Student perspectives on scholarship: a contemporary issue in higher education

Abstract

Internationalisation of higher education embodies a pedagogy that is expected to have a grounding in scholarship, in both domestic and overseas environments. The pedagogy has to incorporate a scholarship that includes knowledge about teaching and learning underpinned by the subject discipline and interdisciplinary awareness and relevance to the subject of study. Definitions of scholarship vary and there is limited consensus among and within disciplines.In respect to institutional policy, variation also occurs between scholarship and research, such that there is conflict between the higher education pillars of 'best practice in teaching and learning' and 'research'. Individual positions adopted by academics within disciplines and across institutions affect how scholarship is viewed and practised. Shulman(2004) maintains that 'teaching and consequent student learning are both worthy of scholarly inquiry and absolutely necessary if teachers are to fulfil their professional responsibility to their students'(p.1).