The academic as consumed and consumer

ABSTRACT

In an increasingly competitive environment that positions students as consumers, universities have become ever more marketised, responding to policy contexts that foreground value for money, consumer choice and competition. The intensity of marketisation is argued to have profoundly affected the nature of academic work and scholars themselves, recreating academics as commodities to be weighed and measured, becoming corporatised, alienated and inauthentic in their practice. Yet with the majority of accounts of the commodification of higher education focusing on students, the actual process of how academics become consumed is under-theorised. This article therefore begins with a discussion of the historical context, providing evidence of the familiar indices of marketisation such as rampant self-promotion, the scramble for external funding and intense competition. It argues that this commodified DNA of the university provides the context for the seduction of the modern academic within the consumer society, a movement from the gratification of needs to the perpetual frustration of desires through the ‘Diderot Effect’ of policy shifts. It concludes with an examination of how contemporary academic work can be viewed through the lens of consumerism and how academics themselves have become consumers.     

Beyond educational attainment: The importance of skills and lifelong learning for social outcomes. Evidence for Europe from PIAAC

Empirical evidence suggests that educational attainment nurtures people's social outcomes and promotes active participation in society and stability. However, it is unclear to what extent other types of human capital also correlate with social outcomes. Hence, we explored the opportunity offered by the PIAAC survey through its provision of information on educational attainment, observed individual key skills proficiency, and participation in adult education and training (adult lifelong learning). We therefore studied the association between these human capital variables and social outcomes, and more specifically interpersonal trust and participation in volunteering activities. Results revealed that these social outcomes were affected not only by the formal qualification obtained, determined by the education variable, but also throughout the life‐cycle. Indeed, education and training when undertaken during adult life have a significant impact, especially on volunteering. The fact that the skill proficiency also plays a significant role is extremely relevant, as skills are more likely to change over the life‐cycle, either in a positive or negative way. Whilst the formal education received is constant after exiting the educational system, skills reflect competences more accurately: first, because those with the same level of education may have different skill levels because of differences in the quality of education or ability; second, because skills can vary over time. For example, they may increase with work experience or informal education, or decrease as a result of depreciation and ageing. These findings suggest that social outcomes are prone to be affected by many factors other than formal education, suggesting that policy makers can implement recommendations even after formal education has been completed.     

终身职业教育对人力资本效能提升的影响及对策研究

在地方技能人才引进的大背景下,人力资本积累和效能发挥成为一道难题。终身职业教育可以为解决这一问题提供一定启发。终身职业教育具有连续性、整体性、灵活性、开放性、动态性、实践性等特征,终身职业教育可以增强人力资本的时效性、收益性、累积性和创造性,降低人力资本差异性,解决人力资本效能提升所面临的问题。发挥终身职业教育在人力资本积累和效能提升中的作用,需要加强顶层设计,贯彻落实相关文件要求;创新体制机制,构建现代职业教育体系;培育工匠之师,打造一流职教师资队伍;实施精准引才,优化人力资本基本结构;完善服务保障,促进人力资本效能发挥;推进校企合作,加快实践技能人才培养。     

Gritting it out: The importance of non-cognitive skills in academic mismatch

I examine the importance of non-cognitive skills in the matching process in higher education in the United States. Across two longitudinal data sources, I show that students with lower non-cognitive skills are more likely to undermatch (enrolling in less selective colleges given their academic credentials) and less likely to overmatch. The application process drives the relationship between non-cognitive skills and academic mismatch, as students with low non-cognitive skills are less likely to apply to a well-matched institution. I further show that non-cognitive skills are strong predictors of Bachelor’s degree completion. I propose an alternative definition of undermatch, which additionally considers students’ non-cognitive skills. Under this definition, a smaller share of high-achieving students undermatch in higher education.     

终身学习与教师专业发展

在知识经济和信息时代,教师的终身学习成为必然.基础教育课程改革是教师学习的现实动力,教师专业发展的规律使终身学习内容不断深化,远程教育是实现教师终身学习的有效方式.     

Can lifelong learning be the post-2015 agenda for the Least Developed Countries?

This paper discusses what approaches to ‘lifelong learning’ should guide the post-2015 education agenda for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) which refers to a group of 49 countries that are off-track in achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All goals. Reports prepared by major consultation groups such as the High Level Panel established by the United Nations and Global Thematic Consultation Group have proposed that ‘providing quality education and lifelong learning’ is an overarching post-2015 education agenda. It is an important breakthrough since ‘lifelong learning’ has been recommended; however, it is not clear what understanding(s) of lifelong learning has been articulated in those documents. How have those recommendations addressed the issues and challenges of the LDCs? In this paper, I review literature on lifelong learning and analyse major documents related to the post-2015 education agenda, especially the one prepared by UN High Level Panel. I conclude that unless the LDCs are given a leadership role for setting their goals—according to their contextual realities—the post-2015 millennium initiatives, such as ‘lifelong learning’ as a new educational agenda, will make no sense.     

Intersecting discourses of militarism: military and academic gendered organizations

This paper critically discusses the role of the interpreter in the validation of the prior learning of recent immigrants arriving in Sweden by drawing on a perspective from the sociology of translation. The recent immigrants’ difficulties with speaking the local language is usually described as the main problem when it comes to validating their prior learning. As a result, the use of interpreters is proposed to facilitate the assessment process. The current literature largely sees the interpreter’s role in the validation of prior foreign learning as unproblematic. The interpreter is described as a neutral means of transmitting the knowledge, skills and experience of the immigrant in an objective way to the assessor. In this paper I criticise this view of the interpreter as a neutral, objective tool. I argue that the role of the interpreter is not given, but enacted during the validation process. Furthermore, the study shows that, far from transmitting information from the immigrant to the assessor, the interpreter is profoundly implicated in the construction of the knowledge that materialises in the assessment results.     

The Trouble with Higher Education: A critical examination of our universities

This study examined and compared the legal inputs, structural settings and implementation process of lifelong learning policy in Thailand and Japan focusing on street-level agents. The findings demonstrated that while both countries had legal frameworks that provided a legislative platform to promote lifelong learning among the elderly based on a bottom-up implementation of policies, three major differences existed that equated with different outcomes of lifelong learning among the elderly in both countries. First, the promotion of lifelong learning for the elderly in Thailand mirrored complex administrative structures of several host organizations and multiple legal frameworks; whilst Japan’s lifelong learning policy had been promoted based on the Social Education Act under a single ministry. Second, while Thailand based its policy implementation on government agents at the regional and local level in policy delivery, Japan developed a community-based multilayered platform that promoted the policy with active involvement from various local players. Finally, lifelong learning policy for the elderly in Thailand reflected the personal initiatives of policy promotion by government agents at the local level; whereas, lifelong learning policy for the elderly in Japan was pursued based on the interests of the elderly and the community in which they lived.     

学习化社会中终身教育体系的构建

加入世贸组织，我国将面对学习化社会的挑战，耍形成学习化社会，就必须建立起终身教育体系。终身教育既是经济全球化、教育全球化的必然产物，又反过来推动经济全球化和教育全球化的发展进程。中国“入世”，意味着中国融入了经济全球化、教育全球化的世界潮流，构建中国终身教育体系，显得尤为迫切。本对终身教育体系的若干基本问题和我国终身教育体系的构建进行了探讨。     

当代终身教育发展的现状与趋势

终身教育已经由最初的"思潮"或"理念"发展成为一种教育实践或社会运动。鉴于各国国情,这种实践或运动呈现出多样化的态势与局面。各国有不同的终身教育模式,并在终身教育价值取向上具有多元化的特点。随着终身教育理论与实践的发展,这一概念渐有被终身学习所取代的趋势。     

从终身教育向终身学习转化看终身教育体系的构建

终身教育思想自上个世纪60年代被提出以后,便受到世界各国的广泛关注。在终身教育的发展演变过程中,"终身学习"概念逐渐进入人们的视野,并大有取代"终身教育"之势。然而"终身学习"的提倡是否就是理论上的进步,从而在实践中有利于终身教育的推进呢?尤其对于教师教育来讲,是否更有利于教师终身教育体系的构建以及教师素质的提高和专业化发展呢?文章认为对待"终身教育"向"终身学习"的转化应做进一步的思考,在重视学习者主体性的同时更要强调政府的职责。     

终身教育理念背景下的澳大利亚职业与技术教育改革

20世纪澳大利亚职业与技术教育的改革深受终身学习与终身教育理念的影响,确立了特征鲜明的职业教育与培训的体制、机制以及教学培训的模式和评估标准。职业教育国家框架的建立明确了澳大利亚职业教育与培训与初等教育、中等教育以及高等教育的衔接关系。澳大利亚职业与技术教育的改革经验对我国发展职业教育、构筑终身教育体系具有重要的借鉴意义。     

国际组织终身学习理念阐释与政策发展

终身学习理念在国际组织中具有独特的地位,联合国教科文组织、世界经合组织、世界银行和欧盟都不同程度地成为终身学习理念发展的推动力量。随着20世纪70年代终身学习理念出现开始,国际组织对终身学习理念的理解也在不断加深和提升,终身学习的观念在国际组织中不断发生变化。由于国际组织对成员国具有一定的政策影响力,国际组织通过相关政策制定和推行等方式来实现终身学习理念以及政策目标。     

Soft skills in higher education: importance and improvement ratings as a function of individual differences and academic performance

Three UK studies on the relationship between a purpose‐built instrument to assess the importance and development of 15 ‘soft skills’ are reported. Study 1 (N = 444) identified strong latent components underlying these soft skills, such that differences between‐skills were over‐shadowed by differences between‐students. Importance and improving ratings on these skills predicted academic performance and accounted for the effects of personality on academic performance. Study 2 replicated the structure of the soft skills inventory and associations with academic performance in a larger sample (N = 1309). Examination of mean differences across faculties (humanities, life sciences, hard sciences) revealed higher soft skills ratings in ‘softer’ courses. Study 3 (N = 87) incorporated an IQ measure, which was found to be negatively related to importance ratings on soft skills. Results highlight the cohesive structure of beliefs concerning various non‐academic skills and their significant links to educationally relevant individual differences. Theoretical, methodological and applied implications are considered.     

新自由主义对国际组织终身学习政策的影响

自20世纪80年代至今,新自由主义已从一种经济学理论成为西方国家主导的政治意识形态,经济合作与发展组织(OECD)等一些国际组织的终身学习政策在新自由主义政策的影响下,呈现出单纯追求市场收益的发展趋势,而这种发展趋势背离了联合国教科文组织(UNESCO)制定终身学习政策的人文主义价值追求。终身学习政策的发展和学习型社会的建立要走出新自由主义造成的困境,有待回归其人文主义价值追求。     

图书馆在构建学习型社会中的作用

学习型社会作为一个“终身学习、全民学习”的观念已深入人心。作为传播先进文化和文化建设阵地的图书馆,更应该抓住机遇,更好地利用自身的优势,为创建学习型城市和学习型社会、为社会发展和人类进步提供精神动力和智力支持。     

终身学习视角下的中国继续教育现实需求分析

从终身学习理念的视角出发,利用调查数据和统计资料,从自我发展、“文凭补课”和技能提升等方面阐述了中国继续教育的现实需求。文章还描述了中国继续教育的发展现状,并从关注社会公平、终身教育立法、转变政府职能、开放办学体制等方面提出了促进中国继续教育发展的政策建议。