Rethinking the internationalisation agenda in UK higher education

Internationalisation of higher education (HE) affords an opportunity to engage in critical reflection on practices across the sector and to pursue a programme of widespread reform based on outcomes of practitioner dialogue and debate. This opportunity is, however, being largely shunned thanks to the prominence of a marketisation discourse that has claimed the internationalisation agenda as its own, redefining it narrowly in commercially expedient terms. Adopting a broadly Foucauldian perspective on discourse, this article offers a critique of HE internationalisation in the UK. It begins with an analysis of the global trade in HE courses on international markets, arguing that it is inappropriate to treat curricula as though they were merely commodities reducible solely to exchange value. Having questioned the marketisation discourse, the article proceeds to expose the inadequacies of a piecemeal 'infusion approach' to curriculum internationalisation. Simply flavouring curricula with 'international' or 'global' elements fails to address more fundamental issues of the educational process posed by multicultural recruitment and teaching. The critique is founded on a questioning of the cross-cultural validity of purchaser/provider models in general and the student-as-customer metaphor in particular. A 'learning as eating' conception of education finds its apogee in Ritzer's McDonaldised university, with its programmatic reduction of HE, casualisation of teaching labour and 'product' standardisation. The article ends with a polemical call for a reclamation of the internationalisation agenda on the part of practitioners who are interested in creating culturally inclusive, fair and genuinely educational forms of multicultural HE teaching and assessment.     

Introduction: The idea of political education

This article considers the current context for renewed concern about 'political education' worldwide and in the UK. The concept 'political education' is analysed, as are normative and positive questions about the relationship between education and political outcomes. The article goes on to consider the history of and reasons for UK exceptionalism as regards this aspect of educational policy-explanations for British antipathy to political education are sought in aspects of British political institutions and political culture.     

Studies in mindfulness: widening the field for all involved in pastoral care

Abstract

Since 2010, the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, has offered an MSc in studies in mindfulness degree programme within its School of Education. The programme has attracted over 200 students from multiple professional contexts, providing the authors with the opportunity to gather and analyse demographic data, as well as data regarding student motivations and expectations, both personal and professional. The paper initially creates a picture of the current UK ‘studies in mindfulness’ landscape by describing the established programmes at UK universities. Data from an entry questionnaire completed by three cohorts of students on the ‘Aberdeen’ programme and data collected from students throughout their studies is then presented, analysed and discussed. The authors argue that, in their professional roles, graduates from programmes and courses at Universities in the UK are introducing an ever-increasing number of people to mindfulness. They are implementing and integrating mindfulness into diverse social, business contexts as well as into all sectors of education. The University of Aberdeen’s programme, based in the School of Education, perhaps represents a move towards more holistic, pastoral and multi-professional applications of mindfulness. This contrasts with the clinical, pathological settings for mindfulness to date.     

No Man's Land: Caring and male student primary teachers

Sixteen male student primary teachers on a primary Initial Teacher Education course were interviewed and their understanding of 'care' explored. Analysis of the data suggests that male student primary teachers have specific gendered understandings of 'care'. Teacher educators need to take account of this in primary Initial Teacher Education courses and to provide students with opportunities to reflect on their understanding of 'care' in relation to their work as primary teachers, and the part gender plays in shaping that understanding.     

From Lifelong Learning to Lifelong Teaching: Teaching as a call to style

This paper offers the viewpoint that franchised Further Education-based degree courses should be continued and expanded, since these colleges are less likely to intimidate adult (potential) students. A modified American '2 + 2' learning scenario (2 years in FE college followed by 2 years concluding the degree in a university) is discussed.     

Weaving the 'Seamless Web': Why higher education and further education need to 'merge' if lifelong learning is to become a reality

This paper offers evidence that universities need to create ever greater links with further education if lifelong learning is ever to become a reality. Adult learners and potential adult learners are intimidated by the mystique of the 'university' (in its cultural metaphorical sense) but would be more inclined to return to learning if the said learning could take place in the more 'friendly' confines of a further education college. Thus the trend of FE colleges offering 'higher' education courses with validation by universities is one which should be encouraged and pursued to an even greater extent than it already is.     

Critical ethnography: The reflexive turn

This paper explores the recent debates on ethnographic writing by explicating four types of reflexivity: confessional, theoretical, textual, and deconstructive. It then illustrates how the author has incorporated such reflexive practices into his recent ethnographies. The paper generally advocates blending autobiography and ethnography into a ''cultural Marxist'' standpoint. This perspective also draws upon multiple epistemologies and feminist notions of science, and it highlights the importance of writing in ordinary language. Such narrative experimentation aims to replace the old scientific ethnographic realist narrative style with a more reflexive realist narrative style. The author argues that reflexive epistemological and narrative practices will make ethnography a more engaging, useful, public storytelling genre.     

Student perceptions of satisfaction and opportunities for critical thinking in distance education by interactive video

Abstract

Critical thinking is an important component of learning, yet it has received little attention in distance education literature. The purpose of this study was to investigate graduate students' satisfaction and perception of opportunities for critical thinking in distance education courses that utilized a two‐way audio/video system.     

The rise of the transnational capitalist class and World Bank 'aid' for higher education

This article looks at globalisation as a process of replacement of the global political order of nation states with the global economic order of transnational corporations. It is argued that this process carries far-reaching consequences, in which a growing number of spheres, including education, are subjected to the interests of the global economic order. Under the disguise of global economic development activities the new world system strives towards maximising the short-term profits of the transnational capitalist class. Following Sklair's global systems theory, this article looks at the World Bank as a transnational organisation. Based on recent World Bank higher education reform loan projects in Eastern Europe, it is argued that the primary outcome of the World Bank loan projects is the redistribution of the resources of the so-called 'recipient countries' to the transnational capitalist class.     

Enterprise Education: The Need for Differentiation

Abstract

There has been a proliferation of enterprise courses in the UK in the last ten years. The aims, curricula and target groups for these courses are diverse. Efforts have been made to identify the generic characteristics of enterprise education (See Johnson, 1988). However, the interpretation of the concept enterprise is varied and reflects diverse teaching methods and educational objectives which suggests that it may be time to abandon the general label of enterprise education. This paper explores the characteristics of enterprise education and argues for a distinction to be made between the occupationally focused small business courses and more ‘progressive’ forms of enterprise education which may be more correctly called competency education initiatives.     

Parents' views on nursery education: Perceptions in context

The analysis describes the broad consensus which is currently emerging about the nature of the educational changes which are necessary for the creation of a 'learning society' and contrasts this vision with the contemporary reality of an education system which is every day more constrained by formal assessment. The implications of these tightening bonds for the development of universities in the third millennium are explored in terms of research evidence which documents the impact of conventional forms of assessment on student learning. The argument is made that this emphasis on 'categoric' assessment if fundamentally incompatible with aspirations towards the creation of a 'learning society'. This is partly because institutions must necessarily give their attention to obtaining high scores and cannot risk the substantial changes in the reorganisation of teaching and learning that an 'empowering' educational environment would arguably require and partly because of the power of the prevailing assessment discourse to define priorities. The article uses Lyotard's concept of 'performativity' to examine these contemporary tensions in higher education, their origins and potential significance for the creation of a 'learning society'.     

Vocationalism in Higher Level Tourism Courses: The British perspective

This paper highlights the extent of vocationalism on higher level tourism courses and outlines a typology of undergraduate degrees. Industry influence on curriculum content is considered in the light of a few modules on one particular single honours degree programme. Finally, issues are raised for the next decade: 'credential inflation' is likely to lead to more graduates, the need for education of cross-cultural communication and host community involvement is raised together with the effect of 'de-layering' concomitantly with increasing numbers of graduates is considered.     

The Teacher Educator as (Re)Negotiated Professional: Critical incidents in steering between state and market in Australia

A dominant discourse in western higher education circles is currently concerned— even obsessed—with the marketisation of knowledge as a commodity to be purchased and traded [Healy (1998); Poole (1998); Richardson (1998)]. These developments are broadly allied with managerial changes that some have called ‘steering at a distance’ [Kickert (1991); Marceav (1993)] whereby the control by the state of individual higher education workers is maintained and intensified at the same time that pressure is applied to 'wean' universities from government funding. This paper explores a different kind of 'steering', the kind that is being engaged by Australian teacher educators confronted by developing competitiveness in higher education. We argue that these changes compel teacher educators to (re)negotiate their professionalisms; to re-examine their attitudes towards, and values within, education and its practices as they (individually and collectively) steer new courses through the state and the market. We illustrate our argument by referring to three critical incidents in the professional lives of teacher educators located within a globalised, multi-campus and provincial Australian university, yet with important implications also for teacher educators outside Australia. We posit the (re)negotiated professionalisms manifested in those incidents as a few among several potential kinds of steering by Australian teacher educators.     

Complexity of reasoning about children's development: Links with teacher‐preparation content courses and supervised laboratory experience

Abstract

In a sample of 74 university students studying early childhood and pre‐kindergarten education, researchers assessed the relationships between child development knowledge, complexity of reasoning about development, prior work experience with children, and teacher‐preparation content courses and laboratory courses. There was no statistically significant association between knowledge of child development and complexity of reasoning. The former primarily involves the acquisition of facts about patterns of general change, whereas complexity of reasoning permits caregivers to apply those facts to real‐life care‐giving dilemmas. Child development knowledge was predicted by the number of completed pre‐kindergarten content courses, but not by experience with children. Complexity of reasoning was predicted by both content and laboratory courses, the effects of which were assessed separately. Findings suggest that teacher‐preparation content courses, supplemented by guided experience with children, provide a basic framework for integrating important concepts about children's growth and behavior.     

The Transition from Traditional Teaching to Web-Assisted Technology

Abstract

This research note presents a conceptual model for understanding how students embrace technology, briefly presents results of a pilot study supporting this conceptualization, and makes suggestions for web-assisted teaching and research. The conceptual framework helps the reader understand how instructors' “Marketing strategies” may need to change over the course of the semester to generate maximum acceptance of, and satisfaction with, high-tech classrooms. The conceptual framework is illustrated with data collected during a pilot study involving two web-assisted graduate foundation research courses at the Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville. Students enrolled for two web-assisted research courses without knowing that web-assisted technology would be used in the course. The students' attitudes towards computers, their ability to access computers, as well as their skill levels in using computers were assessed. Suggestions and challenges for web-assisted teaching and research are provided based on the conceptual framework and results from the pilot study.