This time last year, a colleague and I planned a number of changes for a course. We wanted to know if our plans were actual improvements, or if there might be better options that we overlooked. So we invited the students in a lunch break: a conversation, not mandatory, no agenda, just a chance to tell what our plans would mean in their eyes and the opportunity to contribute their own ideas. I invited all the two-hundred-and-something students from the course, brought cookies as a sweet treat... And two students showed up.
It seems increasingly difficult to find students who want to contribute ideas and contribute to the student perspective in programme committees, faculty student councils, and other study-related participation bodies. While we want to hear them so badly. I teach at Business Administration and I know that one field of study is probably not representative of the entire student population. When I read the booklet 'educational vision of students' again, I also read that even the university student council would like a closer contact with who they represent. Are all students too busy with other things? They seem to have a lot of commuting time because of the student housing shortage and the high costs of living. Or could it not be something else?
In recent years, we have increasingly structured our higher education as a product. An expensive product, for which we ask for three or four years, often a substantial student loan, with the ultimate outcome being a diploma that gets you started on the labor market. As a result, study programmes present themselves as products of the 'university X' brand, with the student as customers. They buy their studies with time, money and energy – and expect something in return: a diploma, a good experience, guidance. Participation and involvement in the organizational side of things does not fit well with that logic. A customer does not participate in decisions about the production process; At most, they fill in a satisfaction survey afterwards, or choose a different product.
Perhaps that is what we are seeing now. We ask for feedback through course evaluations when we finish a course, but not during the process itself. Just as we don't get involved in discussions on the layout of the shelves of the supermarket: We take what we need, pay and move on. If we don't like the offer, we go to a competitor. And be honest, do you answer all those requests for reviews of all kinds of (online) stores after a purchase? In that sense, it is no surprise that we regularly see a response rate of less than twenty percent in course evaluations.
What we do with our course evaluations and panel discussions was described in 1969 by Sherry Arnstein's ladder of participation as 'informing' and 'consulting': essentially forms of window dressing, symbolic participation that does not fundamentally change the course of events. Real participation only starts with partnership and shared decision-making power. And honestly: we, employees, would rather be talked with than talked about. I’m fairly sure the same applies to students. Perhaps the implicit message of "participation" is too top-down, too much "I hear what you’re saying, I'll take it into consideration". What good is that to you as a student? The time you spend on that, you could have spent on something useful to you, such as working or studying.
I think that if we really want to involve students in shaping education, we have to offer more than cookies. Participation not as an extracurricular activity, as a place that we need to fill to fulfill our participation requirements, but as an opportunity to experience how an organization works, how to substantiate a point of view, how to weigh interests and make decisions together. How you as a student (and we as teachers) deal with organizational dynamics. Participation can be the ultimate authentic professional and personal development during your studies.
We can include students in this process better than we do now: reflect together on the individual in these organizational dynamics, talk to them about what they think is important, and discover together where our added value lies – as a study programme, as a teacher, and as a student. Reflecting together on what we see, and what sense we make of it.
So yes, let's continue to invite students to the table, but in such a way that they also feel like a partner in decision making. Not stepping up a rung on the ladder of participation, but stepping off that ladder. Not only talking about their studies to benefit the generation that comes after them, but reflecting together and making plans for the world in which they will soon be responsible. And last but not least, to better understand the perspectives and vision of the future of students that we encounter almost every day.
The booklet on the educational vision of students also recommends that teachers should be encouraged more to involve students in shaping education. So here's also an appeal to students who read this: Challenge your teacher by starting a conversation. Send an email, stick around after a class, or find another way that fits you and your programme. I’m fairly sure that most teachers would be happy to discuss any constructive feedback and thoughts. If you do want to think about other valuable forms for participation, let me know.