Sarah O’Shea – författare

Leading scholars address the contemporary issues and complexities of student engagement with focus on how these are enacted within diverse learning communities. They analyse theoretical perspectives on student engagement, focusing on implications for students from under-represented or educationally marginalised groups, and present international case studies. This Research Handbook illustrates effective, practical strategies to enhance engagement across the student body, adding an invaluable contribution to this continually developing field.

The Research Handbook on Student Engagement in Higher Education is an authoritative reference for academics, practitioners, students and scholars specialising in education policy, educational theory, the sociology of education and politics and public policy. It is also of interest to policymakers and staff working across all subject areas in the higher education field.

Young people with tenuous relationships to schooling and education are an enduring challenge when it comes to addressing social inclusion, yet their experiences remain overlooked in efforts to widen participation in higher education. The Politics of Widening Participation and University Access for Young People examines the existing knowledges and feelings these young people have about higher education, and, through the authors’ empirical research, demonstrates how sustained connections to educational futures can be created for them.

Drawing from an empirical study with nearly three hundred young people who have precarious relationships to schooling and live in disadvantaged communities, this book offers new insights into their subjects’ experiences of educational disadvantages. It explains the different ways the university is constructed as impossible, undesirable, or even risky, by young people experiencing educational disadvantage. The book brings their stories into focus to offer new ways of thinking about the educational consequences of alienation from school. It shows how our understanding of the politics of experience of these young people has an important impact on our ability to develop appropriate means through which to engage them in higher education.

This book challenges and significantly advances the popular frames for international debate on widening participation and the ethical right to educational participation in contemporary society. As such, it will be of be of key interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of higher education, sociology of education, anthropology of education, cultural studies of education, sociology as well as to those concerned by the impact of disadvantage on young people’s understandings of, and aspirations towards, education and attending university.

Young people with tenuous relationships to schooling and education are an enduring challenge when it comes to addressing social inclusion, yet their experiences remain overlooked in efforts to widen participation in higher education. The Politics of Widening Participation and University Access for Young People examines the existing knowledges and feelings these young people have about higher education, and, through the authors’ empirical research, demonstrates how sustained connections to educational futures can be created for them.

Drawing from an empirical study with nearly three hundred young people who have precarious relationships to schooling and live in disadvantaged communities, this book offers new insights into their subjects’ experiences of educational disadvantages. It explains the different ways the university is constructed as impossible, undesirable, or even risky, by young people experiencing educational disadvantage. The book brings their stories into focus to offer new ways of thinking about the educational consequences of alienation from school. It shows how our understanding of the politics of experience of these young people has an important impact on our ability to develop appropriate means through which to engage them in higher education.

This book challenges and significantly advances the popular frames for international debate on widening participation and the ethical right to educational participation in contemporary society. As such, it will be of be of key interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of higher education, sociology of education, anthropology of education, cultural studies of education, sociology as well as to those concerned by the impact of disadvantage on young people’s understandings of, and aspirations towards, education and attending university.

This volume provokes conversations and reflections on the most appropriate methodologies to pursue Career Development Learning (CDL) research within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)s. Drawing on studies with Australian students from diverse backgrounds, including low socioeconomic status, regional, rural and remote, with disability, etc., this volume uniquely highlights considerations for contextual and inclusive CDL research which advances multiple SDGs and quality futures across the globe. Although situated in Australian contexts, the case studies have international applicability.