What’s in a Name? Unpacking Students’ Roles in Higher Education through Neoliberal and Social Justice Lenses

There has been an increase in research and practice exploring how students can gain agency to shape higher education experiences. Numerous terms evoking certain metaphors have entered the discussions around engaging students, from students as consumers or producers, to students as creators, partners, or change agents. There is scope within the evolving literature to explore the differentiations between these metaphors and how underlying assumptions ultimately shape our practices and research. We thus unpack the above five metaphors frequently used to redefine students’ roles in higher education. We then engage in a dialogue across differences: highlighting how our own two distinct perspectives on the research area and practice – grounded in neoliberalism and social justice – align, overlap, differ, and provide constraints or affordances for student engagement. We offer a critical and reflective commentary questioning the drivers of students’ changing roles in higher education in the hope of inviting others into generative dialogue toward expanding the evolving field of student engagement.