Cristina Costa

Durham University | DU · School of Education

In his quest to transcend a set of interconnected dichotomies — structure-agency, subjectivism/objectivism, theory/practice — Pierre Bourdieu created a set of thinking tools that allowed him to explore different sociological phenomena, phenomena such as educational inequality cultural reproduction, social positioning and mobility, class and distinc...

Bourdieu’s career long endeavour was to devise both theoretical and methodological tools that could apprehend and explain the social world and its mechanisms of cultural (re)production and related forms of domination. Amongst the several key concepts developed by Bourdieu, habitus has gained prominence as both a research lens and a research instrum...

Family is widely regarded as a cornerstone of student support. When family support exist as an essential form of social capital making, rupture of family ties places students in a disadvantageous position. This paper focuses on estranged students’ accounts of their experiences of higher education, highlighting how capital dynamics shape their acade...

While investigation on family estrangement is growing within academic circles, research regarding the interconnection between experiences of estrangement and higher education (HE) is still limited. Sociological understandings of these issues are even scarcer, with policy interventions and practical guidance forming early interventions in HE. Set wi...

Could COVID-19 be a step backwards for digital education? https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220315095053878

Costa, Cristina and Li, Huaping (2022) 'The Online Response of Higher Education to the Pandemic: A Snapshot of International Students’ Experiences in the UK.', Project Report. School of Education, Durham University, Durham.

Social Theory and the Politics of Higher Education brings together an international group of scholars who shine a theoretical light on the politics of academic life and higher education. The book covers three key areas: Institutional governance, with a specific focus on issues such as measurement, surveillance, accountability, regulation, performan...

Social Theory and the Politics of Higher Education brings together an international group of scholars who shine a theoretical light on the politics of academic life and higher education. The book covers three key areas: Institutional governance, with a specific focus on issues such as measurement, surveillance, accountability, regulation, performan...

Social Theory and the Politics of Higher Education brings together an international group of scholars who shine a theoretical light on the politics of academic life and higher education. The book covers three key areas: Institutional governance, with a specific focus on issues such as measurement, surveillance, accountability, regulation, performa...

This paper reports on how varied study abroad experiences transformed understanding of difference of student-teachers from two universities. Data were collected through a qualitative questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with 14 Chinese and Scottish student-teachers who presented what they had experienced and how they had made sense of diffe...

A pesquisa tem como objetivo identificar os desafios da carreira docente universitária apontados por professores formadores. A abordagem é qualitativa e os dados foram coletados por meio de questionário com trinta e seis (36) professores que lecionam em cursos de licenciatura de uma universidade estadual do Paraná. Contou-se com a análise textual d...

This paper considers the social significance of digital technologies in older adults’ lives by exploring the impact the web has on their lived experiences. The study of digital literacies and digital cultures is mostly focused on youth, thus paying limited attention to older adults’ engagement with the web. With this paper, we aim to contribute to...

This is a special issue of Technology, Pedagogy and Education which showcases the application of a range of theories in the conceptualisation and analysis of educational technology. In this introduction we describe what led us to organise this issue, we stress the importance of theorising and we introduce the contributions that appear later. Why di...

Time and Space in the Neoliberal University offers new interdisciplinary analyses of borders, boundaries, blockages and im/mobilities in higher education, and how these might be identified, inhabited, resisted, and re-worked. The collection is concerned with the future of higher education, and what alternative academic futures can be claimed amidst...

Call for chapter submissions for a new edited collection, entitled: Social theory, digital education and the Global South: Critical perspectives. Edited by Cristina Costa (University of the West of England, UK) and Ana Lucia Pereira (State University of Ponta Grossa, Brazil). Proposals for chapter contributions, in the form of a 400 words abstrac...

Proposals for chapter contributions, in the form of a 400 word abstract, are requested (deadline: June 30, 2019). The chapter abstract must clearly detail:  The focus of the research and the specific research question/aim.  The social theory/ies and/or theorist(s) drawn upon for the conceptualisation of the research problem as well as how social...

Media and communication practices are of core importance to the intent of a European knowledge society that thrives to be competitive and aims to be inclusive. Media and communication policies at the European level date back from the 1970s with the introduction of legislation for radio and television broadcast between member states. Since then and...

This book offers new interdisciplinary analyses of borders and blockages in higher education and how they can be inhabited and reworked. Amidst stratified inequalities of race, gender, class and sexuality, across time and space, contributors explore what alternative academic futures can be claimed. While higher education institutions are increasing...

This paper focuses on learning practices in higher education in relation to a digital participatory culture. Using key principles of critical education, the research set out to explore higher education students’ sense of agency online – or lack of it –as part of their formal learning practices. The research found that although students were profici...

Intellectual life in countries such as the UK and elsewhere is currently framed by a seeming contradiction. On the one hand, notions of engagement and knowledge transfer have taken centre stage in higher education institutions in their desire to create impact with the general public and non-academic institutions. But on the other hand, these societ...

This chapter focuses on the felt perceptions of academics engaged in digital scholarship activities, as forms of academic contributions. In so doing, it explores if and how such practices are redefining both the meaning of academia and what it feels to be (an) academic. The notion of the World Wide Web as a source of information production and diss...

O artigo “Um modelo para as conexões entre currículo e avaliação da aprendizagem” busca identificar conexões entre currículo e avaliação como campos educacionais cujas teorias e paradigmas possuem influências comuns quando analisados a partir de seus enfoques. A partir de um estudo bibliográfico sobre os conceitos e concepções acerca das temáticas...

This paper reports on the design and delivery of classroom pedagogies and students’ engagement with it in two different UK universities. Under the banner of curriculum design and Bourdieu's curriculum principles, the study set out to create modules that provided students with an interdisciplinary perspective on how the web is changing the way citiz...

This collection brings together for the first time a set of researchers whose research methodologies centre on Bourdieu's concept of habitus. Full of insight and innovation, the book is an essential read for anyone wanting to know more about approaches to social theory and its application in research. One of its core objectives is to assist social...

The pervasiveness of digital technologies in society is transforming day-to-day routines by questioning the norms of the workplace with new forms of communication and dissemination of information. Academia, as a space of social (inter)actions, is starting to be challenged by the affordances the web provides and which in return stimulate new approac...

The field of academia is frequently associated with traditional norms that aim to regulate scholarly activity, especially research. The social web, as another field, is often viewed as challenging long-established conventions with novel knowledge production practices. Hence, the two fields seem to oppose rather than complement each other. Using a B...

Recent developments in digital scholarship point out that academic practices supported by technologies may not only be transformed through the obvious process of digitization, but also renovated through distributed knowledge networks that digital technologies enable, and the practices of openness that such networks develop. Yet, this apparent freed...

This article concerns the Participatory Web and the impact it has on academic researchers' perceptions of digital scholarship practices. The ParticipatoryWeb, as a space of active involvement, presence and socialisation of knowledge, has the potential to introduce significant changes to scholarly practice and to diversify it. This article draws on...

Aim This paper is a report of a study of the quality of information that is available on the World Wide Web around the topic of assisted dying by sampling information from a number of web pages about assisted dying with a view to evaluating the nature, content and rigour of the information they contain. Background The Internet is seen as one of th...

This theoretically focused and discursive paper explores the role that participatory media can play in the field of nursing research and subsequent knowledge dissemination. Being able to gather information, sieve through it, access the latest developments in the field, and produce new information is a core part of the academic researcher’s role. Mo...

In recent years, the concept of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) as a structure to support personal learning has become more and more widespread. A Personal Learning Network refers to the network of people a self-directed learner connects with for the specific purpose of supporting their learning. An effective use of PLNs as learning resources dep...

This paper aims to analyse the meanings of the stories submitted to the project through the concepts of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) and Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), as both notions seem to be present, and often intertwine, in the collected narratives. This paper will start by providing an overview of the concepts of Personal Learnin...

The emergence of the Web as a dynamic, user-centered platform for interaction and congregation of social capital has been said to impact different levels in our society (Ferlander, 2003; Rheingold, 2000; Wellman, 2001). It is changing some of the fundamental aspects of how people connect, interact, share, and work (Attwell, 2007; Cross, 2007), and...

The PLE represents a shift in paradigm. It is impelling a new 'learning movement' away from the traditional models of teaching and learning towards an open learning model in which learners adopt their own strategies for learning. The PLE philosophy suggests great potential in allowing educators to implement new ideas regarding how educational conte...

Teacher professional development (TPD) is no longer synonymous with acquiring new teaching techniques; it is rather about engaging with new forms of learning, reflected in the practice of teaching. With the participatory web, new opportunities for TPD have been created. Learning within a wider community is now a possibility for those interested in...

The rise of social software, often termed Web 2.0, has resulted in heightened awareness of the opportunities for creative and innovative approaches to learning that are afforded by network technologies. Social software platforms and social networking technologies have become part of the learning landscape both for those who learn formally within in...

Teacher professional development is no longer synonymous with acquiring new teaching techniques, it is rather about starting new processes as to engage with new forms of learning, reflected in the practice of teaching. With easy access to the panoply of online communications tools, new opportunities for further development have been enabled. Learni...

The popularity of microblogging, with special emphasis on twitter, the most famous application of the kind, is growing rapidly. This kind of tools for micro-exchange of information and communication is changing the daily life of knowledgeable worker as well as Internet savvy people. From this perspective this paper aims to show how Twitter can be u...

Young learners of today tend to show little enthusiasm for formal schooling. This does not necessarily mean pupils are not interested in learning or developing new skills and competences. In fact, the opposite often happens in the informal settings they belong to. Finding ways of transferring pupil's informal learning into the school setting is the...

Any possible discontinuities looking forward to 2025 and beyond Uncertainties and any big tensions Conclusions on what the key issues will be in the future and initial reflections on any general implications for education. Given the wide ranging nature of the brief, this paper largely confines itself to trends and issues in the advanced Western eco...

The rise of social software, often termed Web 2.0, has resulted in heightened awareness of the opportunities for creative and innovative approaches to learning that are afforded by network technologies. 21st century learning demands new pedagogies, where the role of the tutor shifts from being the sole provider of knowledge to that of a guide, or m...

Microblogging is the latest variant of blogging which allows users to post very short messages. Due to its ease interface, the possibility of directly addressing other users, and several surrounding services microblogging becomes more and more used in scientific conferences as main back-channel. This paper discusses microblogging with Twitter as ma...

In this article, we are going to describe the process of curriculum development within a community of practice online consisting mainly of teachers of English as a foreign language – the Webheads in Action (WiA). This article focuses on the themes of flexible and constructivist curriculum, of communities of practice online and of teachers training....

Com este artigo pretendemos descrever o processo de construção do currículo no interior de uma comunidade de prática online constituída maioritariamente por professores de língua inglesa como língua estrangeira ¿ os Webheads in Action (WiA). Centrais neste artigo são as temáticas do currículo flexível e construtivista, das comunidades de prática on...

Rajagopal, K., & Costa, C. (2011). Networking to Learn & Learning to Network: Skills, Values and Technology. In Proceedings of The PLE Conference 2011. July, 10-12, 2011, Southampton, UK.