scholarly journals The climate emergency in higher education: working together to meet the challenge of student activism

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain David Cross ◽  
Alina Congreve

This conference reflection explores the themes raised by participants in the authors’ interactive workshop at the SHIFT 2021 conference. The workshop focused on how universities are responding to the climate emergency through innovative teaching practices.

Author(s):  
Markus M Bugge ◽  
Fazilat Siddiq

Abstract In the literature on mission-oriented innovation supply side and tech-oriented approaches have been complemented by broader and more inclusive societal approaches. Here, it is highlighted that both directionality and broad anchoring of diverse stakeholders across private, public, and civic domains are key to successful implementation. Still, it is unclear how these dimensions relate and unfold in practice. Using digital literacy in education as an example of mission-oriented innovation, this paper investigates what prerequisites and capabilities are needed to envision and govern such processes. Based upon a case study of innovative teaching practices in twenty-five classes at ten primary schools in Norway, the paper finds that the motivation, dedication, and engagement of the teachers is not primarily related to the digital technologies themselves, but to the professional and pedagogical anchoring of the digital teaching tools. The mobilization of the professionalism of the teachers is enabled by a process of balanced empowerment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 612-622
Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano

The twenty-first century has seen a surge in scholarship on Latino educational history and a new nonbinary umbrella term, Latinx, that a younger generation prefers. Many of historian Victoria-María MacDonald's astute observations in 2001 presaged the growth of the field. Focus has increased on Spanish-surnamed teachers and discussions have grown about the Latino experience in higher education, especially around student activism on campus. Great strides are being made in studying the history of Spanish-speaking regions with long ties to the United States, either as colonies or as sites of large-scale immigration, including Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines. Historical inquiry into the place of Latinos in the US educational system has also developed in ways that MacDonald did not anticipate. The growth of the comparative race and ethnicity field in and of itself has encouraged cross-ethnic and cross-racial studies, which often also tie together larger themes of colonialism, language instruction, legal cases, and civil rights or activism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose M Cole ◽  
Walter F Heinecke

Contemporary college student activism has been particularly visible and effective in the past few years at US institutions of higher education and is projected only to grow in future years. Almost all of these protests and demands, while explicitly linked to social and racial justice, are sites of resistance to the neoliberalization of the academy. These activists are imagining a post-neoliberal society, and are building their demands around these potential new social imaginaries. Based on a discourse analysis of contemporary college student activist demands, to examine more closely the ways that student activists understand, resist, critique, and offer new alternatives to current (neoliberal) structures in higher education, it is suggested that student activists might be one key to understanding what’s next for higher education in a post-neoliberal context. The activists’ critiques of the structure of higher education reveal a sophisticated understanding of the current socio-political, cultural, and economic realities. Their demands show an optimistic, creative imagination that could serve educators well as we grapple with our first steps down a new road. Using their critiques and demands as a jumping-off point, this paper offers the blueprint for a new social imaginary in higher education, one that is focused on community and justice.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katerina Kedraka ◽  
Georgia Rotidi

The aim of this paper is to highlight University Pedagogy as a field that focuses on academics’ teaching role in Greek higher education. EU has recognized the need of improvement of the teaching skills of academics and urges the member states to recognize them as an important element of their professional profile. Only recently academics in Greece have launched the debate on innovative teaching and learning methods and practices. A Symposium that took place in 2016 and a significant empirical research are presented, because they are considered to mark the beginning of an emerging university culture, which incorporates the concern on teaching and learning excellence within higher education approaches in our country. The results of these initiatives indicate that critical self-reflection on teaching can lead to the transformation and to the adoption of alternative teaching practices, since the critically reflective process is a crucial point for the enhancement of an academic’s pedagogical, curricular and instructional knowledge.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-188
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Asiedu-Acquah

This paper looks at student political activism in Ghana in the late 1950s and 1960s. Using Ghanaian and British archives, it examines how students of Ghana’s universities politically engaged with the government of Kwame Nkrumah and his ruling Convention People’s Party (CPP). Student activism manifested most in the conflict between the Nkrumah government, on one hand, and university authorities and students, on the other hand, over the purpose of higher education, university autonomy, and nationalism. The conflict coalesced around the idea of educated youth as model citizens. Contrary to the denial in existing literature, the paper argues that a nascent student movement and tradition of student political activism had emerged since the late 1950s. University student activism established itself as a fulcrum of the country’s evolving postcolonial political order and a bulwark against governmental authoritarianism. In the larger context of the global 1960s, Ghanaian student activism belonged to the wave of youth protests against governments that favored stability and opposed all dissent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (06) ◽  
pp. 940-960
Author(s):  
Dr. Kendaganna Swamy S ◽  
◽  
Shaila H Kopal ◽  
Sushmitha N ◽  
Shruthi P ◽  
...  

Education is a process that simplifies learning. It should be a continuous process in one’s life to attain success. Over the decades, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have gradually begun to play a very important role in education, with their usage in education is growing worldwide continuously. These methods allow access to information through the internet. In education, ICT is the method of teaching that uses information and communication technology to support, improve and optimize the transfer of information, in turn leading to the invention of smart education. This improves the quality of teaching, the learning process of students and ultimately facilitates e-learning. It is commonly believed that technology can empower educators and students, making substantial contributions to knowledge and achievement. This paper gives an insight into the various tools that help instructors to develop online course content using Learning Management System tools. These tools allow the instructors to conduct online classes from any location using tutor tools and desktop recording tools to record screen output for further use. The instructor can assess the students in their course using assessment tools and can also enhance teaching methods using innovative teaching tools. The paper also throws limelight on the feedback taken by the faculty as well as the students about the usage of various tools in higher education which helps in analyzing the best suitable tools.


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