„It has helped me to think about the world“ Exploring the formation of student identities within different disciplines
Author(s):
Guðrún Geirsdóttir (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Network:
22. Research in Higher Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

22 SES 01 B, Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-10
13:15-14:45
Room:
STD-302
Chair:
Monne Wihlborg

Contribution

In a recent study on higher education curriculum, Bernstein’s analysis of the pedagogic discourse (Bernstein, 2000) was used to capture complex and ‘multilevel nature’ (Goodlad, 1984) of the curriculum and the specific practice of university teachers in the curriculum planning process (Geirsdóttir, 2011). The study was undertaken at a single university in Iceland and explored the conceptions and felt agency or space (Barnett and Coate, 2005) of university teachers within three disciplines (industrial and mechanic engineering, physics and anthropology) of making curriculum decisions. The findings demonstrated how each of the three disciplines carried within it a specific pedagogic discourse, a local curriculum, focusing on different aims and goals, different attitudes towards the role of students and teachers and a specific instructional discourse where these regulative ideas are carried out. Among other issues, Bernstein’s theoretical concepts were used to study teachers’ perceptions of their disciplinary curriculum in terms of the student identity. Each of the three pedagogic discourses portrayed a very different and disciplinary- specific picture of the ideal student.

In a follow up phenomenological study, the educational experience of students within the three disciplines was explored in order to understand students’ conception of their discipline and their socialisation process into the disciplinary pedagogic discourse. The aim of the research was to explore students' conceptions of the their own "construction" as students within different disciplines.

Method

The study was located within a social-cultural framework, emphasizing interpretive and phenomenological perspectives (Bernstein, 2000, Northedge, 2009). Twelve students entering their study in engineering, physics and anthropology the University of Iceland in 2009 agreed to participate in a long-term interview study. Semi-focused interviews were carried out regularly during their course of study, with most participants graduating in spring 2012. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed and coded.

Expected Outcomes

In this paper the preliminary findings of the study will be discusses. The paper first explores the student identity as portrayed within the pedagogic discourse of the three disciplines and then focuses on students’ experience of entering their discipline and coming to term with the disciplinary student identity. The findings indicate that at the beginning of their studies, students experience difficulties understanding the disciplinary requirements and use different strategies to overcome personal and educational hindrances. The study follows student’s approaches – and sometimes struggles - in taking on or making meaning of different disciplinary identities. The research findings suggest that students’ pathways through their educational experience of higher education are both influenced by their perceptions of the discipline but strongly mediated through various personal, social as well as situational attributions and meaning making processes. The research findings demonstrates the students difference and indicate possible strategies within universities to adapting to students educational needs and their retention and progression both within the different disciplines as well as at the institutional level.

References

Barnett, R. and Coate, K. (2005). Engaging the curriculum in higher education. Maidenhead, Berkshire: SRHE and Open University Press. Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. Goodlad, J. I. (1984). Curriculum inquiry. New York: McGraw Hill. Gudrún Geirsdóttir (2011). Teachers‘ conceptions of knowledge structures and pedagogic practices in higher education. In G. Ivinson, B. Davies and J. Fitz (Eds.). Knowledge and identity. Conceptions and applications in Bernstein‘s sociology (pp. 90-107). New York: Routledge. Northedge, A. (2009). Guiding students into a discipline,. In Kreber, C. (Editor), The university and its disciplines. London: Routledge.

Author Information

Guðrún Geirsdóttir (presenting / submitting)
University of Iceland
Centre for teaching
Reykjavík

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