The Role of Higher Education in Social Change, Public Policy and Community Collaboration

2000 ◽  
pp. 85-88
Author(s):  
W. J. Blechman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Community Collaboration

What Should the Right to Higher Education Look Like?

2021 ◽  
pp. 187-218
Author(s):  
Christopher Martin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Institutional Practice ◽  
Higher Education Systems ◽  
The Right

This chapter addresses some key objections to the right to higher education and provides a fuller picture of what this right can look like at the level of public policy and institutional practice. First, the chapter revisits the broader rationale for the argument in order to show how a rights-based conception of can better inform public debate about the justice, fairness, and purposes of higher education. Second, it applies this account to Martin Trow’s famous conceptualization of higher education systems into “elite,” “mass,” and “universal” stages of growth and development in order to demonstrate how the right to higher education can inform higher education policy. Finally, it addresses the worry that the right to higher education overstates the importance of post-compulsory education for a liberal society. Here the chapter engages with issues about the role of higher education in the promotion of human welfare and the level of “idealization” built into the argument.

scholarly journals A theory of public wellbeing

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Basic Functions ◽  
Policy Proposals

Abstract Background Wellbeing is seen as a matter of concern for governments and public policy. However, current theories on wellbeing are not well placed to inform this concern, because they fail to take account of and explain evidence on social determinants of mental health. Discussion This article proposes a new theory of public wellbeing which does takes account of such evidence, by explaining the role of stress within three basic functions of social cognition. Building on this description, the article then proposes that wellbeing consists in seven basic abilities, which are always developed and exercised (or not) through constant processes of interaction between individual and environment. The article explains why contemporary theories on wellbeing are poorly placed to inform public policy for wellbeing. It also positions the proposed theory in relation to evidence on social determinants of health (SDH) and the associated public policy agenda. It is argued the proposed theory of wellbeing extends on and challenges the SDH policy agenda in relation to the normative target of policy proposals, factors identified as determinants, impacts of determinants on populations, and proposals for political and social change. Conclusion Improved theory on public wellbeing can inform policy for wellbeing because it explains the contingent nature of wellbeing within contemporary social environments, and extends understanding of social determinants of wellbeing.

scholarly journals Teaching Grenfell: The Role of Emotions in Teaching and Learning for Social Change

Sociology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 1026-1042
Author(s):  
Laura Connelly ◽  
Remi Joseph-Salisbury
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
The University ◽  
Limit Capacity

Although literature on the role of emotions in teaching and learning is growing, little consideration has been given to the university context, particularly from a sociological perspective. This article draws upon the online survey responses of 24 students who attended sociological classes on the Grenfell Tower fire, to explore the role emotions play in teaching that seeks to politicise learners and agitate for social change. Contributing to understandings of pedagogies of ‘discomfort’ and ‘hope’, we argue that discomforting emotions, when channelled in directions that challenge inequality, have socially transformative potential. Introducing the concept of bounded social change, however, we demonstrate how the neoliberalisation of Higher Education threatens to limit capacity for social change. In so doing, we cast teaching as central to the discipline of sociology and suggest that the creation of positive social change should be the fundamental task of sociological teaching.

scholarly journals Power, Play and Pedagogy through the PowerPoint Performance-Lecture

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-394
Author(s):  
Kai Syng Tan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Higher Order Learning ◽  
Power Play

What could a visual-led approach to the learning and teaching of complex issues look like for a short online synchronous session? Through a playful performance-lecture exploring concepts in diversity, interdisciplinarity and social change entitled What could a neurodiversity-led 2050 look like?, this paper outlines the possibilities of visual-centred approach, using the ubiquitous Microsoft software PowerPoint (or open-sourced equivalents like Google Slides and Prezi). It seeks to contribute to discourses and practices around role of visual approaches in Higher Education (HE) to address ‘difficult’ topics like power and inequality in an engaging manner, and to empower learners as active participants, including those who may be think visually, such as dyslexic learners. Such approaches will be urgent in a reality characterised by profound socio-political injustice highlighted by Black Lives Matter (BLM), and amid a global pandemic, where teaching occurs online, and where learners and teachers alike may be short of time, attention and resources. Highlighting techniques and perspectives from art, film and neurodiversity, it invites the consideration of the PowerPoint performance-lecture as a simple yet engaging and responsive process for higher order learning and creative thinking. A secondary point of the article to call for HE to itself apply a degree of critical and creative thinking about its own position, to use self-knowledge to do better, in order to move forward. It welcomes feedback and challenges, and calls for the creation of yet more playful, innovative, visual-led approaches in the learning and teaching of complex issues in Higher Education.

State Policies and Higher Education Attainment

2014 ◽  
Vol 655 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. McLendon ◽  
Laura W. Perna
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Education Attainment ◽  
Higher Education Attainment ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

This article introduces a collection of empirical work that examines the role of state policy in promoting students’ progression into and through higher education. We provide an overview of U.S. state policy innovations that have occurred in recent years and we identify both the challenges and opportunities associated with studying public policy and higher education attainment in the states. The article concludes by outlining the perspectives of the articles included in this collection and provides a synopsis of each.

scholarly journals Reflexões sobre políticas públicas para a educação em direitos humanos no ensino superior brasileiro

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Daniel De Mello Massimino ◽  
Danielle Anne Pamplona
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
Full Development ◽  
Methodological Standard ◽  
Set Up

More than 50% of residents of Brazilian largest cities agree with the phrase a "good bandit is a dead bandit," but at the same time recognize the universality and relevance of human rights. This apparent paradox can only be unveiled by human rights education (or EDH), which is consolidated as public policy in that its bases its actions in bringing about constitutional principles, assuming a role of extreme importance, not only because of allowing to citizens to have contact with the contents of these DH concepts, but also because they are objectives of education recognized in the Constitution, the full development of the person, his preparation for the exercise of citizenship and his qualification for work such goals only being achieved with an education to enable individuals to understand their own humanity. It intends to explore this public policy by addressing the "policy cycle", which is used as a methodological standard approach, in order to answer the question on how to set up the cycle of public policies for HRE in higher education, and to what extent public policy can contribute to the installation of a new culture of human rights.

Get Up, Stand Up: Teaching Civil Disobedience in the Literature Classroom

PMLA ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 864-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Miles
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Literature Classroom ◽  
Course Work ◽  
Landmark Study

In his presidential address at the 1970 MLA convention, Maynard Mack sounded a warning bell concerning activism and the future of literary studies. Faced with a seemingly endless conflict in Vietnam and a national student body growing polarized in its response to this war, higher education, including language-based pedagogy, was in crisis. Of particular concern to Mack was a growing generational disconnect over the role of activism in the literature classroom. He cited a landmark study in which nearly two-thirds of all professors over the age of thirty maintained that any foray into politics should be avoided, if not altogether prohibited, in formal course work. The younger generation disagreed: two-thirds of them, in fact, felt a moral and pedagogical obligation to use colleges and universities as loci for social change. This ideological divide, Mack predicted, would soon create “a crisis of authority in the offing beside which all current manifestations would look pale” (365).

scholarly journals Expanding the Theoretical Framework in Student Debt Research by Connecting Public Policy Theories to the Student Debt Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 211-219
Author(s):  
Ruth Endam Mbah
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Student Loan ◽  
Student Debt ◽  
Student Loan Debt ◽  
Utilitarian Theory

 Current changes in the economic atmosphere have severely impacted the higher education sector worldwide. Policymakers worldwide are facing the challenge of adjusting tuition and financial aid programs in response to these changing economic times. The shift from federal grants to loans has caused student loans to be a popular means of funding higher education for most low and medium-income families. A result of this, is the increase in student loan default as most college students graduate with unmanageable debts, thus, a rising concern for policymakers. The purpose of this paper is to link four public policy theories (Social Contract Theory, Utilitarian Theory, Theory of Neoliberalism, and Three-Policy Stream Theory) to student loan literature. This is to expand the limited database of public policy theories in student loan debt literature. This theoretical linkage points out the role of policymakers in (1) ensuring the security of lives and the preservation of the property of those who voted them into power (Social Contract Theory); (2) establishing educational policies that ensure the ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’ (Utilitarian Theory); (3) upholding social welfare or a ‘welfare state’ through fiscal and monetary policies to ensure high employment rates for graduates, low inflation and the provision of public goods (Theory of Neoliberalism), and (4) the risk of undermining the growing power of an informal interest group that is made up of millennials saddled with student loan debt (Three-Policy Stream). These theories reiterate the principal role of policymakers in enhancing human capital through affordable education.

scholarly journals Distance Learning in Higher Education

1998 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Berg
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Private Industry ◽  
Virtual University ◽  
The Public ◽  
Learner Centered ◽  
Western Governors University ◽  
Competency Based

The Western Governors University (WGU) and the California Virtual University (CVU) are revealing examples of the complex issues involved in implementing distance learning on the public policy level. Although technology is certainly important, it has masked the fact that the WGU and CVU initiatives mark the rise of learner-centered higher education and the increased role of business in the academy. In comparing and contrasting WGU and CVU, it is clear that the WGU is a more radical proposition because of competency-based credit and the connection with private industry. Two important issues driving public policy are raised in these two efforts: First, are the California and Western Governors Association initiatives the product of the commercialization of education or the result of a reform of higher education that may lead to an increased learner-centered orientation? Second, what is the appropriate role of private industry in higher education?

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