A Really Useful Link Between Teaching and Research

This paper is an attempt to construct, rather than reveal or discover, a link between research and teaching. The constructed link is offered as one that is pragmatically useful to those in higher education who wish to bring teaching and research more into balance. However, before constructing what I call a really useful link between teaching and research based on the process of inquiry, I look at several ways in which a relationship between the two is currently perceived. These I have called 'a marital relationship', 'an impending divorce' and 'a scholarly relationship'. I also examine Barnett's view of the relationship which he entitles 'a holy alliance'.     

Supercomplexity and the university: Ronald Barnett and the social philosophy of Higher Education

Ronald Barnett's modern classic Realizing the University in an Age of Supercomplexity (published December 1999), has had a crucial impact internationally on the field of Higher Education research and development since the book was published now nearly 20 years ago. Bridging an academic oeuvre across almost 30 years with close to 30 published volumes, Realizing the University in an Age of Supercomplexity plays an important role in the development and transformation of Barnett's social theory of Higher Education into a social philosophy of Higher Education. In the book Barnett performs an important move from a focus on knowledge and epistemology to a focus on being and ontology in relation to Higher Education practices. Barnett shifts his fundamental perspective and view on the relation between universities and the wider society from one of caution and worry to a perspective of hope and vision that fully embraces the future of Higher Education. This way, Realizing the University in an Age of Supercomplexity has not only paved the way for Barnett's own development of a social philosophy of Higher Education, but also contributed invaluably to the rise and maturing of philosophy of Higher Education as a research field in its own right.     

Education for the Group Worker's Reality

Abstract

Within the social work profession, one's world view, one's beliefs and values based on one's experiences, strongly influences one's practice and comfort with groups.

This paper will examine some of the different ways of viewing the world held by practitioners and students in relation to the likelihood that they will be able to work effectively with groups. Such examination, and the identification of the differences among social workers that results from it has implications for both teaching and supervision in social work. These implications will be discussed and specific principles and techniques for teaching social workers, in education and in supervision, based on their world views will be described. This paper aims to enrich education for group work so that the community of social group work practitioners can grow and continue to thrive.     

Roots and Rhizomes—Some Reflections on Contemporary Pedagogy

During this article, I look at three images of thought which feature in Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus and consider their relevance to contemporary pedagogy. Deleuze and Guattari begin by discussing tree‐like thought, which involves an insular depiction of the world. I suggest that the performative apparatus, which structures contemporary pedagogy in the comprehensive school, is also tree‐like. Deleuze and Guattari's second image of thought is the fascicular root. Here the principle root is aborted leading to a multiplicity, which flows from it. With fascicular thought, the unity, which is aborted in the object, is returned to in the subject who gains control of multiplicities. In this section I provide a reading of a Classics lesson portrayed in The Secret History by Donna Tartt and go on to focus on Ronald Barnett's contribution to a debate with Paul Standish, which features in The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education. In the third section of the article, I consider Deleuze and Guattari's third image of thought—the rhizome. Rhizomes grow by a process of cloning or lateral spreading; they do not have the central trunk of the tree, with roots and branches extending outwards from this. At the end of this section, I look at two Classics lessons that represent tree‐like and rhizomatic pedagogies in turn. I attempt to enrich this discussion by providing a reading of a scene from The History Boys.     

A critical ethic in a knowledge economy: research degree candidates in the workplace

This paper provides a philosophical viewpoint to questions regarding the role and purpose of the research degree. Drawing on non‐binary accounts of knowledge within the philosophical tradition, it argues against the instrumentalist conception of applied knowledge evident within higher education policy. The paper identifies a critical ethic at work within the views of research candidates who do a research degree to complement an established professional career. A parallel is identified between the critical ethic that is evident within professional's conceptions of the role and value of a research degree and the notion of philosophy as a way of life that was prevalent in antiquity. The implications for research pedagogy of treating criticality as a way of life are then explored through Ronald Barnett's alternative model for higher education as a facilitator of ‘critical being’.     

Student-centredness: the link between transforming students and transforming ourselves

It is widely accepted in the higher education literature that a student-centred approach is pedagogically superior to a teacher-centred approach. In this paper, we explore the notion of student-centredness as a threshold concept and the implications this might have for academic staff development. We argue that the term student-centred in the Rogerian sense implies a focus on the person of the student and is deeply resonant with Barnett's assertion that the emergent being of the student is as important as the development of skills and knowledge. To facilitate transformative learning in higher education an academic must know how to value the person of the student in the learning process. Academic staff development initiatives need to work with the person of the academic and take into account the level of personal development required for each academic to be able to facilitate this kind of learning.     

Developing and Applying Level Descriptors

Abstract

This paper is a summary of work undertaken with Year 2 children, over a period of six weeks in a Kent County Infant School. The study focuses on the notion of spiritual development in young children and gives consideration to how science may assist the teacher in enhancing this area of a child's development. Some attention is given to Government documentation related to these areas. Young children's explanations of their world are a mixture of religion, God/gods, science, fantasy and magic. We suggest that science allows, in both a physical and spiritual sense, all of these areas to be explored. We have identified this as the ‘WOW’ factor ('Wonder Of the World') through which children may develop conceptual skills that will not only enhance their learning, but also their awareness of self, relationship with others, and their place in the world.     

Reconciling ourselves to reality: Arendt,education and the challenge of being at home in the world

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I explore the educational significance of the work of Hannah Arendt through reflections on four papers that constitute this special issue. I focus on the challenge of reconciling ourselves to reality, that is, of being at home in the world. Although Arendt's idea of being at home in the world is connected to her explorations of understanding, such understanding should not be approached as a matter of sense making, but in terms of ‘eccentric judgement’. For judgement to be eccentric, we must expose ourselves to otherness, which has to do with friendship if we understand friendship as a public rather than an entirely private matter. While political judgement requires a ‘being in the presence of others’ Arendt's views on thinking and its role in moral judgement indicate the necessity of solitude, of being alone with oneself. Rather than seeing this a process through which one calls oneself into question, I highlight the importance of the experience of being called into question, which I understand as the experience of ‘being taught’. I conclude that the educational significance of Arendt's work particularly lies in this link with teaching, and less so in notions of learning, reflection and sense making.     

Education as action/the adventure of education: thinking with Arendt and Whitehead

ABSTRACT

Understanding and action are central themes in Hannah Arendt's thought and an idea that runs throughout her work is that whenever human beings act, they start processes. It is in this light that she saw education as a process whose aim is to make human beings feel at home in the world. Given the centrality of process in understanding action, early on in her work, Arendt reflected and drew upon the ideas of Alfred Whitehead, the philosopher of process. Education in his thought is an art and an adventure whose object should be to enable students to grasp the process of life itself and imagine different worlds. In this light, universities are crucial in creating conditions of possibility for imaginative learning and intellectual adventures. Taking action, process, imagination and adventure as my central ideas, in this paper, I make connections between Arendt and Whitehead in an attempt to think about education within and beyond ‘dark times’.     

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.     

Sound Bites,Spin and Social Change

Abstract

The news media is an essential player in the policy making process. Social work students learning how to scrutinize, and influence, the complex world of social policy can benefit from an educational model that incorporates the media. This article first examines the theoretical framework for understanding the media's role in public policy formation. This framework is then used to construct a classroom exercise for analyzing the public discourse using basic content analysis of media texts. A case example drawn from a study of welfare reform and the media is described. By exploring how social problems are translated into public conversations, students can enrich their knowledge of social problem formation, and learn more effective rhetorical techniques and strategies for influencing the public debate.     

The intercultural deterritorialization of knowledge: Al-Ghazali and the enunciation of the educator’s Rihla

ABSTRACT

This study appropriates the notion of deterritorialization, a process that determines the nature of an assemblage introduced by Deleuze and Guattari, to refer to Al-Ghazali's conceptualization of scholarship and methodology as the antithesis of the pursuit of a fixed area of research. His response to the deterritorialization of knowledge identifies an interdisciplinary approach, always in flight, which ultimately enunciates ‘rihlah’, a sojourn. It negates the notion of research as stasis and recovers its semantic origin of movement and process. The article examines intercultural practices that challenge the institutionalization of knowledge. How can Al-Ghazali's response to scepticism, knowledge, and authority inform practices in higher education today? Not only does this study aim to connect intercultural philosophical discourses to modern debates about academic expertise and the dissemination of knowledge, it equally seeks cultural and intellectual reconciliation, which is crucial today in a world that is becoming largely xenophobic, and entrapped in ethnocentric academic practices.     

Presidential canvass,log‐cabin style

In painting and music it is common for one artist to build upon the work of another. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is a composite of variations on Schiller's Ode To Joy, and Picasso readily admitted that he drew heavily from the work of Velasquez in some of his early paintings. The practice of thematic variation is, however, less frequent in works of dramatic literature. Seldom does one writer draw upon the work of another in an obvious manner, use it to reinforce his own thesis, and have his borrowing remain undetected. Yet this is precisely what playwright Arthur Kopit has done in The Day The Whores Came Out To Play Tennis. Although Kopit's thematic variations may not be obvious in the work as produced, they are, however, quite clear if the play is read. The only possible explanation for lack of comment on what is obvious is that very little has been written about any of Kopit's work. Nevertheless, in The Day The Whores Came Out To Play Tennis, Kopit draws extensively from material contained in Anton Chekhov's play, The Cherry Orchard.     

Untangling the Net

Abstract

The importance of computer training in social work education will continue to increase as the profession becomes more globalized and technological. It is the authors' premise that social work education must include the integration of training in computer technology. One resource available to educators is the Internet. The world wide web contains a vast amount of information on policy and social issues. This article discusses the use of web based learning exercises to simultaneously teach social policy and enhance student computer skills. Two learning exercises are presented which are designed for use in social work policy courses. The authors present their teaching experiences and provide suggestions on using this approach in the classroom environment. Information on resources and useful URL's for policy research is included in the discussion.     

A Time of Transition

Abstract

This narrative describes, from a personal perspective, the aging and dying processes of a social worker's parents, and the impact that this process had on her teaching in the area of social work practice and gerontology. The impact of a personal crisis on one's professional role is dramatic. Issues related to social support, the conflict inherent in multiple roles, and the burdens and joys of caretaking are explored in an effort to offer readers the opportunity to understand the complexities of the aging process. Furthermore, the dilemmas inherent in teaching about a topic that has such important and personal implications for teachers and learners are examined.     

Improving the Research Climate in Social Work Curricula

Abstract

Research courses are associated with performance anxiety and educational insecurity for many social work students. This paper makes the case that student anxiety associated with research courses is rooted in the history of the social work profession, and this history sheds light on the present day climate of research in social work education. The authors suggest that improvement to the research climate in social work education requires an “institutional” response. To that end, this paper describes a committee process that resulted in changes to one school's curriculum policy by revamping student learning objectives for a sequence of five research courses that spanned BSW and MSW programs. The committee produced a continuum of student learning expectations based on Bloom's taxonomy, which represents a logical progression of knowledge and skill competencies as students advance through their course work.     

Putting Field Education in Context

Abstract

The social work profession has become increasingly concerned about student indifference toward research and the scarcity of practitioner-initiated contributions to the field's present, and potential future knowledge base. Social work educators are seeking innovative teaching methods to promote student interest in, and understanding of research by requiring students to concurrently apply knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom with problems presently encountered by community practitioners. To generate student appreciation and enthusiasm for research, a service learning component was introduced in an undergraduate social work research methods course in collaboration with a local social service organization whose director served as the course's co-instructor. Outcomes from a post-study suggest that the course elements might make research less intimidating and more interesting, while making it more applicable to the real world.     

Environmental dystopias: Margaret Atwood and the monstrous child

ABSTRACT

The future of childhood is often described in terms of utopian thinking. Here, the turn is towards dystopia as a fertile source of wild imaginings about the future. The dystopian literary fictions featured here act as a message and are projections of an uneasy future requiring a reader to see the present differently. Such projections make reading dangerous as they create an alternative world often disorderly and dismissive of contexts that are familiar and safe. In these scenarios, the child is often a key figure. In the work by Atwood (Oryx and Crake; The Year of the Flood; MaddAddam), the world is an environmental nightmare. The focus is on MaddAddam, in which the child is an object of desire and both monstrous and redemptive. A reading of MaddAddam as a posthuman text is undertaken and it is argued that Atwood's dystopia creates a discourse of monstrosity (both weird and beautiful) that contaminates thoughts about the child/children/childhood and the future.     

Edward Lee Thorndike and John Dewey on the Science of Education

ABSTRACT

At the beginning of this century the two most important theorists in the history of American education, Edward Thomdike and John Dewey, formulated radically different visions of how the art of teaching could be transformed into a science. Thomdike, combining a strongly hereditarian behavioural psychology with the newly developed techniques of statistical analysis, showed how schooling could be structured around the methods of industrial management. By atomising and standardising every aspect of the educational process, a cadre of experts and administrators would replace traditional rule‐of‐thumb methods with scientifically proven practices dovetailed to the needs of a modem state. Although Dewey was also committed to the value of science as a universal tool for human betterment, he completely rejected the epistemological, psychological and sociological assumptions implicit in Thorndike's technocratic vision. In contrast to Thomdike's mechanistic world view, Dewey formulated an organismic ontology modelled on the process of adaptation and demonstrated that the scientific method depends upon the construction of a democratic community of problem solvers. By evaluating these theories of human nature and the social good, I discuss the failings of Thorndike's programme within the American school and explain the implications of Dewey's more sophisticated arguments for educational practice.     

Missions,Management and the Education of Adults in Australia

Abstract

In the present world of further education, is academic leadership in danger of being sidelined and undermined? Can further education make progress without a clear academic purpose? This paper argues that such a purpose is essential and that it is the ‘departmental head’ who is critical in protecting academic leadership. Boyer's work on scholarship (Boyer, 1990) and Rogers’ theory of innovation and change (Rogers, 1983) are used to explore the nature, boundaries and application of academic leadership.