The overall aim of the project is to explore how to create more inclusive practices and organizations in higher education.
Higher educational institutions are organized with a standard student in mind. The organization of teaching, learning and administrative practices presupposes a narrow set of ways to participate as a student from enrolment to graduation: A standard student pathway. Many students are able to comply with the standard student pathway. Simultaneously, a large minority – often with impairments - experience problems with the standard student pathway.
To compensate, the educational institutions offer educational support [Specialpædagogisk Støtte]. Such designated educational support does help but can be experienced as stigmatizing. The need for additional support also produces an extra workload for example to acquaint oneself with complex rules for dispensations and apply for extra re-exams. Thus, the challenges experienced by atypical students arise in the meetings between the student and the educational institution, rather than from the impairment itself. The higher drop-out rate among students with impairments suggests that the current support system is insufficient.
There is a need to rethink the educational support system along the line of Universal Design for Education (UDL): To design educational systems with the diversity of students in mind. UDL is a broad frame of thinking that stresses multiple ways of presenting and engaging with the subject matter, thereby supporting a diversity of ways of participating and learning for all.
In higher education, UDL needs to be considered not only in relation to teaching within the classroom. Learning also takes place in informal learning spaces between teaching activities; at the library, in students’ study groups, at home reading and much more. Furthermore, degree programs are organized as longitudinal learning processes. Thus, UDL in higher education regards more than the concrete teaching/learning activities taking place in the lecture hall or classroom. The overall goal of UDL needs to be aligned with a broad set of activities, practices and professionals.
What if the educational system had multiple student pathways? The pathway concept stresses the need to develop sets of coordinated practices among faculty, students and administrators that are experienced as continuous and supportive of learning by as many students as possible.
The project is comprised by different project activities that together explore the two hypotheses:
Through focus group interviews, we will explore possible clusters of recurring problems that students experience while studying at Aarhus University. The focus will be on
We are interested in mapping when and how barriers are experienced by students, when and how the organization of learning activities and overall organization diminishes or aggravates barriers, what the students do themselves to overcome barriers and unmet needs for support.
Creation of 2-3 alternative student pathways developed on subsequent workshops, with participation of researchers, relevant stakeholders and students and organized according to user-centered methods.
The Phd project explores the tacit knowledge students with mental disorders use, when learning how to “navigate” in higher education. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) aims to change the design of the environment rather than attributing the issue to a perceived deficit in the student. Lack of attention towards students embodied and embedded tacit knowledge in the design of learning environments potentially exclude students with mental disorders. This project seeks to identify students' tacit knowledge and experiences, to gain insights that inform proposals for modifying the design for learning and student support.
Through longitudinal case studies, we will follow how alternative student pathways are experienced by students. In parallel, we will continue to map practices and barriers to inclusion in higher education.
