1. Getting geographical: mapping landscapes of higher education
Dr Kate Carruthers Thomas, Birmingham City University SRHE Network Seminar: In whose interests? Access, participation and progression in a context of changing configurations of HE. Tuesday 23 May 2017

2. ‘the use of mapping as a means of investigating landscapes and changing experiences of HE’
configuration NOUN 1. relative disposition or arrangement 2. external form

3. a map of the world?

5. research context multiple case study 2013-2015
4 English universities (3 post-1992, 1 pre-1992)
25 interviews with staff: (strategic, senior management, teaching, support)
5 workshops, 3 individual interviews (60 mature part- time undergraduates)
research context

6. maps/mapping 3 ways institutional stories
the Mapping Belonging exercise
mapping binaries/diversity
maps/mapping 3 ways

7. institutional stories
embedded in corporate literature
sanctioned messages: ‘stabilising the meaning of particular envelopes of space-time … securing the organisation as a site of authenticity … singular, fixed and unproblematic in its identity’ (Massey 1994, p.5).
part of a positioning process through which universities map and protect distinct locations in a ‘hierarchy of more/less valued HE’ (Bathmaker et al 2008).
also emerged in interviews with senior university staff – offering a coherent, abstracted organisational picture; literally a view from above
strain against changes in the sector; lose currency; organisations outgrow established narratives
too often ‘institutional speech acts … do not go beyond pluralist understandings of diversity and are non-performative in the sense that they fail to deliver what they have promised’ (Ahmed 2006, p.764).
institutional stories

8. spaces open up between rhetoric and experience …
‘I’m absolutely sure there’s stuff that could be done … to create, enhance or strengthen that sense of ‘belonging’ for part-time and mature students …
you may want to shift to accommodate the needs and issues of other groups of students but the logistics and costs are quite difficult’.
It’s been shown its got the greatest impact on retention if students get this sense of belonging but … it may not be something that particularly applies to part- time, mature students who don’t have so much of that sense of I need to feel I am part of this …
spaces open up between rhetoric and experience …
We’re a middle-sized university with a caring community feel – and a vocational focus
 It’s in the lifeblood of this institution to recruit mature and part-time [students], and therefore it has become second nature to us to make sure that we’re set up for them.
 We are a very proud widening participation institution. Lots of part-time students, lots of mature students, quite a high proportion of students with disabilities.

9. the Mapping Belonging exercise
Participant-generated visual materials are particularly helpful in exploring the taken-for-granted things in their research participants’ lives … involves the participants reflecting on their activities in a way that is not usually done; it gives them distance from what they are usually immersed in and allows them to articulate thoughts and feelings that usually remain implicit Rose 2014, p.27
student participants
campus maps/coloured pens
belonging/not belonging (hot/cold spots)
trigger for discussion
on the map? off the map?
the Mapping Belonging exercise

10. limited engagement
ghost towns - safe havens
timing and context
off the map

11. mapping spaces between
diverse landscapes of HE predominantly represented in rigid binaries: pre-/post 1992; Russell Groups/Million +, traditional/non-traditional; mobile/local; young/mature …
normative discourses celebrate certain identities/practices despite diversity of student population and nature of engagement with HE
mapping diversity? paying attention to spatial relationships; how space is inhabited/represented and by whom; mapping ‘spaces between’
mapping spaces between

13. how can mapping be used to investigate the changing landscapes and experiences of HE?
space as ‘social relations shaped by power … the product of interrelations on multiple scales’ (Massey , p11)
to view ‘the university’ as a space of multiple centres experienced in multiple (diverse) ways
to disrupt the powerful singular and make sense of co- existing stories within institutional spaces
to highlight experiences of ‘peripheral actors’ in HE
to conclude…

14. thank you thank you thank you your feedback is very welcome
@kcarrutherst