Navigating the neoliberal university: reflecting on teaching practice as a teacher-researcher-trade unionist

Abstract

This article reflects upon the neoliberalisation of higher education and its effects on teaching practice. It is argued that a neoliberal discourse of teaching excellence has the effect of working against, and potentially undermining, the emancipatory potential of higher education. The article reflects upon attempts to navigate disciplinary power in the neoliberal university and considers whether critical, emancipatory praxis is possible or if complicity in, and co-option by, neoliberalism is inevitable. Ultimately, it is concluded that individual teachers have some scope to pursue approaches which counter neoliberal dominance but that this is heavily constrained. A broader, collective, project will therefore be necessary if alternative (critical, emancipatory) visions of teaching and learning in higher education are to successfully challenge neoliberal hegemony and the negative effects of this in the academy.     

何为教育实践?

教育实践在规范意义上具有向善性,其目的与行动内在统一,相互构成,是人类追求美好品质和美好生活的根本行动。教育实践及其目的是终极的,具有合目的、合理性和合道德的根本品质,是规范性的价值行动,不是实现其他目的的技术行为。现实的教育活动惟有成为追求美善生活和培育优秀人性的行动,它才是实践。当前教育的工具化、程式化和技术化,把教育降格为训练工具人的生产过程,使得教育行动失去理性原则的规范和伦理品质的限定。回归教育实践,意味着教育应该成为一种善的、理性的伦理行动,成为以终极目的为原则的实践。这是我们最为急迫的对真正的教育的希望和呼唤。     

Considering teaching in higher education as a practice

At a time when learning and teaching in higher education have become the focus of increasing attention and high priority is being accorded to the attainment of excellence in teaching there is a growing concern that teaching is being reduced to the acquisition of a set of competencies. This paper will draw on the work of Alasdair MacIntyre to explore the nature of a practice and of teaching as a practice, and then draw on a case study of teachers in a higher education institute in Ireland to gain some insights into the realities of practice. While acknowledging that this knowledge is unequivocally contextual, this case study has the potential to contribute to our understanding of teaching by affording insights into how teachers respond to the challenges of practice. The paper will argue that to conceive of teaching as a practice, in the manner in which practice is explained and elaborated by MacIntyre, moves us beyond a narrow and mechanistic view of teaching built around the adoption of effective strategies to one that is broader in scope and takes into account notions of internal standards of excellence, complexity and integrity.     

Reflections on ‘creative’ action learning in business education: some issues in its theory and practice

The purpose of this paper is to consider some issues in the uses of what we have termed ‘creative’ action learning in a business education context, and to review some aspects of its practice. A review of the literature, including its use in higher education, is followed by a case illustration of its use in a UK business school with predominantly international students. Action learning is principally thought of as a human resource development practice and is widely used in a variety of public and private sector organisations. The focus here, however, is on the use of action learning in a business school setting and the application of specific creative thinking tools, in order to explore its potential for developing collaborative peer learning and support.     

美国人文教育的理念和实践

我们所广泛使用的"大学"的概念是从西方引入的,而人文教育理念在西方的高等教育历史中则占有非常重要的一席之地.本文介绍与分析了人文教育的理念、传统及其目前在美国大学的实践.在中国高等教育正在进行全面改革之时,了解这种以培养全面素养为手段,以帮助学生进行作为个体以及公民的自我实现为目的的教育哲学,可以为中国的高等教育改革提供新的思想与经验.     

What makes an excellent lecturer? Academics’ perspectives on the discourse of ‘teaching excellence’ in higher education

ABSTRACT

In the context of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), we examine academics’ perspectives on the discourse of ‘teaching excellence’ based on an empirical study with 16 participants from five post-1992 universities. The article reports the findings on academics’ views of the term and concept of ‘teaching excellence’, examples of what ‘teaching excellence’ may look like in practice, whether a distinction between ‘good’, ‘good enough’ and ‘excellent teaching’ can be made, and the measurability of ‘teaching excellence’. The research findings suggest we need a more nuanced inclusive interpretation of ‘teaching excellence’ which recognises the conjoined nature of teaching and research in higher education, and also rebalances a focus on outcome-related measures with understandings of purposes and development of the processes of learning.     

Generic gold standard or contextualised public good? Teaching excellence awards in post-colonial South Africa

ABSTRACT

Teaching Excellence Awards have raised the profile of teaching as a scholarly project. There are however a number of questions about what constitutes teaching excellence and how ‘excellence’ is understood in current higher education. In a post-colonial South Africa, where significant injustices permeate our society, we question whether excellence can be understood in a generic manner. Furthermore, we argue that as universities are a public good, teaching excellence needs to explicitly attend to the ways in which universities contribute to broad goals of transformation and inclusivity. We analysed data from the national Teaching Excellence Awards and 13 South African universities’ awards to interrogate the discourses that underpin ‘excellence’ in this context of social inequality. We found that while the awards have gone some way to enhancing the position of teaching in institutions, ‘excellence’ was largely articulated in fairly generic ways which failed to take into account the enablements and constraints of the discipline and the institution. Furthermore, the guidelines and criteria privilege a decontextualised notion of excellence that seeks a ‘gold standard’ and validates performativity, rather than a contextualised response to the needs of the students.     

美国联邦大学生资助政策的转变及其影响

美国联邦大学生资助政策是联邦高等教育政策的重要组成部分,学生资助政策扩大了高等教育入学机会,促进了高等教育的发展,提高了美国的国民素质和生产力。联邦学生资助政策在实践中不断进行适时地调整和变革,随着财政资助项目的变化,少数民族学生丧失了大学的信心吗？由于债务因素,改变了学生的学术计划吗？这些变化对本科教育质量意味着什么？本文试图探究美国联邦学生资助政策的转变对大学生入学和学习,以及教育质量的影响。     

我国普通高校体育教学改革初探

新时期,我国高校体育教学伴随着高校扩招及高等教育改革发展开始了理论与实践的全面改革,在教学形式、教学内容及教学意识等过程中取得了一定的成绩,同时,也不可避免地出现某些消极方面的影响。通过对新时期和谐社会发展对人才的需求与改革过程中出现的实际问题的分析,探讨高校体育教学改革的趋势。     

Excellence in doctoral supervision: an examination of authoritative sources across four countries in search of performance higher than competence

Supervision is generally recognised as playing a crucial role in the quality of a research student’s doctoral experience and their academic outcomes and, in common with most areas of higher education, there is an oft-stated desire to pursue excellence in this important area. Excellence in research degree supervision is, however, an elusive concept and on close scrutiny most of the discussions of high-quality supervision, even those that purport to be identifying excellence, refer to competence rather than excellence. This paper examines two potentially national authoritative perspectives from which excellence in research degree supervision might be explicated (codes of practice and learning and teaching awards) from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom but concludes that the complex nature of the activity and the complexity of the concept itself mean that rather than identifying excellence in supervision we can only respond to claims for excellence.     

创新培养模式 造就卓越人才--以泉州师范学院“卓越人才培养工程”为例

创新人才培养模式、实施卓越人才培养计划是我国高等教育大众化阶段提高教育教学质量的重要举措之一。分析卓越人才培养计划的背景、意义，以泉州师范学院的实践为例，探析“卓越计划”的运作方式，希望为“卓越计划”在地方性本科院校的实践提供有益的借鉴。     

中外环境教育研究之概述

环境教育从最初被提出到现在已经走过了五十多年的历程,其概念也从了解关于生物和自然界的知识到处理人与环境之间关系的教育,再到强调全球视角和可持续发展,经历了多次演变。环境教育的彤武大致有基础环境教育、大学环境教育、在职环境教育和民间环境教育等几种。这些形式各有各的独特功能,同时各自也存在着很多问题。要想真正克服这些问题,除了需要我们从上到下的广泛努力之外,还需要借鉴国外的一些成功经验。     

Against ‘teaching excellence’: ideology,commodification, and enabling the neoliberalization of postsecondary education

ABSTRACT

In this article, the notion of excellence in relation to teaching is removed from its privileged place in order to render it, and its implications, for analysis. We argue that teaching excellence needs to be understood in the larger context of the neoliberal university in which competition is taken for granted, and therefore, metrics for comparison are evermore necessary. Following this argument, we explore excellence as an instrument of neoliberal ideology in higher education. We explore different manifestations of teaching excellence enacted in policies that that are illustrative of five different countries. Implications for further analysis, and for resistance to the expansion of neoliberal ideology through teaching excellence, are presented.     

On the Prerequisites of Moral Education: a Wittgensteinean perspective

In this paper I distinguish between education and its prerequisites and try to defend the ontological and epistemological priority of the latter. This distinction parallels Wittgenstein's distinctions between knowledge and its river-bed, justification and its grounds, explaining and showing, learning and acquisition. With respect to moral thinking and education, I argue that the fundamental moral principles occupy a position akin to that of the river-bed propositions; that these principles are embedded in ordinary human activities and forms of life and, therefore, ought to be taught by example and by practice and not by abstract moral thinking or contrived moral dilemmas, as some rationalist moral theorists sugges‡     

CHANGING VISIONS OF EXCELLENCE IN ONTARIO SCHOOL POLICY: THE CASES OF LIVING AND LEARNING AND FOR THE LOVE OF LEARNING

In this essay, Rosa Bruno‐Jofré and George Hills examine two major Ontario policy documents: 1968's Living and Learning and 1994's For the Love of Learning. The purpose is, first, to gain insight into the uses of the term “excellence” in the context of discourse about educational aims and evaluation, and, second, to explore how these uses may have changed over time. Bruno‐Jofré and Hills employ the conceptual framework developed by Madhu Prakash and Leonard Waks to elucidate the varied notions of excellence contained in the two reports. Bruno‐Jofré and Hills argue that Living and Learning is an eclectic report that creates continuity by aligning itself with the pedagogically progressive tradition in Ontario; that propounds a holistic conception of excellence centered on the all‐around development of the self; and that seeks simultaneously to secure a sense of being Canadian while dealing with rapidly emerging social fragmentation. For the Love of Learning, in contrast, attempts to combine a technical view of excellence in education (stressing various literacies and skills as measurable indicators) with the principles of caring and the goals of social responsibility. Each report can be seen as an attempt to respond to the expectations of a population that had become increasingly diverse in the interval between the two reports. What is cause for concern in terms of policymaking, Bruno‐Jofré and Hills conclude, is the turn away from broader, more comprehensive and coherent views of excellence in education toward narrower and more fragmented accounts that are preoccupied with various types of literacy or loosely related vocational and other skills. The effect of this shift is to leave educational policy and practice in the schools essentially rudderless.     

Excellence for All: A Nietzschean-inspired approach in professional higher education

Europe’s objectives of economic growth and job creation require large numbers of professionals who are willing and able to innovate and rise above themselves. In this article, a concept of excellence is developed that can be broadly applied in professional higher education. This concept of excellence derives from three concepts which the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche developed in The Gay Science (2001/1887): self-transcendence, self-control and self-styling. By starting with Nietzsche’s radical thoughts, the author aims to grasp the probabilities and challenges of preparing all students for their professional future. Several proposals for educational practice are outlined based on this perspective of ‘excellence for all’.     

高等职业教育院校中的成人教育发展探讨

高等职业教育院校中的成人教育具有服务范围广泛、办学形式多元、教学内容务实等特点,决定了高等职业成人教育必须不断创新创优,继续提升办学实力,加强校政、校企、校校合作与交流,为社会培养更多具有创新能力的技能型人才,服务经济社会发展。     

Educational development units: A cross-cultural perspective

This paper examines the institutionalisation of educational development in universities in Australia, Britain, USA, West Germany and Sweden. Centres for staff, instructional, educational or academic development were established in these countries in the sixties and seventies, following expansion of the higher education systems. But the triggers for the establishment in each country were different, as are the institutional integration of centres and provisions in general. The institutional reward systems in all of these countries favour research performance over excellence in teaching, regardless of whether the universities see themselves as research or teaching centred.In Australia, educational development has been institutionalised to the highest degree; most of the universities have centres with permanent staff, some of whom are tenured faculty with a research and development function. In Britain there has been strong national support for training of university teachers and individual universities are providing this in a larger variety of settings. In the USA institutionalisation has taken many forms. But educational development is also funded on a short term basis, and due to the ample availability of grants there is continuous experimentation and influx of new people. In Germany the original connection between university reforms and educational development centres and the strong research orientation of universities has put these centres into a vulnerable position and limits their effectiveness. In Sweden central legislation provides for compulsory teacher training in the universities, but much of the general educational development work is organised centrally. The importance of educational development is generally acknowledged in these countries, its effectiveness largely accepted in faith.     

Inclusive education: recipe book or quest. On diversity in the classroom and educational research

Teaching that takes into account the increasing range of differences between pupils is often called ‘inclusive education’. The practice of inclusive education in The Netherlands is informed by educational research that has mainly produced ‘recipes’ for effective education with a view to academic success. This research has tended to reduce differences between pupils to a limited number of characteristics and to reduce educational outcomes to academic success in the basics. Inspired by ethnic and gender studies, it is argued for an approach to inclusive education in which social-cultural outcomes as well as academic excellence are taken seriously and diversity is not restricted to a few standard characteristics of pupils. With reference to the authors' own research, it will be shown that the development of this broad interpretation of inclusive education demands educational research that does not merely produce recipes for dealing with certain characteristics of pupils. Research should help teachers to reflect on how diversity is manifested in their own classroom practice and suggest alternative forms of action and behaviour to achieve inclusive education.     

关于工程教育和一般教育问题的再思考

鉴于目前对工程教育中的一些重大问题及教育中的若干普遍问题尚未形成明确共识,故择其要者进行了再思考,包括:工程教育的实践性问题,教育公平与教育卓越的平衡问题,工程教育的分层问题,宏观教育政策中的供求关系问题,教育评估问题,课程教学中实践与理论的交叉融合问题,双师建设问题,大学前后的工程教育问题.一己之见,意在就教于海内方...