International organizations (IOs), epistemic tools of influence,and the colonial geopolitics of knowledge production in higher education policy

Abstract

While other scholars have analyzed the way that international organizations (IOs) in higher education policy may contribute to neocolonial domination, this paper illuminates not only on how IOs’ epistemic activities promulgate one-size fit all solutions, but centers the colonial structures of knowledge/power that inform the why (or logic) of these IOs’ epistemic activities and their effects. A decolonial analysis of discursive artifacts and tools such as policy reports, performance indicators, and technical assistance, of the OECD and World Bank, suggests that standardized IO policy processes and practices reproduce global inequities. In collusion with other policy actors, these IOs constitute and perpetuate coloniality in global higher education, through enacting a god-eye point of view, colonial difference, and the geopolitics of knowledge. This article proposes a set of questions that may open the possibility of ‘delinking’ from modern/colonial world systems and pushes us to decolonize our imaginaries of the landscape of global HE.     

Explanatory accounts in international and comparative higher education research

Developing plausible explanations rooted in theory and supported by evidence is a challenge for comparative higher education studies. The purpose of this article is to consider how comparative studies in higher education might develop accounts that allow the research community to enhance explanatory power. Higher education studies can advance explanations about what is happening and why, as well as interpret the meaning of occurrences by drawing broadly on realist scholarly traditions. Rather than prioritising a methodology, the field should prioritise essential questions and address them with all appropriate empirical tools. Avenues for explanatory research include bounded case studies, multi‐method investigations into specific phenomena, mechanism‐based approaches and macro‐social analysis.     

Criticality in international higher education research: a critical discourse analysis of higher education journals

The current study utilizes the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211 Ajzen 1991) to examine an instructor confirmation-interaction model in the instructional communication context to discover a means by which instructors might cultivate positive student attitudes and increase beliefs that interactions with instructors would be beneficial in the future. Specifically, the model examines how teacher confirmation (Ellis 2000) influences students’ behavioral intention to communicate with instructors. Surveys were distributed to 343 college students (41.7% male and 58.1% female) in a basic communication course. Results were primarily consistent with the proposed model; teacher confirmation was significantly related to attitudes toward communicating with an instructor, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were also positively related to students’ behavioral intention to communicate with the instructor. However, results reveal attitudes toward communicating do not predict students’ behavioral intention to communicate with instructors. It is recommended that future models examine a more contemporary, hi-tech representation of attitude toward student-instructor interactions as it may produce a significant association with students’ behavioral intent to communicate with them. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications to examine student classroom communication via the confirmation-interaction model and the theory of planned behavior.     

Metaphorical images of an organization: the power of symbolic constructs in reading change in higher education organizations

Based on interviews with 24 faculty members at a large, public university, this article reports the use of metaphors as a new conceptual strategy to analyze change in higher education organizations. Results of the study indicate that strategic choices guiding the behavior of the organization under study and the metaphorical images held by the faculty members about their organization show a high degree of congruence. Implications for change and maintenance of enacted realities in higher education organizations are discussed.     

Selected bibliographies on research into higher education: An international inventory

This international collection of bibliographies on higher education represents an attempt to fill a bibliographic vacuum in higher education and is intended as a basic source for everyone concerned with research into higher education. Three hundred bibliographies from all over the world, mainly published during the last twenty years, are catalogued in alphabetical order.     

The future of higher education and the future of higher education research

Abstract

Higher education research is closely linked to the debates on higher education policy and practice. It provides the information basis for decisions about the future of higher education. As the themes of the public debate on problems and reform needs in higher education change quickly, higher education research has to anticipate future problems and themes of debates in order to develop concepts and to generate knowledge well in advance. Future‐conscious higher education research might aim to identify likely future changes in thematic areas which are already in the limelight of public attention, as trends in the areas of expansion of higher education, diversification of structures of the higher education system, system steering and institutional management as well as internationalisation and globalisation suggest. Moreover, future‐conscious higher education research should try to identify thematic areas not frequently discussed at present but likely to be major issues in the future. For example, professionalisation of higher education in terms of the emergence and expansion of new administrative and service professions in higher education institutions might have far‐reaching implications in the future and is worth to be paid attention by higher education researchers.     

推进高等教育评估中介组织建设的思考

随着我国高等教育进入大众化阶段,提高高等教育质量已成为全社会关注的焦点,逐步建立完善的高等教育质量外部保障体系势在必行。教育评估中介组织是独立于政府和高校,具有明确法律地位的第三方实体,是为社会提供教育质量保障服务的市场中介组织。它与高校、各社会主体之间是一种纯     

Survey research in higher education

Although textbooks on educational research give only scant attention to survey research methodology, its extensive use in education provides a strong rationale for improving the preparation of educational researchers in effectively applying survey methods. This study reviews methods for dealing with nonresponse bias, the primary problem presented by survey methods. It also provides an updated review of the literature of studies investigating the effectiveness of incentives to increase survey response rates. We hypothesized that a reanalysis of reviewed studies, using a linear trend test, would resolve the inconsistencies found regarding the effectiveness of incentives to increase response rates. The results of the reanalysis and guidelines for educational researchers in systematically selecting and applying incentives to increase response rates are discussed.     

An international view of British higher education

The first part of this paper examines the aims of a comparative approach to the study of systems of higher education - borrowing, generating political pressure, and achieving a better understanding of one's own system - and its value in formulating a national purpose for higher education. In the second part, various major international trends and tensions are analysed in relation to higher education in Britain. Finally, the problem of actual internationalisation of higher education systems is discussed with particular regard to the implications of British entry into the European Economic Community.This paper has been presented to the conference A National Purpose for Higher Education held under the sponsorship of the University of London Institute of Education, March 28/29, 1972 in London. Its first section is an abridged version of part of a paper prepared by the author for and published by ICED (Cerych, 1973).     

高等教育研究与高等教育期刊的作用

本文旨在阐明高等教育期刊在传播高等教育研究成果中所起的作用。首先 ,简要介绍了高等教育研究的现状 ,主要是欧美国家有关高等教育研究的定义、性质的各种观点 ,以及欧美高等教育研究的差异。其次 ,重点介绍了欧洲主要的高等教育期刊以及其他高等教育研究出版物的情况及各自的特点。最后 ,从作者、编者、读者三个不同的角度剖析了高等教育期刊对于传播高等教育研究成果所发挥的作用     

Identity and pedagogy in higher education: international comparisons

Teachers’ responses to language classroom incidents depend on many factors, including the extent of their teaching experience. The question of how much influence teaching experience carries is important given that pre-service teachers have had limited opportunities to respond to day-to-day incidents that arise in classrooms. This paper reports on a two-stage research study in Singapore that first explored 22 pre-service teachers’ understandings of language classroom incidents and their possible responses. Subsequently, a survey was conducted to compare pre-service and in-service teachers’ perceptions about anticipating and responding to classroom incidents. The findings from a total of 77 respondents indicate that perceptions of the experienced and inexperienced teachers are similar in many ways, yet some notable differences emerged as well as a few interesting individual responses. This work has implications for initial teacher education programmes in terms of considering the value of providing pre-service teachers with opportunities to discuss and reflect on potential language classroom incidents.     

试论高校体育课中的探究式教学

高校体育课实施探究式教学,其效果明显优于传统教学法。体育课探究式教学改变了传统教学法统一化和单一化的单向传习模式,其基本教学程序应为:创设情境,提出问题;搜集资料和信息;引出假设,进行实验探究,论证;整合、归纳、迁移、应用。     

高等教育的学科化研究与多学科研究

中国高等教育研究的认识论中存在着“学科论”与“领域论”的学科属性之争,由此导致高等教育的学科化研究和高等教育的多学科研究两种研究方法。高等教育的学科化研究直指高等教育学学科建设,而高等教育的多学科研究则被高等教育理论和实践证明是行之有效的方法,是目前高等教育研究的主流范式。两种研究方法各有其效用,但缺陷和不足也十分明显。在“学科论”和“领域论”两种观点在未来一段时间内仍将存在的情况下,如何厘清高等教育的学科化研究与多学科研究之间的关系是高等教育研究不断创新的关键所在。     

Culture and identity in higher education research

The aim of this article is to develop a cultural approach in higher education studies. It will be argued that the cultural approach is rooted mainly in two different intellectual starting points to analyze academic communities as cultural entities: studies of disciplinary cultures and institutional cultures. Notions of disciplines as cultural entities have been developed in Europe in relation to the two cultures topic and to issues developed in the sociology of knowledge. The institutional studies tradition is, in turn, rooted in the American intellectual tradition, where cultural concerns emerge from institutional level phenomena whether they concern students, faculty or higher education institutions. The article discusses the pros and cons of these traditions in order to find new avenues for future research. It will be argued that academic identity provides a seminal perspective for cultural studies in higher education.