This article suggests that student engagement research is not often investigated critically. It attempts to change this. After briefly outlining a conceptual framework for student engagement, it explores three critical questions about it. First, it asks whether in trying to be all things in teaching and learning, student engagement focuses too…

This paper questions current policy discourses that equate student success with hard outcomes like retention, completion and employment. It offers another view, one that uses "soft" outcomes and student engagement literature to widen our understanding of student success. In the paper, we first draw on literature to explore student engagement,…

The research literature on student retention is voluminous and longstanding. However, a unified theory of retention remains elusive; instead a variety of explanations and approaches have been developed. This article uses two discourses, "integration" and "adaptation," to make sense of the findings from a survey of teachers who taught students…

Discusses a project which explored more appropriate technological options for distance education with Maori than printed study guides and the Internet. Describes the theoretical base that underpins the project; develops a model for working cross-culturally in distance education; and provides a rationale for the use of an "intermediate" video…