Student voice in higher education: opening the loop

Article


Young, H. and Jerome, L. 2020. Student voice in higher education: opening the loop. British Educational Research Journal. 46 (3), pp. 688-705. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3603
TypeArticle
TitleStudent voice in higher education: opening the loop
AuthorsYoung, H. and Jerome, L.
Abstract

UK national policy and the practices of university course boards tend to reduce understandings of ‘student voice’ to a feedback loop. In this loop, students express feedback, the university takes this on board then they tell the students how they have responded to their feedback. The feedback loop is a significant element of the neoliberal imaginary of higher education globally. This qualitative research study drew on interviews with course representatives in three universities in England and on policy analysis to explore the discursive construction and enactment of student voice. It uses the feedback loop as an analytical frame. Drawing on Foucault’s later work, the article aims to open up the feedback loop by exploring its manifestation in the mundane everyday practices of universities. In opening the loop, we identify the following effects of the student voice policy ensemble: students have to construct feedback as it is not just waiting to be gathered; it promotes a dividing practice where reps are positioned differently to other students; there is a focus on problems; an ‘us and them’ is reinforced between staff and students; the loop closes down discussion; and a managerial logic obscures political processes. The article articulates its opening of the loop as a way of unmasking the modes of power which work through discourses of ‘student voice’ and hence seeks to create possibilities for resistance to being governed this way.

Keywordsfeedback loop; student engagement; student satisfaction; course representative
PublisherWiley
JournalBritish Educational Research Journal
ISSN0141-1926
Electronic1469-3518
Publication dates
Online04 Mar 2020
Print09 Jun 2020
Publication process dates
Deposited05 Mar 2020
Accepted10 Feb 2020
Output statusPublished
Accepted author manuscript
File Access Level
Open
Copyright Statement

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Young, H. and Jerome, L. (2020), Student voice in higher education: Opening the loop. Br Educ Res J, 46: 688-705. doi:10.1002/berj.3603, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3603. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3603
Web of Science identifierWOS:000518652300001
LanguageEnglish
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