Collaborative online international learning as a postdigital connected, embodied, relational & (socio)material Third Space: female voices

In this paper, we share interim insights that emerged from Female Voices in the Third Space: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in South–North Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), a project co-funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. Drawing on data generated through interviews conducted with female participants across universities in four different continents, we reviewed the relevance and appropriateness of named values and capitals we previously presented in a model of South–North COIL. Using a three-phase hybrid concept analysis methodology (theory, fieldwork and analysis), we discuss how student female voices have articulated attributes of their engagement in COIL to further explicate the relevance of the values and capitals identified and emerging. Our analysis pushes beyond normative and universal conceptualisations of learning spaces in HE in relation to the potential of COIL as a postdigital Third Space as (1) connected (providing inclusive and adaptive environments in which learning can take place), (2) embodied (shaped by the physical and virtual (inter)actions of individuals and groups), (3) relational (as realised through meaningful (inter)relationships that foster mattering, belonging, wellbeing, and community, amidst different cultures and contexts), and (4) (socio)material (as mutually shaped by technology and contexts which are mediated by educators and learners).