scholarly journals Exploring reality through new lenses

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Bengt Engan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Strong Position

Can the essay genre used in education and reserarch provide new options for describing reality? This genre has already obtained a strong position in philosophy, in which it has proven to be appraopriate when dealing with “the far too big and the far too small questions”. But what about the essay as a supplement to – or even a replacement for – traditonal descriptions within social science in higher education?

Introduction: The Anthropocene as Context and Concept for the Study of Higher Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
RYAN EVELY GILDERSLEEVE ◽  
KATIE KLEINHESSELINK
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Analytic Tool ◽  
The Social ◽  
Geologic Condition

The Anthropocene has emerged in philosophy and social science as a geologic condition with radical consequence for humankind, and thus, for the social institutions that support it, such as higher education. This essay introduces the special issue by outlining some of the possibilities made available for social/philosophical research about higher education when the Anthropocene is taken seriously as an analytic tool. We provide a patchwork of discussions that attempt to sketch out different ways to consider the Anthropocene as both context and concept for the study of higher education. We conclude the essay with brief introductory remarks about the articles collected for this special issue dedicated to “The Anthropocene and Higher Education.”

Cultivating Global Citizens

2020 ◽  
pp. 492-506
Author(s):  
Jenna Andrews-Swann
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Standpoint Theory ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Global Citizens ◽  
Science Courses

This chapter presents the author's experiences working with international content in the higher education classroom to explore successful examples of intercultural material that can benefit students pursuing a degree in any field. The author explores how social science courses in general, and anthropology courses in particular, that work from a foundation of cultural relativism and standpoint theory can equip students with important knowledge and skills that promote tolerance and respect of cultural difference. Finally, the author demonstrates that students finish courses like these with a better understanding of and appreciation for the cultural differences that exist all around them.

Englishization ‘under the radar’

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Dannerer ◽  
Martina Gaisch ◽  
Ute Smit
Keyword(s):  
Applied Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Research Universities ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Statistical Information ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
Universities Of Applied Sciences ◽  
Strong Position ◽  
Policy Texts

Based on statistical information and policy texts, this chapter provides an overview and evaluation of the use and roles of English in traditional research universities and universities of applied sciences in Austria. While internationalization is interpreted and realized in different ways by different institutions, English functions as a central element. A factor supporting the widely unquestioned use of English might be found in the socio-economically strong position that German still enjoys in business, work-life, and higher education in Europe. This predominance is also noticeable in the utilitarian relevance awarded to both German and English in Austrian higher education, thereby failing to recognize the multi-layered relevance multilingualism could have in implementing internationalization policies that would go beyond Englishization practices.

Reflections on Randall Collins’s sociology of credentialism

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 154 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-65
Author(s):  
Su-ming Khoo
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Job Displacement ◽  
Classic Work ◽  
New Learning ◽  
Systemic Crisis ◽  
Structural Functionalism

This article reflects on Collins’s classic work, The Credential Society (1979), situating his critique of educational credentialism within broader ‘conflict sociology’. The discussion reappraises Collins’s work in the context of the ‘new credentialism’, ‘new learning’ and the race, gender and class concerns raised in current debates on higher education. The article characterizes contemporary higher education as being trapped in a Procrustean dynamic: techno-utopianism with job displacement and expansionism with declining public support. Collins attempts to escape the legacy of structural-functionalism through conflict sociology or predictions of systemic crisis. This is contrasted with his contemporary, Herbert Gintis’s eclectic attempt to construct a transdisciplinary social science. The key problem of marketized inequality is linked to the sociology of absences in conflict sociology, and it is argued that inequalities of class, race, gender and coloniality in higher education and credentialism can no longer be ignored.

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