Previous theoretical frameworks used to research and explain creative design processes tend to privilege individual expression and not address the context in which the process occurs. This is problematic due to the ways in which creative activities are embedded in and shaped by socio-cultural and historic contexts. In this article we focus on the…

Activity theory is a relatively young methodology for researching higher education teaching practices. Beyond systemic analyse of workplace activities and their development, activity theory used in its full interventionist capacity can foster practitioners' transformative agency to initiate practice change. Nevertheless, this is not an easy…

This article presents a retrospective autoethnopoetic study exploring a queer student's journey in Australian tertiary STEM education, employing queer research methodologies to illuminate the challenges encountered. Through personal narrative and poetic expression, we identify critical themes: microaggressions, discrimination, identity formation,…

This paper contributes to discussion of theory application in higher education research. We examine 59 empirical research papers from specialist journals that use a particular theory: activity theory. We scrutinise stated reasons for choosing the theory, functions played by the theory, and how the theory is valorised. We find that the theory is…

The landscape of surgical training is changing. The anticipated increase in the numbers of surgical trainees and the shift to competency-based surgical training places pressures on an already stretched health service. With these pressures in mind, we explored trainers' and trainees' experiences of surgical training in a less traditional rotation,…

We discuss findings from a survey of sociology students in Germany and consequences for teaching. We focus on the de facto formation of a sociological canon, the relation between theories and methods, and effects of social and political characteristics on student's scientific preferences. Our findings suggest that irrespective of an agreement of…

I argue that Ricoeur's "preunderstandings" can be used as a heuristic to aid researchers who collect narratives as data (1) to identify cultural meanings that become resources for participants' positioning work, (2) to ground the identified cultural meanings in participants' experiences, and (3) to understand participants'…

Social practice theory addresses both theoretical and method/ological agendas. To date priority has been given to the former, with writing on the latter tending often to be an afterthought to theoretical expositions or fieldwork accounts. This article gives sustained attention to the method/ological corollaries of a social practice perspective. It…

First-generation college students are students whose parents or guardians did not obtain a four year college degree (Davis, 2012). As a group these students make up a large part of the college student population and are often reported to encounter difficulties in their campus experience. While the topic of first-generation student has received…

Over the last two decades, a sense of awareness has arisen that universities are facing important challenges. This article focuses on the challenge that could be broadly termed as "the digitisation of academic work", yet without assuming that this digitisation would be an explanatory factor clarifying the precise nature of contemporary…

The article reports on a study of methodological innovation involving occupational therapy (OT) students in higher education (HE). It is based on an original project which examined the experiences and outcomes of non-traditional entrants to pre-registration OT education. A feature of the original project was the application of the epistemological…

The emphasis of this paper is on the derivation of design principles from qualitative analysis of student reflections based on their participation in authentic, collaborative and technology-mediated activities. This paper reports on the initial phases of a design-based research project at a comprehensive university in South Africa where the…

In this conceptual paper, the authors discuss how research about sexual harassment and campus racial climates for undergraduate students is relegated to separate silos. Drawing on intersectionality and critical race feminist frameworks, the authors juxtapose these strands of research with attention to ethnicity/race and gender, highlighting how…

Using Max Weber's theory of ideal types, the authors classify the formative assessment techniques used by 12 college instructors. Their data reveal two pairs of opposing preferences: (1) highly preplanned vs. highly emergent and (2) focused on individual students vs. focused on the class as a whole. Using interview data, they illustrate how each…

This review summarizes published studies on undergraduate mentoring programs from 2008 to 2012. Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria, which included empirical research on formal mentoring programs with undergraduate students as mentees or mentors. Each study was assessed based on limitations identified in two earlier reviews of the mentoring…