Including Student-Voice for Social Justice in Chinese Higher Education Classrooms: Possibilities, Dilemmas, and Challenges of Practicing a Student-Led Pedagogical Method

• In Event: Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual iPresentation Only: SIG-Critical Educators for Social Justice Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

Recent trends saw initiatives to make Chinese classrooms more student-centred, but this process has been slow and challenging as different, even opposing pedagogical values and epistemological traditions collide. Drawing on interviews with a non-Chinese international lecturer who initiated the student voice for social justice (SVSJ) pedagogy in her classrooms and her students at a Chinese university, we explore how the lecturer and her students understand and practice this pedagogical method. In agreement with the lecturer, most students welcome this pedagogical innovation as a chance for self-growth and empowerment and forms of knowledge are diversified in the classroom. However, different notions and expectations of student voice and participation among the lecturer and students still create dilemmas and challenges.

Authors

• Ji Ying, Education University of Hong Kong

• Carla Briffett-Aktaş, Xi'an Jiaotong University