Informal monthly meetings with Dr Simon Pratt-Adams and Dr Mark Warnes for those engaged in or interested in pedagogic research, with a different focus each month.
Dr Liz Bradbury is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at ARU with an interest in the implications for the universities of the 2030s and beyond of governmental support for ‘widening participation’.
Title: Beyond the Deficit Model: Rethinking Access, Participation, and Accountability in Higher Education
Abstract: Liz will examine the current regulatory architecture of widening participation, specifically the Office for Students’ Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR) and institutional Access and Participation Plans (APPs). By looking at ARU institutional data alongside national research, Liz will explore the tension between the significant financial investment in, for example, improvements in student ‘continuation’ or retention and the systemic socio-economic barriers (such as cost-of-living pressures and cumulative disadvantage) identified by national data. Briefly bringing together insights from educational research methodologies and Raewyn Connell’s work on institutional justice, Liz will suggest that professional curiosity about the persistence of some aspects of the ‘deficit-model’ approach to student success across the sector leads us to ask how we might build a more robust and publicly accountable framework for educational equity. Email [email protected] to get the Teams link.