The great neoliberal hijack of collaboration: a critical history of group-based learning in tertiary education

ABSTRACT

This article examines the teaching of collaboration within tertiary education, critiquing the hegemony of a neoliberal mandate. This review of academic literature first identifies the significance of social capital and an intrinsic motivation to collaborate, to theorize how an important and complex graduate attribute (termed here ‘collaborative dexterity’) might be approached by pedagogy. This leads into a historical analysis of research into higher education, revealing how the instrumentalization of collaboration to enhance the private advantage of learners continues to pervade academia’s understanding of collaboration. As higher education transitioned from learning ‘through’ collaboration to learning ‘to’ collaborate, extrinsic motivations for collaboration were promoted further through assessment procedures, maintaining a narrow economic-exchange approach to collaboration. These educational practices inhibit the development of collaborative dispositions, foster self-interest and ultimately limit graduates’ preparation for the needs of collaborative work environments. Moreover, while educational scholarship has extensively explored why collaboration is important and how it may be assessed, much less consideration has been given to how collaboration might actually be taught within diverse disciplinary areas in tertiary education. This suggests an urgent need for further research into how collaboration is taught within tertiary education, in ways that extend beyond a neoliberal conceptualization of collaboration.     

Parental abusive versus supportive behaviors and their relation to hostility and aggression in young adults

The relation of parental support to abuse has rarely been considered in research on the sequelae of childhood abuse in adulthood. In this study, using the Exposure to Abusive and Supportive Environments Parenting Inventory (EASE-PI), young adults who reported higher emotionally abusive parenting (EA) consistently reported significantly lower love and support from both parents. The relation between physically abusive parenting (PA) and love/support depended upon gender of parent and child. EA was significantly related to higher hostility and higher aggression, as measured by the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, for both men and women, and to reports of physical fights within the family, for women only. PA was significantly related to higher aggression but not higher hostility. Lower support by fathers, but not by mothers, was significantly related to higher hostility. However, lower support of daughters by mothers was significantly related to increased physical fights in the family. Results indicate that less severe abusive behaviors, especially EA, may have detrimental outcomes of hostility and aggression and that supportive behaviors by both mothers and fathers may be important factors in the outcome.     

Marital conflict and conduct problems in Children of Twins

The Children-of-Twins design was used to test whether associations between marital conflict frequency and conduct problems can be replicated within the children of discordant twin pairs. A sample of 2,051 children (age 14-39 years) of 1,045 twins was used to estimate the genetic and environmental influences on marital conflict and determine whether genetic or environmental selection processes underlie the observed association between marital conflict and conduct problems. Results indicate that genetic and nonshared environmental factors influence the risk of marital conflict. Furthermore, genetic influences mediated the association between marital conflict frequency and conduct problems. These results highlight the need for quasiexperimental designs in investigations of intergenerational associations.     

What publishers can take away from the latest early career researcher research

Key points

• Early career researchers (ECRs) consider journals the central form of communication – but are concerned about pressure to publish.
• ECRs want to share but currently accept the closed publishing system because of the need to build a traditional reputation.
• ECRs know – and appear to care – little about publishers but trust them as publishing and reviewing facilitators.
• Editors are criticized for not managing peer review with better selection of reviewers.
• Megajournals are not seen as the future journal form and criticized for lack of selectivity.
• ECRs want open access/science in principle but are circumspect about their contribution to it.
• ResearchGate is a key force for change as ECRs consider it a mainstay communication and reputation platform.

     

The Stubborn Pervasiveness of Television News in the Digital Age and the Field’s Attention to the Medium, 2010–2014

A secondary analysis of 2010–2014 World Values Survey (WVS) data (N = 81,229) is performed across 56 countries to assess frequency of exposure to television news versus the Internet and mobile phone as information sources. A large majority of the comparisons (105/112; 93.75%) reveal television to be used more frequently than Internet or mobile phones (p < 1.0E-09). A content analysis of works published in 9 communication journals from 2010 to 2014 indicates a precipitous decline in the attention political communication scholars are giving to television. Meanwhile, there is substantial growth in the focus on new media.