De-classifying Higher Education
De-classifying Higher Education
Ryan Wilkinson (Lifelong Learning Centre)
Project overview
This project aims to begin considering how we can begin to ‘de-classify’ Higher Education (HE) spaces, curricula, cultures and practices. It will do this by bringing together working-class staff and students to explore contentious definitions of class, knowledge, value and the nature of knowledge. It aims to build on the work already being done in other similar projects on race and gender that seek to build a more equitable, inclusive and democratic experience for everyone working and studying in HE.
The research approach
This fellowship will co-produce knowledge by utilising collaborative research methods with staff and students as partners in the research. The narrative method of story circles will be the primary data collection approach in which staff and students will come together to share their experiences of being working-class in the middle-class space of an elite Higher Education Institution. These story circle groups will be supplemented by diary methods in which participants will be invited to share their own everyday reflections of being working class in HE over the course of the research project. This complimentary methodological approach will allow the consideration of the routine and habitual experiences that impact affinitive feelings in a space in both a collective setting and individually.
If you would like to find out more about the project contact Ryan Wilkinson
@ryangwilkinson
Each fellowship has a project sponsor that helps the fellows achieve impact across the institution. The sponsor for this fellowship is Charlotte Haigh
Project start date: September 2024