From Humboldt to Netflix: examples of how to promote student agency in higher education

• Autor(a) principal: Casanova, Diogo
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/11615
• topic: Student agency; Policy; Curriculum; Learning

Student agency is becoming widely discussed in higher education, particularly in response to a sector that is increasingly becoming dominated by ’new managerialism’ approaches influenced by massification, competition and marketisation. Reflecting on this existing context, this chapter aims to discuss the role of the student in higher education. The chapter starts with a brief contextualisation of Humboldtian ideals of higher education and how these connect with student agency. We reflect on how agency is being portrayed into the system as part of ‘policy technology’, which does not fully empower the students´ role. At this stage, the notion of ´power’ balance is introduced which will add to the discussion of how this ‘power’ shapes the concept of lecturer and student agency at different stages of university practices. We then discuss how student agency can be promoted in higher education by looking at learning environments, assessment, and the curriculum. We provide examples and case studies drawn from the literature. Within the curriculum we finalise by discussing a Netflix approach to higher education based on blockchain technology and personalisation of learning. This provocative scenario aims to foster readers to reflect on possible changes into higher education pillars, particularly those related to curriculum design and quality mechanisms. The paper ends with a short reflection on how cultural aspects in different higher education institutions may shape the level of students’ ownership and self-regulation of their learning process.