Find out what equity-group students think of negotiating life at university
7 November 2024
Thursday 5 December at 2pm
CRADLE Seminar Series 2024: Seminar #9
In our final seminar for 2024 we hear from CRADLE researchers Dr Joanna Tai, Dr Nicole Crawford and Professor Rola Ajjawi. They will offer an overview of findings from a study to investigate undergraduate equity-group students’ day-to-day experiences in negotiating their life, work and learning at Deakin University. The seminar will focus on moments of precarity, success, and failure, and implications of this work for research, policy and practice in higher education.
- When: Thursday 5 December
- Time: 2pm – 3.30pm (AEDT)
- Where: Online
- Cost: This is a free event
Improving access, participation, and success of equity-group students in Australian higher education is in the national spotlight, taking a central position in the Australian Universities Accord (O’Kane et al., 2023, 2024). In this context, we conducted a qualitative longitudinal study to investigate undergraduate equity-group students’ day-to-day experiences in negotiating their life, work and learning at Deakin University. Through this investigation, we sought to elicit fine-grained narrative data from students which might inform the design and implementation of supports for equity-group students. Thirty-five students took part in a series of four interviews from June 2023 to July 2024, resulting in a total of 123 in-depth interviews.
Despite having some similar characteristics and circumstances, such as juggling their studies with paid work and parenting, and experiencing some similar challenges, the students in this study were a heterogeneous group; there was diversity in terms of study mode and type of attendance; responsibilities such as parenting/caring and work; practical challenges; and positive/negative learning experiences.
In this seminar, we will offer an overview of findings from the project with a focus on moments of precarity, success, and failure, and implications of this work for research, policy and practice in higher education.
Join us online for this compelling and topical seminar
About Joanna Tai
Dr Joanna Tai is a Senior Research Fellow at CRADLE and has a background in higher and health professions education. Joanna’s research interests include student perspectives on learning and assessment from university to the workplace, peer-assisted learning, feedback, assessment literacy, developing capacity for evaluative judgement and research synthesis.
About Nicole Crawford
Dr Nicole Crawford is a Senior Research Fellow at CRADLE. She was an Equity Fellow at the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) and an educator in the University Preparation Program at the University of Tasmania. Nicole’s research interests include equity and inclusion in higher education, student and staff mental wellbeing, and enabling education.
About Rola Ajjawi
Rola Ajjawi is a Professor in the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a Scientist in UBC’s Centre for Health Education Scholarship (CHES). Rola’s research seeks to create learning environments that support health professional trainees to succeed, particularly in the messiness of practice and workplace learning, examining how supervision can be embedded into clinical practices, how feedback processes unfold, and how to create equitable assessment in the workplace.
