Transformative Learning Support Models in Higher Education: Educating the Whole Student

Citation

Herring, J. (2010), "Transformative Learning Support Models in Higher Education: Educating the Whole Student", Library Review, Vol. 59 No. 2, pp. 137-138. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531011023916

In the first chapter of this book, Les Watson argues that in recent years, support services in universities (libraries, IT, student services) “have been thinking too much about what's good for the university and forgetting what it's like to be a student”. This sums up the key theme of this very readable and insightful book which focuses on ways in which support services can provide for the multifaceted needs of students. In healthcare, there has been emphasis on the whole patient and trying to coordinate the work of a range of professionals. The ambitious subtitle of this book “educating the whole student” is a catchy phrase and a worthwhile aim but given the potential educational, social, psychological and economic needs of today's university students, it may raise expectations which cannot be met.

The contributors to the book are “librarians, student affairs professionals, IT and learning technologists, educators and researchers” and the book may well be unique in bringing together this cooperating, but sometimes competing, range of professionals. One of the strengths of the book is to emphasise the cooperative elements and to seek ways in which a range of services are not seen as competing. Roberts and Stewart, in a chapter on “the holistic university”, argue that bringing services together does not just mean the physical merging of departments but viewing “convergence as a valuable philosophical concept to define the bringing together of different practices and perspectives across a university”.

One of the interesting aspects of this book for librarians in particular is the “poor relation” view taken by different university services. Higher education librarians (like their school, public and special library colleagues) often complain about being marginalised within the educational context and one of the revelations of this book is that other services, such as the student services case study outlined by Stephenson, also view themselves as poor relations e.g. with Stephenson quoting a fellow student services head as liking student services staff to children with their noses up against the sweetie shop window, “wondering how to get at the sweets, how to demonstrate that student support [… ]. Is as important as teaching and research”. Sound familiar?

One of the strengths of this book is the inclusion of case studies in almost all of the chapters, exposing the reader to real world accounts of learning spaces, flexible delivery, learning environments, extending participation, integration and practitioner research. The case studies are well written and, unlike some case studies in books of this kind, are not merely descriptive but present the philosophy behind what the authors are trying to achieve. From this reviewer's point of view, the encouragement for higher education librarians to see themselves as potential practitioner researchers, and to view research not as something that only academics are involved in, but as something which can add value to the services provided in the university, is praiseworthy.

Overall, this is a book which higher education librarians should find very useful and it could also form the basis of staff training i.e. making all higher education library staff more aware of the concept of convergence but also, via the case studies, of the views of other student services and the issues they face, which are very similar to those faced by higher education libraries. This is also a very useful book for academics and students in the field of librarianship and education and the publishers would do well to market this book outside the library field.