Cultural Disintegration and the Decline of the Engaged Intellectual: the transformation of academic work

Recently, there has been a great deal of discussion about the impact of globalization on universities. Globalization theorists seek to explain how neoliberal strategies have transformed the economic infrastructure of countries; in turn globalization has forced universities to become more market oriented while government invests less in tertiary education. By way of 126 interviews with academic staff, administrators, and related personnel, the author investigates the redefinitions of academic work in a globalized economy. The author works from a cultural perspective of organizations to understand the changing nature of academic work. The author first outlines the problems that he found and concludes by suggesting how to resolve the problems. Among other suggestions, the importance of institutional mission and the role of the intellectual in the life of the university are considered.     

Border crossings: Research training, knowledge dissemination and the transformation of academic work

At the crossroads of current innovation policies towards a European Research Area (ERA) and a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) lies an important province of higher learning and research: doctoral training and the further careers of PhD graduates. A considerable number of higher education systems across Europe shift their paradigms for doctoral training away from the traditional so-called Humboldtian model towards the so-called professional model. On this background, the paper discusses (1) the German pattern of a strong link of the PhD to the labor market outside academe that is based on a traditional academic-disciplinary mode of apprenticeship training, and (2) approaches that argue for a new mode of knowledge production replacing an academic-disciplinary model of research training by a hybrid model that crosses disciplinary and organizational borders. The paper argues that a diversity of organisational and structural forms as well as different validation criteria and procedures will probably determine the future face of research training.     

论学术编辑的编辑与学术

学术编辑的编辑工作与学术研究应是良性互动关系,编辑工作既是对文稿进一步优化的过程,也是一个学习积累知识的过程。编辑工作带动了学术研究,学术研究提升了编辑水平。一个优秀的编辑应以编辑工作为主,以学术研究为辅,主次分明,专杂并举,才能更好地传播先进文化、科学知识和学术思想,实现学术编辑作为"文化人"的自我人生价值。     

Reward structures of academic disciplines

This article examined the specific differences in the salary reward structures of eight clusters of academic disciplines included in Biglan's three-dimensional model of the academic profession. The sample consisted of 1.320 faculty at a large research university who responded to the Faculty Activity Analysis questionnaire requesting information on the amount of time they devoted each week to eleven categories of professional responsibility. These measures were used to predict faculty salaries in the eight discipline clusters. The results demonstrated wide variation in the reward structures of these discipline clusters.     

The horizontal and vertical fragmentation of academic work and the challenge for academic governance and leadership

Academic work has become increasingly fragmented. The horizontal fragmentation of the profession into disciplinary tribes has been accompanied by the increasing participation of student affairs and educational development professionals located outside the academic units but are actively engaged in academic work, such as supporting teaching and student learning. An increasing vertical fragmentation of academic work has recently occurred within academic units with the increasing employment of contract university teachers and research assistants. In Canada, horizontal and vertical fragmentations have occurred while universities and strong faculty unions have protected the “traditional” tenure-stream professoriate. Drawing on recent research, the author argues that these Canadian full-time faculties have high levels of job satisfaction and are well-remunerated, productive scholars. Maintaining the status and the supportive working conditions of the full-time, tenure-stream professoriate has largely been accomplished through labor cost efficiencies created by the increasing use of part-time, contractual university teachers, now frequently represented by labor unions that are distinct from their full-time peers. This article discusses the challenges for academic governance and leadership associated with this increasing fragmentation of academic work in the context of the “global” university.     

Women's work and academic culture: Adaptations and confrontations

This study presents a model of lifestyles based on the form of women's acculturation to academic life. The model rests on the assumptions of patterned behavior and values which can be termed women's culture and academic culture respectively. Since becoming academics requires women to mediate the boundary between behaviors expected of women and those expected by the overwhelmingly male academic profession, an acculturation rather than socialization model was employed.The in-depth study of the acculturative modes of professional behavior is both an exploratory and a qualitative effort to derive issues and categories from women's own perceptions. Forty-two women from diverse disciplines and institutions were interviewed. Interviewees were either advanced PhD candidates or had recently entered professional work.Three modal categories emerged from content analysis of intensive interviews. Reorientation reflected the effort of women to exemplify the norms of male academic culture. Reaffirmation required the command of both professional norms and traditional feminine roles and values. Reconstitution was an effort to reformulate professional participation into a lifestyle more compatible with women's cultural norms.     

Academic work: Perceptions of senior academic administrators

This article reports on selected findings of the first stage of a qualitative study of academic work in Australian universities. This stage examined the perceptions senior academic administrators from the humanities, sciences, social sciences and professional areas hold of the work roles of academics. The article presents their perceptions of ‘research’ and ‘scholarship’ and the link between the two, as well as the interrelationships between research, scholarship and teaching. The findings show a high level of consensus and coherence in the views presented. The article examines possible reasons for such a unanimity of perception and raises further questions for investigation.     

学业困难学生帮扶工作的实践与研究

随着高校的不断扩招,90后大学生成了学校本科生的主体,而大学在我们心中的含金量也大不如以前,不再是社会精英的聚集地,而是大多数学生的选择地。本文从多个方面对学业困难的学生帮扶工作进行了深度的实践和研究,对学习困难的学生进行深度辅导和帮扶,最终使学生学有所成,更够拥有积极健康的心态和性格融入社会。     

Alternative structures of higher education and the world of work

This paper attempts to identify some pointers for planners in higher education in the developing countries in order the better to relate higher education programmes to the world of work. After considering the objectives of higher education and its role in the socio-economic development of a country, the need for a relationship between the world of work and the higher education system is analysed, and the existing relationship between the two examined. Alternative higher education structures have been explored, based on existing practical experience on a worldwide level, so that planners may review the validity of these structures in their own context.

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Zusammenfassung Dem Autor geht es darum, Hochschulplanern in Entwicklungsländern einige Hinweise dafür zu geben, wie Hochschulprogramme besser auf die Arbeitswelt bezogen werden können. Zu diesem Zweck untersucht er zunächst die Ziele der Hochschulbildung und die Rolle, die Hochschulen bei der sozioökonomischen Entwicklung eines Landes spielen. Darauf analysiert er die Notwendigkeit einer Beziehung des Hochschulwesens zur Arbeitswelt, sowie die gegenwärtig zwischen beiden bestehende Beziehung. Alternative Hochschulstrukturen werden anhand praktischer Erfahrungen auf weltweiter Ebene besprochen, damit Planer ihre Eignung für ihr eigenes Land überprüfen können.

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Résumé L'auteur de cet article s'efforce de dégager quelques indices qui aideront les plantificateurs de l'enseignement supérieur dans les pays en développement à établir des programmes permettant à l'étudiant d'entrer en contact direct avec la réalité professionnelle. En conséquence, il analyse d'abord les objectifs de l'enseignement supérieur et son rôle dans le développement socio-économique d'un pays. Suit une analyse de la nécessité d'une relation entre le monde du travail et le système de l'enseignement supérieur, et un examen de la relation en vigueur. Des structures alternatives de l'enseignement supérieur ont été explorées en prenant appui sur l'expérience pratique au niveau mondial pour permettre aux planificateurs d'étudier la validité de ces structures dans leur propre contexte.

     

Group work in elementary science: Towards organisational principles for supporting pupil learning

Group work has been promoted in many countries as a key component of elementary science. However, little guidance is given as to how group work should be organised, and because previous research has seldom been conducted in authentic classrooms, its message is merely indicative. A study is reported, which attempts to address these limitations. Twenty-four classes of 10–12-year-old pupils engaged in programmes of teaching on evaporation and condensation, and force and motion. Both programmes were delivered by classroom teachers, and made extensive use of group work. Pupil understanding progressed from pre-tests prior to the programmes to post-tests afterwards, and results suggest that group work played a critical role. Organisational principles are extrapolated from the findings, which could be readily adopted in classrooms.     

The political economy of part-time academic work in Canada

The financial crisis in the Canadian higher education system has led to marked growth in the use of part-time faculty, whose interests and powers are strongly differentiated from those of the full-time faculty. The reasons for the differential power and divergent interest between the two are to be understood in the context of corporatist responses to the state in crisis. Under continuing financial strigency, the university administration negotiates concessions with the collegium of full-time faculty to satisfy their corporate interests and maintain the stability of the system. Part-timers, excluded from the collegium, remain peripheral to these corporatist arrangements, their marginalization being strongly related to ideological structures that originate from and entrench the dominant power and status of the full-time faculty.     

转型期的地方高校图书馆工作的挑战与变革

目前,高技能、创新能力强的人受到了很多用人单位的青睐。很多地方高校也意识到要想更好的发展,转变教学观念,实施战略转型模式的重要性,在人才培养方面进行了全面的改革与创新。地方高校的战略转型也为高校图书馆事业的发展带来了新的契机,高校图书馆应抓住先机,实现从资源提供到以服务为导向的转化,以使其更好的为大学生提供竭诚的服务。基于此,现对转型期的地方高校图书馆工作面临的挑战与变革路径进行了探讨。     

严峻就业形势下高校学业困难学生帮扶工作的研究

今年对于石油行业的私企和外企今年的招聘人数更是屈指可数,对于2016届毕业生是最为寒冬的毕业季,在石油行业如此严峻的就业形势下,学生的自身素质的高地尤其是学业水平好坏会直接关系到学生的就业前景,本文就学业困难学生的帮扶工作也就是学生就业工作的重中之重。     

Validity of academic work indicators in the projected European Higher Education Area

The competencies achieved, the quantity and distribution of the time employed, and the activities carried out by the student are fundamental elements of the future European Higher Education Area. The present study explores, in a specific course, the current level of some indicators of such elements and their validity. The results highlight the irrelevance of the temporal aspects with respect to final performance, and the relevance of the academic work activities to performance over the length of the course. Each indicator is discussed, and it is intended to further those which result to be relevant for the success of the student in the future, and to limit those temporal elements to a mere function of organization of the universities.     

Institutional conceptualisations of teacher education as academic work in England

Through an analysis of job recruitment texts, and interviews with academic leaders, this article shows how the university-based teacher educator is produced as a category of academic worker in England. Focussing on the discursive processes of categorisation provides insights into how English universities conceptualise teacher education. Variations in conceptualisations are noted within and between institutions, with the teacher educator produced as a hybrid or exceptional category. Often, variations are produced around a practitioner/researcher contradiction. The article concludes by asking whether such variations and potential lack of coherence matter, in the context of national policy and funding constraints, and internationally.     

政府与学校变革关系的三个理论问题

政府与学校变革关系是当前完善教育管理体制的关键问题。政府管理学校变革的职能转变、学校进行教育变革的职责确立以及学校变革中新型政校关系形态创生是探讨我国政府与学校变革逻辑和实践关系的三个维度。其中,职能转变包括从国家管理到公共治理、从管制型政府到服务型政府、从全能型政府到有限型政府;职责确立包括有条件的自主获得、无条件的政府监督;新型政校关系形态包括委托管理模式、多元交互模式、教育议事会模式。     

Surviving the performance management of academic work: evidence from young Chinese academics

ABSTRACT

Despite predominant macro-level changes of performance management at Chinese universities, little attention has been paid to how the disciplinary technologies have been interpreted and enacted at the level of individual academics. Using qualitative data with 26 participants at a Chinese research university, this study provides evidence of collective compliance with the performative imperatives. The study indicates that tacit compliance has been reinforced through the coercive powers of reward, punishment, and bureaucratization and consolidated through the normative influences of the Chinese Confucian culture and subjectification via creating new notions of ‘academic success’. Moreover, the process of perverse learning, during which opportunistic behaviors are taken to ‘play the game’, has contributed to the emergence of performance paradox. In addition, the findings do not indicate any vocal resistance in public but conscientious efforts have been taken in private by some of the participants to navigating through the performance paradox in order to alleviate the dysfunctional consequences caused by the perverse learning.