Wood, Allan R.; (2013) Pedagogic inclusion in professional education : challenges and possibilities? Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.

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Abstract

This thesis describes a qualitative, interview-based case study of the experiences of adult female learners accessing/reaccessing Higher Education following a Widening Participation (WP) route on a part-time Physiotherapy undergraduate course and an accelerated Masters course in Occupational Therapy at a single HEI. The research questioned student and staff perceptions of and attitudes to study, and to what extent the HEI had adapted its pedagogic approaches to accommodate student learning preferences. Data are drawn from discussions with sixteen participants, comprising four students and four tutors on each course. The research outcomes revealed a tension between the tutors' theoretically and ideologically driven views on teaching and learning, which included responding to diverse student needs, and the more pragmatic orientations of the students and their tutors. These were underpinned in the students' case by the financial need to gain a qualification in spite of the constraints of time and family life, and on the tutors' and institution's part by the need to attract student numbers and to meet completion targets in spite of shortages of time, staffing and space. Analysis of the responses of students and tutors draws on Bernstein's theory of recontextualisation, in which ideas such as WP undergo significant transformations first in the official policy process then when they are put into practice. The study also draws on Bernstein's account of pedagogic identities, which describe how teachers and institutions negotiate teaching and learning processes within the competing demands of market forces, mandated policy and their own local ideologies and circumstances. In its exploration of the meaning of WP and its underpinning rationales, the research suggests that the pragmatic approach of the institution has the effect of widening access in terms of course eligibility but failing to offer correspondingly inclusive pedagogies, more flexible curricula, or adequate student support services.

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