Researching Student Learning in Higher Education: A social realist approach (Research into Higher Education) - Softcover

"There is much to be commended in this book and much to learn from it. In terms of audience, it is suitable for a wide range: established education researchers restless with their present theoretical frameworks and the questions they ask; post graduate and doctoral students starting out on Critical and Social Realist research, and anyone keen to engage more critically with what lies ‘beneath’ that which we take for granted. Besides the strength of a coherent argument and the logic of the structure which informs it, it is perhaps Case’s capacity to ‘walk the talk’ of theory and simultaneously integrate its application, that make this book the enlightening and valuable read it is." – Carol Thompson, Higher Education

Many contemporary concerns in higher education focus on the student experience of learning.With a larger and much more diverse intake than ever before, linked with a declining unit of resource, questions are being asked afresh around the purposes of higher education. Although much of the debate is currently focused on issues of student access and success, a simple input-output model of higher education is insufficient.

This book turns this conversation on its head, by inserting a full consideration of student agency into the context of higher education.Working sociologically, it explores the influence of the social context on what the individual student achieves. The theoretical tenets of a social realist approach are laid out in detail in the book; the potential value of this approach is then illustrated by a case study of student learning in engineering education.Employing Margaret Archer’s social realist theory, an analysis of student narratives is used to work towards a realist understanding of the underlying mechanisms that constrain and enable student success.Building on this analysis, the book develops a novel set of proposals for potential ways forward in improving student learning in higher education.