Framing the global higher education learning landscape

In our view, we can only understand learning in higher education and the range of possible outcomes if we situate them within a wider stance, which includes the learners’ biographies (their accumulated past-present experiences, characteristics, and intentions) as positioned within larger geographical, cultural, and historical dimensions (where/when the university is located, what university affordances and constraints influence learning, socio-economic conditions in society, in general). The corollary is that we bring this same broad stance when we review or assess research in learning in higher education. Below, we describe two resonating perspectives, each of which offers slightly different analytic lenses to make sense of this broader environment in a detailed, grounded way. Our hope is that they offer you a concrete way to assess what is focused on and what is overlooked in any study of learning (and teaching) in higher education.