Call for national case-studies contributing to SIHEG research project (Student Impact on Higher Education Globally) - Edited volume on Student politics - representation and activism - globally

 

In the framework of SIHEG research project (Student Impact on Higher Education Globally) we are seeking student representatives to write chapters on national cases of student organizing, representation and student politics to be included in the edited volume on Student politics - representation and activism - globally.

SIHEG - Student Impact on Higher Education Globally research project is conducted by Manja Klemenčič in partnership with student representatives-researchers from members of the Global Student Forum  (https://www.globalstudentforum.org/). The project commenced in May 2021 and is expected to conclude data collection by November 2021 and draft publications by January 2022. 

This research project examines student agency in higher education, maps existing opportunities for students to influence higher education and societies more broadly and investigates student perceptions of impact. Student impact on higher education is conceptualized as students affecting changes in higher education policies and practices and society more broadly. The guiding research questions for this research project are twofold: (1) How students enact agency in higher education (and society at large)? (2) How student organizing, student representation and student politics compare across institutions and countries worldwide?  The objective of the research project is to advance the understanding of student agency in higher education and the impact students have on higher education and their societies. The research project is the first large-scale international collaborative research on student agency and impact on higher education globally. 

The researchers are collaborating in writing a volume with regional sections on Africa, Asia and Pacific, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and North America. In addition to chapters on regional student federations and the Global Student Forum, the volume will include chapters with national case studies on student organizing, student representation and student politics in a selection of countries. All researchers involved in this project will participate in a workshop on research methods and an international collaborative writing retreat. 

 

Countributors of national case-study chapters are expected to:

1. Express interest for single authorship or collaborative co-authorship of a country-case chapter and send it to regional section (co)-leads (for details see "overview" and "people") or Manja Klemencic (for countries not included in GSF) by 15 July 2021. Please include a short biography (up to 250 words) and a short abstract on student representation/student politics in the country you wish to write on (up to 500 words).
2. Fill in NAT-SIHEG survey focusing on gathering data on national-level student organizing, representation and student politics (deadline 9 August 2021).
3. Prepare a draft introduction to your chapter by 9 August 2021 (about 500-1000 words) including:

(1) one or maximum two paragraphs briefly discuss the socio-political developments in your country that have been relevant for the historical development of student politics/unions/movements;

(2)  one or maximum two paragraps that mention characteristics of the higher education system in your country that is relevant to student politics (e.g., functional differentiation to research universities and other types of higher education institutions, prive and public, or stratified system with flagship universities who have more say in national politics, or small systems vs large or federal systems, etc.);

(3)  at least list or already review any existing literature/publications on student politics, student unions, activism, student organizing in your country (make sure to include full citations in the bibliography and build your library to share with SIHEG); 

(4)  (OPTIONAL AT THIS STAGE) consider the metaphors describing students in your country (are students considered pupils, learners, customers/clients, partners, troublemakers, change makers) and cite sources which mention these (e.g., government documents, newspaper articles, student union publications, academic articles).

Keep in mind the key research questions for national chapters:

(a) How are student organised in your country? Who - which representative student associations/movements - represent or seek to represent student interests? What are the main organizational characteristics of these associations/movements? Is there cooperation - competition - conflict between the student associations? 

(b) How students influence higher education or broader societal/political issues? What are the formal channels, if any? What are the main modes of political action (advocacy or protest  or something else)? Which are the key issues that have mobilised students to action - via advocacy or protest - in last five years? Who are the main coalition partners/alies of student associations? What has the impact of students been on higher education in your country (or politics of the country more broadly) (any specific cases of major successes or failures?);

(c) How are students viewed by the general public - what methaphors are commonly used to describe students? Are students a powerful force impacting higher education/society or not? In either case, what are the main mechanisms of  student impact on higher education and or society (e.g., representation, activism, consumerims, expert consultancy, etc.)? Is student power (as ability to make changes) in your higher education/country raising or diminishing, how and why?  

 

4. Participate in a research training workshop on 10 August (11 August for Asia) (see details under activities).

5. Distribute the LO-SIHEG survey to (a selection of) student leaders at colleges/universities in your country; if deemed necessary, translate the LO-SIHEG survey to a your language.

6. Conduct field research in your country: review formal documents (e.g., laws on higher education, statutory documents of student associations, etc.), conduct expert interviews with student leaders within your association and or other groups/associations/youth councils (as appropriate in your context but not more than 5 required) and expert interviews with "outsiders" to student politics, e.g. academics and or journalists and or government officials and or university leaders and or other higher education staheholders (as appropritae in your context; not more than 5 brief interviews required) (we need differnt sources of data to be able to traingualte information to minimise bias and achieve validity)

7. Participate in a collaborative writing retreat in October (for details see activities; 3 days, 2 hours).

8. Write draft chapter up to 6000 words (in English, Spanish, Portuguese or French); revise chapter as needed based on feedback of co-editors of the volume; final submission deadline 31 December 2021.

9. Commit to observing highest possible standards of ethical conduct in research involving human subjects (details at the research workshop), be impartial and objective (seek to avoid confirmation bias and other biases in social science research) as well as exercise due account of the work and achievements of other researchers by respecting their work, citing their publications appropriately, and by giving any collaborators in yoru research the credit and weight they deserve in the publications.

10. The outcomes of this research are aimed to contribute to advancement of knowledge on student agency and impact in higher education including to inform teaching and training and practicioner/policy/consultancy work on this subject. Participation in the research project is voluntary. There is no compensation foreseen for time and effort contributed to the research project and to writing of chapters. All contributors will be duly recognised as single authors or multiple co-authors of their chapter in the edited volume and can use this publication as a reference of their research involvement in this global collaborative project. All researchers will also be listed on the SIHEG project website confirming their research participation in the project. All researchers will also receive research training and individual support in conducting their research and writing their chapters from the PI and other members of the SIHEG core research group. 

 

(Tentative) Structure of the chapter:

Key research questions for national chapters:

(1) How are student organised in your country? Who - which representative student associations/movements - represent or seek to represent student interests? What are the main organizational characteristics of these associations/movements? Is there cooperation - competition - conflict between the student associations? 

(2) How students influence higher education or broader societal/political issues? What are the formal channels, if any? What are the main modes of political action (advocacy or protest  or something else)? Which are the key issues that have mobilised students to action - via advocacy or protest - in last five years? Who are the main coalition partners/alies of student associations? What has the impact of students been on higher education in your country (or politics of the country more broadly) (any specific cases of major successes or failures?);

(3) How are students viewed by the general public - what methaphors are commonly used to describe students? Are students a powerful force impacting higher education/society, if yes - what are the main mechanism of  student impact on higher education and or society? Is student power (as ability to make changes) in your country raising - if yes how/why, is student power diminishing - if yes, how/why? 

Title page

- author(s)' name(s): please decide early on authorship:

Option 1 There will be one lead author who is primary responsible for preparing the chapter, coordinates all input from co-authors, co-ordinated data collection with co-authors and does a major part (but not all writing). The lead author is listed as first author (in the sequence), follwoed by co-authors. Co-authors are listed based on amount of contribution or alphabetically. All have equal symbolic intellectual property rights (there is no compensation for the publication) but the first author can claim that s/he was lead author when applying for graduate school,, jobs).

Option 2 All authors share all responsibilities and equally contribute to preparing of the chapter: all co-authors are  listed alphabetically. No-one claims to be the lead author. All claim symbolic intelelctual propert rights as one of the co-authors of the chapter. 

- affiliations: please list your university and student association/movement/organizational affiliation;

- contact for each (co)author: please list your email and mailing address (for a copy of the book)

- ORCID (please register for ORCID here: https://orcid.org/register; The ORCID iD is a unique, persistent identifier free of charge to researchers)

- keywords: please list up to six keywords (e.g., student politics, Ghana, National Union of Ghana Students, ..)

and

- ABSTRACT (up to 300 words):

- what is the story of student politics in your country, how students impact higher education/society in your country, any major changes, successes, failures in how students impact higher education/society, 

- in a sentence mention methods of data collection (this chapter draws on LOC-SIHEG survey, content analysis of  official documents, interviews).

1. Introduction and review of literature (about 500-1000 words): 

- describe broader socio-politicial and higher education context in the country: any major political developments and or higher education reforms affecting students/student politics/representation?) (about 250-400 words);

- describe historical developments of student organizing/representation/politics, if possible by reviewing the existing literature/publications on student politics, student unions, activism, student organizing in your country (about 250-400 words)

- consider the metaphors describing students in your country in various  political documents/media (e.g., are students considered pupils, learners, customers/clients, partners, troublemakers, change makers) and mention sources from which you draw these methaphors (e.g., government publications, media articles, student publications, interviews, LOC-SIHEG survey) (about 100 words)

- mention your research question, focus of your chapter, briefly mention methods of data collection

- present structure of your chapter

2. Methodology and methods (about 300-500 words): 

- discuss models of student organizations, systems of student representations and systems of student interest intermediation relevant to your country (readings and information will be provided at the August research workshop);

- describe methods of data collection,  including ethical conduct and positionality (template prepared by Manja - shared at August research workshop)

3. WHO REPRESENTS OR SEEKS TO REPRESENT STUDENTS IN YOUR COUNTRY - the characteristics of representative student associations/movements in your country (about 500-1000 words):

- describe organization of student representative associations/movements at different levels (possibly use LOC-SIHEG survey data, interviews, content analysis of statutory documents on student organizations, higher education laws) (about 1000 words): who represents (claims to represent) students in your country on national level and on institutional level; what are the organizational characteristics of representative student associations (consider the models interest-group-like or student-movement-like or something in-between);

- issues to consider: membership, legal status, finances/funding, human resources/offices/facilities, key activities/political agenda, governance structures (consider organizational/movement capabilities/resources for being able to influence higher education/social change) as well as autonomy, legitimacy

3. HOW STUDENTS INFLUENCE OR SEEK TO INFLUENCE HIGHER EDUCATION POLICIES AND PRACTICES AND OR NATIONAL POLITICS MORE BROADLY - student representation/activism/lobbying/advocacy at institutional and national/state/province level (about 500-1000 words):

- discuss whether/how students are represented in higher education governance at different levels of higher education governance or not (use LOC-SIHEG survey data, interviews, content analysis of statutory documents of student organizations, higher education laws);

- consider the models of national systems of student representation: pluralist vs neo-corporatist vs corporatist; the models of national systems of intermediation: formalised/institutionalised, informal - cooperative, informal - contentious; consider structural possibilities (formal seats, channels) for student impact; consider social networks (alumni, political party,  etc.) as (informal mechanism) possibilities for impact;

- if no formal representation, discuss how students engage in/seek to influence higher education politics or politics/social change more  broadly (e.g., student movements, political parties, youth councils, etc.);

- have there been any changes in how student impact higher education (e.g., weaker possibilities for representation more consumer-rights protection or stroinger possibilities for representation due to establishment of national associations) and the impact students have had (any major successes or failures in pushing for changes); any risks/treats to student representatives in athoritarian regimes?

4. Contemporary issues in student politics (about 500-1000 words):

- discuss most pressing issues/challenges/recent initiatives concerning student unions - representation - activism - student politics - student agency/impact in your country: what issues mobilize students?

- you can also mention here major successes or major failure in fighting for studnet rights or pushing for social changes

- you can expand here on methaphors on students/student politics - public opinion on studnets and or studnet politics: is general piublic (judging from media coverage) sympathetics to student politics or critical? what are main depiction of students used in public discourse? What is the criticism based on of students and or student politics? 

5. Conclusion (about 300-500 words)

- briefly summarise main arguments/propositions in your chapter: what is the story of student politics in your country, what has the impact of students been on higher education in your country (or politics of the country more broadly); are students a powerful force impacting higher education/society, if yes - what are the main mechanism of how studnets impact higher education and or society; is student power in your country raising - if yes how/why, is student power diminishing - if yes, how/why? 

- any prescriptive advice on reforms needed concerning student effects on higher education?

- any suggestions for further research 

6. Bibliography

7. Appendices (if any) 

-e.g., any longer quotes of higher education laws, list of all member associations, etc. 

 

Total word count up to 6000 words all included, about 20 pages