Session 5: Tertiary Education
1st Global Conference
Friday 6th November – Sunday 8th November 2009
Salzburg, Austria
The (Bad) Example of the University
Kristof Vanhoutte
Independent Scholar, Rome, Italy
The moment bullying becomes a topic of academic discourse the question should also be asked whether the university is the right place for discussing this particular topic. What is in fact the possible relation the academy can have towards this theme?
It seems fairly easy to note that the academy can become, just like any regular space where people are gathered in groups, a place that hosts bullying. But whereas this form of bullying could be seen as external, as a side-effect, to the university; the university is, however, also an institution that creates bullying due to its internal aspects of being an institution. In my paper I will try to enter a bit more into this second form of bullying at the university.
This second form of bullying, this internal form, can in fact take up several different forms of bullying. A first form can be on a personal level; the university is in fact a place where only certain people have power and can handle this power in a ‘bad’ or ‘selfish’ way. In Italy, for example, almost one out of two rectors has a close family member in the same university – a new term has also been invented to label this phenomenon: ‘parentopoli’. Other countries have, however, different problems of a similar nature. There is, however, also another possible form of ‘internal bullying’. Aren’t certain behavioral aspects of certain exact scientists regarding the applied or humanistic sciences not also a form of internal bullying? This form is also supported and firmly enhanced by the cash flow towards the different faculties and schools.
When confronting the theme of bullying at the university, this internal form of bullying should not be forgotten because the university should not just teach but also investigate its teaching.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
Mergers, Myopia, and Managerialism: Workplace Bullying and the University
Deb J. Hill and Greg Lee
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Although studies that examine bullying abound within the education sector, the almost universal focus has been on schools and the tensions that can arise between students and students or between teachers and students. Of the few studies that have drawn attention to the problem within higher education and the academy, Human Resource personnel seem to have taken swift action to alleviate the problem. But what if those in management positions deny that there is a problem?
Drawing on research into the operation of hegemony and how it permeates our liberal, capitalist psyche, we outline how the ideological reduction of the concept of education within merged New Zealand Schools of Education has consolidated a lack of criticality within the university sector more generally. As we reiterate here, a corrosive relationship has developed over recent years between this educational myopia and a more impersonal, managerial style of leadership. We offer this analysis in order to alert my colleagues to the ultimate harm that has been done to the field of education in the name of education, and to argue the broader linkage that needs to be consolidated between education, democracy and social justice.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
University: A Bully Free Environment?
Liz Southern
University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
The literature on bullying is vast and has been studied in depth in relation to schooling and the workplace. However, bullying does not cease on leaving compulsory education and resume in the workplace yet there is a marked absence of published work regarding student-to-student bullying in university. This particular context is unique in that university straddles the space between school and the workplace.
This paper explores possible reasons for this omission through consideration of two approaches to bullying in universities. The first is a critical approach that sees drivers for research as ‘top down’, where subtle resistance orientates academic disciplines, research approaches and foci to serve interests of Government and corporate policy makers in the protection and maintenance of their own positions of power. Examination of how power is exercised through complex interactions between the different stakeholders across the three contexts will seek to explain possible reasons for this gap within bullying literature.
The second approach is that of appreciative inquiry. This method views the issue as a comparatively positive one in that bullying in universities is not such a problem as that of schools, and explores the ethos of collegiality and social justice that characterise university life at all levels. Examination of institutional features through an appreciative lens offers a departure from traditional pathological and the less influential systemic view as causation of bullying and may reveal factors that inhibit bullying within the university. This may go some way to explain why research studies have not afforded similar enquiry than that of bullying in schools and the workplace.
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