We warmly welcome our readers to New Vistas’ 2023 summer issue. A lot has happened behind the scenes at the journal, and we would like to take the opportunity to share some of these exciting developments.
Starting from humble beginnings, New Vistas is now indexed in several international abstract and citation databases, including the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Our articles are thus now reaching an even wider national and international audience, amplifying the potential for our published research to have a real-world impact. As we celebrate the journal’s ninth birthday, New Vistas remains committed to providing a forum for research, commentary, and scholarly work that engages with the complex agenda of higher education in its local, national and global context. At the heart of the journal lies the recognition of the crucial role that higher education plays in shaping society, as well as the importance of educational and discipline-focused research in driving innovation and progress. We believe that the articles in this current issue continue to build on this tradition, and we are excited to share them with you.
The first set of articles explores current issues within the UK’s higher education sector, starting with Maya Flax , who draws on her own experiences as an educator in Criminology, in order to identify classroom strategies that could enhance teaching excellence and student success. Her insightful work explores how to overcome the challenges of theory-focused learning content, and how to build rapport with the students, thus creating a space for building personal connections. Viktoria Mange, Rebecca Mace and Sharon Vince ‘s article focuses on improving students’ feedback literacy, proposing a reflective dialogue with academic staff in a structured environment that can increase student engagement with feedback. Looking at Educational Technology as a means to extend, enhance and explore the accessibility of learning content and helps in enhancing student experience, Alison Hawkings’ article proposes podcasting as a promising complimentary method for educators to flip the classroom and support student participation. Building on Hawkings’ submission, Dennis Olsen interviews Professor Jeremy Strong to discuss and trace the development of Strong’s own podcast series The Joy of Guests .
The final two articles showcase the strength of disciplinary research at the University of West London, with Zsofia Nagy and Caroline Lafarge reporting on the results of their cross-sectional study into factors predicting birth satisfaction in Hungary, and providing some important insight into this under-researched topic. Finally, Martyna Lipińska and Rosemary Stock shine a spotlight on the influence of Hollywood fiction on viewer attitudes towards transgender people, revealing the importance of more thoughtful transgender storylines and portrayals in films and TV series.
We hope that this issue of New Vistas will continue to inspire, challenge, and inform colleagues and readers around the UK and beyond. We thank all of our contributors for their insightful articles and are looking forward to receiving new and innovative research in due course for our next issue.
Dr Dennis Olsen and Dr Dinusha Weerawardane
New Vistas Editors