Abstract
This chapter introduces the main argument of this edited volume, which is to position students at the heart of higher education. The chapter highlights the concepts of agency and self-formation to do so. The chapter includes a historical overview of higher learning, starting from the medieval university, which constitutes the roots of higher education today. The historical overview highlights that students in higher learning have never been as narrowly defined as they tend to be in the last decades. The narrow definitions of the last decades include reducing students to consumers, income maximizers, or passive information receivers. The chapter also includes an overview of the relevant literature. The review of research on student experiences discusses how agency and self-formation are implied in the extensive theories and concepts of student development in higher education. Then, the emerging line of literature that engages with the agency and self-formation concepts more explicitly is introduced. The chapter concludes by introducing the chapters in the edited volume, which include diverse perspectives on agency and self-formation in higher education.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
“Education, learning, or scholarship on the collegiate or university level,” according to Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2023).
References
Altbach, P. G., & Klemencic, M. (2014). Student activism remains a potent force worldwide. International Higher Education, 76, 2–3.
Anderson, R. D. (2004). European universities from the enlightenment until 1914. Oxford University Press.
Anwer, M. (2022). Equity-minded international education. Navigating careers in the academy: Gender, race, and class, 13.
Ashwin, P. (2020). Transforming university education: A manifesto. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Astin, A. W. (1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Personnel, 25(4), 297–308.
Becker, G. (1993). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education. The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226041223.001.0001
Bedenlier, S., Kondakci, Y., & Zawacki-Richter, O. (2018). Two decades of research into the internationalization of higher education: Major themes in the Journal of Studies in International Education (1997–2016). Journal of Studies in International Education, 22(2), 108–135.
Bennett, D. (2019). Graduate employability and higher education: Past, present and future. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, 5, 31–61.
Biesta, G. (2002). How general can Bildung be? Reflections on the future of a modern educational ideal. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 36(3), 377–390. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004401105_003
Biesta, G. (2009). Good education in an age of measurement: On the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 33–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-008-9064-9
Biesta, G. (2020). Risking ourselves in education: Qualification, socialization, and subjectification revisited. Educational Theory, 70(1), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/edth.12411
Biesta, G., & Tedder, M. (2007). Agency and learning in the lifecourse: Towards an ecological perspective. Studies in the Education of Adults, 39(2), 132–149.
Biggs, J. (1993). What do inventories of students’ learning processes really measure? A theoretical review and clarification. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 63(1), 3–19.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22(6), 723.
Brooks, R., & Waters, J. (2022). Partial, hierarchical and stratified space? Understanding ‘the international’ in studies of international student mobility. Oxford Review of Education, 48(4), 518–535.
Brown, P., Lauder, H., & Ashton, D. (2011). The global auction: The broken promises of education, jobs, and incomes. Oxford University Press.
Cantwell, B., Marginson, S., & Smolentseva, A. (Eds.). (2018). High participation systems of higher education. Oxford University Press.
Case, J. M. (2015). A social realist perspective on student learning in higher education: The morphogenesis of agency. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(5), 841–852.
Case, J. M., & Marshall, D. (2009). Approaches to learning. In The Routledge international handbook of higher education (pp. 9–22). Routledge.
Cebolla-Boado, H., Hu, Y., & Soysal, Y. N. (2018). Why study abroad? Sorting of Chinese students across British universities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(3), 365–380.
Chankseliani, M. (2018). The politics of student mobility: Links between outbound student flows and the democratic development of post-Soviet Eurasia. International Journal of Educational Development, 62, 281–288.
Chickering, A. W. (1969). Education and identity. Jossey-Bass.
Coates, H. (2005). The value of student engagement for higher education quality assurance. Quality in Higher Education, 11(1), 25–36.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. The Macmillan Company..
Feldman, K. A., & Newcomb, T. M. (2020). The impact of college on students. Routledge.
Freeman, K., & Li, M. (2019). “We are a ghost in the class”: First year international students’ experiences in the Global Contact Zone. Journal of International Students, 9(1), 19–38.
Halstead, J. K. (1996). Liberal values and Liberal education. In J. M. Halstead & M. J. Taylor (Eds.), Values in education and education in values. Falmer Press.
Heng, T. T. (2018). Coping strategies of international Chinese undergraduates in response to academic challenges in US colleges. Teachers College Record, 120(2), 1–42.
Hofer, B. K., & Pintrich, P. R. (1997). The development of epistemological theories: Beliefs about knowledge and knowing and their relation to learning. Review of Educational Research, 67(1), 88–140.
Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments. Psychological Assessment Resources.
Inouye, K., Lee, S., & Oldac, Y. I. (2022). A systematic review of student agency in international higher education. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00952-3
Jabbar, H., & Menashy, F. (2022). Economic imperialism in education research: A conceptual review. Educational Researcher, 51(4), 279–288.
Kant, I. (1784). What is enlightenment? (M. C. Smith, Trans.). Berlin Monthly. http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html
Kay, J., Dunne, E., & Hutchinson, J. (2010). Rethinking the values of higher education–students as change agents. Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).
Kerr, C. (2001). The uses of the university. Harvard University Press.
King, P. M., & Kitchener, K. S. (2004). Reflective judgment: Theory and research on the development of epistemic assumptions through adulthood. Educational Psychologist, 39(1), 5–18.
Kivela, A., Siljander, P., & Sutinen, A. (2012). Between Bildung and growth: Connections and controversies. In P. Siljander, A. Kivelä, & A. Sutinen (Eds.), Theories of Bildung and growth: Connections and controversies between continental educational thinking and American pragmatism (pp. 303–312). Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-031-6_19
Klemenčič, M. (2015). What is student agency? An ontological exploration in the context of research on student engagement. In Student engagement in Europe: Society, higher education and student governance (pp. 11–29). Council of Europe.
Kolb, D. A. (1985). Learning-style inventory: Self-scoring inventory and interpretation booklet. McBer and Company.
Kudaibergenov, M. (2023). “Because we all change, right?”: A narrative inquiry of an international student’s self-formation in South Korea. International Journal of Educational Development, 96, 102708.
Kudo, K., Volet, S., & Whitsed, C. (2019). Development of intercultural relationships at university: A three-stage ecological and person-in-context conceptual framework. Higher Education, 77, 473–489.
Kuh, G. D. (2009). The national survey of student engagement: Conceptual and empirical foundations. New Directions for Institutional Research, 141, 5–20.
Lee, S. (in progress). Academic self-formation in local and international higher education: Evidence from South Korean students. Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford.
Lin, Y., & Xu, Y. (2023). An international student, a researcher, or a work-ready graduate? Exploring the self-formation of international students in coursework master’s programmes. In Research and teaching in a pandemic world: The challenges of establishing academic identities during times of crisis (pp. 141–156). Springer Nature Singapore.
Lipura, S. J., & Collins, F. L. (2020). Towards an integrative understanding of contemporary educational mobilities: A critical agenda for international student mobilities research. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 18(3), 343–359.
Lowe, R., & Yasuhara, Y. (2017). The origins of higher learning: Knowledge networks and the early development of universities (First published). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Magolda, M. B. B. (1992). Knowing and reasoning in college: Gender-related patterns in students’ intellectual development. Jossey-Bass.
Magolda, M. B. B. (2008). Three elements of self-authorship. Journal of College Student Development, 49(4), 269–284.
Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5), 551.
Marginson, S. (2014). Student self-formation in international education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 18(1), 6–22.
Marginson, S. (2018). Higher education as self-formation. UCL Institute of Education Press. https://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/books/higher-education-and-lifelong-learning/higher-education-as-a-process-of-self-formation/
Marginson, S. (2019). Limitations of human capital theory. Studies in Higher Education, 44(2), 287–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1359823
Marginson, S. (2023). Higher education as student self-formation. In S. Marginson, B. Cantwell, D. Platonova, & A. Smolentseva (Eds.), Assessing the Contributions of Higher Education (pp. 61–87). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035307173.00012
Marginson, S., & Sawir, E. (2012). Ideas for intercultural education. Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230339736
Martin, B. R. (2003). The changing social contract for science and the evolution of the university. In A. Geuna, A. J. Salter, & W. E. Steinmueller (Eds.), Science and innovation: Rethinking the rationales for funding and governance. Edward Elgar.
Marton, F., & Säljö, R. (1976). On qualitative differences in learning: I—Outcome and process. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 46(1), 4–11.
Merriam-Webster. (2023, September 29). Higher learning. https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/higher%20learning
Newman, J. H. (1907). The idea of a university. Longmans.
Nussbaum, M. C. (1997). Cultivating humanity: A classical defense of reform in liberal education. Harvard University Press.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2016). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754x-1305490.
Oldac, Y. I. (2021). Self-formation and societal contribution: The case of Turkish international higher education graduates [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. The University of Oxford. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.830506
Östling, J. (2018). Humboldt and the modern German university: An intellectual history (Olsson, Trans.). Lund University Press.
Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students: A third decade of research (Vol. 2). Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley.
Perry, W. G., Jr. (1999). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme (Jossey-Bass higher and adult education series). Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Piketty, T. (2014). Human capital in the twenty-first century (A. Goldhammer, Trans.). The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429498435-9.
Ploner, J., & Nada, C. (2020). International student migration and the postcolonial heritage of European higher education: Perspectives from Portugal and the UK. Higher Education, 80, 373–389.
Raghuram, P., Breines, M. R., & Gunter, A. (2020). Beyond# FeesMustFall: International students, fees and everyday agency in the era of decolonisation. Geoforum, 109, 95–105.
Roth, M. S. (2014). Beyond the university: Why liberal education matters. Yale University Press.
Schartner, S. A. (2019). Intercultural transitions in higher education: International student adjustment and adaptation. Edinburgh University Press.
Schlossberg, N. K. (1981). A model for analyzing human adaptation to transition. The Counseling Psychologist, 9(2), 2–18.
Schneider, K. (2012). The subject-object transformations and ‘Bildung’. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(3), 302–311. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00696.x
Sen, A. (2000). Development as freedom. Development in Practice-Oxford-, 10(2), 258.
Sjöström, J., & Eilks, I. (2020). The Bildung theory—From von Humboldt to Klafki and beyond. In B. Akpan & T. J. Kennedy (Eds.), Science education in theory and practice (pp. 55–67). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43620-9_5
Soong, H., Thi Tran, L., & Hoa Hiep, P. (2015). Being and becoming an intercultural doctoral student: Reflective autobiographical narratives. Reflective Practice, 16(4), 435–448.
Tan, E. (2014). Human capital theory: A holistic criticism. Review of Educational Research, 84(3), 411–445.
Tinto, V. (2012). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. University of Chicago press.
Tomlinson, M. (2018). Conceptions of the value of higher education in a measured market. Higher Education, 75(4), 711–727.
Tran, L. T. (2016). Mobility as ‘becoming’: A Bourdieuian analysis of the factors shaping international student mobility. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(8), 1268–1289.
Trowler, V. (2010). Student engagement literature review. The Higher Education Academy, 11(1), 1–15.
Välimaa, J. (2019). The emergence of universities in the middle ages. In A history of Finnish higher education from the middle ages to the twenty-first century. Springer International Publishing.
Volet, S., & Jones, C. (2012). Cultural transitions in higher education: Individual adaptation, transformation and engagement. In Transitions across schools and cultures (pp. 241–284). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Wheelahan, L., Moodie, G., & Doughney, J. (2022). Challenging the skills fetish. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 43(3), 475–494.
Yang, L. (2022). Student formation in higher education: A comparison and combination of Confucian xiushen (self-cultivation) and Bildung. Higher Education, 83(5), 1163–1180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00735-2
Yang, Y., & MacCallum, J. (2022). A three-dimensional multi-world framework for examining cross-cultural experiences of international doctoral students. Studies in Continuing Education, 44(3), 493–509.
Yu, J. (2021). Caught in the middle? Chinese international students’ self-formation amid politics and pandemic. International Journal of Chinese Education, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/22125868211058911
Disclosure
The authors have no special interest to disclose.
Funding
Yusuf Ikbal Oldac is a Hong Kong Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellow, funded by the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Oldac, Y.I., Yang, L., Lee, S. (2023). Students at the Heart of Higher Education: An Introduction. In: Oldac, Y.I., Yang, L., Lee, S. (eds) Student Agency and Self-Formation in Higher Education. Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44885-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44885-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-44884-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-44885-0
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)