Category Archives: Updates

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Navigating Identity: Learning Strategists and the Tension Between Care and Boundaries

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By Yihang Xu “… even just in the few conversations we’ve had, you’ll notice that there’s almost a departmental identity crisis…” —— Grace, Learning Strategist Grace is right. Through my interviews with learning strategists in the Center for Learning Strategy Support (CLSS) at the University of Toronto (UofT), I’ve noticed an identity crisis among them. … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Neoliberal Implications in the Fragmentation of Student Services through the renamings of Center for Learning Strategy Support (CLSS)

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By Yihang Xu The Center for Learning Strategy Support (CLSS) helps students develop strategies and practices to enhance their learning and study skills. As one of the major units within the Student Life Department at the University of Toronto (UofT), CLSS didn’t always exist in its current form. According to my informant, Eric (a pseudonym), … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Scaling Academic Support Services: Consumerist Implications in Higher Education

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By Yihang Xu The Center for Learning Strategy Support (CLSS) is a major academic support service provider within the University of Toronto (UofT). Its focus is on helping students improve their learning habits and academic outcomes. During my interviews with the learning strategists there, I found that they frequently use the word “scale” to describe … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

The Art of Building Rapport with Professionals

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By Richard Wu One might think that, for the student ethnographic researcher, Student Life offers abundant opportunities for immersive field research. After all, like other students, the student researcher should in principle have equal access to the many opportunities for student engagement and development which Student Life is mandated to provide. Yet, as a student … Continue reading →

Get Trained to be a Good Mentee
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Get Trained to be a Good Mentee

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By Richard Wu How great would it be if someone, perhaps a more senior student, can show you the ropes about how to succeed at U of T? Someone with the right personality, background, and interests who can click with you and provide support and guidance? This might sound great. But how do you get … Continue reading →

The Peer Mentorship Contract
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

The Peer Mentorship Contract

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By Richard Wu Let me tell a story of how “contract” comes to be used in student peer mentorship.  In theory, university students could form stable, mutually beneficial relations to help each other succeed. In such peer mentoring relations, more junior students are mentees who could benefit from the guidance and support of more senior … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

When the Field Says No: Researching Student Life Without Student Voices

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By Molly McGouran How do you conduct research on a university without talking to students?   It is a question that caught me off guard during my fieldwork and, at first, felt incredibly limiting. I had started with what I thought was a clear, straightforward plan: observe, interact, and interview students at the University of Toronto. … Continue reading →

The Price of Support: How The UT3 Program Complicates Academic Aid
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

The Price of Support: How The UT3 Program Complicates Academic Aid

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By Molly McGouran While conducting research into the University of Toronto Tutor Training Program (UT3), I found myself caught in a web of questions and answers that seemed to lead me in circles.  The more fieldwork I did, the more it felt like trying to solve a puzzle where every piece connected to another in … Continue reading →

Resource-Reliant or Resource-Ready? UofT’s Approach to Professionalized Student Tutors
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Resource-Reliant or Resource-Ready? UofT’s Approach to Professionalized Student Tutors

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By Molly McGouran t UofT, being the ideal professionalized student-tutor is about more than just excelling in your studies or helping others with theirs.  The University of Toronto Tutor Training Program (UT3) has a clear vision of what an ideal student-tutor should be: vigilant, honest, ethical, and, above all, well-informed. But what does that actually … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Assessment vs Evaluation

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By Maia de Caro My project concentrates on assessment as an overarching topic and is honing in on the Signature Program Assessments (SPAs), a unit-level assessment mechanism grounded in objectives set out by the Strategic Plan that promotes student success and development. One key insight from my research was the emphasis made by my interlocutors … Continue reading →