2nd Global Conference The Idea of Education Friday 4th July - Saturday 5th July 2003 Mansfield College, Oxford Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
Session 2: Into the Future Chair: Tom Claes A Plea for the Highlands of Scotland: University Reform in the Early 20th Century Christine D. Myers Cornell College, Iowa, USA One of the leading proponents of reform in British education in the early twentieth century was Hugh Gunn. A well-traveled educationalist, Gunn saw the need for improvements after spending time in other parts of the Empire (particularly South Africa and Australia) and America. In 1931 Gunn published his seminal work on the Scottish higher education system in which he made "reflections and suggestions" on changes he felt were necessary for the betterment of the Scottish people. The book details the need for better distribution of universities in Britain brought on by population growth and the desire for convenience, but also as a result of the class differences that were reinforced by the university system at the time. His main argument centres on what he terms "A Plea for the Highlands of Scotland" because in this part of Britain there was a complete lack of higher education, making it impossible for a large segment of the population to advance themselves in society generally. The long-standing belief that Scots were often treated as second-class citizens within Britain plays into Gunn's work, though his arguments rise above those of politics because he felt that was education's duty to humanity. This paper will consider Hugh Gunn's analysis of British higher education in the early 1900s, both internally and in comparison with other nations. Gunn's core belief, that better education for all citizens made for a better society, will also be developed as it remains a vision educators strive for today. Particular emphasis will be placed on two of Gunn's most intriguing positions: as an advocate of bilingual education in the Highlands, and his goal of creating an entirely new and "ideal" university in that region of the country which he felt would become a model to Britain and the world. Download Full Conference Paper - Myths and Realities of Higher Education as a Vehicle for Nation Building in Developing Countries: The Culture of the University and the New African Diaspora Seth Agbo College of Education, Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon, USA The thesis of this paper is that the African university, like its counterpart in the advanced developed world, has maintained a stubborn resistance to change in spite of external pressures and internal transformations. The university strives to remain protected from external interference from the local community and it is unwilling to break the cultural mystique and behavioural codes built over time since the birth of universities in twelfth century Italy and France. When colonies in the Third World started clamouring for political independence, politicians of the West demonstrated to the world that newly independent countries could sustain development if they adopted Western strategies. Two of the strategies, the “human capital” and “modernization” theories became so attractive that since independence in the late 1950s and 1960s, developing nations have placed much emphasis on education as a vehicle for modernization and socio-economic development. Because the movement to expand educational opportunities in the developing world was strongly tied to economic development and technocratic visions of societal reconstruction, higher education has remained an area in which most developing countries maintain a strong commitment although it continues to fail to produce the desired results. Changes in political and economic environments do not deter governments from continuing to invest in higher education. There is a belief that such an investment would generate direct benefits to the state in the form of providing the necessary high-level manpower and carrying out development-oriented research. Investment in higher education would also in many ways serve the needs of society by rendering various services and advice to policy-makers. Since the 1980s, however, there has been a new wave of brain drain of African scholars—a new diaspora to the advanced industrialized world. In reality, the artificial environment of the African university helps only to serve the interests of the former colonial powers. It is not my purpose in this paper to challenge the strong commitment to higher education. Rather, it is my intention to analyze how the myths surrounding higher education as a sine qua non for development as embedded in the so-called theories of development hold promise for economic and social development in the third world countries in the twenty-first century, and to examine the effects of the new wave of the brain drain of African scholars to the advanced industrialized world. Download Full Conference Paper - Universities and Models of development Case Studies in China, England and Costa Rica Su-Ann Oh University of Oxford, Department of Educational Studies, United Kingdom This paper explores two models of ‘development’ pursued by universities. The first model is based on the assumption that the returns from the transfer of technology from universities to the private (and sometimes public) sector will promote economic development. This is referred to as ‘the creation of wealth’ (HMSO, 1993, para 1.6) in England and ‘economic construction’ in China. The second model of ‘development’ refers to the activities that universities undertake with local communities. These encompass a range of activities including workshops and participatory action research. This is known as ‘social service’ (extensión sociale) in Costa Rica. It is part of the ethos of the four publicly-funded universities in Costa Rica. The purpose of this paper is not to compare these two different approaches to ‘development’ with respect to outcomes because 1) they serve different purposes and 2) there is little empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the latter model. However, I will attempt to examine these models using the following question: ? How is the university affected by its relationship with industrial sponsors and local community groups? ? What are the social and educational implications for students involved in these programmes? The study draws on research conducted in universities in England, China and Costa Rica. Findings from a study conducted in England and China will be examined with findings from another study undertaken in Costa Rica. In both studies, interviews were conducted with academics and students, and observation studies on some of the projects were carried out. The findings from the former study show that with regard to industry-sponsored technology transfer projects, there is considerable impact (both positive and negative) on the learning experience of doctoral students as well as the social fabric of academic staff in the university (Oh, 2002). The second study revealed that there is also an impact on students’ learning with respect to the application of propositional knowledge. However, as there are no financial incentives attached to such projects, the social divisions within the university were affected less by these community projects. This did, of course, have a negative effect on motivation for some staff members and students. 10:30am Coffee Knowledge and Power: University, Transition and Democracy Pavel Zgaga University of Ljubljana, Slovenia The idea of University has always been a product of internal academic disputes, however it has always received most stimulating challenges from outside. Changes in contemporary society and culture affect it deeply. It is not only the external image of university life that has changed in last decades but also its inner fundaments, that is its epistemology. Nevertheless, changing world sometimes and on some places still doesn’t enter old walls. This phenomenon has reached a particular form in the so-called societies in transition. Political and social changes of the nineties brought huge challenges to universities of Central and Eastern Europe. Experienced with a tradition of more or less aggressive ideological pressures from outside, universities in this part of Europe entered after the change a paradoxical position. In a new situation marked by “the return of autonomy” they have often demonstrated rigidity and conservativism. Reasons at one side lies in an unquestionable belief that academic freedom and autonomy should be expressed only in relationship to the State while the necessity to grasp also the relationship to civil society remains in a shadow (also for the reason of non-developed civil society). In addition to this, the epistemological foundation of academic power could be uncritically accepted and transferred as the only foundation of communication inside the university. Transition of a university to democracy is as faster and reliable as effectively it can define its place in the pluralistic environment and as clearly it can distinguish between epistemological and communicative dimensions of academic power. Download Full Conference Paper - Student Expectations How do we Measure Up? Tony Tricker School of Computing and Management Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom Students of Higher Education increasingly perceive themselves to be customers of a service. This is partly as a result of the funding arrangements in the UK where students (or their parents) contribute directly to the cost of their education, and partly because of the growth of consumerism in public services. The student experience has become an important dimension in the measurement of quality of education. The major focus of the paper will illustrate the ways in which student expectations have changed over the last three decades and what the drivers for this change have been. The nature of student expectations and the form of appropriate university responses are clearly complex issues, touching on almost all aspects of higher education. Universities themselves are pushed on the one hand to respond to mounting expectations, while on the other there are fears that the fundamental purpose of higher education could be distorted or even lost if institutions go too far in the direction of placing university education on a commercial footing. There is considerable value in sharing experience, knowledge and reflections about these matters. The paper will conclude by demonstrating how a web based interactive version of a ‘Service Template’, QUEST (Quality Evaluation by Student Template) can highlight aspects of the student experience to generate a better fit between what students expect in a course of study and what they receive. Results from QUEST will illustrate how they can be used to control and shape student expectations Download Full Conference Paper - The University of Moral Enquiry David Seth Preston No abstract presently available 12:30pm Lunch