Nurturing learner agency can foster critical citizenship for young adults in a relatively safe environment. The American University in Cairo (AUC) has a mostly Egyptian student body, coming from diverse educational backgrounds: some have experienced schooling which centers around memorization and teacher authority, thus stifling agency and critical thinking. In addition, we are surrounded by a culture and political environment that does the same: an authoritarian government that makes questioning authority and free speech in general risky. This chapter reflects on attempts to create space for learner agency over three years of teaching the course, Digital Identities and Digital Literacies in an Intercultural Context. Four co-authors reflect on these three approaches:
This paper will describe how this approach evolved over time and how learner reactions were observed and listened to. Some of the challenges and how the underlying critical pedagogy values were used to guide the teacher in addressing them are also presented. Included is how the teacher’s own agency as the sole designer and teacher of this course (which is independent of other courses at the university) helped provide flexibility. In addition, the co-authors (students) will reflect on their learning experience (quotes are in italics).
Novice researchers become experienced researchers by developing their skills in varied contexts, typically within higher education institutions as part of their university degrees. This chapter focuses on the novice researcher who progressively develops their research capacities during the process of completing a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy degree) within a higher education institution or university.
Four established areas of research about the education of novice researchers, also known as research training, are examined: 1) the pedagogy of supervision; 2) threshold concepts of PhD candidates; 3) the Researcher Skill Development Framework; and 4) research metaphors. From these fields of research, practical recommendations are extricated to articulate how higher education institutions can promote learner agency, according to heutagogical principles, within the candidate’s doctoral journey.
During this chapter, researchers are viewed as learners and the purpose of the chapter is to explore how the agency of these learner-researchers can be recognised and promoted, in practical terms, within the tertiary education sector.