Value conflicts in higher education teaching

This article explores value conflicts that people experience when teaching in higher education, drawing on in-depth interviews with staff from a research-intensive UK university. The article considers the relationship between values and teaching, illustrating how conflicts can occur between individual and different levels of the higher education system. Five value conflicts are then examined related to: dialogic forms of teaching; independent learning; not having enough time for students; large group lectures; and the struggle to be authentic in the classroom. These conflicts were highly personal yet speak to broader concerns within contemporary higher education. Individual responses to conflict varied. Drawing on previous research, the main response of participants in this study could be described as ‘strategic compromise’. Although one person responded to conflict by leaving the profession, the majority accepted structural constraints perceived to be beyond their control. Within these constraints people focused on aspects of practice where values could be realised, driven by personal concerns. The article concludes by discussing the potential of a deliberative approach to the study of value conflicts in higher education and its use on professional development courses for university staff.     

中国高等教育大众化结构与体系变革

中国高等教育结构与体系在大众化进程中正经历着深刻的变革,这种变革反过来又影响着中国高等教育大众化的发展道路。分析这种变革,有利于促进中国高等教育结构与体系适切高等教育大众化的发展。文章从以下三方面展开:(一)中国高等教育大众化结构与体系变革的现实基础和指导思想;(二)中国高等教育大众化进程中结构与体系的演变;(三)中国高等教育大众化结构与体系若干问题研究。     

正确认识高等教育大众化中的几个基本矛盾

本文试图从"政府主导与市场调节"、"硬环境建设和软环境建设"、"数量和质量"等问题人手,认识高等教育大众化进程中几个带有普遍性的基本矛盾,以便正确处理这些关系,推动大众化进程健康顺利地发展.     

The logic of mass higher education

Abstract

The distinguishing characteristic of postsecondary education in the past half century has been expansion ‐ the emergence of mass higher education worldwide. Now, many industrialised countries educate forty percent or more of youth in postsecondary education, and developing countries are rapidly expanding as well. Mass higher education brings with it certain inevitable changes in higher education. Among these are a diversification of academic institutions, less homogenous student populations, alterations in patterns of academic work and of the academic profession itself, an increase in managerial control of academic institutions, and, recently, a reliance on distance methods of delivering instruction. These changes are part of the logic of mass higher education, and will be increasingly apparent in the 21st century.     

Learning and teaching policies in higher education: mediations and contradictions of practice

Abstract This article utilises Rokeach's categorisation of values (i.e. moral, competency, personal and social) to analyse how values influence the choice of research method. It discusses how the ontological and epistemological position adopted by the researcher is influenced by their competency and personal values. The next section is concerned with the social values (or politics) of educational research, where the debate has polarised between those advocating a value‐neutral approach and those who argue that researchers should instead accept the partisan nature of research. Finally, the issue of research ethics is considered. Moral values are found to play an important role, but other values also influence the ethical decisions that are taken. The article concludes by highlighting how the complex interaction of the researcher's moral, competency, personal and social values has an important influence on the research process. The article contends that research methods cannot be value‐free in their application, but researchers should adopt a reflexive approach and attempt to be honest and open about how values influence their research.     

民办高等教育在高等教育体系中的定位

传统的高等教育类型划分影响了民办大学的准确定位 ,对民办高等教育发展产生了消极影响。本文提出民办高等教育应该属于综合类高等教育 ,民办大学有条件办成以全日制本专科教育为主的综合大学 ,而不是高等职业技术学校     

Neoliberalism,internationalisation and higher education: connections,contradictions and alternatives

ABSTRACT

We explore the role of neoliberalism within portrayals of internationalisation in higher education (HE). Through an analysis of four features of internationalisation, we suggest that they embody a complex entanglement of neoliberal categories and assumptions with other, primarily progressive humanitarian ideals. This framing of internationalisation has three affects. One, humanitarian ideals coupled with neoliberal categories normalise inequalities, turning internationalisation into a meritocratic global race, focusing on celebrating the possibility of the few who can achieve, instead of the embedded inequalities within the system, which disadvantage the many. Two, this allows neoliberal practices to be advanced through the discourse of internationalisation and its association with progressive humanitarian values. Three, this neoliberal framing does not explain the nature of internationalisation of HE in many nations; we demonstrate this by analysing internationalisation in China, Israel and Cuba. We suggest that internationalisation in HE cannot be adequately explained by analyses which rely on neoliberalism.     

我国近代高等教育学制与高等教育现代化

中国近代学制的建立与发展极大地推动了高等教育的现代化进程,并在此期间受到了许多西方包括日本等国影响,但学术界对其发展过程是依附还是借鉴分别持不同观点。通过分析中国近代高等教育学制的嬗变来反思中国高等教育的现代化进程,势必对高等教育未来的发展有所帮助。     

The extension of higher education by mass media

This article reports the development of a new phenomenon in the United States described here as national media courses. Such courses use one of the mass media — television, newspapers, radio or magazines — as the essential means of instruction, but supplement the learning thus derived with additional readings and other studies. Usually there are several contact sessions with an instructor to enable students, who otherwise study independently, to meet and exchange ideas or have curricular or administrative questions answered authoritatively. This academic concept uses one of the media designed to reach mass audiences to enable independent learning at times and places of most convenience to the adult audience which they are designed to serve. National media courses are originated at the University Extension at the University of California, San Diego and several other institutions. They are designed to be offered as college courses by two- and four-year post secondary institutions throughout the nation. Nearly one-third have taken advantage of their availability and over fifty thousand students have taken part in a single national media course.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel berichtet von der Entwicklung eines neuen Phänomens in den Vereinigten Staaten, das dort unter dem Namen national media courses bekannt geworden ist. Solche Kurse benutzen eines der Massenmedien — Fernsehen, Zeitungen, Radio oder Zeitschriften — als wichtigstes Unterrichtsmittel, ergänzen aber das dabei stattfindende Lernen durch zusätzliche Lektüre und andere Studien. Gewöhnlich finden etliche Kontaktsitzungen mit einem Instruktor statt, die die Studenten, die sonst unabhängig selbst lernen, befähigen sollen, sich zu treffen, und Gedanken auszutauschen oder sich Fragen des Curriculums oder die Verwaltung betreffend kompetent beantworten zu lassen. Dieses akademische Konzept benutzt eine für die Massenzuhörerschaft konzipiertes Massenmedium, um dem angesprochenen Kreis von Erwachsenen, für die es erdacht wurde, ein in Zeit und Ort angenehmes Lernen zu ermöglichen. National media courses kommen von der Fernabteilung der Universität von Kalifornien, San Diego, und einigen anderen Institutionen. Sie sollen als College-Kurse von postsekundären Institutionen mit drei- oder vierjähriger Studiendauer im ganzen Land angeboten werden. Beinahe ein Drittel der angesprochenen Institutionen hat sich dieser Möglichkeit bedient, und über fünfzigtausend Studenten haben an einem einzigen national media course teilgenommen.

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Résumé Cet article rend compte du développement d'un nouveau phénomène aux Etats-Unis décrit ici comme cours nationaux à l'aide de moyens d'information de masse. De tels cours se servent de l'un des moyens d'information de masse — la télévision, les journaux, la radio ou les magazines — comme procédé essentiel d'instruction, mais complètent l'apprentissage qui en résulte à l'aide de lectures additionnelles et d'autres études. Il y a habituellement plusieurs séances de contact avec un maitre permettant aux étudiants, qui autrement étudient indépendamment, de faire connaissance et d'échanger des idées ou de recevoir une réponse péremptoire aux questions administratives et à celles concernant les curricula. Ce concept académique se sert de l'un des média conçus pour atteindre les audiences des masses, de sorte à permettre un apprentissage indépendant, à des heures et des endroits convenant le mieux à l'audience adulte qu'ils se proposent de servir. Les cours nationaux à l'aide de média tirent leur origine de l'Extension Universitaire à l'Université de la Californie, San Diego et de plusieurs autres institutions. Ils sont conçus pour être présentés comme cours de collège par des institutions post secondaires d'une durée de deux à quatre ans à travers toute la nation. Presque un tiers a déjà tiré profit de leur disponibilité et plus de cinq mille étudiants ont pris à un cours unique national à l'aide de média.

     

The new political economy of higher education: between distributional conflicts and discursive stratification

The higher education sector has been undergoing a far-reaching institutional re-orientation during the past two decades. Many adjustments appear to have strengthened the role of competition in the governance of higher education, but the character of the sector’s emerging new political economy has frequently remained unclear. Serving as the introduction for the special issue, this article makes the case for a multidimensional strategy to probe higher education’s competitive transformation. In terms of conceptualizing the major empirical shifts, we argue for analyzing three core phenomena: varieties of academic capitalism, the discursive construction of inequality, and the transformation of hierarchies in competitive settings. With respect to theoretical tools, we emphasize the complementary contributions of institutional, class-oriented, and discourse analytical approaches. As this introduction elaborates and the contributions to the special issue demonstrate, critical dialog among different analytical traditions over the interpretation of change is crucial for improving established understandings. Arguably, it is essential for clarifying the respective roles of capitalist power and hierarchical rule in the construction of the sector’s new order.     

高校课堂教学面临的矛盾冲突及其解决的基本思路

教师的教与学生的学，教学的低效性与社会、家庭高要求等矛盾的日益严重使高校课堂教学陷入困境。认识这些矛盾以及加剧矛盾冲突的影响因素，有利于我们解决矛盾，走出困境，提高教学质量。     

高等教育大众化背景下社区教育发展探析

随着我国高等教育大众化进程的加快以及政府构建终身学习型社会倡议的提出,势必迎来社区教育大发展的时代。作者通过对我国社区教育发展的必要性、现实困难的详尽分析,指出我国社区教育未来发展方向是促进学习型社区的建立,在学习型社区广泛建立的基础上,构建我国终身教育体系和学习型社会。     

Learning challenges in higher education: an analysis of contradictions within Open Educational Practice

Open education, including the use of open educational resources (OER) and the adoption of open education practice, has the potential to challenge educators to change their practice in fundamental ways. This paper forms part of a larger study focusing on higher education educators’ learning from and through their engagement with OER. The first part of the study was a quantitative survey investigating educators’ learning behaviour when they learned to use OER in their practice. The second part of the study explored qualitatively how educators engaged with OER and how they conceptualised their learning. Data were gathered through interviews with 30 higher education educators. This paper reports the analysis of these interviews. The analysis draws on the theory of self-regulated learning and cultural–historical activity theory to explore the challenges adult education practitioners encounter when changing their practice. The study tests the application of a framework that traces the discursive manifestations of contradictions, exploring how this framework can be used to examine different aspects of self-regulated learning as educators learn how to use OER. We have identified three distinct tensions in higher education educators’ practice: tensions between the emerging needs of the individual (as he or she adopts new forms of practice) and organisational policies; between the transfer of responsibilities from educators to students as new practice is embedded and institutional accountability; and between cost efficiency and learning objectives. The framework for the discursive manifestations of contradictions was a useful tool used to surface these apparent tensions.