Abstract
This chapter seeks to make a contribution to new higher education policy to improve the quality of teaching and learning with specific reference to the United Kingdom government’s Teaching Excellence Framework. This aims to encourage original thinking, drive up engagement and prepare students for the world of work. It also claims to recognise the work done by institutions to welcome students from a range of backgrounds and to support their retention and progression. The significance of the chapter lies in the consideration of the impact of succession planning on equality of opportunity. Mentoring is contextualised within a broader approach to creating a future oriented new course offering an inclusive, supportive teaching and learning environment.
Rawolle and Lingard (Journal of Education Policy 23(6):729–741, 2008) point out that although Bourdieu did not write explicitly about education policy, his concept of social fields can contribute to researching and understanding education policy by conceptualising a national education policy field. They advocate adopting his methodological approach by focussing on education practices in terms of activity and naming (page 730). This chapter considers succession and mentoring practices, activities and naming within the field of higher education in England.
A critical realist case study approach is taken in order to provide pragmatic analysis intended to be useful to educators for course design and planning for succession in higher education. Benefits of pastoral and transition mentoring along with other successful ‘helping’ and ‘enabling’ practices of student services, tutors and student unions are discussed as elements for a succession strategy. The case is about how to design a new undergraduate social sciences degree course in the context of a university in the United Kingdom in such a way that it develops into a sustainable, progressive, supportive learning environment. It draws on evaluations by staff and students of an applied social sciences degree course that is closing due to recruitment numbers, and of a new undergraduate social sciences course designed as its successor, to discuss strategies for succession in higher education.
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Cressey, G. (2019). Learn It and Pass It on: Strategies for Educational Succession. In: Snowden, M., Halsall, J. (eds) Mentorship, Leadership, and Research. International Perspectives on Social Policy, Administration, and Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95447-9_6
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