Collaboration in Higher Education: Theorising Co-Creation for Inclusive Learning and Teaching Praxis

Abstract

In the last ten years UK Higher Education has undergone radical processes of reconstruction by focusing on output and value for money, thereby reinforcing the myth of meritocracy. Together with still prevalent notions of developmental learning and pyramidical teaching, this has heightened a culture of individualism. Despite an ostensible emphasis on partnership, isolation and ‘silo-isation’ are evident today with lecturers and students experiencing increased pressure to produce and perform alone, leading to little time for thinking and doing together. This situation was exacerbated by COVID-19 with social distancing measures and remote instruction, which have further increased workloads and loneliness, accompanied by technological developments that have driven us apart (rather than bringing us together). This thesis challenges the dominant education narratives of managerialism, elitism, and individualism, and argues for collaboration as a transgressive, emancipatory practice based on collaborative research and writing.

The work presented in this thesis exemplifies the characteristics of collaborative academic work and the possibilities of working collaboratively. This includes case studies about a much-needed shift from the teaching of ‘skills’ to the fostering of literacies through dialogic, embodied, and ludic learning and teaching approaches – practices that foster the inclusion of all, including those from a widening participation background. The thesis mobilises the concept of third space, described by Homi K Bhabha, an Indian-British scholar and theorist, as a place of opportunity, to characterise and connect examples and arguments, and to make an original claim about collaboration as a fundamental element of education. This grounds the thesis at the intersection of theory and praxis, with teaching and learning at the core.

The thesis, in its entirety, presents a coherent and robust argument for collaboration as a way forward to create a more inclusive academia. It offers a significant contribution to the field of education with practical examples and inputs on how to connect individuals and institutions with each other and the wider society. There is a need to reimagine what education is and what universities could be in these supercomplex, competitive, silo-ised times. What is proposed is the creation of collaborative third spaces, both physical and metaphorical, that allow people to come together – to be with – and to dialogically co-create knowledge: a sustainable ecology of collaborative Higher Education praxis. This requires an ethic of openness that values and does not just tolerate others – an education that puts the humans and the humane at the centre.