Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects
Existing ways of understanding the transformative potential of students’ undergraduate experiences either focus solely on the formal educational elements of these experiences or present an overly static picture of students’ intentions in engaging in higher education. In this article we argue that th...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39654/ |
| _version_ | 1848795884186238976 |
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| author | Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica |
| author_facet | Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica |
| author_sort | Ashwin, Paul |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Existing ways of understanding the transformative potential of students’ undergraduate experiences either focus solely on the formal educational elements of these experiences or present an overly static picture of students’ intentions in engaging in higher education. In this article we argue that the notion of ‘personal project’ offers a more flexible way of understanding what students are trying to gain from being at university. Based on a phenomenographic analysis of interviews with 31 students over the three years of their degrees, we examine how sociology students’ accounts of their personal projects develop over the three years of their degree programmes and how these relate to their accounts of their integration into their institutions and the development of their intellectual engagement with their discipline. We argue that students’ accounts of their personal projects are relatively stable over the course of their degrees but do not appear to shape the development of their intellectual engagement with their degree programme. What appears to be more significant is whether or not students understand their time at university as an educational experience. Based on this, we argue that the transformative elements of an undergraduate education lie in students developing their personal projects and intellectual engagement through the educational context that is offered at university. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:39:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-39654 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:39:10Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-396542020-05-04T18:26:01Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39654/ Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica Existing ways of understanding the transformative potential of students’ undergraduate experiences either focus solely on the formal educational elements of these experiences or present an overly static picture of students’ intentions in engaging in higher education. In this article we argue that the notion of ‘personal project’ offers a more flexible way of understanding what students are trying to gain from being at university. Based on a phenomenographic analysis of interviews with 31 students over the three years of their degrees, we examine how sociology students’ accounts of their personal projects develop over the three years of their degree programmes and how these relate to their accounts of their integration into their institutions and the development of their intellectual engagement with their discipline. We argue that students’ accounts of their personal projects are relatively stable over the course of their degrees but do not appear to shape the development of their intellectual engagement with their degree programme. What appears to be more significant is whether or not students understand their time at university as an educational experience. Based on this, we argue that the transformative elements of an undergraduate education lie in students developing their personal projects and intellectual engagement through the educational context that is offered at university. Wiley 2016-12-13 Article PeerReviewed Ashwin, Paul, Abbas, Andrea and McLean, Monica (2016) Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects. British Educational Research Journal, 42 (6). pp. 962-977. ISSN 1469-3518 transformative education phenomenography student purposes and orientations. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3244/abstract doi:10.1002/berj.3244 doi:10.1002/berj.3244 |
| spellingShingle | transformative education phenomenography student purposes and orientations. Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects |
| title | Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects |
| title_full | Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects |
| title_fullStr | Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects |
| title_full_unstemmed | Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects |
| title_short | Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects |
| title_sort | conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students' personal projects |
| topic | transformative education phenomenography student purposes and orientations. |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39654/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39654/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39654/ |