For those interested in the motivations, ambitions, health, well-being, costs, constraints and transition challenges overcome by first-in-family students, a short collection by King, Luzeckyj and McCann (2019) is now available. Based on two separate but related research studies, it provides insights into the approaches taken by these pioneering students. Available online from Flinders Library.

King, S., Luzeckyj, A., & McCann, B. (2019). The Experience of Being First-in-family at University: Pioneers in Higher Education. Springer, Online, doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0921-6

Sarah O’Shea’s latest publication is also related to first-in-family students and considers the navigation into and through university as boundary crossing. It uses metaphors based on student stories linked to the behaviours they adopted in order to persist with their studies.

Sarah O’Shea (2020) Crossing boundaries: rethinking the ways that first-in-family students navigate ‘barriers’ to higher education, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41:1, 95-110, DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2019.1668746

The latest edited volume of the Higher Education Research & Development journal has an overarching focus on “the unwelcome impact of neoliberal approaches to higher education as a transaction” while it explores the ways in which academics struggle to balance “their teaching and research passions with performativity expectations of institutional executive leadership teams alongside various requirements of government and policy” (Blackley, Luzeckyj & King 2020, p 1). The volume gives insight into the global condition of higher education and includes a number of articles covering topics such as historical views on neo-liberalism in higher education, considerations of higher education from colonial perspectives in both South Africa and Canada, models of staff and student partnerships and learning about teaching scholarship through the use of metaphor. With eleven articles in total, this edition covers a wide range of interests. Other papers include explorations of learning spaces, learning analytics, theological research and academic capitalism. To read more about the volume or any of these articles visit:

Blackley, S., Luzeckyj, A., & King, S. (2020). Re-valuing higher education: learning(s) and teaching(s) in contested spaces. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(1), 1-12, doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1689604

Contributed by Ann Luzeckyj