Abstract

Within Higher Education settings there has been an ever-growing emphasis on embedded employability within the curriculum (Noonan, 2015). The move to online teaching and learning during the pandemic, and the subsequent adoption of hybrid learning, has resulted in many students attending campus to timetabled classes. This reveals barriers to engaging students outside of formal teaching spaces (in-progress, Podd, 2022/23), and has further ramifications upon widening participation, recruitment, retention, continuation, and attainment. This presentation explores Sociology NORTH, a project co-founded with students in September 2021.

The project emerged through Sociology students’ frustration about social inequalities in society and wanting to put their learning into action. Working collectively, Sociology NORTH has cultivated a ‘space’ for dialogue (Freire, 1998), with a strong emphasis on transformation and social reform (Savin-Baden, 2014). Lead members of Sociology NORTH will reflect upon why they became involved in Sociology NORTH, and how the project is managed and structured, whilst highlighting the personal benefits and wider impact of the project. This presentation demonstrates how developing respectful, reflective, and critical spaces with a focus on ‘action’, outside of teaching and learning, can be fostered with a view to empowering and enhancing student involvement (Harvey, 2003).