Effective and Valid Student Leadership

Elizabeth Deane University of Western Sydney

Supported by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching

Project dimensions

Project team: UWS; UQ; USQ; La Trobe; USyd; UniSA and the National

Union of Students + International Advisory group and participants Two year OLT funding will deliver:

Good practice frameworks, guidelines and practical resources for empowering students (and institutions!) to participate in curriculum development for L&T improvement

Context: drivers

• Student roles in Universities have been evolving – from passive vessels to active partners in all aspects of operations

• Encompasses curricular and co-curricular • Is International • Increasing focus on student “experience” and

“engagement”; • The rise of surveys – political drivers • Strong pedagogical drivers – research led

teaching; students as partners (UK HEA project)

Context: Current position

• Many mechanisms for gathering student input/student voice, little analysis of the validity and effectiveness of these strategies and how they could be improved.

• Importance of student contributions to enhance the quality of their educational experience

• Current challenges faced in developing valid, productive roles for student leaders in governance through to curriculum development (Lizzio & Wilson, 2009), include:

– Role ambiguity

– Lack of experience

– Poor student training for leadership

– Attitudes and expectations of staff

– Systemic difficulties (including unaligned policies, poor committee structures and other governance related activities)

Ambitions

Current positioning of students

Current positioning of

students

Desired positioning of

students

Getting there and

knowing it

Consumers of knowledge

and providers of feedback

Students representatives in

governance

Student leadership of guilds,

clubs and societies

⟶⟶⟶⟶⟶⟶⟶

Co-producers and

partners in knowledge

generation and

acquisition

Co-drivers of academic

and governance agendas

Co-drivers of Government

agendas

Project approach

• International and historical analysis of student leadership roles and influence in higher education

• Conceptualising student leadership roles – from the “classroom” to the “boardroom”

• Methods: Survey, focus groups and case study investigation; governance and policy analysis

• How can diverse leadership roles be best supported?

Progress

Defining the scope of leadership

• Analysis of governance and policies for delineation of “formal” student roles

• Identification of range of informal/non-governance positioned roles, particular focus on discipline and curriculum.

• Expanded involvement of student leaders in project (via NUS and CAPA)

Progress

• Draft typology of student leadership roles

• Map of student roles on committees in Australian Universities

• Workshops with peak student associations – identification of case studies and participants

• Framework based on international research on student roles and influence

• Survey developed encompassing HE Leadership work

Typology of roles: leadership vs influence

– Presidents of student guilds/unions

– Faculty and school representatives

– Class and unit representatives

– Representatives of discipline based clubs and societies

– Student-led learning community leaders

– Individual student voice (surveys/direct conversations)

– Office holders in special interest Clubs and Societies

Conceptualising the roles of students

Student as evaluators

(the student voice)

Students as institutional

decision makers

(students in governance)

Students as experts and

partners in provision

(driving curriculum)

Students as drivers of change

(driving development and

knowledge)

adapted from Dunne and Zandstra, 2011

Investigating student leadership

Key features of survey and focus groups with student leaders (students in governance) Capabilities – personal , interpersonal, intellectual Skills and Knowledge needs Development needs (and training/PD) Enablers, challenges and impediments How do we know whether “participation” = empowerment and influence?

Leadership and influence

Where it gets fuzzy – moving to the informal student roles as leaders and influencers:

Student as evaluators

Students as experts and partners in provision

Students as drivers of change

How can these roles be better recognised, facilitated and supported?

Possible components of a framework

For both formal and informal leaders:

Clearly defined roles, performance indicators, training needs and leadership capabilities

Documented challenges at institutional, staff and student level/suggestions on how these might be addressed

case studies

Outcomes

• Resources to support greater and valid

student participation in learning, teaching and

curriculum development.

• Practical and productive models of effective

partnership between teachers and learners

• Mechanisms to support student leaders to

participate in learning, teaching and

curriculum development