(Not) Mattering in Higher Education Workshop
During her visit to the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education, Professor Jacqueline Stevenson will be delivering a small workshop around the topic of (Not) Mattering in Higher Education.
The workshop will be based around her paper that draws on narrative interviews with refugees and other forced migrants studying in UK higher education to explore how the embodied, subjective and affective practices of higher education (Burke, 2012) can enhance or work against students’ sense of mattering.
The student accounts were analysed by paying attention to the four elements fundamental to developing and sustaining a sense of mattering:
- how much attention was paid to them by others;
- whether they felt important to, or cared for, by those around them;
- the extent to which they considered that others depended or relied on them and
- the appreciation they felt was given to them for their efforts (Rosenberg and McCullough, 1981; Schlossberg, 1989).
The students’ stories draw attention to how the small-scale, local, often seemingly casual, micro-practices of higher education can have significant positive or negative implications and intensify students’ feelings of mattering or not to those around them.
There are limited spaces to participate in this hands on workshop that will also touch on the refugee mentoring scheme that Professor Stevenson is developing, so register your spot now.
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.