scholarly journals The Role of Higher Education in Developing Policy and Practice for the Development of the New Industrial Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-76
Author(s):  
Rosemary Sage
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Industrial Age

scholarly journals Concern, Conception, and Consequence: Re-thinking the Paradigm of Higher Education in Dangerous Times

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Sterling
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Modern Economy ◽  
Closed World ◽  
Value Shift ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Educational Thinking

Discussion of the role of universities in relation to broad issues of sustainability has been current for some decades, although predominantly at the margins of debate and policy. Yet a recent rapid rise of concern—catalyzed by mounting evidence of climate crisis, biodiversity loss, pandemic disease and further systemic issues -is focusing renewed attention on the adequacy of the response of higher education to unprecedented times of urgency, uncertainty and threat. Whilst it is now widely acknowledged that the fate of the planet and of humanity hangs in the balance, there still remains an astonishing disconnect between pressing signs of global change, and the relatively closed world of higher education. A trend toward greening universities' operations is positive, but fails to engage or galvanize the cultural and value shift toward a holistic and ecological zeitgeist that is now necessary to generate widespread institutional systemic change. This paper delves into deep causal factors that have historically impeded the ability of universities to respond fully and effectively to present and probable future realities, pointing to the foundations of Western thought such as reductionism, objectivism, dualism, individualism, anthropocentrism, rationalism, instrumentalism and technocentrism that shape mainstream education policy and practice, overlain and reinforced in more recent times by neo-liberal conceptions of the purpose of universities in a modern economy. It is argued that these elements of our culturally shared worldview constrain our ability to perceive and respond deeply, fully and wisely to the global predicament, but also maintain destructive patterns of development. Whilst there is increasing acceptance that education must “transform” in order to—in turn—be transformative in effect, there is less clarity about the guiding assumptions and ideas that inform mainstream policy and practice, and about the philosophic value bases that can facilitate transformative educational thinking, policy and practice. A framework of three broad and complementary components of paradigm—Concern, Conception, and Consequence—is employed to outline the shape of the systemic paradigmatic shift that universities need to urgently navigate in order to maximize their ability to respond fully to contemporary socio-economic and ecological conditions and trajectories.

Religion and belief in university teaching and learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-112
Author(s):  
Adam Dinham ◽  
Alp Arat ◽  
Martha Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Cultural Legacy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Role Of Religion

This chapter addresses the role of religion and belief in university teaching and learning. In some subjects, of course, religion is simply a topic of relevance, as in history and in religious studies itself. In others, it is a cultural legacy to be decoded and understood. In others again, it embodies the opposite of the rational, scientific method that predominates in higher education, and in relation to which practically all other disciplines have cut their teeth. As such, it is an utter irrelevance. In some cases, this produces hostility against all religious ideas. This is likely to feel painful for some students, who can feel uncomfortable when hearing lecturers be rude or offensive about their beliefs or about belief in general. In the social sciences, unlike race, gender, or sexual orientation, religion has rarely been a variable. The question of the place of religion and belief in university disciplines was explored in the project Reimagining Religion and Belief for Policy and Practice. The study analysed nine arts, humanities, and social science disciplines, including anthropology, cultural studies, geography, philosophy, religious studies, social policy, social work, sociology, and theology.

Re-thinking aspirations through habitus and capital: The experiences of British-born Bangladeshi women in higher education

Ethnicities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 518-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berenice Scandone
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Female Undergraduate ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Social And Cultural Capital ◽  
Minority Ethnic ◽  
Capacity To Aspire ◽  
Ethnic Origins

Since the turn of the century, young people’s aspirations have featured prominently in UK education policy and practice. Governments of all sides have espoused a rhetoric and enacted initiatives which have tended to focus on somehow ‘correcting’ the aspirations of students of working-class and minority ethnic origins. This paper applies a Bourdieusian framework to the analysis of the education and career aspirations of British-born young women of Bangladeshi heritage in higher education. In doing so, it advances a theoretically informed understanding of aspirations, which accounts for the multiple factors that contribute to shape them as well as for the relative implications in terms of future pathways. Drawing on interviews with 21 female undergraduate students, and building on Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and capital, I conceptualise aspirations as an aspect of habitus. I argue that this conceptualisation allows light to be shed on the ways in which multiple, intersecting dimensions of social identity and social structures play out in the shaping, re-shaping and possibly fading of aspirations. Additionally, it enables us to examine the mutually informing influences of aspirations and capital on practice. Findings indicate that the valuing of education and social mobility expressed by those of Bangladeshi and other minority ethnic origins are integral to collective constructions of ‘what people like us do’, which are grounded in diasporic discourses. They also illuminate the significance of social and cultural capital for young people’s capacity to aspire and actualise aspirations, as these contribute to delineate their ‘horizons for action’. This suggests that by failing to adequately recognise how structural inequalities inform differential access to valued capital, prevailing policy and practitioners’ approaches attribute excessive responsibility to students and their parents. The notion of ‘known routes’ is in this respect put forward as a way to make sense of aspirations, expectations and pathways, and the role of institutions in forging possible futures is highlighted.

Leadership Challenges to Inclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-39
Author(s):  
Vimbi Petrus Mahlangu ◽  
Sithabile Ntombela
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
Architectural Barriers

Higher education institutions have a responsibility to address past and present social inequalities, one of which is the marginalization of people with disabilities in education. The chapter explores and highlights leadership challenges to the inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education (HE). A qualitative approach and interpretive paradigm will be used to review the literature and analyze documents as data generation methods. The chapter will contribute to the debate on the role of leadership in the inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education. Aspects such as the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors are key in understanding the inclusion of students with disabilities in HE. Some of the leadership challenges to the inclusion of students with disabilities, amongst others, include institutional and architectural barriers, leadership strategies, and institutional policies. Policy and practice may serve to obscure the challenges of inclusion.

Conclusion

2013 ◽  
pp. 251-264
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Learning Control ◽  
Conceptions Of Learning ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Support Tools

The chapter begins with a discussion of the value of having adopted an Activity Theory perspective to write this book. It follows with consideration of the role of tradition and beliefs in transforming higher education. The subsequent sections summarize opportunities for expansion which readers may take away from this book as implications for policy and practice. These relate to expansion of conceptions of learning; control; support; tools; and boundaries. The chapter concludes with limitations of this book and of Activity Theory in general.

scholarly journals To what extent is ‘thinking on your feet’/reflection-in-action relevant to the role of Further and Higher Education Examination Invigilators? Implications for examination policy and practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-58
Author(s):  
Mark A Minott
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Reflection In Action

The aim of this small-scale grounded approach qualitative study was to examine the extent to which the skill of ‘thinking on your feet’/reflection-in-action is relevant to the role of Further and Higher Education Examination Invigilators particularly during the phases of an examination where students are present. The importance of this study rested in the fact that there is a paucity of research which examines the role of examination invigilators at the further and higher education levels. Therefore, it aids in filling a literary gap and gives them a ‘voice’ in the research literature. Study participants were six examination invigilators, working in a London Further Education College. Purposeful convenience or opportunity sampling was used in their selection. Interviews and documentary analysis were the research methods used. The main research question was: ‘To what extent is ‘thinking on your feet’/reflection-in-action relevant to the role of Further and Higher Education Examination Invigilators? This also formed the topic for this paper’. The findings revealed the fact examination invigilators have a common understanding of the research term ‘thinking on your feet’/reflection-in-action, and rated it relevant, very relevant and extremely relevant to their role. Relevance was linked to its usefulness i.e., usefulness in various circumstances; decision making; preventing mistakes and uncovering students’ duplicity. The implications of the findings are discussed.

THE ROLE OF A HIGHER EDUCATION DIPLOMA IN THE PROFESSIONAL CAREER OF THE SPECIALIST IN THE FUTURE

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 456-466
Author(s):  
Kateryna Kolesnikova ◽  
Dmytro Lukianov ◽  
Tatyana Olekh
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
The Future

FAITH–BASED COMMUNITIES AND POLITICS IN DULLSTROOM-EMNOTWENI: LOCAL STORIES OF IDENTITY

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Landman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Cultural Conflicts ◽  
Local Identities ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Local Municipality ◽  
The Face

A majority of the black community of Dullstroom-Emnotweni in the Mpumalanga highveld in the east of South Africa trace their descent back to the southern Ndebele of the so-called ‘Mapoch Gronden’, who lost their land in the 1880s to become farm workers on their own land. A hundred years later, in 1980, descendants of the ‘Mapoggers’ settled in the newly built ‘township’ of Dullstroom, called Sakhelwe, finding jobs on the railways or as domestic workers. Oral interviews with the inhabitants of Sakhelwe – a name eventually abandoned in favour of Dullstroom- Emnotweni – testify to histories of transition from landowner to farmworker to unskilled labourer. The stories also highlight cultural conflicts between people of Ndebele, Pedi and Swazi descent and the influence of decades of subordination on local identities. Research projects conducted in this and the wider area of the eMakhazeni Local Municipality reveal the struggle to maintain religious, gender and youth identities in the face of competing political interests. Service delivery, higher education, space for women and the role of faith-based organisations in particular seem to be sites of contestation. Churches and their role in development and transformation, where they compete with political parties and state institutions, are the special focus of this study. They attempt to remain free from party politics, but are nevertheless co-opted into contra-culturing the lack of service delivery, poor standards of higher education and inadequate space for women, which are outside their traditional role of sustaining an oppressed community.

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