Where place, lived experience and disciplinary knowledge converge
Engaging students through knowledge exchange
Abstract
Transforming and Activating Places (TAP) was a knowledge exchange (KE) programme at the University of Sheffield that was run exclusively for widening participation students in the fields of the arts and humanities and social sciences. Between 2020 and 2023, the programme facilitated 200 short-term paid internships in which students completed intensive preparatory activities and then partnered with nearly 80 external partners for projects and activities related to place and placemaking. After situating the research within the current literature on experiential learning, student KE and KE more broadly, we present and analyse in this article the data collected from a series of student surveys completed in the programme’s first and second year. With a particular emphasis on the voices, experiences and reported benefits for TAP student participants, we identify three interconnected domains of student KE that have evolved through the project: 1) applying disciplinary knowledge, 2) identifying lived experience, 3) realising expertise. We conclude that, where all three domains are activated within student KE - that is, where it involves students' identification and application of disciplinary knowledge and lived experience, as well as a conscious synthesising and framing of that knowledge as valuable expertise - then it is at its most transformative and productive.
Downloads
References
Anonymous (2023), ‘Projects and Internships 2019-23’, Transforming and Activating Places website archive, https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/tap/about-tap?authuser=0
Abreu, M., Grinevich, V., Hughes, A., Kitson, M., & Ternouth, P. (2008). Universities, Business and Knowledge Exchange. The Council for Industry and Higher Education, and Centre for Business Research. https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cbr-specialreport-universitiesbusinessknowledgeexchange.pdf
Arefi, Mahyar. 2014. Deconstructing Placemaking: Needs, Opportunities, and Assets. London: Routledge.
Bark, L. (2023, June 23). Lydia’s experience: “TAP helped me see that I am employable and that I can find my place in the world”. Transforming and Activating Places programme blog. https://tuostap.blogspot.com/2023/06/lydias-experience-tap-helped-me-see.html?m=1
Basit, T. N., Eardley, A., Borup, R., Shah, H., Slack, K., & Hughes, A. (2015). Higher education institutions and work-based learning in the UK: Employer engagement within a tripartite relationship, Higher Education, 70(6), 1003–1015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9877-7
Benneworth, P., & Jongbloed, B. W. (2010). Who matters to universities? A stakeholder perspective on humanities, arts and social sciences valorisation, Higher Education, 59(5), 567–588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-009-9265-2
Breakey, N. M., Robinson, R. N. S., & Beesley, L. G. (2009). Students Go a “Waltzing Matilda”—A Regional Tourism Knowledge Exchange Through Innovative Internships, Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 8(2–3), 223–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220802714505
British Academy (2020). Qualified for the Future: Quantifying demand for arts, humanities and social science skills. The British Academy. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1888/Qualified-for-the-Future-Quantifying-demand-for-arts-humanities-social-science-skills.pdf
Brüssow, S., & Wilkinson, A. (2011). Engaged learning: A pathway to better teaching. South African Journal of Higher Education, 24(3). https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v24i3.63444
Courage, C. (2020). What really matters: moving placemaking into a new epoch. In T, Borrup, M, R Jackson, K Legge, A, McKeown, L, Platt & J Schupbach (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Placemaking. Routledge.
Dowling, A. (2015). The Dowling Review of Business-University Research Collaborations. Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. https://raeng.org.uk/media/wzqfaq4w/04-09-15-dowling-report-final-updated-contributors.pdf
Flint, A. (2016). Moving from the fringe to the mainstream: Opportunities for embedding student engagement through partnership. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal, 1(1).
Foster, E., & Stephenson, J. (1998). Work‐based Learning and Universities in the U.K.: A review of current practice and trends. Higher Education Research & Development, 17(2), 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/0729436980170202
Jackson, D. (2013). The contribution of work-integrated learning to undergraduate employability skill outcomes. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 14(2), 99-115.
Kemmis, S. and McTaggart, R. (1988) The Action Research Reader. Third edition. Deakin University Press.
King, L., & Rivett, G. (2015). Engaging People in Making History: Impact, Public Engagement and the World Beyond the Campus. History Workshop Journal, 80(1), 218--233. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbv015
Lester, S., & Costley, C. (2010). Work‐based learning at higher education level: Value, practice and critique. Studies in Higher Education, 35(5), 561–575. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070903216635
Lowe, T., & Dent, P. (2021). Student engagement in knowledge exchange: A conceptual model based on established student engagement practice in educational development. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal, 3(2), Article 2.
Malone, K. R. (2012). Lacan, Freud, the humanities, and science. The Humanistic Psychologist, 40(3), 246–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/08873267.2012.696505
Moreton, S. (2015). Rethinking ‘knowledge exchange’: New approaches to collaborative work in the arts and humanities. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 22(1), 100–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2015.1101081
Office for Students. (2020, January 31). Knowledge exchange. https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/skills-and-employment/knowledge-exchange/
Olmos-Peñuela, J., Benneworth, P., & Castro-Martínez, E. (2015). Are sciences essential and humanities elective? Disentangling competing claims for humanities’ research public value. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 14(1), 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022214534081
Pointon, H. (2023 October 09). “Knowledge Exchange has no boundaries”: Harry Pointon’s historical and botanical experience with National Museum for Wales. Transforming and Activating Places programme blog. https://tuostap.blogspot.com/2023/10/knowledge-exchange-has-no-boundaries.html?m=1
Pugsley, K. E., & Clayton, L. H. (2003). Traditional lecture or experiential learning: Changing student attitudes. Journal of Nursing Education, 42(11), 520–523. https://doi.org/10.3928/0148-4834-20031101-11
Quinn, J. (2005). Belonging in a learning community: The re-imagined university and imagined social capital. Studies in the Education of Adults, 37(1), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/02660830.2005.11661504
Salinas, L. (2019). Understanding Knowledge Exchange at University of the Arts London. University of the Arts London. https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/15037/
Sigal, S. (2021). Knowledge Exchange, HEIs and the Arts and Culture Sector: A systematic review of literature in the field. National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange. https://ncace.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Sigal-Sarah-Knowledge-Exchange-HEIs-and-the-Arts-and-Culture-Sector-2.pdf
Susman, G.I. and Evered, R.D. (1978). An Assessment of the Scientific Merits of Action Research. Administrative Science Quarterly, (23), pp. 582-603.
Stone, B. (2012). Art, Autoethnography, and the Use of Self, In T. Stickley (ed,) Qualitative Research in Arts and Mental Health. PCCS., pp. 170-184.
Udall, J., Forrest, D., & Stewart, K. (2015). Locating and building knowledges outside of the academy: Approaches to engaged teaching at the University of Sheffield. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(2), 158–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2014.966237
UKRI (2023). About the Knowledge Exchange Framework. https://kef.ac.uk/about
Ulrichsen, T. C. (2019). Assessing the impacts of student-focused knowledge exchange funding: A technical report for the Office for Students. UCI Policy Evidence Unit. https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/UCI/knowledgehub/documents/2019_Ulrichsen_OfS_KE_evaluation_issues_vFinal.pdf
University of Sheffield Impact and Evaluation Team (TUoS IET). (2023). TAP Student Surveys Report 2020-22 [unpublished report], University of Sheffield.
Yoder, J. D., & Hochevar, C. M. (2005). Encouraging Active Learning Can Improve Students’ Performance on Examinations. Teaching of Psychology, 32(2), 91–95. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top3202_2
Yorke, M. (2011). Work‐engaged learning: Towards a paradigm shift in assessment. Quality in Higher Education, 17(1), 117–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2011.554316
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
