Mixed messages: public communication about higher education and non-traditional students in Australia

Snowden, Collette; Lewis, Sally

doi:10.1007/s10734-014-9858-2

Cited by 20 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Due to the limited research on the framing effect in higher education with a focus on professional and vocational education, existing reforms utilising framing often fail to achieve their objectives. For example, in Australia, despite the stated policy goals of broadening access to university, the government and universities have continued to frame universities as elite and exclusive (Snowden and Lewis, 2015). As a result, the communication campaign of the state failed to increase the participation rates of students from non-traditional higher education backgrounds and deepened existing social divides between students with different levels of academic performance.…”

Section: Framing and Educational Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does renaming improve public attitudes toward vocational education and training in higher education? Evidence from a survey experiment

Lee

Lam

2022

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer direct tests of the effectiveness of renaming vocational education and training (VET) in enhancing the image and popularity of the subject. Although many proponents of renaming argue that the word “vocational” is associated with lower levels of skills and knowledge and should therefore be supplemented by better recognised words, empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of this strategy is scant.Design/methodology/approachThis study exploits a rare policy change in Hong Kong, where VET was renamed as vocational and professional education and training (VPET) and conducted an original survey experiment of 1,004 parents in the city to test if the new name would improve respondents' perceptions of the subject.FindingsThe findings reveal a complex picture regarding the effects of renaming. Although renaming does not seem to improve the overall popularity of vocational education, it may widen the support base for vocational education by diluting its class character. Specifically, while attitudes toward VET are significantly and negatively correlated with family income, no such association is found in regard to VPET.Originality/valueThis paper offers the first direct and comprehensive test of the effectiveness of renaming vocational education – a popular policy suggestion in many countries. Its findings complicate conventional expectations and contribute to the study of educational preferences in advanced economies.

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Section: Framing and Educational Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does renaming improve public attitudes toward vocational education and training in higher education? Evidence from a survey experiment

Lee

Lam

2022

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“…Are these institutions seeking to counter academic drift, perhaps because a move towards a research focus is perceived as threatening underpinning values, cultures and practices that are more 'teacherly' and teaching focused? Research that has found a 'research focus' is positioned against a 'teaching focus' by drawing on representations of university elitism -representations of the university, research activities and university educators as elitist -may offer some support to this argument (Feather, 2016;Henderson, 2018;Snowden & Lewis, 2015;Wheelahan et al, 2012).…”

Section: Teaching Scholarship and Research -Keystones Of He And Academic Identity?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic identity in a changing Australian higher education space: the higher education in vocational institution perspective

Sinclair

Webb

2021

International Journal of Training Research

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This article explores the academic identities of college educators of higher education in vocational institutions. Qualitative semistructured interviews generated data from eleven educators in five vocational education institutions. Discourse analysis revealed that educators distinguished their vocational institutions' contributions to HE as different, but equal or superior to those of universities. Educators presented their culture and practices in advantageous ways, contrasted against imagined stereotypes of university experiences, which are perceived to be deficient for supporting the types of students they teach. In adopting academic identities that distinguish their cultures and practices from those presumed prevalent in universities, these educators seek parity of esteem with universities through distinctiveness, and reject research-focused academic identities and academic drift. In embracing teacherly identities supporting students rather than the research-teaching nexus, educators may be contributing to the 'therapeutic turn', diminishing opportunities for students, and furthering the vertical stratification of institutions within the Australian HE space.

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“…As Archer (2007) notes in her focus on the discourse of diversity, ‘It is so apparently benign and “good” that it silences other interpretations’, thus ‘render[ing] those who resist it unintelligible or morally reprehensible’ (p. 648). These messages are compounded by the disconnections between policy and media environments within universities, with messages about inclusivity and equity ‘frequently contradicted and neutralized by counter messages that propagate entrenched positions about class, individual ability and suitability and the stratification of higher education by quality’ (Snowden & Lewis, 2015, p. 587).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discursive constructions of equity in Australian higher education: Imagined worlds and the case of people seeking asylum

Baker

Field

Burke

et al. 2020

British Educational Res J

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There is a strong rationale for people seeking asylum and refugees given temporary protection to be key beneficiaries of Australian higher education equity practices. However, despite the extreme precarity they face, this group remains among the most educationally disadvantaged populations in Australia. Here, we use critical discourse analysis to examine the publicly available statements of 38 Australian universities to identify discursive representations of equity practices and connections, with our analytic gaze focused through the lens of people seeking asylum. Using a three‐part analytic heuristic examining ‘statements’, ‘practices’ and ‘connections’, we offer a critical discourse analysis of how each public university expresses its commitment to the equity agenda in powerful stakeholder‐facing documents—such as annual reports, strategic plans and media releases—and we compare this analysis against institutional stated practices with regard to people seeking asylum. In identifying misalignments between equity statements and stated practices, we suggest that institutional equity narratives articulate ‘imagined worlds’, in which all marginalised groups can access higher education. We argue that now is the time to move beyond these ‘imagined worlds’, to enact stated commitments to universal education, by instituting real and effective practices to facilitate equitable access to Australian higher education for people seeking asylum.

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Mixed messages: public communication about higher education and non-traditional students in Australia

Cited by 20 publications

References 31 publications

Does renaming improve public attitudes toward vocational education and training in higher education? Evidence from a survey experiment

Does renaming improve public attitudes toward vocational education and training in higher education? Evidence from a survey experiment

Academic identity in a changing Australian higher education space: the higher education in vocational institution perspective

Discursive constructions of equity in Australian higher education: Imagined worlds and the case of people seeking asylum

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