Tag Archives: higher-education

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

Working Styles in the University

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By Yunshan Li As a department in a higher education institution, Student Life’s working habit is quite different from that of academia. According to our professor, there is no clear hierarchy of faculty in academia. Of course, some professors are more reputational, but there is no such concept as superior and subordinate. Furthermore, the work handover of faculty is mostly … Continue reading →

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

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 / final papers / Undergraduate Ethnography

The Undocile mind: ‘coping’ with neoliberal education?

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A Final Report by Lukey Lu Imagine you are an undergraduate student now approaching the end of the semester in the University of Toronto. You just finished some term tests and survived through some assignments. You thought you are doing fine — everything is under the control. However, the reality soon slaps your face: you … Continue reading →

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

Empowering Learners, Transforming Institutions:Learning Strategists’ Role in Higher Education 

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A Final Report By Hanisha Mistry Introduction The fluorescent light hummed softly in the temporary office on Bay Street, a functional yet impersonal space where the Centre for Learning Strategy Support (CLSS) had set up during the Koffler Student Centre renovations. Despite its unremarkable setting, the CLSS is defined not by its location but by … Continue reading →

Student Life’s Strategic Plan: an Ethnography of Organizational Culture in Higher Education
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / final papers / Undergraduate Ethnography

Student Life’s Strategic Plan: an Ethnography of Organizational Culture in Higher Education

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Final Report By Daisy Sanchez Villavicencio We have become familiar with the idea that large organizations like Universities are guided by Strategic Plans and produce annual reports. My research in the University of Toronto’s division of Student Life permitted me to examine the practices involved in this production and the rationality or mode of reasoning … Continue reading →

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

Liminality within Higher Education: OISE Master’s Students Experience Contradictory Identities

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By Daisy Sanchez Villavicencio It’s 2:10 pm on a Friday and rather than finding a comfy seat in a lecture hall, I face a panel of rectangular screens with students in varying settings and others’ black/blank. Since the pandemic, I’ve attended countless online lectures and feel myself instinctually take my position as a traceless attendee … Continue reading →

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

“Constructing” Community and Leadership: An Ethnography of Student Clubs and ‘Third Space Professionals’ at UofT

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Final Report By Amani Hassan “Student Life”: A New Profession for a New Institutional Priority  International university ranking systems have increasingly shaped how institutions like the University of Toronto structure their priorities. Following an observed influence of student input on universities’ global ranking, a new profession emerged in many academic institutions that specifically intends to … Continue reading →

Discourse vs. Practice: Ambiguity in Student Roles at Student Life
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Discourse vs. Practice: Ambiguity in Student Roles at Student Life

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By Angelina Nguyen, Norah Rahman and Richard Wu Our collective fieldwork revealed some ambiguity concerning how student roles are portrayed in Student Life (SL) discourse and how they work out in practice. Below we discuss student roles as labourers, consumers, and advisors.  Student as workers: SL employs hundreds of work-study students and spends over a … Continue reading →