on how students see themselves, and also on how they are conceptualised by other social actors. However, what has been less explored is how students believe they are seen by others, and how this impacts them. Drawing on focus groups with students across Europe -and particularly plasticine models students made to depict how they felt they were seen by relevant others -this paper will illustrate how the four most common ways in which students felt they were constructed were as hedonistic and lazy; useless and a burden; clever, hardworking, and successful; and a resource to be exploited. It will argue that such stereotypes had significant material impact on students' lives and how they experienced being a student. Finally, it will analyse how specific national contexts accounted for a range of variations in how students articulated these constructions.

Constructing the Higher Education Student

“…This theme emerged most strongly in England. To some extent paralleling students' views about how one's subject of study mediated the manner in which one was viewed by others, English students discussed how the HEI a student attended might be seen as an index of their intelligence, work ethic and likely future success (see also Jayadeva et al, 2022). Regardless of the HEI they attended themselves, students discussed how everyone from politicians, to 'society' and 'the public', to many of their own friends and family members tended to view students studying at the top universities more positively.…”

“…In student focus groups in all six countries, a major theme was that the manner in which one was viewed by others -'society', the government, family, friends, other students -depended on the subject one was studying. Students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds discussed how those studying humanities or social science subjects were viewed as problematic, and inferior to students studying STEM subjects, for a number of reasons (see also Jayadeva et al, 2022).…”

“…Spanish students also articulated this framing of Europe as reference point -not, however, imposed by actors in Spain but by others outside Spain. This was especially evident in the plasticine models: some students made models to depict how Spanish students were viewed by the European general public and students as inferior to students from other European countries (see also Jayadeva et al, 2022). For instance, one student made a model of 'a pile of shit' and explained: 'I've tried to focus on the view [of] the European general public [of] the Spanish situation.…”

“…Focus group participants in all six countries identified other negative constructions of how they felt others saw them, which were not dominant themes across the data from other actors in this study. A recurrent theme among students was that they felt that society largely perceives them as hedonistic and a nuisance: drinking and partying a lot, making noise in the local neighbourhoods and having plenty of free time (see also Jayadeva et al, 2022). This view was often depicted in the plasticine models -including a drinking glass and a pint or a bottle of alcohol (see, for example, Figure 7.2).…”

Ideas for Active Learning

“…Plasticine has two clear benefits in comparison: 1) it enables complete freedom in creation as students are not limited by the amount or type of bricks they have been given, or drawn to put bricks together in predictable ways and 2) it is much cheaper than Lego (a factor that led to my original choice of this material). Plasticine has been used in higher education to explore identity (Jayadeva et al, 2022) as well as creating models in healthcare or manufacturing-related contexts.…”