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Students as epistemological agents: claiming life experience as real knowledge in health professional education

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Abstract

University teachers’ practices of resistance against dominant epistemological norms have been described in recent critical higher education literature, but comparatively little work has explored students’ practices of intellectual resistance and negotiation within the university. As part of a larger study on students’ experiences of study-life overlap in health professional education, this paper examines students’ responses when their knowledge arising from life experience was marginalised. Students used five epistemological strategies to respond to this side-lining of lived knowledge, i.e. building the case that lived knowledge is ‘academic’, switching to institutionally recognisable language, considering epistemological framing when responding to discrimination or assumptions, sustaining friendships as epistemological work and seeking out settings where their lived experience was valued. This paper argues for the need to understand students as active epistemological agents within the university. It adds to existing critical scholarship on staff practices of intellectual resistance by considering students’ practices as part of the academic community.

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Notes

  1. The Māori world

  2. Tribe

  3. The Pākehā world. The term Pākehā refers to New Zealanders of European descent.

  4. Indigenous university

  5. Spirit

  6. Life force

  7. Extended family

  8. Work

  9. Sacred, protected, state of restriction

  10. Ritual to lift tapu and enable a return to normal life

  11. You all

  12. Knowledge

  13. Māori knowledge

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Higher Education Development Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Emma Osborne & Vivienne Anderson

  2. Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Emma Osborne & Bridget Robson

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  1. Emma Osborne
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  2. Vivienne Anderson
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Correspondence to Emma Osborne.

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Osborne, E., Anderson, V. & Robson, B. Students as epistemological agents: claiming life experience as real knowledge in health professional education. High Educ 81, 741–756 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00571-w

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