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Belonging to and beyond the digital university
Start date
September 2023End date
March 2024Overview
The pandemic changed the experience of higher education for the vast majority of students, from how they are taught and learn course content to how they interact with faculty, peers and others across the institution.
Alongside this, how students experience the notion of belonging, which is closely related to students wellbeing and success, was also disrupted by Covid-19, resulting in the need to reconsider what ‘belonging’ means.
Findings from a Society for Research in Higher Education study in 2022, which innovatively unpacked the student experience and explored ‘belonging’ post-pandemic, will be brought to life through a website and illustrated resources, to enable educators to better support the learning and wellbeing of future students.
‘Belonging to and beyond higher education in hybrid spaces’ was co-created with students through digital vlog interviews, by the University of Surrey, and Deakin University Australia, to understand the following objectives:
How is the concept of belonging understood within contemporary higher education?
How has belonging and the spaces in which students belong changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the move to online, and now hybrid learning?
How, and in what ways, should educators foster students’ sense of belonging and engagement going forward?
Team
![Karen Gravett profile image](/sites/default/files/styles/image_150x150_scale_and_crop/public/2022-07/Karen-Gravett-09%20-%20profile%201_0.jpg?itok=E5M8tahJ)
Principal Investigator
Dr Karen Gravett
Associate Professor in Higher Education; Associate Head (Research); Director of the PGCLTHE and AFHEA pathway.
Biography
I am Associate Professor of Higher Education where my work focuses on the theory-practice of learning and teaching in higher education. I explore how we can think about key areas of HE: for example student engagement, belonging and literacy practices. My work has been funded by the Society for Research in Higher Education, the Economic and Social and Research Council, the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education, the UK Literacy Association, the British Association for Applied Linguistics, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
My work is published in leading journals including Studies in Higher Education, Teaching in Higher Education, Higher Education, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, and the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. I am Honorary Associate Professor at the Centre for Digital Learning and Assessment, Deakin University, Australia. I am Co-Director of the Language, Literacies and Learning research group. I am a member of the editorial board for Learning, Media and Technology, and a member of the editorial board for Teaching in Higher Education. I am also an External Examiner.
My latest books are: Gravett, K. Critical Practice in Higher Education (due 2025), Bloomsbury. Gravett, K. (2023) Relational Pedagogies: Connections and Mattering in Higher Education, Bloomsbury. Kinchin, I. M. and Gravett, K. (2022) Dominant discourses in higher education: Critical perspectives, cartographies and practice, Bloomsbury, and Gravett, K., Yakovchuk, N. and Kinchin, I.M. (Eds.) (2020) Enhancing student-centred teaching in higher education: The landscape of student-staff partnerships, Palgrave Macmillan.
My research interests include:
- Engagement, connection and mattering
- Relational pedagogies
- Digital education
- Belonging and non-belonging
- Posthumanist, sociomaterial and affect theory, methodology and research practices
- Creative and arts-informed research methods
- Academic writing practices and literacies
![Rola Ajawi Deakin University](/sites/default/files/styles/image_150x150_scale_and_crop/public/2024-01/Rola%20Ajawi.jpg?itok=pKscKxM4)
Co-Investigator
Professor Rola Ajjawi
Deakin University
![Sarah](/sites/default/files/styles/image_150x150_scale_and_crop/public/2024-01/Sarah%20OShea_0.jpg?itok=Xik-kFu2)
Co-Investigator
Professor Sarah O'Shea
Charles Sturt University