ABSTRACT

While university participation has widened, retention and success rates remain lower for some diverse Australian undergraduate cohorts, e.g. students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, Indigenous students and students with disability. Institutional characteristics and culture are more important factors in attrition than student characteristics. This paper explores how universities could develop learning and teaching communities that are more inclusive through insights into some complex relationships between student diversity, academic roles and identities. Using a critical discursive psychology approach, we identified 12 different subject positions that Australian academics from 19 universities adopted in constructing their identities as teachers of students from diverse backgrounds. We critically discuss illustrative findings from one academic who adopted seven different subject positions to explore the impact of institutional context on social positioning and dynamics related to learning, teaching and student diversity. We conclude that a ‘students-as-partners’ approach could help universities to better recognise and value diversity.

摘要

虽然大学参与范围有所扩大，但一些不同的澳大利亚本科群体的保留率和成功率仍然较低，例如社会经济地位背景较低的学生、土著学生和残疾学生。机构特征和文化是比学生特征更重要的人员流失因素。本文探讨了大学如何通过深入了解学生多样性、学术角色和身份之间的复杂关系来发展更具包容性的学习和教学社区。我们采用批判性话语心理学方法，确定了来自 19 所大学的澳大利亚学者在构建自己作为来自不同背景的学生的教师身份时所采用的 12 种不同的主题立场。我们批判性地讨论了一位学者的说明性发现，该学者采用了七种不同的学科立场来探讨制度环境对社会定位以及与学习、教学和学生多样性相关的动态的影响。我们的结论是，“学生作为合作伙伴”的方法可以帮助大学更好地认识和重视多样性。