CHAPTER 5: A Case for Enhancing Student Engagement: Crossing the Boundaries as Pedagogical Partners—Not Adversaries

I started Section 1 with a first-chapter introduction written as “me-search.” I begin this last chapter in Section 1 introducing some “re-search.” This research supports my contention that crossover pedagogy may, in fact, be the most effective way to teach in higher education. The case I have tried to make so far is that students’ real-world learning crosses over the artificial in- and out-of-classroom boundaries that we professors create as a function of our particular on-campus roles and functions. We enclose ourselves in academic departments, and we do all our teaching, writing, and holding office hours in these traditionally confined spaces. However, some scholars who study student learning and engagement (Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, & Whitt, 2005) argue that students are more engaged and successful in the learning process when their campus environments support more permeable boundaries between classroom, cocurriculum, and larger-campus community. Furthermore, campuses that foster very high student engagement are the ones where faculty and student affairs see themselves as partners, rather than adversaries, in the effort to promote student learning. (I appreciate the help of one of my past coauthors and a student affairs vice-president, Michele C. Murray, for her background research on the topic of student engagement and her important contribution to the next few sections).