Supplemental Instruction and Student Engagement in Higher Education: Reconceptualizing Engagement as a Process of Co-Creation

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) invest copious amounts of resources into developing pedagogical initiatives with the goal of engaging students. Yet HEIs have tended to overlook students themselves as valuable potential partners in this pursuit. This study presents a theoretical and empirical examination of the phenomenon of engagement within the context of an alternative academic support program: Supplemental Instruction (SI). The SI model proactively targets the issue of disengagement among students (rather than reactively targeting at-risk students) by engaging peer-leaders in supporting fellow students through historically difficult courses. While engagement continues to enjoy a high profile in higher education, recent research has called for a reconceptualization that moves beyond mainstream approaches to engagement. Drawing from diverse theoretical approaches (e.g., traditional education, psychology, student voice), I conduct an in-depth qualitative investigation of engagement. Following the student voice and co-created learning research of Bovill and colleagues (2011; 2016) as a guiding framework, I present a new conceptual model of engagement grounded in the perceptions and experiences of students and educators involved in a well-established SI program at a Canadian university. I advance an alternative conceptualization of engagement as a co-created process of engaging students, educators and institutions in deconstructing and rebuilding educational norms, values and practices. The paper concludes with recommendations regarding the SI model’s utility to enhance engagement in higher education and the broader implications of adopting a co-created engagement model within the mainstream education system.